Description:PREAMBLE TO THE DESCRIPTION:
[0001] The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed:

Technical field of the invention
[0002] The present invention relates to an 18-segment display system. The invention particularly provides an 18-segment display comprising tri-segmented representation on all four edges of the 18-segment display, wherein the tri-segmented representation at the edges of the 18-segment display facilitates in providing an accurate and consistent representation of characters including alphanumeric characters and other special characters.
Background of the invention
[0003] Conventionally, 14-segment displays, and 16-segment displays are employed across a plurality of industries for the purpose of representing various alphanumeric characters, i.e., alphabets and numbers. However, there are several drawbacks associated with the conventional 14/16-segment displays which include but are not limited to the inconsistency in the height and thickness in the representation of specific alphanumeric characters as well as the clipping off of the edges of a majority of the alphanumeric characters which contributes to the inconsistency in the height and thickness of the represented characters, the inability of representing certain special characters such as forward slash, backward slash, percentage, hyphen, vertical bar, asterisk/star and so on.
[0004] Figure 1a indicates an example of alphabets being represented using a 14-segment display. In the example, the alphabets “Y”, “K”, “R”, “X” are illustrated, wherein it is obvious to the ordinary viewer that each of the alphabets are of different heights and thickness which results in an inconsistency in the way data is being represented. Similarly, Figure 1b indicates an example of alphabets, “Y”, “K”, “R”, “X” being represented using a 16-segment display, wherein the representation of the alphabets seems to be inconsistent and non-uniform particularly in height and thickness which is analogous to the 14-segment display.
[0005] Several prior arts have attempted to overcome the drawbacks pertaining to the inconsistency in the height and thickness in the representation of specific alphanumeric characters, wherein one such prior art (Reference to Figure 1c) discloses an alpha-numeric display device comprising a plurality of selectively activated segments arranged on or adjacent the sides, center lines and diagonals of an approximately non-rectangular parallelogram. There being a plurality of segments on each side and center line, a circular segment at the center of the parallelogram and curved segments extending approximately along the diagonals, preferably forming parabolas tangential at the center. With this arrangement of segments, the failure of one segment can be detected and the possibility of one character appearing as another due to such a failure is prevented. The device comprises a metal die casting having an array of chambers in the form of the segments each containing an incandescent lamp and covered with a frosted sheet. The lamps are mounted on a printed circuit board and are directly switched by integrated circuits including shift registers or their brightness is controlled by amplifiers. However, considering the curved segmented display as disclosed in the prior art, representation of specific alphabets and numbers may be misconstrued. For example, due to the curved segments, alphabet “z” may appear to look like the numeral “2” which creates ambiguity and confusion in the minds of the viewers.
[0006] Several prior arts have attempted to overcome the drawbacks pertaining to the inconsistency in the height and thickness in the representation of specific alphanumeric characters, wherein another such prior art (Reference to Figure 1d) discloses a high resolution alphanumeric character display unit which has a multi-segmented display screen. The display screen is a mosaic pattern of activatable display segments and dead spaces. The combined dead space accounts for less than 25% of the screen pattern. The activatable display segments have various non-uniform and curvilinear shapes and provide a high resolution alphanumeric character display. However, the appearance of the alphanumeric characters (as illustrated in Figure 1d) appears to be unnatural and deviated from the standard representation.
[0007] Hence, there exists a need for a segmented display system which represents alphanumeric characters and other special characters clearly, consistently and as per the standard representation convention.
Summary of the invention:
[0008] The present invention overcomes the drawbacks of the prior art by disclosing an 18-Segment display system with a tri-segmented representation on all four edges of the 18-segment display. The system comprises a host controller which is interfaced to a display unit through a communication interface such as a serial communication interface as per one embodiment of the invention. Further, the display unit comprises a decoder chip and an 18-segment display, wherein each segment may be individually controlled by a plurality of output ports of the decoder chip.
[0009] The host controller of the system comprises a memory map table, wherein the memory of the host controller is represented in Byte, wherein each Byte can hold 8 BIT binary value. The address of each segment of the 18-segment display is stored along with its corresponding binary value in the memory map table in the host controller. Binary values of each segment are arranged from Least Significant Bit (LSB) to Most Significant Bit (MSB), wherein in one embodiment, the bits holding binary value ‘1’ refers to activation and binary value ‘0’ refers to deactivation of the corresponding segments. In another embodiment, the bits holding binary value ‘1’ may refer to de-activation and binary value ‘0’ may refer to activation of the corresponding segment. Each BIT in memory of the host controller is mapped to the corresponding segment in the display unit. When any alphanumeric character or a special character is required to be displayed in the 18-segment display in the display unit, the corresponding binary value of the alphanumeric character or a special character is extracted from the memory map and transferred to the decoder chip through the serial communication interface.
[0010] The technical advancement of the present invention over the 14-segment display and the 16-segment display as disclosed in the prior arts is the tri-segmented representation provided on all four edges of the 18-segment display, wherein the tri-segmented representation enables the representation of alphanumeric characters and special characters in consistent and uniform height and thickness. The four edges of the tri-segmented representation are as follows: Edge 1- portions of segment 1, whole of segment 2 and portions of segment 3; Edge 2- portions of segment 4, whole of segment 5 and portions of segment 6; Edge 3- portions of segment 6, whole of segment 7 and portions of segment 8; Edge 4- portions of segment 9, whole of segment 10 and remainder portions of segment 1 which does not overlap with edge 1. The afore-mentioned tri-segmented representation at the four edges of the 18-segment display ensures that the edges of the segmented display are filled for the required alphanumeric characters and specific special characters thereby eliminating the phenomenon of clipping off, of the edges of different characters that are represented using the 14-segment display. The tri-segmented representation at the four edges of the 18-segment display enables the clear representation of special characters such as forward slash, backward slash, percentage and so on which was otherwise misrepresented due to the technical limitation of the 14-segment display and 16-segment display.
Brief description of the drawings:
[0011] The foregoing and other features of embodiments will become more apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numerals refer to like elements.
[0012] Figure 1a illustrates an example of characters “Y”, “K”, “R”, “X” being represented using a 14-segment display.
[0013] Figure 1b illustrates an example of characters being represented using a 16-segment display.
[0014] Figure 1c illustrates the segmented display disclosed in a prior art.
[0015] Figure 1d illustrates the segmented display disclosed in yet another prior art.
[0016] Figure 2a illustrates an 18-Segment display system.
[0017] Figure 2b illustrates a graphical representation of the tri-segmented representation at the four edges in an 18-Segment display system.
[0018] Figure 2c illustrates a use case for representing the capital letter “A” using the 18-segment display system.
[0019] Figure 2d illustrates an example for representing the alphabets “Y”, “K”, “R”, “X” using the 18- segment display system in comparison to the 14-segment display as illustrated in Figure 1a and 16-segment display as illustrated in Figure 1b.
[0020] Figure 2e illustrates the representation of the alphanumeric characters and few special characters using the 18-segment display of the present invention.
Detailed description of the invention:
[0021] Reference will now be made in detail to the description of the present subject matter, one or more examples of which are shown in the figures. Each example is provided to explain the subject matter and not a limitation. Various changes and modifications obvious to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains are deemed to be within the spirit, scope and contemplation of the invention.
[0022] Whether or not a certain feature or element was limited to being used only once, it may still be referred to as “one or more features” or “one or more elements” or “at least one feature” or “at least one element.” Furthermore, the use of the terms “one or more” or “at least one” feature or element do not preclude there being none of that feature or element, unless otherwise specified by limiting language including, but not limited to, “there needs to be one or more…” or “one or more elements is required.”
[0023] Reference is made herein to some “embodiments.” It should be understood that an embodiment is an example of a possible implementation of any features and/or elements of the present disclosure. Some embodiments have been described for the purpose of explaining one or more of the potential ways in which the specific features and/or elements of the proposed disclosure fulfil the requirements of uniqueness, utility, and non-obviousness.
[0024] Use of the phrases and/or terms including, but not limited to, “a first embodiment,” “a further embodiment,” “an alternate embodiment,” “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “multiple embodiments,” “some embodiments,” “other embodiments,” “further embodiment”, “furthermore embodiment”, “additional embodiment” or other variants thereof do not necessarily refer to the same embodiments. Unless otherwise specified, one or more particular features and/or elements described in connection with one or more embodiments may be found in one embodiment, or may be found in more than one embodiment, or may be found in all embodiments, or may be found in no embodiments. Although one or more features and/or elements may be described herein in the context of only a single embodiment, or in the context of more than one embodiment, or in the context of all embodiments, the features and/or elements may instead be provided separately or in any appropriate combination or not at all. Conversely, any features and/or elements described in the context of separate embodiments may alternatively be realized as existing together in the context of a single embodiment.
[0025] Any particular and all details set forth herein are used in the context of some embodiments and therefore should not necessarily be taken as limiting factors to the proposed disclosure.
[0026] The terms “comprises”, “comprising”, or any other variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process or method that comprises a list of steps does not include only those steps but may include other steps not expressly listed or inherent to such process or method. Similarly, one or more devices or sub-systems or elements or structures or components proceeded by “comprises... a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of other devices or other sub-systems or other elements or other structures or other components or additional devices or additional sub-systems or additional elements or additional structures or additional components.
[0027] Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0028] In one embodiment, the present invention discloses an 18-segment display, wherein the display unit comprises a screen which is made up of a plurality of segments to display tell tales, alphanumeric and special characters. The display screen of the present invention may have one or more groups of segments arranged in the mosaic pattern to display multiple alphanumeric characters simultaneously.
[0029] Figure 2a illustrates an 18-Segment display system, wherein the system (100) comprises a host controller (101) which is interfaced to a display unit (102) through a communication interface such as a serial communication interface as per one embodiment of the invention. Further, the display unit (102) comprises a decoder chip (103), wherein the decoder chip (103) comprises a pre-defined number of input ports and output ports (not indicated in the figure). Further, the display unit (102) comprises an 18-segment display, wherein each segment may be individually controlled by the plurality of output ports of the decoder chip (103).
[0030] The host controller (101) of the system (100) comprises a memory map table, wherein the memory of the host controller (101) is represented in Byte, wherein each Byte can hold 8 BIT binary value. The address of each segment of the 18-segment display is stored along with its corresponding binary value in the memory map table in the host controller (101). Binary values of each segment are arranged from Least Significant Bit (LSB) to Most Significant Bit (MSB), wherein in one embodiment, the bits holding binary value ‘1’ refers to activation and binary value ‘0’ refers to deactivation of the corresponding segments. In another embodiment, the bits holding binary value ‘1’ may refer to de-activation and binary value ‘0’ may refer to activation of the corresponding segment. Each BIT in memory of the host controller (101) is mapped to corresponding segment in the display unit (102). When any alphanumeric character or a special character is required to be displayed in the 18-segment display in the display unit (102), the corresponding binary value of the alphanumeric character or a special character is extracted from the memory map and transferred to the decoder chip (103) through the serial communication interface.
[0031] Figure 2b illustrates a graphical representation of a tri-segmented representation at each of the four edges of an 18-Segment display system, along with a generic representation of a 14-segment display and 16-segment display. In the 14-segment display and 16-segment display, each corner/edge comprises a two-segment representation which inhibits the complete/whole representation of a plurality of characters. Due to the two-segment representation, different portions of the characters are clipped off and hence, not represented thereby leading to inconsistency in the thickness and height of the characters. These drawbacks encountered in the two-segment representation such as 14-segment display and 16-segment display are overcome by the 18-segment display of the present invention, wherein each edge among the four edges is represented using three segments in part or in whole.
[0032] The four edges of the tri-segmented representation are as follows: Edge 1- portions of segment 1, whole/part of segment 2 and portions of segment 3; Edge 2- portions of segment 4, whole/part of segment 5 and portions of segment 6; Edge 3- portions of segment 6, whole/part of segment 7 and portions of segment 8; Edge 4- portions of segment 9, whole/part of segment 10 and portions of segment 1 which does not overlap with edge 1. The afore-mentioned tri-segmented representation at the four edges of the 18-segment display ensures that the edges of the segmented display are filled for the required alphanumeric characters and specific special characters thereby eliminating the phenomenon of clipping off, of the edges of different characters that are represented using the 14-segment display. Further, the tri-segmented representation at the four edges of the 18-segment display enables the clear representation of special characters such as forward slash, backward slash, percentage and so on which was otherwise misrepresented due to the technical limitation of the 14-segment display and 16-segment display.
[0033] Figure 2c illustrates a use case for representing the capital letter “A” using the 18-segment display system. The predefined character code of the alphabet, ‘A’ is stored in the host controller (101), wherein the based on the character code, the corresponding binary value of the respective segments are considered and concatenated. In one embodiment, the concatenated binary string is converted to its corresponding hexadecimal value subsequent to which the hexadecimal value is transmitted to the input ports of the decoder chip (103). The received hexadecimal value is decoded at the decoder chip (103) which results in the illumination of the respective segments through the output ports of the decoder chip (103) thereby indicating the required alphabet, “A”. In this example, segments 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9,10, 13 and 17 are illuminated based on the received hexadecimal value to indicate the alphabet, “A”. Particularly, the tri-segmented representation at the four edges, i.e., edge 1, edge 2, edge 3 & edge 4 (reference to figure 2b) of the 18-segment display is critical in the representation of the alphabet, “A” by ensuring that the alphabet is wholly indicated, and the edges of the alphabet are not clipped off.
[0034] Figure 2d illustrates an example for representing the alphabets “Y”, “K”, “R”, “X” using the 18- segment display system in comparison to the 14-segment display as illustrated in Figure 1a and 16-segment display as illustrated in Figure 1b. The tri-segmented representation at the four edges of the 18-segment display provides the alphabets “Y”, “K”, “R”, “X” a complete and fuller representation without any clipped edges. However, the 14-segment display and 16-segment display in comparison indicates clipped edges of the alphabets “Y”, “K”, “R”, “X” thereby resulting in an inconsistent display with variable height and thickness of each character. This drawback which is persistent in the 14-segment display and 16-segment display is wholly overcome due to the tri-segmented representation at the four edges of the 18-segment display as illustrated in Figure 2b.
[0035] Figure 2e illustrates the representation of the alphanumeric characters using the 18-segment display of the present invention. All alphabets A to Z along with numbers 0 to 9 and few special characters such as forward slash, backward slash, percentage, hyphen, vertical bar, asterisk/star are illustrated using the 18-segment display of the present invention. The alphanumeric characters and special characters are of uniform thickness and height with fuller edges. Limited number of special characters are indicated for the sake of simplicity of representation. However, a plurality of such characters are intended to be within the scope of the present invention.
[0036] While at least one exemplary embodiment has been presented in the foregoing detailed description, it should be appreciated that a vast number of variations exist.
Reference numbers:
Components Reference Numbers
System 100
Host controller 101
Display unit 102
Decoder chip 103 , Claims:We claim:
1. An 18-Segment display system, wherein the system (100) comprising:
a. a host controller (101) which is interfaced to a display unit (102) through a communication interface, wherein the host controller (101) comprises a memory map which is stored in the memory of the host controller (101) in binary format;
b. a decoder chip (103) in the display unit (102) electronically connected to each segment of an 18-segment display which is illuminated based on the decoded binary data obtained at the output of the decoder chip (103), wherein the 18-segment display comprises:
i. a tri-segmented representation at the four edges of the 18-segment display, wherein each edge among the four edges is represented using three segments in part or in whole.

2. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the address of each segment of the 18-segment display is stored along with its corresponding binary value in the memory map table in the host controller (101).

3. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the illumination of one or more segments of the 18-segment display is caused due to the activation in the binary value of the corresponding alphanumeric character or a special character from the memory map which is subsequently transferred to the decoder chip (103) through the serial communication interface.

4. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the decoder chip (103) comprises a pre-defined number of input ports and output ports such that each segment of the 18-segment display is individually connected to each of the output ports of the decoder chip (103).

5. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein edge 1 of the tri-segmented representation of the 18-segment display comprises portions of segment 1, whole/part of segment 2 and portions of segment 3.

6. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein edge 2 of the tri-segmented representation of the 18-segment display comprises portions of segment 4, whole/part of segment 5 and portions of segment 6.

7. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein edge 3 of the tri-segmented representation of the 18-segment display comprises portions of segment 6, whole/part of segment 7 and portions of segment 8.

8. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein edge 4 of the tri-segmented representation of the 18-segment display comprises portions of segment 9, whole of segment 10 and portions of segment 1 which do not overlap with edge 1.

9. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the tri-segmented representation at the four edges, i.e., edge 1, edge 2, edge 3 & edge 4 of the 18-segment display enable the representation of alphanumeric characters and special characters in consistent and uniform height and thickness.

10. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein tri-segmented representation at the four edges of the 18-segment display ensure that the edges of the segmented display are appropriately populated thereby eliminating the phenomenon of clipping off, of the edges of different characters in the segmented display.