JPS641797B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a display switching device for a small electronic device that switches and displays a plurality of pieces of functional information on the same display section.

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, electronic devices, such as electronic watches, have been commercialized with a number of functions such as alarms and stopwatches in addition to their original function of counting and counting. This type of electronic watch is usually configured so that it can share the time display section and selectively display information on each function by operating a switch.For this reason, a function display body is provided for each function, and this function display The selected button lights up to clearly indicate which function information is currently being displayed. However, for small watches, such as wristwatches, where the display area is particularly limited, if a large number of function display elements are provided, the display will inevitably become small and extremely difficult to see. At the same time, there was a risk of misinterpretation at times. Also, if the switch is operated unconsciously and the display on the time display changes,
I did not notice this and sometimes misunderstood it.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and is a display switching method for small electronic equipment that enables easy confirmation of the functions displayed on the display in electronic equipment that switches and displays multiple pieces of functional information on the same display. The purpose is to provide equipment.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail based on an embodiment shown in the drawings. Figure 1 is a circuit configuration diagram of an electronic watch. In the figure, reference numeral 1 is an oscillator that generates a reference frequency signal, and the reference frequency signal is divided by a frequency divider 2 into a signal with a period of 1 second. The signal is applied to a clock circuit 3, a stopwatch circuit 4, a timer circuit 5, a separate clock circuit 6, and an alarm circuit 7, respectively. The counting circuit 3, stopwatch circuit 4, timer circuit 5, separate clock circuit 6, and alarm circuit 7 output functional information according to their respective functions,
These functional information are supplied to the switching control circuit 8. This switching control circuit 8 selectively outputs any one of the function information supplied from each of the circuits 3 to 7, depending on the output content from a function selection circuit 9, which will be described later. The function selection circuit 9 is constituted by, for example, a 5-ary counter, and is incremented in accordance with a one-shot pulse applied via the one-shot circuit 10 when the function selection switch S is operated. The contents of this function selection circuit 9 are supplied to the switching control circuit 8 as a function selection signal. The functional information output from the switching control circuit 8 is supplied to a decoder 11, and the content decoded here is supplied to a liquid crystal display device 12. A time display section 13 and a function display section 14 are arranged in parallel on the liquid crystal display device 12, and the time display section 13 digitally displays information sent from the decoder 11. In addition, the function display section 14
is equipped with function display electrodes 14a to 14d that indicate "STO (stop watch),""TIM(timer),""DUL (separate clock)," and "AL (alarm)." And each of these display electrodes 14a to 14d
The contents of the function selection circuit 9 are supplied to the function display section 14 via the decoder 15, and the function display electrodes 14a to 14d are selectively driven to display, clearly indicating which function is being displayed.

When the preset alarm time and the time of the counting circuit 3 match, the alarm circuit 7 supplies a one-shot pulse detection signal to the address generation circuit 16.
6 outputs predetermined address information and provides it to the address section 20 via OR circuits 18 and 19.

On the other hand, the one shot pulse outputted from the one shot circuit 10 in response to the operation of the function selection switch S is given to the address conversion circuit 17, and the output content of the function selection circuit 9 is also given to the address conversion circuit 17. . Address conversion circuit 1
7 outputs address information corresponding to the output contents of the function selection circuit 9 in synchronization with the one shot pulse from the one shot circuit 10, and supplies this to the address section 20 via the OR circuits 18 and 19 in sequence. The address section 20 specifies a predetermined address in the tone code storage section 21 based on address information supplied via the OR circuit 19.

The musical tone code storage section 21 is, for example, a ROM.
(read-only memory), in which various codes that compose a predetermined musical piece are stored, and upon receiving address designation from the address section 20, note length code A, scale code B, volume code C, and signal D specifying its own next address are output in parallel. Above note length code A
is supplied to the tone length control circuit 22. The tone length control circuit 22 supplies its output signal to one input terminal of the AND circuit 23 as a gate control signal when a predetermined time corresponding to the tone length code has elapsed.
The scale code B is once stored in the buffer 24 and then supplied to the decoder 25. Further, the volume code C is supplied to the decoder 26. Furthermore, the next address designation signal D is once stored in the buffer 27 and then supplied to the other input terminal of the AND circuit 23, and then supplied from the AND circuit 23 to the address section 20 via the OR circuit 19. .

On the other hand, the reference frequency signal from the oscillator 1 is
It is also provided to the scale frequency signal generation circuit 28. This scale frequency signal generation circuit 28 divides the reference frequency signal to generate a group of clock signals having frequencies corresponding to scales such as "Do", "Re", "E", etc.
This clock signal group is input to the scale frequency signal selection circuit 2.
Supply to 9. This scale frequency signal selection circuit 29
In accordance with the content decoded by the decoder 25, the clock signal corresponding to the musical scale is selectively output from the clock signal group, and is supplied to the volume control circuit 30. This volume control circuit 30 is connected to the decoder 2
The volume of the clock signal output from the scale frequency signal selection circuit 29 is controlled according to the content decoded by the scale frequency signal selection circuit 29. This volume control circuit 30
Based on the signal output from the sound generating device 31, for example, a speaker outputs sound.

Next, the operation of the electronic timepiece configured as described above will be explained with reference to the display example shown in FIG. FIG. 2 shows a state in which the functions displayed on the liquid crystal display device 12 are switched according to the contents of the function selection circuit 9. As shown in FIG. First, when the content of the function selection circuit 9 consisting of a quinary counter is "0", time information output from the counting circuit 3 is supplied to the time display section 13 via the switching circuit 8 and the decoder 11. , the normal time, for example 10:30, is displayed as shown in FIG. 2A. At this time, nothing is displayed on the function display section 14.

Next, when the function selection switch S is operated to set the content of the function selection circuit 9 to "1", the switching control circuit 8 switches to the stopwatch mode display. Therefore, the time display section 13 displays information from the stopwatch circuit 4, as shown in FIG. 2B. Further, in the function display section 14, the function display body 14a is driven based on the contents of the function selection circuit 9, and displays the symbol "STO" as shown in FIG. 2B. On the other hand, since the address conversion circuit 17 outputs predetermined address information based on the content (“1”) of the function selection circuit 9 in synchronization with the one shot pulse of the one shot circuit 10, the address section 20 Specify the address of the musical tone code storage section 21. Therefore, the musical tone code storage section 21 is
It outputs a tone length code A, a scale code B, and a volume code C related to a predetermined musical tone, for example, "C", and also outputs a next address designation signal D. After this scale code B is once read into buffer 24,
The volume code C is supplied to a decoder 25, and the volume code C is supplied to a decoder 26. As a result, the scale frequency signal selection circuit 29 changes to the scale frequency signal generation circuit 28.
Among the clock signals from
Supply to 0. Then, the volume control circuit 30 performs volume control according to the contents of the decoder 26 and supplies this to the sound generation device 31. Therefore, the sound generating device 31 produces a sound at a predetermined volume in the "do" scale. This “C” tone is produced by the tone length control circuit 22.
Audio is output until a predetermined time elapses, for example, 0.5 seconds. Then, when an output is obtained from the tone length control circuit 22 after 0.5 seconds, the AND circuit 23
becomes open, and the next address designation signal D is supplied to the address section 20. Therefore, the tone code storage section 21 receives the address designation from the address section 20 and converts it to the next address. Therefore, the musical tone code storage section 21 outputs the tone length code A, scale code B, and volume code C related to the next musical tone, for example, "re". Note that, at this time, the next address designation signal D is not output from the tone code storage section 21. By outputting each of the chords A, B, and C, the musical tone "re" is now produced by the producing device 31. Therefore, when the stopwatch function is switched, musical tones such as "do" and "re" are produced.

Next, when the function selection switch S is further operated to advance the content of the function selection circuit 9 and the content is set to "2", the timer mode is entered, and the time display section 13 is set to "2" as shown in FIG. 2C. Information from the timer circuit 5 is displayed, and since the function display unit 14b is driven in the function display section 14, the symbol "TIM" is displayed. At the same time, the sounding device 31 produces predetermined musical tones such as "mi" and "hua". Similarly, the function selection circuit 9
When the content of is set to "3", the separate clock mode is entered, and as shown in FIG. 2D, information from the separate clock circuit 6 is displayed on the time display section 13, and the symbol ""DUL" is displayed.
Then, predetermined musical tones such as "G" and "A" are pronounced. Further, when the content of the function selection circuit 9 is set to "4", the alarm mode is set, and as shown in FIG. 14, the symbol "AL" is displayed. Then, predetermined musical tones, such as "shi" and "do", are pronounced. When the function selection switch S is further operated, the normal time is displayed again. At this time, the pronunciation device 31 outputs, for example, "do", "shi", "ra", "so", "hua", "mi",
"Re" and "do" are pronounced sequentially.

In this way, the display switching can be announced with a musical tone, and each time the displayed function changes, two musical tones of different scales are sounded regularly from a lower scale to a higher scale, and when returning to the normal time mode, ,
Since all the musical tones up to that point are played with the pitch reversed, you can identify the displayed function by just looking at the sound without looking at the function display.

Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to electronic watches, but is also applicable to electronic devices that switch and display a plurality of functional information on a display, such as a small electronic calculator equipped with a clock function that switches and displays time and calculation results on a display. It is widely applicable to

Furthermore, the display part has two liquid crystal layers stacked on top of each other,
Electronic equipment that is configured with a liquid crystal display device that can switch and display multiple pieces of information on each liquid crystal layer, and has a display method that changes the liquid crystal layer to be displayed depending on the information, or a display unit that is configured with two layers, upper and lower. Of course, the present invention can also be applied to electronic equipment having a display method in which a display section is different for each piece of information to be displayed.

As explained in detail above, this invention switches the frequency signal that drives the sound generation means at the same time as switching the display, so that different sounds are generated for each function. You can easily check whether the display corresponds to the function, and you can switch while listening to the sound, which improves operability, and even if you accidentally switch the display can be discovered immediately. This is particularly effective for electronic watches, which have a limited display area and can only display functional status within a limited range and in a small size.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of an electronic timepiece, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing display states according to switching of displayed functions. 3...Counter counting circuit, 4...Stopwatch circuit, 5...Timer circuit, 6...Separate clock circuit, 7
...Alarm circuit, 8...Switching control circuit, 9...
Function selection circuit, 12...Liquid crystal display device, 13...
Time display section, 14...Function status display section, 21...
musical tone code storage section, 28... scale frequency signal generation circuit, 29... scale frequency signal selection circuit, 30...
...Volume control circuit, 31... Sound generating device, S... Function selection switch.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A time counting means for counting the current time based on a frequency signal from an oscillator, a functional information storage means for storing a plurality of functional information other than the current time, and a single display changeover switch operated from the outside. a switch operation storage means for counting and storing the number of operations of the display changeover switch; a display means for displaying the current time from the time counting means; switching control means for sequentially switching and displaying the functional information stored in the storage means; scale data storage means for storing at least different scale data in respective address storage areas; scale data output control means for specifying an address of the scale data storage means based on the contents stored in the switch operation storage means and outputting the different scale data; and a scale data output control means for outputting the different scale data. A small electronic device comprising a frequency signal output means for outputting a frequency signal corresponding to scale data, and a sound generation means driven by the frequency signal output means to generate an audible sound corresponding to the scale data. Display switching device.