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(11) | EP 0 159 068 A3 |
| (12) | EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION |
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| (54) | Alpha-numeric display device and visual display arrangement employing such devices |
| (57) An alpha-numeric display device comprises seven rows of five elements (1-35) in which
each element (6-10) of the second row is connected to the corresponding element (11-15)
in the third row so that a single signal controls both element. Similarly each element
(21-25) in the fifth row is connected to the corresponding element (26-30) in the
sixth row. In addition the second element (2) in the first tow may be conected (36)
to the fourth element (4) in the first row. A full alpha-numeric character set may
be generated by appropriately energising selected elements. Since the display device
effectively comprises either twenty four or twenty five elements rather than thirty
five elements the number of electrical connections required is reduced. In addition
the quantity of information required to be stored to drive the display is also reduced. The elements (1-35) may be formed as liquid crystal cells and a plurality of devices may be formed into a multi-character display arrangement. When addressing the display devices in matrix form either a five row by five column matrix or two four row by three column matrices may be used depending on whether the link (36) between the second (2) and fourth (4) elements of the first row is provided. |