Data conversion for counter having electroluminescent readout

Claim 1

A COUNTER AND READOUT DEVICE THEREOF COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF BINARY STAGES EACH OF WHICH PROVIDES ONE OR MORE DISCRETE OUTPUTS, A READOUT DEVICE INCLUDING A SEGMENTED DISPLAY AND CONTROL MEANS COUPLED THEREWITH FOR CONTROLLING THE OPERATION OF THE READOUT DEVICE, A PLURALITY OF LAMPS ARRANGED TO OPERATE SAID CONTROL MEANS, TERMINAL MEANS FOR CONNECTING SAID LAMPS TO A SOURCE OF VOLTAGE, THE IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING AT LEAST CERTAIN OF SAID LAMPS BEING ARRANGED IN GROUPS FOR CONTROLLING THE SELECTION OF PAIRS OF NUMBERS TO BE DISPLAYED BY SAID READOUT DEVICE, A PAIR OF CONTROL TRANSISTORS, MEANS COUPLING SAID CONTROL TRANSISTORS WITH ONE OF SAID BINARY STAGES, SAID TERMINAL MEANS AND CERTAIN OF SAID LAMPS FOR CONTROLLING THE SELECTION OF EVEN OR ODD NUMBERS TO BE DISPLAYED BY SAID READOUT DEVICE, A CONTROL MATRIX COUPLED WITH AT LEAST ONE OF THE OUTPUTS OF THE REMAINING BINARY STAGES, AND A PLURALITY OF BUFFER TRANSISTOR SWITCHES CORRESPONDING TO THE NUMBER OF SAID GROUPS INDIVIDUALLY CONNECTED WITH SAID GROUPS OF LAMPS AND SAID MATRIX FOR SELECTIVE CONTROL OF SAID GROUPS OF LAMPS IN ACCORDANCE WITH SIGNALS SUPPLIED BY SAID MATRIX TO CAUSE THE SELECTION OF A PAIR OF NUMBERS FOR DISPLAY BY SAID READOUT DEVICE, WHEREBY A SINGLE NUMBER IS DISPLAYED BY SAID READOUT DEVICE.