Abstract: A computer input device or wand that may be held and controlled by an infant, a toddler, or an adult who cannot use a conventional input device. An elongated handle is provided for gripping and manipulating the input device. The handle may conform to the size of a baby's hand to allow the input device to be securely held by a baby. The input device or wand includes an omnidirectionally responsive transducer for actuating an electrical control signal in response to each unidirectional sweep of the wand in a plane perpendicular to the axis of the handle, thereby allowing the user to control a computer display by shaking the wand in the same manner as a baby might shake a rattle.

Abstract: A display device is constructed with a support for cyclic or repetitive motion. An array of lights is mounted on the support for sweeping across a region of space during motion of the support. A microcontroller or other microprocessor is coupled to the lights for turning on and off the respective lights of the array. A periodically actuated switch such as an inertial switch is coupled to the microcontroller for measuring the time period or cycle time of a cycle of the cyclic or repetitive motion of the support and for indicating initiation of a cycle. The microcontroller is programmed for synchronizing the turning on and off of respective lights of the array according to the time period or cycle time of a cycle of the cyclic or repetitive motion of the support for forming at least one image across the region of space swept by the array of lights using persistence of vision of a viewer. According to one example the support is a hand held wand for hand held swinging motion back and forth.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for displaying information by providing a flat-panel display module with display information, separating the flat-panel display module from information source and locating the module, without being inverted, at a specified position physically displaced from the source. The separated display module can be operated with or without connection to the source, and the module can be transported away from the source to provide a portable data store which can be accessed independently of the source. The module can be back-lighted and positioned alongside a keyboard of the source, and the separated display can be operated simultaneously with another flat-panel display.

Abstract: A gray scale signal duty ratio conversion section employs D flip-flops and AND gates so as to generate detection pulses for rises and falls of the gray scale signal T based on the gray scale signal T input from the control circuit and the clock signal CKT. Among the rise-detection pulses and fall-detection pulses, only the fall-detection pulses are delayed by the D flip-flop by one clock, and the delayed fall-detection pulses and the rise-detection pulses are input to an RS flip-flop so that the altered gray scale signal T' is obtained as an output of the RS flip-flop. The altered gray scale signal T' thus obtained is a signal whose HIGH period is longer than the input gray scale T by one clock. Thus, it is possible to compensate for the phenomenon associated with a TFT liquid crystal display device driven by the gray-scale driving method where a voltage applied to a liquid crystal capacitance may vary with the turning off of the TFT is from the voltage it was charged with.

Abstract: A head-mounted display device for enlarging an image formed by an image display element as a virtual image. The head-mounted display device according to this invention comprises a virtual image forming optical system (3) including an image display element (9) and a lens (11) for enlarging an image formed by the image display element (9); a device main body (1) that houses the image forming optical means (3); and a switching means mounted in the device main body (1) for holding the virtual image forming optical system (3) in such a way that the system (3) can be moved in the direction of the width of the eye and placing the virtual image forming optical system (3) in front of one of the user's eyes. The image display element (9) and the lens (11) are disposed so that the optical axis of the virtual image forming optical system (3) approximately aligns with the user's line of sight taken while he or she is looking horizontally.

Abstract: An array includes first and second light active units with a difference in effective size that would be sufficient to produce an artifact in images if the first and second units were adjacent. Instead of being adjacent, the first and second units are separated by a spacing in which intermediate units form a series extending from the larger unit to the smaller unit. Every unit in the series has an effective size less than the preceding unit, but the size differences between adjacent units are insufficient to produce an artifact. The array can be a display, and the first and second units can be light control units in a column, with the difference in effective size resulting from paired lines adjacent the smaller unit. Spacings between lines bounding rows of light control units can be different, or rows can have nearly constant pitch but dark matrix can define aperture boundaries that have different effective sizes.

Abstract: A matrix display of light reflecting elements is capable of displaying images represented by data codes received from a variety of different sources at different respective frame rates. The codes are stored at whatever frame rate they are received, but are read at a subframe rate which is an integral multiple of each of the different frame rates.

Abstract: A head mounted projector system with extremely high resolution. The system includes a retro-reflecting gain screen. The on-helmet apparatus of the system includes a truncated spherical mirror, a redirecting multi-faceted mirror and a small rotating polygon scanner. The system includes off-helmet apparatus including a background image source and an area-of-interest (AOI) image source. The background and AOI images are scanned into a linear ribbon array of fibers. To provide 20/20 visual acuity, one fiber per each 0.7 arc-minute field-of-view is used.

Abstract: A computer system includes a local non-volatile data storage medium and a visual display device. A still image is stored as a compressed data file in a multi-resolution compression format on the non-volatile data storage medium. The multi-resolution format is of a type that allows efficient progressive decompression and display of the selected still image. The computer system includes a data processor programmed to decompress the compressed data file, to produce successive versions of the selected still image at progressively increasing resolutions, and to display the successive versions on the visual display device. The computer system has a data retrieval medium through which the data processor retrieves the compressed data file from the local non-volatile data storage medium. The data retrieval medium has a data transfer rate that is at least as fast as the data processor can decompress the compressed data file and display the successive versions of the selected still image.

Abstract: A method for manufacturing a display apparatus including a display device, a circuit device which supplies a driving current to the display device and a selecting circuit for regulating the drive current of the circuit device into a plurality of steps of current values. The display apparatus is manufactured in the following steps: a step of allocating the display device to one of a plurality of ranks according to its light quantity; a step of allocating the circuit device to one of a plurality of ranks according to its output current, and a step of selecting based on the rank of the display device and the rank of the circuit device a selection value of the selecting circuit previously prepared according to a combination of ranks of the display device and the circuit device.

Abstract: A method and apparatus in which the liquid crystal material having cross-over frequency is used for displaying an image, the liquid crystal material is dispersed in the transparent polymer in a phase-separated state, a first voltage signal having a first frequency lower than the cross-over frequency is applied to the liquid crystal material to orient reversibly the liquid crystal material to a first direction to display temporary information, then a second voltage signal having a magnitude higher than the first voltage is selectively applied to orient permanently the liquid crystal material to the first direction to display permanent information and a third voltage signal having a second frequency higher than the cross-over frequency is selectively applied to orient the liquid crystal material perpendicularly to the first direction, to erase the permanent information.

Abstract: An active matrix liquid crystal drive circuit comprising an input-signal storage capacitor for storing an analog input signal, a differential amplifier which alternately presents a first operative state in which the output thereof is returned to the inverting input terminal thereof in a negative feedback manner and a second operative state in which the output is returned to the non-inverting input terminal thereof through a polarity inverting output buffer circuit in a negative feedback manner, and an output-voltage storage capacitor for storing an output voltage of the differential amplifier. In the first operative state, the voltage stored in the input-signal storage capacitor is applied to the non-inverting input terminal, and the output voltage which is returned to the inverting input terminal in a negative feedback manner is stored in the hold capacitor.

Abstract: A method for generating an image having anti-aliasing effect for display on a display system is described. An outline of the image is first generated. The outline includes a plurality of outline points defining a plurality of horizontal and vertical edges of the outline. The outline is then grid-fitted onto a target grid with each of the outline points located at the center of one of a plurality of grid boxes of the target grid such that each of the horizontal and vertical edges of the outline extends through some of the grid boxes of the target grid. The anti-aliasing effect is provided to the grid-fitted outline by determining gray scale of each grid box of the target grid through which one of the horizontal and vertical edges extends. The image has a sharp display image on the display system while having minimized aliasing. An apparatus is also described for generating an image having anti-aliasing effect for display on a computer controlled display system.

Abstract: Portable electronic devices, such as notebook computers, are provided with the capability of a low profile and light weight keyboard, allowing greater reduction in the size and weight of portable computers without compromising the functionality. In specific embodiments, the present invention provides laptops, notebooks, and sub-notebooks with a low profile keyboard having a polymer top surface. In an embodiment of the invention, a structural rib 214 surrounds at least some portion of the key to advantageously provide a firm offset of the key top from the circuit board 206 for increased key travel over prior art designs. In another embodiment of the present invention, the keyboard key includes alignment pistons 218 affixed to the flexible key layer 202 and extend into holes in the circuit board 206 to provide advantages such as keeping the key's top surface flat, preventing the key from tilting or collapsing on only one or two sides.

Abstract: An image display apparatus designed so that the observer can view the image of an image display device without the need of manually adjusting the positional relationship between the observer's eyeball and a bundle of rays from the image display device which is to be projected into the eyeball. A positional relationship detecting section (46) observes the pupil of an observer's eyeball (44) and its vicinities, and detects where a bundle of rays from an LCD (42) is being projected. If it is detected that the ray bundle is not coincident with the pupil, motors (52a and 52b) are driven to move a first support (50a) and a second support (50b), which support the LCD (42), a backlight (43), and an ocular lens (45), so that the ray bundle passes through the pupil.

Abstract: A graphics controller circuit for upscaling source video image to generate an upscaled video image. The graphics controller circuit generates additional pixel data for the upscaled video image by interpolating source video pixel data of a one scan line and an another scan line. However, when source video pixel data of the another scan line may not be available for interpolation, the graphics controller circuit generates additional pixel data from source video pixel data of only the one scan line. Source video pixel data of the another scan line may not be available, for example, as a bus that transfers the pixel data may not have sufficient amount of bandwidth.

Abstract: A method for interactive display of a graphical tree structure in a windowing environment. A tree control graphically represents hierarchical data. The user can separate a portion of a tree control at a node and create a new tree control for viewing and editing. Changes to a newly created tree control propagate through to related tree controls.

Abstract: A display device includes a vertical driver for applying to row electrodes a set of row signals represented by a set of orthogonal functions supplied by an orthogonal function generator at each selection period by group-sequential scanning within one frame. A dot product processor successively carries out a dot product computation between the set of orthogonal functions and a set of pixel data. A horizontal driver applies to column electrodes column signals having voltage levels determined by the results of the dot product computation at each selection period in synchronization with the group-sequential scanning. A frame memory stores the pixel data for each frame in divided bit form. The dot product processor reads out the set of stored pixel data in divided bit form and executes the dot product computation to produce a column signal component for each respective bit.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for transparently executing in a graphical operating system environment a battery gauge utility that provides accurate battery status information adaptable to different users' needs. In a preferred embodiment, a software battery gauge of the present invention utilizes the primary display of a PC on which it is executing to present information on the exact current charge status of each of one or more batteries of the PC without relying on the presence of a Microsoft/Intel Advanced Power Management driver and compatible BIOS and without continually impinging on the APM or XBIOS interfaces to derive such status information. The battery gauge interfaces with a user through a user interface comprising an animated graphical status indicator and a textual status indicator, which display battery status information continuously such that changes therein can be immediately and conveniently perceived by a user.

Abstract: Colors are generated in the display device by guiding light through three serially-arranged, electrically controlled color filters. Each filer attenuates one of three colors. The color filters incorporate two cholesteric filters, two .lambda./4 plates, and one electrically switchable liquid crystal display.