WRITING BOARD

Abstract: A writing device has a slab-like body (4A) having on one face a display screen (5A) and a keyboard (9A). Text can be displayed on the screen (5A) by means of electronic circuitry within the body (4A) under the control of the keyboard (9A). A number of texts can be prepared and stored. A reproduction of the text on the screen can be produced by covering the body (4A) with a mask (15) within a pivoted frame (11) so that the screen (5A) is visible through a window in the mask and the keyboard (9A) is covered by an area (16) carrying personalised information. The information and text on the screen can then be reproduced on a paper sheet by placing the body face to face with the window of a photocopying machine.

Description: WRITING BOARD The invention stems from the invento f s appreci¬ ation cf the desire of people in general, and business and professional people in particular to present their communication of words and numbers in a professional manner. Business people for example experience diffi¬ culty in producing clean and acceptable memoranda or letters while they are away from their office or whilst no secretary is available. These difficulties are parti¬ cularly felt by people with poor handwriting or by people wishing to write while travelling in a vehicle, the movement of which prevents a clear manuscript. At present it requires a typewriter and a competent typist to produce a presentable visible textual communi¬ cation. With no direct access to an office, for example when travelling, messages are usually taped or hand written and then sent or taken to an office for process¬ ing. Even the person willing to carry a portable type¬ writer would have to be skilled in the art of typing to present his message in a form that is presentable and without too many unsightly corrections, quite apart from the tediousness due to the considerable weight and size of even the smallest portable typewriter. It will therefore be appreciated that with the present day equipment one needs the back-up of a typist to produce presentable visible communications and whilst travelling this would usually be expensive and inconvenient. U.S. Patent Specification No. 4,110,794 dis¬ closes a complex word processing system which includes a fixed console having a substantially horizontal key¬ board and a substantially vertical display screen on which text entered into the system through the keyboar is displayed. The console is connected via an electronic interface and conventional lines of communi- cation to one or more remote display screens on which screenfuls of text can be displayed. A remote display screen is disclosed for use with a photocopying machin so that a permanent reproduction of a screenful of tex on a paper sheet may be produced. However, this syste is totally inappropriate for dealing with the require¬ ments referred to above. There is therefore still a need to have a light relatively compact portable apparatus for producing a document with a clear text of a similar kind to that produced by a mechanical typewriter, and having means for cleanly and easily changing or correcting the text so that it can be used by an untrained operator. In accordance with the present invention, a portable battery-energized writing device comprises a slab-like body which presents on one face both a display screen which is capable of displaying a plurality of lines of text and, alongside the display screen, a keyboard; electronic circuitry which is housed within the body and is programmed to cause on the display screen the display of lines of text fed in through the keyboard, and which has the facility to store a plurality of screenfuls of text and the abilit OM /,. WIP to cause the redisplay of such texts one by one on the screen; and reject means which are arranged to clear selected parts of a text displayed on the screen for replacement by different text fed in through the key- -board; the-device being* so constructed that the body is readily capable of being positioned with the display screen face to face with the window of a photocopying machine whereby a document reproducing a screenful of text, but not the keyboard, may be produced. Such a device is completely self-contained and, having a slab-like body, can be made in an extremely robust form with the keyboard rigid and substantially coplanar, with the screen. The slab will usually be substantially rectangular and the keyboard may then be provided at one end of the slab. The device may then be of a size such that it can be carried, if necessary within an outer sheath, with conventional files in a briefcase. The keyboard will normally involve a conventional alphabetical/numerical type of keyboard enabling the display on the screen of conventional written matter. Thus if the display screen has an area comparable to that of a conventional sheet of letter paper and capable of displaying say between 400 and 1600 characters, it will have varied use and great versatility. It can be used under circumstances where it is inconvenient or impracticable to write in manu¬ script and the clarity of the text will be uniform under all circumstances. Errors can be corrected quickly and perfectly and without any rubbing or blanking out of waste paper. Once the user is satisfied with the message which has been fed in and is displayed on the screen, it can be relegated to the OMPI /,. WIPO - memory store for subsequent copying, perhaps after being shown to and the text agreed with other persons The user may then readily make on a conventional phot copying machine at a convenient time a permanent copy of the message on the screen. Such photocopying machines are to be found in many places, such as hote offices, and high streets. In this way, in the absen of secretarial facilities, letters can be produced, duplicate copies of notes produced and one copy hande to another party or sent to a home office. Similarly two copies of an agreement, or heads of agreement, ca be prepared quickly and signed immediately. It is desirable that there is no danger, of the keyboard being reproduced on the photocopy. This is possible if the screen, and any surrounding border area which are ' intended to be photocopied with the screen, are smaller in size than that of conventional paper used in photocopying machines, or smaller than the size of paper which might be used in an available photocopying machine. For this reason a cover is preferably provided for visually masking at least the keyboard during photocopying. Such cover may be hing to the body and pivotable between a position in which the keyboard is exposed and a position in which the keyboard is covered. Alternatively it may be clipped on to the body or located in a surrounding frame, or otherwise located relatively to the body for the phot copying operation. In one construction the keyboard is recessed relatively to the screen and the cover when fitted ov the keyboard is substantially flush with the surface the screen. In another construction the cover is a mask for the display screen and keyboard, the mask OM /,, WIP being provided with a window of a size enabling copying of a screenful of text through the mask. The device may also be provided-with the facility to carry personalised information which will be repro- „.duαed .on,jfche.-.dα.cument-up.Q.n photocopying. Such information will usually be presented adjacent to an edge of the display screen so that it is reproduced with a text on the screen with the minimum of wasted space. The facility may comprise a pocket for holding a sheet which carries the information and/or comprise a transparency behind which a sheet which carries the information may be inserted. However, when a mask or other cover is provided, the personalised information may be carried by the cover. The information may then be carried by an opaque sheet which acts, as the mask. Each user could then have an individual mask with his own personalised information, or indeed a number of masks with different, such as his home and office, addresses. It is naturally desirable that the document pro¬ duced by the photocopying operation should be devoid of any markings, such as reproductions of trade marks, switches, or operating instructions, which might appear on the device. For this reason, the screen, any carrier portion for personalised information, and any border should have a width substantially in the range from 20 to 22 cms. and a length substantially in the range of from 29 to 34 cms. A photocopy of the screen and any personalised information on A4 or foolscap size paper, which are currently the most common sizes of paper to be found in photocopying machines, would provide substantially nothing other than a simple bordering, e.go along one or more sides of the, or of part of the, reproduction on the document. Similarly, if a mask is OMPI /., WIPO * used, it is convenient if this is substantially the size of a sheet of A4 or foolscap size paper. It is found that the photocopy is clearest if the screen is essentially non-reflecting and light in colour and the characters displayed on the screen are as dark as possible. The surface of the screen to be placed face to face with the window of a photocopying machine should be flat, so that the characters are photocopied without optical aberration. However, it may be desirable to surround the area to be photocopied with a resilient rib, made for example of resilient rubber or plastics material. This rib will act as a frame to space the flat surface of the screen slightly from the window of a photocopying machine, to provide a seal against the machine window both to keep out any unwanted light which might otherwise in iltrate the space between the screen and the window and reduce the contrast of the copy, and to prevent mutual scratching of the screen and window. The device may also have the facility to present the time and/or date, on or adjacent to an edge of the display screen, so as to be reproduced on the document, the time and/or date being provided via the electronic circuitry. The detailed construction and operation of the electronic circuitry, its programme and memory store, and the manner in which the characters are displayed on the screen does not form any part of this invention and conventional technology can be adapted appropri- ately for the required functions. However, some possibilities will be mentioned. Thus the display screen may utilise,for example,a liquid crystal display. The rejection means will be controlled by appropri¬ ate controls on, or adjacent to, the keyboard. If, in addition to a control for clearing a selected part of the screen, there is a control for wiping the screen completel the latter should be so arranged that it cannot be oper¬ ated accidentally, or example by requiring two separate control movements. The rejection means may be arranged to be able to clear a selected line of text from the screen or even be more sophisticated and capable of clearing a part of a line or as little as a single selected character. Thus it may be capable of causing the sequential cancellation of the line of script in reverse order to that in which it was fed in, so that as soon as an error is recognised f ■ the last or last few characters ed in are all that need to be cancelled. When there is provision for clearing and correcting an error made in the middle of the text, it will be necessary to feed into the rejection means the selected part of the text to be cleared this may involve some form of indicator on the screen itself, such as a movable arrow which is illuminated in line with the selected line or character to be cleared before the clearance is initiated. The programme may be arranged to display the text ed in through the keyboard line by line starting at the top of the screen and working downwards. Alternatively, each line of text fed in may first appear at the bottom of the screen and be transferred one line up at a time either automatically as further text is fed in or upon operation of an advance key ready to feed in further text on the empty bottom line of the screen. The bottom line of characters on the screen may then be an "active" line in which all corrections are made. Thus all lines below a line to be corrected would be relegated to the store by operating a reverse key to move the text downwards line by line on the screen until the line to be corrected i on the bottom line whereupon the correction is made. Subsequent operation of the advance key would then advance the text up the screen again so that the additional lines could be added to the bottom. Feedi the screen through an "active" line also have an advantage that one can arrange a text on the screen to be positioned as desired within the screen. The memory store is readily provided by modern - solid state circuitry. The use of the store to enabl more than one screenful of text to be stored and recalled to the screen when required considerably extends the quantity of written material which can be fed into the instrument between visits to a copying machine, or for rereading or even copying by a secretary using a conventional typewriter. In practic one screenful of text would be fed in and then relegated to the store, thus clearing the screen for reception of further text. The number of screen pages to be stored will depend on the number of characters that the screen has been designed to show, the.intende cost and the required sophistication of the "portable solid state screen typer". Instead of presenting conventional written texts on the display screen fed in through an alphabetical/ numerical keyboard, the electronic circuitry may be arranged to carry out and display conventional mathe¬ matical functions, whereupon the keyboard would corres pond to a conventional calculator keyboard. The writing board- would then provide a much simpler and cheaper record, and possibly permanent copy, of calculations than than provided on a paper web by conventional printout calculators which are at least OM partly mechanical and therefore larger and more likely to require maintenance. It is of course possible to combine in a single instrument both calculator circuitry and corresponding keys on the keyboard, and circuitry, and.keys for feeding alphabetical and numerical characters. Com¬ prehensive texts can then be prepared incorporating both written matter and calculations. Two examples of the many possible alternative designs of writing devices constructed in accordance with the present invention are illustrated diagrammati- cally in the accompanying drawings, in which∑- Figure 1 is a perspective view of one example; Figure 2 is a perspective view of the second example; and, Figure 3 is an exploded perspective view of the second example. The Figure 1 example comprises a rectangular slab-like body housing 4 which may be made in convent- ional fashion from a plastics material, metal, or a composite. The body is about 30 cm. long, 21 cm. wide, and up to 1.5 cm. thick. The body houses the necessary electronic circuitry and a battery which is replaceable or rechargeable through a conventional cover at the underside. The majority of the upper face of the body is provided by a rectangular liquid crystal display screen 5 , At one end of the screen 5 is an area 6 carrying personalised information, such as the user's name and address. This information may be carried on a card which is snapped into a corresponding pocket in the upper face of the body, or slipped in through an edge slot underneath a transparent window. The screen 5 and area 6 are surrounded by a plane border frame 7, which may be in the form of a slightly raised resilient rib. It is unnecessary for a transverse portion 8 of the frame to be provided with the rib. At the other end of the screen 5 is a keyboard 9 provided with character and control buttons which are depressed to provide the input to the circuitry. The upper surface of the buttons are recessed slightly below the level of the screen 5. A cover 10 is pro¬ vided which is hinged to the body 4 and may be swung from its illustrated position, in which the keyboard is accessible, to a closed position in which it is substantially flush with the screen 5, when the screen 5 and area 6 are to be photocopied. In its closed position the exposed face of the cover 10 may be plain or may carry other personalised information, or indeed may carry personalised information instead of the information in the area 6. In the latter case the screen 5 may extend to the top of the body 4. In any case, the upper surface of the body 4 is substantially the same as the size of A4 paper and when a document i produced by photocopying the upper surface of the body 4, the document will reproduce any text on the screen 5, and the personalised information, all surrounded by plain bordering. The second example illustrated in Figures 2 and 3, has a body 4A, similar to the body 4. The screen 5 is similar to the screen 5 but in this case the key¬ board 9A is at the upper end of the screen. The body is provided with a cover frame 11 having a pair of apertured tabs 12 which are arranged to cooperate with complementary projections 13 recessed into the sides at one end of the body 4A so that the frame can be fitted to and hinged on the body 4A. The frame 11 has an inwardly projecting flange against which an opaque mask 15 can be located. When it is desired to photoco OM /., WIP a text on the screen 5A, the mask within the frame 11 is swung down so that it overlies the body 4A as shown in Figure 2. Personalised information on one face of a solid end portion Iβ of the mask then covers the -^keyboard 9A-whilst the screen- 5A-is visible -through a window 17.in the mask 15« The resultant copy will be very similar to a normal letter, with the reproduction of the screen area possibly of a different background shading. In both the examples the keyboard could of course be positioned at the other end of the screen. For example in the second example if the keyboard 9 • were positioned at the bottom of the screen 5A, the solid end portion 16 would be provided at the other end of the mask and the personalised information would be reproduced at the bottom of the document. Control buttons or other actuating members for recalling memorized text to the screen and for operating the reject means may be incorporated in the keyboard but this is not critical and they could be mounted else¬ where, for example along a side of the body 4.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. A portable battery-energised writing device com¬ prising a slab-like body which presents on one face bo a display screen which is capable of displaying a plurality of lines of text and, alongside the display screen, a keyboard; electronic circuitry which is hous within the body and is programmed to cause on the dis¬ play screen the display of lines of text fed in throug the keyboard, and which has the facility to store a plurality of screenfuls of text and the ability to cause the redisplay of such texts one by one on the screen j and reject means which are arranged to clear selected parts of a text displayed on the screen for replacement by different text fed in through the key¬ board; the device being so constructed that the body readily capable of being positioned with the display screen face to face with the_window of a photocopying machine whereby a document reproducing a screenful of text, but not the keyboard, may be produced. 2. A device according to claim 1, in which the slab is substantially rectangular and the key¬ board is provided at one end of the slab. 3. A device according to claim 1 or claim 2, in whi a cover is provided for visually masking at least the keyboard during photocopying. 4. A device according to claim 3, in which the key¬ board is recessed relatively to the screen and the cover when fitted over the keyboard is substantially flush with the surface of the screen„ 5. A device according to claim 3 * in which the cover is a mask for the display screen and keyboard, the mask . being, provided with a window of a size enabling copying of a screenful of text through the mask. 6. . A device according to claim 5 %. in which the mask is between 20 and 22 cms. wide and between 29 and 34cmSo long. 7. A device according to any one of the preceding claims, which is provided with the facility to carry personalised information which will be reproduced on the document. 8. A. device according to claim 7, in which the facility comprises a pocket for holding a sheet which carries the information. 9. A device according to claim 7 or claim 8, in which the facility comprises a transparency behind which a sheet which carries the information may be inserted. 10. A device according to any one of claims 7 to 9, in which the personalised information is carried by the cover. 11. A device according to claim 10, when dependent on claim 5, in which the information is carried by an opaque sheet which acts as the mask. 12. A device according to any one of the preceding claims,in which the screen, any carrier portion for personalised information, and any border have a width substantially in the range from 20 to 22 cms. and a length substantially in the range of from 29 to 34 cms. 13. A device according to any one of the preceding claims, in which a photocopy of the screen and any personalised information on A4 or foolscap size paper would provide substantially nothing other than a simple bordering to the reproduction on the document. OMPI /,. WIPO « *, 14. A device according to any one of the preceding claims, in which a resilient rib is provided around th area to be photocopied to provide a seal against the window of a photocopying machine. 15- A device according to any one of the preceding claims, which has the facility to present the time and or date so as to be reproduced on the document, the ti and/or date being provided via the electronic circuitr 16. A device according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the programme is such that the lines text are initially displayed at the bottom of the scre and subsequently advanced up the screen, the bottom te line on the screen being an active line in which corrections are made by use of the reject means and keyboard. 17. A device according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the reject means includes a control for wiping the screen completely, the control, being so arranged that it cannot be operated accidently. 18. A device according to claim 17, in which the control for wiping the screen completely requires two separate control movements for its operation. 19. A device according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the electronic circuitry is arranged also to carry out and display on the screen convention mathematical functions. - R O /.. WI

Inventors: LOWENTHAL H
Applicants: LOWENTHAL H
Application year: 1979
Main classification: G06F3
IPC codes: B41J3, G02F1, G06F1, G06F3