Data display systems

Claim 2

A display system for displaying characters on a display device that exhibits a scan-line raster and wherein each character is displayed in one character block on said display device, said display system including a control circuit operating in synchronization with said scan-line raster and controlling the generation of signals for the display of horizontal and vertical line segments of said characters, the invention comprising pulse-generator means generating a single pulse output for each scan line of each character block on said display device, a plurality of time-delay means selectively energized by said control circuit to determine the turn-on time of said pulsegenerator means, and means energized by said control circuit in response to signals indicating characters to be displayed on said display device for selecting particular ones of said pulse outputs for the display of line segments other than said vertical and horizontal Line segments of said characters.

Claim 3

A display system for displaying characters on a display monitor exhibiting a scan-line raster and wherein each character is displayed in a character block on said display monitor, said display system including an oscillator, a counter driven by said oscillator, decoder means responsive to outputs from said counter to define the scan-line raster and to divide said character blocks into rows and columns of elemental spaces selectively illuminated to display characters in said character blocks, a character generator responsive to signals indicating characters to be displayed on said display monitor and to said decoder means for generating signals for characters displayed on said display monitor, said signals including signals for vertical and horizontal line segments of said characters, and a diagonal line generator responsive to said counter and said character generator for generating signals for diagonal line portions of characters to be displayed on said display monitor, the invention is said diagonal line generator comprising, a plurality of time-delay means combinations of which are energized by said counter to produce predetermined time-delayed signals for each scan line of said raster, pulse-generator means energized by each of said time-delayed signals to generate a time-delayed pulse, and means responsive to said counter and said character generator for selecting particular time-delayed pulse outputs from said pulse-generator means for the display of diagonal line segments of characters displayed on said display monitor.

Claim 4

A display system for displaying characters on a display monitor exhibiting a scan-line raster and wherein each character is displayed in a character block on said display monitor, said display system including an oscillator, a counter driven by said oscillator, decoder means responsive to outputs from said counter to define the scan-line raster and to divide said character blocks into rows and columns of elemental spaces selectively illuminated to display characters in said character blocks, a character generator responsive to signals indicating characters to be displayed on said display monitor and to said decoder means for generating signals for characters displayed on said display monitor, said signals including signals for vertical and horizontal line segments of said characters, and a diagonal line generator responsive to said counter and said character generator for generating signals for diagonal line portions of characters to be displayed on said display monitor, the invention is said diagonal line generator comprising, a plurality of time-delay means combinations of which are energized by said counter to produce predetermined time-delayed signals for each scan line of said raster, pulse-generator means energized by each of said time-delayed signals to generate a time-delayed pulse, and means responsive to said counter and said character generator for selecting particular time-delayed pulse outputs from said pulse-generator means for the display of diagonal line segments of characters displayed on said display monitor.

Claim 5

The invention in accordance with claim 2 wherein the invention in said diagonal line generator further comprises means in said pulse-generator means responsive to an output from said decoder means for resetting said time-delay means when each scan line ends scanning a character block, said resetting means enabling said time-delay means to time the generation of another time-delayed pulse for a subsequently scanned character block.

Claim 6

The invention defined in claim 3 wherein said time-delay means have time delays causing said pulse-generator means pulse outputs to occur to display areas on said display device at other than said elemental spaces.

Claim 7

The invention defined in claim 4 wherein said plurality of time-delay means includes a first plurality of time-delay means for generating positive slope diagonal line signals for the character blocks and a second plurality of time-delay means for generating negative slope diagonal line signals for the character blocks.

Claim 8

The invention defined in claim 5 wherein said first and second plurality of time-delay means are energized by said counter to produce uniform increments of time delay in the turn-on time of said pulse-generator means.

Claim 9

In a data display system for displaying characters on a scan-line raster display device, the combination comprising logic means for defining on said display device character blocks of a predetermined number of elemental areas, said areas being arranged in rows and columns in said character blocks, a character generator responsive to signals indicating characters to be displayed on said display device and to said logic means for causing individual ones of said elemental areas to be displayed to generate horizontal and vertical lines in said character blocks, means responsive to first signals from said logic means at the beginning of each scan of each of said character blocks for producing second signals selectively time-shifted from each of said first signals, and means responsive to said character indicating signals for selecting particular ones of said second signals for displaying other than horizontal and vertical lines in said character blocks.

Claim 10

In a data display system for displaying characters on a scan-line raster display device, the combination comprising logic means for defining on said display device character blocks of a predetermined number of elemental areas, said areas being arranged in rows and columns in said character blocks, a character generator responsive to signals indicating characters to be displayed on said display device and to said logic means for causing individual ones of said elemental areas to be displayed to generate horizontal and vertical lines in said character blocks, means responsive to first signals from said logic means at the beginning of each scan of each of said character blocks for producing second signals selectively time-shifted from each of said first signals, and means responsive to said character indicating signals for selecting particular ones of said second signals for displaying other than horizontal and vertical lines in said character blocks.

Claim 11

In a data display system for displaying characters on a scan-line raster display device, the combination comprising logic means for defining on said display device character blocks of a predetermined number of elemental areAs, said areas being arranged in rows and columns in said character blocks, a character generator responsive to signals indicating characters to be displayed on said display device and to said logic means for causing individual ones of said elemental areas to be displayed to generate horizontal and vertical lines in said character blocks, and a line generator responsive to said character indicating signals and to said logic means for causing displays in said character blocks in said rows in other than said elemental areas to generate other than horizontal and vertical lines in said character blocks, said line generator comprising means for producing a pulse equal in time duration to the time a scan line scans an elemental area, and time delay means energized by said logic means for delaying the initiation of said pulse.

Claim 12

In a data display system for displaying characters on a scan-line raster display device, the combination comprising logic means for defining on said display device character blocks of a predetermined number of elemental areAs, said areas being arranged in rows and columns in said character blocks, a character generator responsive to signals indicating characters to be displayed on said display device and to said logic means for causing individual ones of said elemental areas to be displayed to generate horizontal and vertical lines in said character blocks, and a line generator responsive to said character indicating signals and to said logic means for causing displays in said character blocks in said rows in other than said elemental areas to generate other than horizontal and vertical lines in said character blocks, said line generator comprising means for producing a pulse equal in time duration to the time a scan line scans an elemental area, and time delay means energized by said logic means for delaying the initiation of said pulse.

Claim 13

In a data display system, the combination in accordance with claim 8 wherein said time-delay means comprises a plurality of time-delay networks each providing a different time delay.

Claim 14

In a data display system, the combination in accordance with claim 9 wherein said time delay networks comprise resistor-capacitor networks and said pulse-producing means comprises a monopulser circuit.

Claim 15

In a data display system, the combination in accordance with claim 10 wherein said time-delay means comprises a first plurality of said time-delay networks arranged to provide increasing orders of time-delay for the display of lines having positive slopes, and a second plurality of said time-delay networks arranged to provide decreasing orders of time delay for the display of lines having negative slopes.

Claim 16

In a display system for displaying characters on a display monitor exhibiting a television scan-line raster, each character being displayed in one character block on said display monitor and said character blocks being divided into elemental spaces selectively illuminated to display characters therein, the combination comprising counter means, oscillator means driving said counter means in synchronization with scan lines of said scan-line raster, decoding means responsive to outputs from said counter means for dividing said scan-line raster into groups of scan lines defining rows of character blocks, dividing said groups of scan lines into character blocks, and dividing each of said scan lines into elemental spaces, means for generating signals for vertical and horizontal line segments of characters displayed on said display monitor, said vertical and horizontal line generating means being responsive to outputs from said decoding means and an input signal to said display system indicating the character to be displayed, means for generating signals for positive and negative slope diagonal line segments of characters displayed on said display monitor, said diagonal line generating means comprising, pulse-generator means having a single pulse output for each said character space scanned by each said scan line, a plurality of time-delay means determining the turn-on time of said pulse-generator means, said time-delay means being selectively enabled by said counter means in a sequence for each said scan line to produce uniform positive and negative increments of time delay in the turn-on times of said pulse-generator means, and the pulse output from said diagonal line generating means occurring at shorter time intervals than said elemental spaces to effectively create a larger number of said elemental space divisions in said character blocks, gating means connected to said pulse-generator means and responsive to said counter and said input character indicating signal to gate only those diagonal line signals necessary to display characters on said display device, and video encoder means for combining outputs of said decoding means, said vertical and horizontal line segment generating means, and said gating means to produce a video signal to display characters on said display monitor.

Claim 17

In a display system for displaying characters on a display monitor exhibiting a television scan-line raster, each character being displayed in one character block on said display monitor and said character blocks being divided into elemental spaces selectively illuminated to display characters therein, the combination comprising counter means, oscillator means driving said counter means in synchronization with scan lines of said scan-line raster, decoding means responsive to outputs from said counter means for dividing said scan-line raster into groups of scan lines defining rows of character blocks, dividing said groups of scan lines into character blocks, and dividing each of said scan lines into elemental spaces, means for generating signals for vertical and horizontal line segments of characters displayed on said display monitor, said vertical and horizontal line generating means being responsive to outputs from said decoding means and an input signal to said display system indicating the character to be displayed, means for generating signals for positive and negative slope diagonal line segments of characters displayed on said display monitor, said diagonal line generating means comprising, pulse-generator means having a single pulse output for each said character space scanned by each said scan line, a plurality of time-delay means determining the turn-on time of said pulse-generator means, said time-delay means being selectively enabled by said counter means in a sequence for each said scan line to produce uniform positive and negative increments of time delay in the turn-on times of said pulse-generator means, and the pulse output from said diagonal line generating means occurring at shorter time intervals than said elemental spaces to effectively create a larger number of said elemental space divisions in said character blocks, gating means connected to said pulse-generator means and responsive to said counter and said input character indicating signal to gate only those diagonal line signals necessary to display characters on said display device, and video encoder means for combining outputs of said decoding means, said vertical and horizontal line segment generating means, and said gating means to produce a video signal to display characters on said display monitor.

Claim 18

The invention in accordaNce with claim 11 further including reset means energized by said logic means when each of said scan lines begins to scan each of said character blocks for enabling said time-delay networks to delay another pulse from said monopulser.

Claim 19

The invention in accordance with claim 13 wherein said display device is a television monitor having an interlaced scan-line raster and wherein said first and second pluralities of time-delay networks each include a time-delay network energized by said logic means only for odd scan fields of said scan-line raster to provide for smooth negative and positive slope diagonal lines.