Display element and display panel employing such display elements

Claim 2

A display element for a display panel, which is formed with a block member having left and right support arms extending therefrom in a horizontal direction, an outer peripheral surface forming a plurality of display surfaces of different colors to provide a plurality of corners around a line joining the left and right support arms and a magnetic piece disposed in each of the corners except one of them, wherein the left and right support arms each have a plurality of support surfaces substantially perpendicular to the display surfaces respectively, and wherein a selected one of the display surfaces is caused to lie in a vertical plane in the state of a selected one of the support surfaces of the left and right support arms being supported horizontally.

Claim 3

A display element according to claim 1, wherein the block member is plate-shaped, and hence has two corners and two display surfaces and has a magnetic piece.

Claim 4

A display element according to claim 1, wherein the block member is four-cornered, and hence has four corners and four display surfaces and has three magnetic pieces.

Claim 5

A display panel comprising: a display surface structure; a display switching unit; and a drive unit: in which, letting N vertical lines of arrangement spaced a predetermined distance from adjacent ones of them in a horizontal direction be represented by a 1 , a 2 , . . . a N , respectively, the display surface structure has M display elements D i1 , D i2 , . . . D iM disposed on the vertical line a i (i=1, 2, . . . N) at predetermined intervals in a vertical direction; in which the display element D ij (j=1, 2, . . . M) is formed with a block member having left and right support arms extending therefrom in a horizontal direction, an outer peripheral surface forming a plurality of display surface of different colors to provide a plurality of corners around a line joining the left and right support arms and a magnetic piece disposed in each of the corners except one of them, the left and right support arms each having a plurality of support surfaces substantially perpendicular to the display surfaces respectively, and a selected one of the display surfaces being caused to lie in a vertical plane in the state of a selected one of the support surfaces of the left and right support arms being supported horizontally; in which the display switching unit has a display control head E i disposed to be movable along the vertical line a 1 in the vertical direction, the display control head E 1 having electromagnets less than the corners of the block member by one; and in which the drive unit has means for simultaneously moving up and down the display control heads E i to E n and means for driving the electromagnets of the display control head E i in synchronism with the movement of the display control head E i .

Claim 6

A display panel comprising: a display surface structure; a display switching unit; and a drive unit: in which, letting N vertical lines of arrangement spaced a predetermined distance from adjacent ones of them in a horizontal direction be represented by a 1 , a 2 , . . . a N , respectively, the display surface structure has M display elements D i1 , D i2 , . . . D iM disposed on the vertical line a i (i=1, 2, . . . N) at predetermined intervals in a vertical direction; in which the display element D ij (j=1, 2, . . . M) is formed with a block member having left and right support arms extending therefrom in a horizontal direction, an outer peripheral surface forming a plurality of display surface of different colors to provide a plurality of corners around a line joining the left and right support arms and a magnetic piece disposed in each of the corners except one of them, the left and right support arms each having a plurality of support surfaces substantially perpendicular to the display surfaces respectively, and a selected one of the display surfaces being caused to lie in a vertical plane in the state of a selected one of the support surfaces of the left and right support arms being supported horizontally; in which the display switching unit has a display control head E i disposed to be movable along the vertical line a 1 in the vertical direction, the display control head E 1 having electromagnets less than the corners of the block member by one; and in which the drive unit has means for simultaneously moving up and down the display control heads E i to E n and means for driving the electromagnets of the display control head E i in synchronism with the movement of the display control head E i .

Claim 7

A display panel according to claim 4, wherein the block member forming the display element D ij is plate-shaped, and hence has two corners and two display surfaces and has one magnetic piece, and wherein the display control head E i has one electromagnet.

Claim 8

A display panel according to claim 4, wherein the block member forming the display element D ij is a four-cornered block member, and hence has four-corners and four display surfaces and has three magnetic pieces embedded in the three ones of the four corners respectively, and wherein the display control head E i has one electromagnet.

Claim 9

A display panel according to claim 4, wherein the block member forming the display element D ij is a four-cornered block member, and hence has four-corners and four display surfaces and has three magnetic pieces embedded in the three ones of the four corners respectively, and wherein the display control head E i has three electromagnets.

Claim 10

A display panel according to claim 4, wherein the display control head E i comprises a magnetic core and a pair of magnetic plates attached to the opposite ends of the magnetic core respectively, the pair of magnetic plates being spaced apart from each other a distance slightly greater than the length of the block member.