Video display apparatus

Claim 2

A video display system comprising: a cathode-ray tUbe; first pulse-generating means for producing horizontal synchronization pulses at a first fixed recurrence frequency, and for producing vertical synchronization pulses, said first means being responsive to control signals to vary the interval between adjacent vertical pulses, and, in the absence of control signals, producing vertical pulses at a second fixed recurrence frequency whereby a fixed interval is established between adjacent vertical pulses in the absence of said control signals; second means coupled between said first means and said tube to produce a raster on the tube face, said raster comprising a fixed number of horizontal scanning lines of like length per frame, each horizontal line scan being initiated by a corresponding horizontal pulse, each frame being initiated by a corresponding vertical pulse; and third means to produce said control signals and to supply same to said first means to lengthen the interval between adjacent vertical pulses by a fixed period as compared to the fixed interval when the control signals are absent, said fixed period being equal to an integral multiple of the line scan interval.

Claim 3

A video display system wherein a cathode-ray tube is provided with first and second display regions, each of which extends horizontally across the face of the tube, each display region having a separate preselected number of display lines of changing information of the same length, the line scans being initiated successively first through the first region and then through the second region to complete a frame, each line scan being initiated by a separate horizontal pulse, the horizontal pulses having a fixed recurrence frequency, each frame being initiated by a separate vertical pulse, said horizontal and vertical pulses being produced by pulse-generating means, said tube having an input to which information is supplied in the form of electrical signals, one of said regions receiving new information in the bottom display line thereof and being adapted to clear the previously displayed top line thereof and to shift all other previously displayed lines into successively higher lines whereby the information has an apparent upward motion on the tube face, the other region receiving and displaying changing information without upshifting, said vertical pulses having a first fixed recurrence frequency in the absence of upshifting whereby a fixed interval is established between adjacent vertical pulses in the absence of upshifting, said system comprising: first means to store electrical signals for display in either region; second means to supply said stored signals to said tube input for display; third means responsive to electrical signals representing new information for display in either region and to signals stored in said first means to supply both types of signals to said first means, said second means arranging new information signals and stored signals in proper time sequence for delivery to said first means for display successively in the first and second regions; fourth means responsive to those new information signals which produce a display in said one display region and coupled to said pulse-generating means to lengthen the interval between adjacent vertical pulses by a fixed period as compared to the fixed delay in the absence of upshifting, said fixed period being an integral multiple of the period of a line scan whereby the vertical pulses have a second and lower fixed recurrence frequency when the information in said one display region is changing; and fifth means coupled to said first and second means to inhibit any upshifting in said other display region when upshifting occurs in said one display region.

Claim 4

A video display system wherein a cathode-ray tube is provided with first and second display regions, each of which extends horizontally across the face of the tube, each display region having a separate preselected number of display lines of changing information of the same length, the line scans being initiated successively first through the first region and then through the second region to complete a frame, each line scan being initiated by a separate horizontal pulse, the horizontal pulses having a fixed recurrence frequency, each frame being initiated by a separate vertical pulse, said horizontal and vertical pulses being produced by pulse-generating means, said tube having an input to which information is supplied in the form of electrical signals, one of said regions receiving new information in the bottom display line thereof and being adapted to clear the previously displayed top line thereof and to shift all other previously displayed lines into successively higher lines whereby the information has an apparent upward motion on the tube face, the other region receiving and displaying changing information without upshifting, said vertical pulses having a first fixed recurrence frequency in the absence of upshifting whereby a fixed interval is established between adjacent vertical pulses in the absence of upshifting, said system comprising: first means to store electrical signals for display in either region; second means to supply said stored signals to said tube input for display; third means responsive to electrical signals representing new information for display in either region and to signals stored in said first means to supply both types of signals to said first means, said second means arranging new information signals and stored signals in proper time sequence for delivery to said first means for display successively in the first and second regions; fourth means responsive to those new information signals which produce a display in said one display region and coupled to said pulse-generating means to lengthen the interval between adjacent vertical pulses by a fixed period as compared to the fixed delay in the absence of upshifting, said fixed period being an integral multiple of the period of a line scan whereby the vertical pulses have a second and lower fixed recurrence frequency when the information in said one display region is changing; and fifth means coupled to said first and second means to inhibit any upshifting in said other display region when upshifting occurs in said one display region.

Claim 5

A video display system wherein a cathode-ray tube displays a predetermined number of lines of information of the same length, each line scan being initiated by a separate horizontal pulse, the horizontal pulses having a fixed recurrence frequency, each frame being initiated by a separate vertical pulse, said horizontal and vertical pulses being produced by pulse-generating means, said tube having an input to which said information is supplied in the form of electrical signals, said system being adapted to enter new information on the bottom line of the display, to clear the previously displayed top line and to upshift all other previously displayed lines into successively higher lines, whereby the information has an apparent upward motion on the tube face, said vertical pulses having a first fixed recurrence frequency in the absence of upshifting whereby a fixed interval is established between adjacent vertical pulses in the absence of upshifting, said system comprising: first means to store electrical signals for display; second means to supply said stored signals to said tube input for display; third means responsive to electrical signals representing new information for display and to signals stored in said first means to supply same to said first means, said third means arranging new information signals and stored signals in proper time sequence for delivery to said first means; and fourth means responsive to new information signals and coupled to said pulse generating means to lengthen the interval between adjacent vertical pulses by a fixed period as compared to the fixed interval in the absence of upshifting, said fixed period being an integral multiple of the period of a line scan whereby the vertical pulses have a second and lower fixed recurrence frequency when the displayed information is changing.

Claim 6

A video display system wherein a cathode-ray tube displays a predetermined number of lines of information of the same length, each line scan being initiated by a separate horizontal pulse, the horizontal pulses having a fixed recurrence frequency, each frame being initiated by a separate vertical pulse, said horizontal and vertical pulses being produced by pulse-generating means, said tube having an input to which said information is supplied in the form of electrical signals, said system being adapted to enter new information on the bottom line of the display, to clear the previously displayed top line and to upshift all other previously displayed lines into successively higher lines, whereby the information has an apparent upward motion on the tube face, said vertical pulses having a first fixed recurrence frequency in the absence of upshifting whereby a fixed interval is established between adjacent vertical pulses in the absence of upshifting, said system comprising: first means to store electrical signals for display; second means to supply said stored signals to said tube input for display; third means responsive to electrical signals representing new information for display and to signals stored in said first means to supply same to said first means, said third means arranging new information signals and stored signals in proper time sequence for delivery to said first means; and fourth means responsive to new information signals and coupled to said pulse generating means to lengthen the interval between adjacent vertical pulses by a fixed period as compared to the fixed interval in the absence of upshifting, said fixed period being an integral multiple of the period of a line scan whereby the vertical pulses have a second and lower fixed recurrence frequency when the displayed information is changing.

Claim 7

Video display apparatus which comprises a. input means for receiving coded input characters to be displayed, b. a video display unit having line and field sweeps, said field sweeps being each initiated by a separate vertical pulse, said vertical pulses having a first fixed recurrence frequency in the absence of upshifting whereby a fixed interval is established between adjacent vertical pulses in the absence of upshifting; c. a recirculating memory having an input and an output, d. first means coupled to the memory input for inserting serially in said memory bit-coded representations of said characters, e. second means coupled to the memory output for converting the character bits at the memory output from series to parallel, f. a plurality of row buffer registers having respective inputs and outputs, g. third means coupled to said second means for loading said registers in parallel with respective like-order bits of said parallel bits for a display row of characters, h. fourth means coupled to said registers for recirculating said registers to yield outputs at display character frequency for a plurality of row cycles, i. display character encoding means responsive to said outputs for producing signals line-by-line representing the portions of said characters to be displayed on respective lines, j. fifth means coupled to the encoding means and utilizing the signals from said encoding means for producing a video signal, k. sixth means coupled to the fifth means for supplying said video signal to said display unit, l. and upshifting means for shifting characteristics in one display row to a display row thereabove and displaying new characters in said one display row, m. said upshifting means including means for lengthening the interval between adjacent vertical pulses by a fixed period as compared to the fixed interval in the absence of upshifting, said fixed period being an integral multiple of the period of a line sweep whereby the field sweeps are subjected to a relative delay with respect to the line-by-line encoding of said buffer register outputs by one scanning line in a field for a number of fields equal to the line spacing of said display rows.

Claim 8

Video display apparatus which comprises a. input means for receiving coded input characters to be displayed, b. a video display unit having line and field sweeps, said field sweeps being each initiated by a separate vertical pulse, said vertical pulses having a first fixed recurrence frequency in the absence of upshifting whereby a fixed interval is established between adjacent vertical pulses in the absence of upshifting; c. a recirculating memory having an input and an output, d. first means coupled to the memory input for inserting serially in said memory bit-coded representations of said characters, e. second means coupled to the memory output for converting the character bits at the memory output from series to parallel, f. a plurality of row buffer registers having respective inputs and outputs, g. third means coupled to said second means for loading said registers in parallel with respective like-order bits of said parallel bits for a display row of characters, h. fourth means coupled to said registers for recirculating said registers to yield outputs at display character frequency for a plurality of row cycles, i. display character encoding means responsive to said outputs for producing signals line-by-line representing the portions of said characters to be displayed on respective lines, j. fifth means coupled to the encoding means and utilizing the signals from said encoding means for producing a video signal, k. sixth means coupled to the fifth means for supplying said video signal to said display unit, l. and upshifting means for shifting characteristics in one display row to a display row thereabove and displaying new characters in said one display row, m. said upshifting means including means for lengthening the interval between adjacent vertical pulses by a fixed period as compared to the fixed interval in the absence of upshifting, said fixed period being an integral multiple of the period of a line sweep whereby the field sweeps are subjected to a relative delay with respect to the line-by-line encoding of said buffer register outputs by one scanning line in a field for a number of fields equal to the line spacing of said display rows.

Claim 9

Apparatus according to claim 4 in which the delay between the input and output of said recirculating memory is substantially equal to one-half a display field period, and including means for allocating predetermined alternate intervals in the recirculating memory cycle to characters to be displayed in the upper portion of the video display and predetermined intervening intervals to characters to be displayed in the lower portion of the display, each of said intervals accommodating characters for a display row and the total number of intervals being an odd integer.

Claim 10

Apparatus according to claim 4 in which said means for loading the buffer registers includes means for loading characters for display rows to be upshifted from alternate memory row intervals, and said means for recirculating the registers recirculates each loaded row in the interval between successive loadings for said line-by-line encoding of the outputs thereof.

Claim 11

Apparatus according to claim 6 including a source of memory clock pulses for entering character bits in said memory, counting means including means for counting said clock pulses in a memory character interval and means for counting the character intervals in a memory row interval, and means responsive to said character interval counts for entering input characters in a memory row interval.

Claim 12

Apparatus according to claim 7 in which said counting means includes a fixed line counter for counting memory intervals equal to display line periods and a fixed row counter for counting outputs of said fixed line counter corresponding to a predetermined number of lines in a display row to yield counts corresponding to display rows, and means for decoding the counts of said fixed row counter to produce fixed row gating signals corresponding to predetermined rows of said display.

Claim 13

Apparatus in accordance with claim 8 including means responsive to said upshifting means at substantially the end of said upshifting for changing the count of said fixed row counter by a count equal to the number of rows counted during said upshifting.

Claim 14

Apparatus in accordance with claim 9 including means responsive to said fixed row gating signals for controlling the loading of said buffer registers from the memory.

Claim 15

Apparatus in accordance with claim 10 in which the means in the upshifting means for producing said relative delay includes a cycle counter for counting fields during an upshift, a comparator for comparing the counts in said cycle and fixed row counters and yielding an output upon coincidence, and means utilizing the coincidence output for producing field synchronization signals for said field sweeps.

Claim 16

Apparatus in accordance with claim 11 in which said means for producing field synchronizing signals includes an upshift line counter enabled by said coincidence output for counting display lines, an upshift row counter for counting outputs of said upshift line counter corresponding to said predetermined number of lines in a display row, and means utilizing predetermined outputs of at least one of said upshift line and row counters for producing said field synchronizing signals.

Claim 17

Apparatus according to claim 12 including means responsive to said upshifting means at substantially the end of said upshifting for changing the count of said fixed row counter by a count equal to the number of rows counted during said upshifting.

Claim 18

Apparatus according to claim 13 in which the delay between the input and output of said recirculating memory is substantially equal to one-half a display field period, and including means for allocating predetermined alternate intervals in the recirculating memory cycle to characters to be displayed in the upper portion of the video display and predetermined intervening intervals to characters to be displayed in the lower portion of the display, each of said intervals accommodating characters for a display row and the total number of intervals being an odd integer.

Claim 19

Apparatus according to claim 9 including means utilizing said fixed row gating signals for defining a memory row interval corresponding to the normally lowest display row and an entry memory row interval occuring thereafter corresponding to a display row to be upshifted To said normally lowest display row, means for entering characters into said entry memory row interval during an upshifting cycle and upshifting the characters to said normally lowest display row, and means responsive to substantially the end of said upshifting for entering subsequent characters to be displayed in said normally lowest display row into the memory row interval corresponding thereto.

Claim 20

Apparatus according to claim 15 including means for clearing said initial entry memory row interval after the upshifting of characters entered therein.

Claim 21

Apparatus according to claim 15 including means for producing a signal indicating the beginning of a new row of characters to be displayed, and means responsive to said signal for actuating said upshifting means.

Claim 22

Apparatus according to claim 4 including a. a plurality of said input means, b. means for allocating a plurality of different row intervals in the recirculating memory cycle to characters from one of said input means and another row interval to characters from another of said input means, c. each of said row intervals accommodating memory characters for a display row, d. means for controlling said upshifting means to produce upshifting of rows displaying characters from said one input means, e. and means for preventing upshifting of a row displaying characters from said other input means including means for delaying the line-by-line encoding of the characters in said buffer registers for the corresponding display row by amounts equal to said delay of the field sweeps.

Claim 23

Apparatus according to claim 18 in which the characters in said other memory row interval include letter and figure identification, means for recirculating in said buffer registers the characters from said other memory row interval a number of times corresponding to the encoding of two display rows, and means for recognizing said letter and figure characters and controlling said encoding means to decode respective type characters line-by-line for respectively different display rows.

Claim 24

Apparatus according to claim 11 including a. a plurality of said input means, b. means for allocating a plurality of different row intervals in the recirculating memory cycle to characters from one of said input means and another row interval to characters from another of said input means, c. each of said row intervals accommodating memory characters for a display row, d. means for controlling said upshifting means to produce upshifting of rows displaying characters from said one input means, e. means for decoding counts of said upshift row counter to produce upshift row gating signals corresponding to predetermined rows of said display, f. said means in the upshifting means for producing a relative delay being responsive to said fixed row gating signals to control the line-by-line encoding of characters in said buffer registers corresponding to said one input means, g. and means responsive to said upshift row gating signals during said upshifting for controlling the line-by-line encoding of characters in the buffer registers corresponding to said other input means to prevent upshifting thereof.

Claim 25

Apparatus according to claim 20 including means responsive to at least said upshift row gating signals between said upshifting for controlling said encoding of characters corresponding to said other input means.

Claim 26

Apparatus according to claim 20 including means responsive to said upshifting means at substantially the end of said upshifting for reducing the count of said fixed row counter by a count equal to the number of rows counted during said upshifting, and transfer means for transferring the characters in said other memory row interval to a later row interval displaced from the previous interval by an amount corresponding to the number of rows counted during said upshifting.

Claim 27

Apparatus according to claim 22 in which said transfer means includes means for recirculating in said buffeR registers the characters in said other memory row, means for converting the buffer register outputs from parallel to series bit characters, and means for supplying the series bit characters to the memory input in said latter row interval.

Claim 28

Apparatus according to claim 22 in which the display rows corresponding to said one and said other input means for allocated to relatively lower and upper portions of the display, respectively, and including blanking means responsive to said coincidence output for producing a blanking signal to blank progressively during said upshifting the uppermost display row allocated to said one input means, and means for clearing after said upshifting the memory row interval containing characters displayed in said uppermost display row prior to upshifting.

Claim 29

Apparatus according to claim 22 including means for generating coded title characters to be displayed in fixed position on said display, means for supplying said coded title characters to said display character encoding means for line-by-line encoding thereof, and means responsive to at least said upshift row gating signals during upshift for controlling said supplying.

Claim 30

Apparatus according to claim 22 including means responsive to said fixed row gating signals and to said upshift row gating signals, respectively, for controlling the recirculation of characters from said one input means and from said other input means, respectively, in said row buffer registers and the supplying of output characters thereof to said display character encoding means during upshift.

Claim 31

Apparatus according to claim 22 in which the delay between the input and output of said recirculating memory is substantially equal to one-half a display field period, and including means for allocating predetermined alternate intervals in the recirculating memory cycle to characters to be displayed in the upper portion of the video display and predetermined intervening intervals to characters to be displayed in the lower portion of the display, each of said intervals accommodating characters for a display row and the total number of intervals being an odd integer, said means for loading the buffer registers including means for loading characters for display rows to be upshifted from alternate memory row intervals, and said means for recirculating the registers recirculates each loaded row in the interval between successive loadings for said line-by-line encoding of the outputs thereof.

Claim 32

Apparatus according to claim 27 including means for producing a signal indicating the beginning of a new row of characters to be displayed for said one input means, means responsive to said signal for actuating said upshifting means to produce an upshift cycle, means utilizing said fixed row gating signals for defining a memory row interval corresponding to the normally lowest display row for said one input means and an entry memory row interval occurring thereafter corresponding to a display row to be upshifted to said normally lowest display row, means for entering characters from said one input means into said entry memory row interval during an upshifting cycle, and means responsive to substantially the end of said upshifting cycle for entering subsequent characters to be displayed in said normally lowest display row into the memory row interval corresponding thereto.

Claim 33

Video display apparatus which comprises a. input means for receiving coded input characters to be displayed, b. a video display unit having line and field sweeps, said field sweeps being each initiated by a separate vertical pulse, said vertical pulses having a fixed fixed recurrence frequency in the absence of upshifting whereby a fixed interval is established between adjacent vertical pulses in the absence of upshifting, c. a recirculating memory having an input and an output, d. first means coupled to the memory for inserting in said memory bit-coded representations of said characters; e. second means coupled to the memory for Allocating a plurality of different row intervals in the recirculating memory cycle to characters from said input means, f. each of said row intervals accommodating memory characters for a display row, g. row buffer register means, h. third means coupled to the register means for successively loading said register means with characters in different memory row intervals, i. fourth means coupled to the register means for recirculating said register means between successive loadings thereof to yield outputs during a plurality of cycles corresponding to a plurality of display line sweeps, j. display character encoding means coupled to the fourth means and responsive to said outputs for producing signals line-by-line representing the portions of said characters to be displayed on respective lines, k. fifth means coupled to the encoding means and utilizing the signals from said encoding means for producing a video signal, l. sixth means coupled to the fifth means for supplying said video signal to said display unit, m. and upshifting means for shifting characters in one display row to a display row thereabove and displaying new characters in said one display row, n. said upshifting means including means for lengthening the interval between adjacent vertical pulses by a fixed period as compared to the fixed interval in the absence of upshifting, said fixed period being an integral multiple of the period of a line sweep whereby the field sweeps are subjected to a relative delay with respect to the line-by-line encoding of the outputs of said buffer register means by one scanning line in a field for a number of fields equal to the line spacing of said display rows.

Claim 34

Video display apparatus which comprises a. input means for receiving coded input characters to be displayed, b. a video display unit having line and field sweeps, said field sweeps being each initiated by a separate vertical pulse, said vertical pulses having a fixed fixed recurrence frequency in the absence of upshifting whereby a fixed interval is established between adjacent vertical pulses in the absence of upshifting, c. a recirculating memory having an input and an output, d. first means coupled to the memory for inserting in said memory bit-coded representations of said characters; e. second means coupled to the memory for Allocating a plurality of different row intervals in the recirculating memory cycle to characters from said input means, f. each of said row intervals accommodating memory characters for a display row, g. row buffer register means, h. third means coupled to the register means for successively loading said register means with characters in different memory row intervals, i. fourth means coupled to the register means for recirculating said register means between successive loadings thereof to yield outputs during a plurality of cycles corresponding to a plurality of display line sweeps, j. display character encoding means coupled to the fourth means and responsive to said outputs for producing signals line-by-line representing the portions of said characters to be displayed on respective lines, k. fifth means coupled to the encoding means and utilizing the signals from said encoding means for producing a video signal, l. sixth means coupled to the fifth means for supplying said video signal to said display unit, m. and upshifting means for shifting characters in one display row to a display row thereabove and displaying new characters in said one display row, n. said upshifting means including means for lengthening the interval between adjacent vertical pulses by a fixed period as compared to the fixed interval in the absence of upshifting, said fixed period being an integral multiple of the period of a line sweep whereby the field sweeps are subjected to a relative delay with respect to the line-by-line encoding of the outputs of said buffer register means by one scanning line in a field for a number of fields equal to the line spacing of said display rows.

Claim 35

Apparatus according to claim 29 including a a. plurality of said input means, b. said allocating means allocating said plurality of memory row intervals to characters from one of said input means and another memory row interval to characters from another of said input means, c. means for controlling said upshifting means to produce upshifting of rows displaying characters from said one input means, d. and means for preventing upshifting of a row displaying characters from said other input means including means for delaying the line-by-line encoding of the characters in said row buffer register means for the corresponding display row by amounts equal to said delay of the field sweeps.