Hitachi, Ltd.

Fumiyuki Inose

Akio Komatsu

Hirohido Endo

Norio Yokozawa

Takeshi Maeda

Kazuo Shigematsu

Hideo Fujiwara

Kimio Tatsuno

Seiji Yonezawa

Sadayasu Ueno

Yoshiaki Kamigaki

Hideo Sunami

Kenji Maio

Yasutaro Uesaka

Yokichi Itoh

Yuzo Kita

Kazuo Ichino

Toshimitsu Miyauchi

Keizo Kato

Kenji Fujikata

Michiyasu Itoh

Satoshi Taniguchi

Ryoichi Fujimoto

Yukio Ichinose

Kazuo Takasugi

Tsutomu Kobayashi

Don Winston Geri

Hirohide Endo

An optical information recording and reproducing apparatus is disclosed in which a predetermined signal is recorded on a track of a rotating recording medium by a recording light beam and the recorded information is reproduced by a reproducing light beam. The information recorded on the last record track is reproduced by the recording beam and the reproducing beam and radiating position of the recording beam on the recording medium is displaced by a predetermined distance from the last record track.

Optical information recording apparatus

A keyboard structure permitting the interconnection of several hundred flexible key structures in a compact area. The structure includes a matrix of key cells disposed on an insulating surface, the row elements being commonly connected by conductive paths on the surface while the column elements are electrically separate. A contact point for each row and each column element extends to the opposite side of the insulating surface. These contact points are so disposed that parallel conductive paths which run only in the vertical direction may be used to provide row-select and column-select indications.

Compact keyboard structure

A television-connected microprocessor system designed for use primarily as a television game or education system. The system is designed to accept source programming from cartridges that are interchangeable. The cartridges utilize either a ROM or a RAM to store the source programming. The source program is stored in the cartridge ROM or RAM in a higher level language, such as BASIC and interpreted for use by the microprocessor. Each ROM cartridge comes with a keyboard entry device as an integral part thereof which is uniquely adapted to the programming in the cartridge and the games or training sequence dictated thereby. By using a RAM cartridge, the user may enter his own source program by way of a general purpose keyboard or a tape recorder. Keyboard overlays are utilized to adapt the general purpose keyboard to the particular game or training sequence dictated by the source program entered into the cartridge RAM by the user.

Programmable television game and training system with adaptable operator

A color pattern and alphanumeric character generator for use with raster-scanned CRT display devices wherein the color background patterns and the characters are generated in an integrated manner. As a result, the apparatus utilized is considerably simplified and the color pattern display obtainable is more complex and more easily varied than hitherto was possible in an apparatus of this type. The viewing area of the raster-scan CRT is divided into a matrix of character cells. Each character cell is in turn divided into a plurality of color cells, each color cell being a matrix of dot positions on the display area of the CRT. The relationship of the number of color cells in each character cell and the number of dot positions in each color cell is an even integer. A display RAM, addressed by a microprocessor, stores display information therein. The RAM is addressed by the display circuitry during the display cycle. Each address location in the RAM has a plurality of bytes associated therewith which define a particular character cell on the CRT, both as to the color pattern therein and the character therein, if any. This information is used by the color and video network of the raster-scan display to generate the composite character and color pattern signal for each scan line.

Color pattern and alphanumeric character generator for use with

A control apparatus having an electronic timer including a plurality of flip-flop circuits connected in multiple stages in cascade. Outputs are taken from different stages of the electronic timer and the separate outputs are utilized to produce individual control timing signals which serve for controlling at least one device in accordance with the timing specific to the individual control timing signals.

Control apparatus including an electronic timer

Binary patterns that define alphanumeric characters for display are stored in a character pattern memory in a size that is smaller than the pattern that will be needed for display purposes. Each such stored character pattern is expanded to the size of a display character pattern, at a time when that character is to be displayed, on a point by point basis of the stored pattern. The expansion of each point in a stored character pattern is accomplished by a relationship that takes into consideration the points surrounding the point to be expanded. When a character requires a binary pattern that is not readily susceptible of this type of expansion, the full display size pattern must be stored in memory. This display size pattern is broken up into a plurality of smaller stored patterns and stored in memory as a plurality of adjacent smaller patterns. In effect, then, two different character pattern sizes are stored in memory. The display size patterns in memory are identified by indicia such as a flag in the first line of the stored pattern, or by a flag in the memory address codes. When such flag is detected, the display size pattern is read from memory, and displayed without being expanded. When such flag bit is not detected, the pattern is read from memory and expanded, prior to display. Use of the word 'display' in this document refers to not only the visual display but also the printer device.

Character generator for visual display devices

A data processing system comprises first and second arithmetic units for processing emergent tasks and non-emergent tasks, respectively, a memory for storing the data from the arithmetic units, and a control unit. The control unit selects either an interrupt task or a task being processed in response to the priority levels of the tasks. The first or second arithmetic unit is operated in response to whether a selected task is an emergent task or a non-emergent task.

Data processing system with interrupt functions

A word processing system capable of encoding or printing a large number of characters is provided. The present invention is particularly valuable in the encoding and printing of a large number of characters in a foreign language such as Japanese Kanji, and the like. The word processing system will respond to either local switch control or computer generated printing commands. A font storage tray can be operatively connected with optical readers or the like to encode X-Y character positions for storage. The word processing system is easily convertible from a manual typewriter operation to an automatic printer operation. In the manual or encoding mode of operation a removable stylus is utilized in a panographic manner for selecting and positioning the font characters for respectively, loading and printing as a typewriter, or coordinating the combination of optical read codes to store or generate X and Y positions. When converting the word processing system to an automatic printer responsive to computer printing commands a pair of X and Y positional lead screw connectors, connect the storage font tray to appropriate motor drives. The removable stylus character indicator can also be removed from the font storage tray if desirable. Finally, an operatonal mode switch is utilized to disconnect all local operator controls and to initiate a zero position search sequence to provide an absolute reference to enable the word processing system to respond correctly to automatic control.

Japanese character word processing system

In a character displaying device having a character pattern memory which is made up of a circulating sequential access memory storing character patterns therein, a character pattern generating system comprises a high speed buffer memory which stores the character codes of one line or any other suitable amount of characters to be displayed and the corresponding character patterns, so that each time one character is delivered as an output from the character pattern memory, the presence of the character code of the particular character is examined for all the character codes of the buffer memory, and the character pattern of the particular character is written into the buffer memory when the character codes are coincident, the writing operations being sequentially executed in the order of the character outputs of the character pattern memory, thereby making it possible to finish all the character patterns in the buffer memory within a period in which the read-out of the character pattern memory circulates.

System for generating a character pattern

A shift array for shifting carriers introduced into a semiconductor body toward the X-direction and Y-direction comprises an insulating layer disposed on the semiconductor body, first electrodes disposed on the insulating layer and arranged in a matrix on the X-Y plane, second electrodes disposed between adjacent first electrodes, conductors disposed adjacent to the first electrodes to be connected to the electrodes of each row when carriers are transferred toward the Y-direction, conductors disposed adjacent to the first electrodes to be connected to the electrodes of each column when carriers are transferred toward the X-direction. When carriers are transferred toward the X-direction, the second electrodes disposed between the adjacent first electrodes of each column are biased with a DC voltage whose electrical polarity is reversed relative to the DC voltage applied to the first electrodes for preventing the transit of carriers toward the Y-direction. When carriers are transferred toward the Y-direction, the second electrodes disposed between the adjacent first electrodes of each row are biased with a DC voltage whose polarity is reversed relative to the DC voltage applied to the first electrodes for preventing the transit of carriers toward the X-direction.

Shift array for pattern information processing device utilizing charge

A variable inductor wherein two closed magnetic circuits each having a predetermined gap in one place are constructed of a movable magnetic core and a fixed magnetic core. When the movable magnetic core is moved, the opposite area between both the magnetic cores in one of the closed magnetic circuits increases, while the opposite area between both the magnetic cores in the other closed magnetic circuit decreases. Thus, the inductances of coils wound around parts of the respective closed magnetic circuits vary complementarily.

Variable inductor

An automatic printer assembly capable of printing a large number of characters from a plurality of replaceable printing members and valuable in printing characters in a foreign language, such as Japanese Kanji, and the like. The printing member support carriage can align with a storage device, such as a carousel holder, to exchange printing members. A character memory storage receives an appropriately coded signal indicating a predetermined amount and location of characters that are to be printed on a predetermined area of a medium. A controller addresses the memory storage to select the appropriate character printing member. The input character information can be appropriately coded to minimize the scan time of the printing members by a sequential selecting of the printing members based on the respective character use of each printing member. The controller controls the position of the paper, the carriage, and the striking of a hammer so that the characters on the printing member are coordinately printed as a first group across the predetermined area of the medium. The controller can then sequentially activate the exchange device to replace the first character member with a second character printing member for rescanning the same predetermined area of the medium to interpolate the printing of a second group of characters. Subsequent printing members can be utilized in a similar fashion until all the stored characters are printed out.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Fumiyuki Inose