Patents Examined by Ulysses Weldon
  • Patent number: 5539431
    Abstract: A display controller of a flat display apparatus which performs multiple color display and variable color display for display data read out of a lookup table. The lookup table comprises a parallel lookup table which has n (n.gtoreq.2) registers for storing color information and m selectors which receive n pieces of color information independently from the n registers, each select one of n pieces of color information, and deliver m pieces of color information simultaneously. The controller further comprises a data selector which selectively delivers the output of other register in the parallel lookup table in place of the register which has been made the read access.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 1994
    Date of Patent: July 23, 1996
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi Video & Information System, Inc.
    Inventors: Kiyokazu Nishioka, Masahiro Jinushi, Nobuo Tsuchiya
  • Patent number: 5534889
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display (LCD) panel which has its contrast controlled through the use of a pulse width modulation (PWM) circuit contained in the video controller and a contrast control circuit. In response to a particular video refresh mode, the PWM circuit modulates the pulse width of a signal that is an input to the contrast control circuit. The pulse width is changed by the use of a base contrast register and two offset registers. Depending on the video mode, the base register is used alone or is combined with one of the offset registers to provide a signal to indicate the duty cycle of the signal. The pulse width modulated signal is converted to a DC bias contrast voltage which is provided to the LCD panel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 1993
    Date of Patent: July 9, 1996
    Assignee: Compaq Computer Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel B. Reents, Patrick R. Cooper, James H. Garrett, Philip J. McKenzie
  • Patent number: 5534892
    Abstract: There is provided a display-integrated type tablet device which can achieve a high coordinate detection accuracy even when an electrode density of electrodes is greater than a electrode density of the other electrodes in a display panel. A segment electrode scanning clock signal for scanning segment electrodes having an electrode density three times as high as that of common electrodes has a frequency three times as high as a common electrode scanning clock signal. Shift data input to a segment electrode drive circuit has the same pulse width as that of the shift data input to a common electrode drive circuit. As a result, a scanning speed in an x-direction (shift speed of a segment electrode scanning signal) can be made approximately equal to a scanning speed in a y-direction (shift speed of a common electrode scanning signal). Furthermore, the width of the segment electrodes in an active state is made equal to the width of the common electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 1994
    Date of Patent: July 9, 1996
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takao Tagawa
  • Patent number: 5532715
    Abstract: A visually aging scroll bar is associated with a window or viewport on a computer display as part of a computer system, and contains a slider to indicate relative positioning in the window of a document, such as a data file, image file, audio file, text file, or spreadsheet. The current position of the scroll bar slider is monitored by the computer system. After a first predetermined sampling period has elapsed, a first region matching the current position of the scroll bar slider is created. The visual appearance of the region is determined by a predetermined region heating rate. For example, a newly created region starts at "cold", which can be indicated by a violet-indigo color. After a second sampling period has elapsed, the computer system again checks the current position of the scroll bar slider. If the current position still matches the first region, the visual appearance of the first region symbolically "warms up" as indicated by the region heating rate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 1992
    Date of Patent: July 2, 1996
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Cary L. Bates, Jerry A. Blades, Harvey G. Kiel, Raymond F. Romon, Jeffrey M. Ryan
  • Patent number: 5530455
    Abstract: A computer mouse having a roller which implements a scrolling function for computer programs, particularly those running a windows format. In one embodiment, scrolling is implemented by sending messages to a queue associated with a windows kernel. The kernel interprets scrolling messages from the roller in the same manner as messages generated in the usual way from a graphical user interface. Rapid turning of the roller generates pulses which are stored in a buffer and interpreted as energy which is drawn from the buffer even after the roller stops turning so that scrolling continues until stopped or until the buffer is depleted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 1994
    Date of Patent: June 25, 1996
    Assignee: Mouse Systems Corporation
    Inventors: William G. Gillick, Clement C. Lam
  • Patent number: 5528268
    Abstract: A control method and device for a monitor, which is used for controlling the brightness, the vertical size, the horizontal size and the contrast of a monitor screen; by means of the minor and slow variation of the size and contrast of the monitor screen, a user's pupils can move naturally so as to reduce the fatigue of a user's: eyes. When the time set is up, a voice will be sent out to remind a user to have a break. The aforesaid device comprises an input setting unit, a microprocessor, a vertical size control circuit assembly, a horizontal size control circuit assembly, a contrast-control circuit assembly, a brightness-control circuit assembly, a voice module, a sensor, a power-supply control module, and a manual/automatic switch.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 1994
    Date of Patent: June 18, 1996
    Inventors: Ray-Ing Ni, Lin Y. Shu, Da-Sun Hsu, Fong-Ing Lin
  • Patent number: 5528261
    Abstract: An operating system software architecture, implemented in an object-oriented design, supports and processes color. The object-oriented design has two levels, one being a class (TColor) defining a virtual abstract base class and being a container class containing calibrated colors, the other being a class (TDeviceColor) defining a virtual abstract base class and a container class containing uncalibrated colors. Several calibrated color classes including a class (TXYZColor) defining XYZ color space descend directly from class (TColor), several uncalibrated color classes including a class (TRGBColor) descending directly from class (TDeviceColor), a class (TColorGamut) storing color gamut information of peripheral devices that may interface with the architecture, and a class (TColorProfile) storing tonal reproduction curves of the peripheral devices provide data structures, together with method functions for various color processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 1992
    Date of Patent: June 18, 1996
    Assignee: Apple Computer, Inc.
    Inventors: Lindsay B. Holt, James A. Quarato, Jerry G. Harris, Ryoji Watanabe, Keith McGreggor
  • Patent number: 5526022
    Abstract: A sourceless orientation sensor having an azimuthal sensor which determines the azimuthal orientation relative to a planetary magnetic field, and a tilt sensor which determines the direction and magnitude of the displacement from vertical using the planetary gravitational field. The tilt sensor includes a transparent gas and a transparent viscous fluid in a spherical shell, a light emitting diode (LED) mounted at the top of the shell, and four photodetectors mounted at the bottom of the shell. As the tilt sensor is rotated the path of the light cone emanating from the LED and refracting at the gas/fluid interface is altered, thereby altering the intensity of light incident on the photodetectors. The magnitude of the light incident on the photodetectors is processed to provide the tilt angles. A thin transparent disk floats at the gas/fluid interface to damp surface waves caused by reorientation of the device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 1993
    Date of Patent: June 11, 1996
    Assignee: Virtual I/O, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael J. Donahue, Mark D. Pesce, Marc de Groot, Michael A. Perry, Donald E. Drumm
  • Patent number: 5526015
    Abstract: A display apparatus includes: (a) a liquid crystal device comprising scanning electrodes, data electrodes and a ferroelectric liquid crystal disposed between the scanning electrodes and data electrodes, the scanning electrodes and data electrodes being disposed to intersect each other so as to form an electrode matrix and provide a display surface covering the electrode matrix, (b) first means for applying a scanning selection signal to the scanning electrodes and applying data signals to the data electrodes in synchronism with the scanning selection signal, and (c) second means for dividing the display surface into an effective display region and a non-display region and controlling the first means so as to apply a scanning selection signal to a scanning electrode covered by the non-display region in a shorter cycle than the application of a scanning selection signal to scanning electrodes covered by the effective display region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 1994
    Date of Patent: June 11, 1996
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Akira Tsuboyama, Akiko Ooki, Hiroshi Inoue
  • Patent number: 5526011
    Abstract: An electronic transparency device is provided with a memory in which a plurality of frames of video data ("slides") can be stored. The apparatus includes a control microprocessor which can cause predefined sequences of slides to be presented on the LCD panel automatically. These slide "shows" are defined by the user using a hand held remote control unit in conjuntion with menus displayed on the LCD panel in window fashion by the microprocessor. The user can specify the duration that each slide in a sequence is to be shown, the video transition by which it is to be introduced, the degree of "windowshading" with which it is to be displayed, etc. Once a show is defined, it can be instituted and controlled from the remote control unit. Among other numerous features, the transparency also includes a pointer that can be superimposed on the display and controlled by the remote control unit. This pointer can be used to define certain portions of the screen that are to be displayed in highlighted fashion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 1993
    Date of Patent: June 11, 1996
    Assignee: In Focus Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Steven R. Hix, Paul E. Gulick, Robert E. Haas
  • Patent number: 5526019
    Abstract: A character/pattern processing apparatus has conversion means for converting numerals related to characters stored in a memory to magnitude information proportional to values of the numerals and display means for displaying the magnitude information on a display device. Items represented by the characters and graphs which represent the numeric values related to the respective items are displayed without formatting the graphs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 1994
    Date of Patent: June 11, 1996
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kazunori Sugitani
  • Patent number: 5526016
    Abstract: A large multicolor display apparatus displays pictures and animations of high quality with multiple colors. The apparatus is used for advertisement and information purposes. The apparatus comprises unit blocks, which are divided into a plurality of sections. In each of the sections, there is arranged a multicolor display element having a rotary color display member. The color of each unit block is determined by the multicolor display elements disposed in the unit block. Each of the unit blocks, therefore, can display multiple colors, to improve the quality of images displayed on the apparatus. Since the multicolor display elements can be prepared in small sizes, they operate at high speed to display animations and make the apparatus thinner and lighter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 1995
    Date of Patent: June 11, 1996
    Assignees: Citizen Watch Co., Ltd., T.I.C.-Citizen Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tadahiko Nakagiri, Kazuo Teramoto
  • Patent number: 5519413
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for concurrently scanning and filling a memory comprised of at least a first and a second memory partition for use in a video display of the ping-pong type is provided herein. A method according to the present invention includes scanning the first memory partition and concurrently filling the second memory partition, such that a fill pattern is stored in every memory cell in the second memory partition during a time period in which a portion of memory cells in the first memory partition are scanned. A method in accordance with the invention can be incorporated into a video display system with minimal modifications to provide a fast fill or clear of a memory partition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 1993
    Date of Patent: May 21, 1996
    Assignee: Honeywell Inc.
    Inventors: Larry J. Thomas, Douglas E. Thorpe
  • Patent number: 5517208
    Abstract: A liquid crystal apparatus is constituted by a display device for data display, a drive circuit unit for driving the display device, a unit substrate for supplying electric signals to the drive circuit unit, and a tape-form film carrier comprising an insulating substrate and a conductor covered with the insulating substrate for connecting the display device, the drive circuit unit and the unit substrate. A part of the film carrier is provided with a blank portion where the insulating substrate is locally removed to absorb a stress applied to the film carrier. A unit substrate constituting the drive circuit unit is screwed to a supporting member so as to allow a movement thereof relative to the supporting member by use of a space regulating means surrounding the screw shank.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 1995
    Date of Patent: May 14, 1996
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hideo Mori, Hisao Tajima, Hiroshi Takabayashi, Toshiaki Itazawa, Masanori Takahashi, Kenji Niibori
  • Patent number: 5515075
    Abstract: A large multicolor display apparatus displays pictures and animations of high quality with multiple colors. The apparatus is used for advertisement and information purposes. The apparatus comprises unit blocks, which are divided into a plurality of sections. In each of the sections, there is arranged a multicolor display element having a rotary color display member. The color of each unit block is determined by the multicolor display elements disposed in the unit block. Each of the unit blocks, therefore, can display multiple colors, to improve the quality of images displayed on the apparatus. Since the multicolor display elements can be prepared in small sizes, they operate at high speed to display animations and make the apparatus thinner and lighter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 1995
    Date of Patent: May 7, 1996
    Assignees: Citizen Watch Co., Ltd, T.I.C. Citizen Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tadahiko Nakagiri, Kazuo Teramoto, Mitsuhiro Okamoto
  • Patent number: 5515071
    Abstract: In an electronic system having a plurality of function parts, a function display circuit comprisinga switching part to select a desired function part, a first display part to display an operating function part, a second display part to display a function of the operating function part and logic control means including a first and a second MICOM parts, said second MICOM part being controlled by the first MICOM part to drive the first and the second display parts respectively, anda function display method comprising a function decision process to decide a switching state, a function stop process to stop driving each of the first and the second display parts for an unselected function part, and a function display process to display an operating state and a function of a selected function part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 1990
    Date of Patent: May 7, 1996
    Assignee: SamSung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Ki-Young Cho
  • Patent number: 5510810
    Abstract: A display screen control apparatus for producing a plurality of control signals in response to pressing, tilting and rotating a single operation lever, the control signals being transmitted to control circuitry for controlling the position of a cursor on the display screen in response to the control signals. The display screen control apparatus includes a base upon which are formed a plurality of control switches, the operation lever being resiliently positioned over the control switches such that pressing the operation lever actuates a first control switch, tilting the operation lever actuates one of a plurality of second control switches, and rotating the operation lever actuates one of two third control switches.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 1994
    Date of Patent: April 23, 1996
    Assignee: Alps Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akio Nishijima, Naoya Iwama, Syoji Suganami, Katsutoshi Suzuki
  • Patent number: 5508718
    Abstract: A computerized color selection system which selects colors based on a user's designation of color impact objectives which specify how colors affect those who view the colors rather than specifying the colors themselves. A user selects a combination of color impact objectives from among plural such color impact objectives, such as audience, occasion, style and tone. In correspondence to each color impact objective, a relevance relation is defined. The relevance relation specifies, for its corresponding color impact objective, relevance values which indicate the degree to which different colors meet the color impact objective. Relevance relations associated with the user's selection of color impact objectives are selected, and the selected relevance relations are inspected to identify the maximum relevance value from all the selected relevance relations. The color which corresponds to the maximum relevance value is then selected as the color which best fits the user's selection of color impact objectives.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 1994
    Date of Patent: April 16, 1996
    Assignee: Canon Information Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: John S. Haikin
  • Patent number: 5508714
    Abstract: In a personal computer system which is equipped with a plasma display unit as a standard I/O device having a horizontal resolution of 640 dots and which can arbitrarily be connected to a CRT display unit having a horizontal resolution of 720 dots, a high-resolution display system includes a display timing data register suitable for the horizontal resolution of the CRT display unit. The display timing data stored in the display timing register is converted into display timing data having a horizontal resolution of 640 dots by a display timing converter. The converted timing data is stored in a clock management register, a clock mode register, and a horizontal panning register in a CRT controller. The high-resolution display system includes a circuit responsive to read access of the respective registers for transferring to a CPU the display timing data which has a horizontal resolution of 720 dots and which is stored in the display timing data register.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 1994
    Date of Patent: April 16, 1996
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventor: Hiroki Zenda
  • Patent number: 5508715
    Abstract: The data selection circuit of 1/n Duty-1/m Bias activating scheme of the present invention includes (m+1) selectors which are independently provided. Each selector includes 2.sup.n decoder sections for subjecting n-bit select data supplied from the exterior to different decoding processes, and 2.sup.n inverter sections respectively connected in series with the decoder sections, outputs of the inverter sections being connected in a wired OR connection configuration. The 2.sup.n .times.(m+1) inverter sections are supplied with different preset input signals determined by integers m, n (m.gtoreq.2, n.gtoreq.2) and the logic of the corresponding decoding sections from the exterior. Thus, the data selection circuit of 1/n Duty-1/m Bias scheme in which the number of necessary transistors is significantly reduced can be provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 1994
    Date of Patent: April 16, 1996
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventor: Hisashi Kuroki