characters (the double quote is missing) on a 14-segment display Multiple-segment display devices use fewer elements than a full dot-matrix display, and may produce a better character appearance where the segments are shaped appropriately. This can reduce power consumption and the number of driver components. Fourteen-segment
gas-plasma displays were used in
pinball machines from 1986 through 1991 with an additional
comma and
period part making for a total of 16 segments. Fourteen and sixteen-segment displays were used to produce
alphanumeric characters on
calculators and other
embedded systems. Applications today include displays fitted to telephone
Caller ID units, gymnasium equipment,
VCRs,
car stereos,
microwave ovens,
slot machines, and DVD players. Such displays were very common on pinball machines for displaying the score and other information, before the widespread use of dot-matrix display panels.
Incandescent lamp Multiple segment alphanumeric displays are nearly as old as the use of electricity. A 1908 textbook describes an alphanumeric display system using incandescent lamps and a mechanical switching arrangement. Each of 21 lamps was connected to a switch operated by a set of slotted bars, installed in a rotating drum. This
commutator assembly could be arranged so that as the drum was rotated, different sets of switches were closed and different letters and figures could be displayed. The scheme would have been used for "talking" signs to spell out messages, but a complete set of commutator switches, drums and lamps would have been required for each letter of a message, making the resulting sign quite expensive.
Cold-cathode neon A few different versions of the fourteen segment display exist as cold-cathode neon lamps. For example, one type made by Burroughs Corporation was called "Panaplex". Instead of using a filament as the incandescent versions do, these use a cathode charged to a 180 V potential which causes the electrified segment to glow a bright orange color.
Examples File:14segment LED Display.jpg|A four-character 14-segment clock display. Note unbroken top and bottom segments in comparison with a sixteen-segment display. File:LCD Display of HP41CX (cropped).jpg| Fourteen-segment characters on Hewlett-Packard's
HP-41 range of programmable engineering calculators from the late 1970s File:14 segment LCD on HP 3478A 20130221.jpg|14-segment characters on the Hewlett-Packard HP3478A multimeter File:Car stereo display.jpg|Fourteen-segment characters on an after-market car stereo LCD File:Sony MHC-EC55.jpg|alt=A Sony Mini Hi-Fi Component System which utilizes a fourteen-segment display.|An inverted, backlit fourteen-segment LCD used in a Sony MHC-EC55 mini Hi-Fi component system == See also ==