Programmable display engineering scale
OwnerMustafa Parhiskariinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A programmable display engineering scale instrument includes a scale base such as a drafting machine type scale, an electronic display device including a plurality of rows of column aligned display elements, scale selection switches, and circuitry interpreting the operation of the selection switches to cause the display of corresponding linear scales. The circuitry includes a switch encoder which generates unique binary addresses corresponding to each of the switches. A memory device stores bit patterns which when addressed cause the activation of patterns of display elements to display a corresponding linear scale. The display elements are interconnected in selected groups for simultaneous activation to simplify the circuitry of the programmable scale instrument.
Claims18
A programmable display scale comprising:
- (a) a scale base;
- (b) an electronic display device positioned on said base;
- (c) said display device including a plurality of rows of display elements;
- (d) a plurality of scale selection switches positioned on said base;
- and
- (e) circuit means interconnected among said switches and said display elements whereby the operation of said switches causes the activation of coordinated patterns of said display elements in said plurality of rows to form associated spacial scale divisions and subdivisions.
A programmable display scale comprising:
- (a) a planar scale base;
- (b) an electronic display device positioned on said base;
- (c) said display device including a plurality of substantially parallel rows of display elements;
- (d) a plurality of scale selection switches positioned on said base;
- (e) circuit means interconnected among said switches and said display elements whereby the operation of said switches causes the activation of coordinated patterns of said display elements in said plurality of rows to form associated spacial scale divisions and subdivisions, said circuit means including a memory device and encoder means;
- (f) said memory device being connected at least indirectly to said display device and storing, at selected memory addresses, bit patterns associated with patterns of activation of said display elements;
- (g) said encoder means being connected to said switches and at least indirectly to said memory device and generating unique memory addresses upon the operation of switches associated with said addresses;
- and
- (h) the generation of a unique memory address causing a bit pattern stored at said address to be read out of said memory device to said display device to activate a pattern of display elements in said plurality of rows associated with said bit pattern.
A programmable display scale comprising:
- (a) a planar scale base;
- (b) an electronic display device positioned on said base;
- (c) said display device including a plurality of substantially parallel rows of display elements;
- (d) selected groups of said display elements are being interconnected for simultaneous activation;
- (e) a plurality of scale selection switches positioned on said base;
- (f) circuit means interconnected among said switches and said display elements whereby the operation of said switches causes the activation of coordinated patterns of said display elements in said plurality of rows to form associated spacial scale divisions and subdivisions, said circuit means including a memory device and encoder means;
- (g) said memory device being connected at least indirectly to said display device and storing, at selected memory addresses, bit patterns associated with patterns of activation of said display elements;
- (h) said encoder means being connected to said switches and at least indirectly to said memory device and generating unique memory addresses upon the operation of switches associated with said addresses;
- (i) the generation of a unique memory address causing a bit pattern stored at said address to be read out of said memory device to said display device to activate a pattern of display elements in said plurality of rows associated with said bit pattern;
- (j) said scale base being sized and shaped as a drafting machine scale;
- and
- (k) said scale base including clip means to removably attach said scale base to a drafting machine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.