Digital numeric display with adaptive character width
AssigneeRockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.
InventorRobert F. Lloyd
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A technique is disclosed for dynamically adjusting dimensions of characters, such as digits, displayed on a configurable display, such as in a human-machine interface. The height of the characters is fixed and the width is altered depending upon the number of characters to be displayed, resulting in changing aspect ratios for the characters. The width may be set to a predetermined maximum character width if all characters to be displayed will fit within the available space, or the width may be reduced to accommodate more characters. The technique may take into account cushion spaces for borders or frames, as well as spaces between characters. The resulting display allows for a change in the number of significant digits in a displayed numeral, while maintaining excellent readability.
Claims20
A method for dynamically displaying numeric values, comprising:
- accessing settings for a width and a height of a dynamically configurable display area;
- receiving a plurality of characters for display in the display area;
- setting the width of the characters based upon the number of characters received and the width of the dynamically configurable display area.
A method for displaying numeric values, comprising:
- accessing settings for a width and a height of a dynamically configurable display area;
- receiving a first number of characters for display in the dynamically configurable display area;
- dynamically determining a first width for each of the first number of characters based upon the width of the dynamically configurable display area and first number of characters;
- displaying the first number of characters with the first width;
- receiving a second number of characters for display in the dynamically configurable display area;
- dynamically determining a second width for each of the second number of characters based upon the width of the dynamically configurable display area and second number of characters;
- and
- displaying the second number of characters with the second width.
A method for displaying numeric values, comprising:
- setting a width and a height of a dynamically configurable display area;
- and
- dynamically setting an aspect ratio for at least one character to be displayed based upon preset width and height values for the dynamically configurable display area, wherein the aspect ratio is defined by a character width divided by a character height, and the character height is fixed and the character width is a function of the number of characters to be displayed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.