Abstract: A controller for a liquid crystal display has temperature detecting means which detect a temperature of the liquid crystal. Signal processing means which are connected to the temperature detecting means controls the timing of application of driving voltage to picture elements is delayed by a predetermined time in accordance with the temperature, in such a manner that a rise curve of the voltage response characteristic for light transmittances in those picture elements and a fall curve thereof pass through a common threshold of light transmittance at the same time. Driving voltages generating means connected to the signal processing means drives the liquid crystal display based on the control signal from the signal processing means. The controller can prevent display errors based on lowering of the voltage response of liquid crystal at a lower temperature range, and particularly can prevent transitional display errors caused by display switching.

Abstract: A method of, and system for, accurately manipulating objects on a screen to obtain a desired layout. Objects are called or built and then manipulated in terms of rotation and/or displacement. Accurate manipulation is facilitated by displaying a readout of the extent of rotation and/or displacement. Upon obtaining a desired layout, the layout is stored, printed, used to drive a process, etc.

Abstract: An LED driver circuit including a current source for generating constant drive current to a plurality of series connected LEDs, circuitry for selectively enabling and disabling predetermined ones of the LEDs and further circuitry for disabling the current source in the event none of the LEDs are enabled. The LED driver circuit is of simple design and low cost, and is characterized by low power consumption due to the current source being disabled in the event none of the LEDs are enabled.

Abstract: An addressing circuit for providing character addresses to refresh a plurality of panels arranged to display a single image and including a circuit for providing a character counter across character line and a circuit for providing a character line count for each panel. The character count across the character line and the character line count are combined in another circuit to provide an address for each character successively along a panel scan line alternating between each respective scan line of the panels. In this manner, each scan line of the panels may be addressed in an alternating fashion to provide the required refresh signal to maintain the image on the display.

Abstract: A digital display system includes a refresh store containing character data for display on a raster scan video display device and field attribute data defining attributes of fields of the character data. The character data is stored as character bytes in sequential locations in the store for readout in groups to provide respective rows of displayed characters. The field attribute data comprises attribute bytes interspersed with the character bytes. Character bytes in a group read out following an attribute byte provide displayed characters with an attribute defined by that attribute byte until another attribute byte is accessed in the group. In order to maintain an attribute from one row of displayed characters to the next, the group of character bytes corresponding to the next row requires a copy attribute byte at the start of readout of that group.

Abstract: Video control circuitry for controlling the video format presented to the cathode ray tube to provide a combination of character generation and cell generation along with selective character inversion on a character-by-character basis. The video controller may comprise a video memory means for storing video character codes, character generator means and cell generator means both being coupled from the output of the video memory means in a common to a shift register. The shift register has associated therewith controls for the loading thereof and for the shifting of signals therefrom. Control signal means are provided having a video inverting and a video non-inverting state. At the output of the shift register, there is preferably provided output gating means. The aforementioned control signals couple to the output gating means for providing either inversion or non-inversion of the signal to the output gating means from the shift register.

Abstract: A liquid crystal cell comprises a liquid crystal sealed between a pair of confronting transparent substrates. A multiplicity of semiconductor driver elements are substantially uniformly distributed over an inner surface of one of the substrates. The semiconductor driver elements have output electrodes connected respectively to matrix element electrodes formed on the inner surface of said one of the substrates. A driver circuit is formed as a semiconductor integrated circuit on an extension of the inner surface of said one of the substrates for selectively driving the semiconductor driver elements.The driver circuit comprises a plurality of thin-film transistors each of which includes a semiconductor layer which has enhanced carrier mobility achieved through annealing.

Abstract: A character generator which converts character code words into data items, namely column code words (C code), for controlling a dot matrix output unit, is disclosed. The character code word is presented to an address memory circuit which generates a ten-bit-long column address (CAD) that identifies the locations of the column code words within a separate data storage unit. The address memory circuit includes two memory units (PROM 1, PROM 2) which store only the first eight bits of respective column data addresses, while an additional memory unit (PROM 3) stores the remaining two bits of the respective column data addresses. A multiplexer (15) is used to select the correct two bits of each respective column data address from an eight-bit word output by the additional memory unit (PROM 3) at the same time an eight-bit address is being output by one of the first two memory units (PROM 1, PROM 2).

Abstract: A visual display unit with character overstrike capability includes a text store in which text is stored in data stream form. A formatter formats the stored text and loads character codes into a refresh buffer which together with a character generator display the characters on a raster scanned cathode ray tube. Control logic responsive to a backspace character combines the bit patterns corresponding to the characters preceding and succeeding the backspace character in a temporary store and then stores the composite bit pattern in the character generator and a pointer thereto in the refresh buffer. The control logic can be inhibited to allow the individual characters constituting the composite character to be displayed individually for editing purposes.

Abstract: A visual display system adapted for a cathode ray tube or a liquid crystal display that shows the construction of a composite ideographic character. The system displays the root ideograms as they are keyed-in in an "n.times.m" pixel area and simultaneously highlights a "u.times.v" portion of the "n.times.m" pixel area in which the next operation is to take place, the next operation being either the construction of a root having dimensions equal to "u.times.v" or a further division of the "u.times.v" area.

Abstract: A driving architecture for a matrix addressed TFEL display includes upper and lower data electrode arrays divided by a narrow gap and scanning electrodes arranged in complementary pairs one for each array of data electrodes. The data electrodes are charged at a rate which minimizes the power loss in the resistive component of the data electrode circuitry. The top and bottom data electrode arrays may be driven simultaneously, thereby decreasing the time needed to scan the panel, thus permitting more electrodes and larger screens. The split-screen array provides shorter data electrodes which take less time to charge, thus permitting use of energy-saving techniques which require a slower charging rate.

Abstract: In a display apparatus including a plurality of scaling display elements and a plurality of bar graph display elements, each of the scaling display elements is changed from its ON state to its OFF state when an adjacent bar graph display element is changed from its OFF state to its ON state and restored from the OFF state to the ON state when the adjacent bar graph display element is changed from the ON state, respectively to the OFF state.

Abstract: A method of, and apparatus for, altering the configuration of an art form based on defining a portion of the border of the art form. The definition of the portion is used to call an appropriate routine for permitting operator alteration of the portion. The portion is defined both geometrically and by makeup. Consider a square. If part of the definition includes one side, and another part of the definition is that the side is a solid line, urging the side away from the center of the square will create a rectangle. If part of the definition includes a broken line rather than a solid line, urging the line away from the center will result in a peaked side with the square becoming a polygon. Next consider a circle. If the border portion defined is a solid line semicircle, urging the semicircle away from the center of the circle will result in a shape similar to that of a silhouette of cylinder having domed ends.

Abstract: A drive circuit is used to drive a data matrix liquid crystal display panel that can be applied to a variety of uses wherein said drive circuit either generates the backplate signal using any optional sequence or optionally provides any desired duty factor.The drive circuit chip itself contains RAM, and in responding to the data contents in said RAM, both the backplate and segment signals are generated, where the drive circuit provides any desired sequence that can optionally be determined in accordance with the RAM data contents.As an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the drive circuit chip comprises a built-in counter that determines the duty factor of the liquid crystal enable signals, where the duty factor can optionally be set by varying the operational conditions of said counter.

Abstract: The apparatus comprises a dot matrix character generator (16) which includes a ROM (17) for a series of standard alphanumeric characters, for the ISO alphabets, the Kana alphabet and a series of Kanji ideograms which are more frequently used. The character generator further comprises a RAM (18) in which other Kanji idoegrams can be selectively stored. They are normally registered in an archive mass memory (47) and can be sequentially transferred to the RAM, a portion of which operates as a FIFO memory if the code required is not present therein. The character generator (16) is connected by means of an internal bus (42) to at least a video control unit (19) and a control unit (27) for a dot printer (38), which units may be served in accordance with a bus priority and arbitration logic. The printer is provided with a printer control unit (93, 82, 83, 41) having an auxiliary character generator (41) for the ISO and Kana characters and a reduced group of Kanji characters.

Abstract: There is provided a video display controller which can vertically and horizontally shift a whole video image displayed on a screen of a video display unit. The video display controller comprises an image data read circuit which reads the image data from a video RAM, a register into which data representative of amount of shift of the video image is stored by a central processing unit, and a first counter which cyclicly counts a clock signal. An adder adds the data contained in the register and a count output of the first counter, and at a timing determined by this addition result a predetermined value is preset into a second counter. This second counter counts the clock signal from the predetermined value, and the image data read by the image data read circuit is outputted to the video display unit at a timing in accordance with a count output of this second counter. The register, first counter, adder and second counter are provided in each of vertical and horizontal scanning control circuits.

Abstract: A method of selectively displaying data, whereby the data is arranged in a consecutive series of data-blocks, each data-block being a matrix of information such as a Lofargram. The method comprises selecting an initial set of data-blocks from the series of data-blocks, wherein the initial set of data-blocks comprises an initial data-block and every following nth data-block in the series and then displaying this initial set. The method includes displaying different sets of data-blocks subsequent to the initial set. Each different set of data-blocks comprises an initial data-block, differing from the initial data-block of the preceeding set by an integer m, and every subsequent nth data-block in the series. The method further comprises, displaying a reference data-block adjacent to any one of the sets of data-blocks for comparing with any one of the data-blocks in the series.

Abstract: A position control apparatus comprises a pointing device for pointing a position, a microprocessor for computing a distance of movement and a velocity of movement of the pointing device controls moving the position pointed by the pointing device at a velocity corresponding to the velocity detected when the distance of movement and the velocity of movement detected exceed predetermined values.

Abstract: A processing system for use in an aircraft display system, or other applications, comprises two parallel lanes. Nominally-identical input signals from sensors are supplied to the input of a first processor in each lane which produces display driving signals that are supplied to respective displays. The display driving signals are also supplied to a second processor in the same lane and to a third processor in the other lane. The second and third processors perform inverse functions on the display driving signals to produce, at their outputs, signals nominally-identical to the input signals to the system. Each lane includes comparators which provide outputs in respect of the difference between the two inverted signals and the input signal. A monitor responds to the comparator outputs to indicate malfunction.

Abstract: A display apparatus includes a document memory for storing data, a display section for displaying the data stored in a desired storage area of the document memory on a screen, and a scroll controller for designating data to be displayed on the display section and designating a cursor position to be displayed. When a cursor is located outside of a predetermined range on the screen, if a cursor-up or-down movement command is input, the displayed data is scrolled without moving the cursor position. When the cursor is located in the predetermined range on the screen, if the cursor-up or - down movement command is input, the cursor position changes in accordance with the command, and the displayed data is not scrolled.