Patent ID: 7669143

Claim:
An information reading apparatus comprising: a display unit having a screen; a memory having a plurality of cells arranged in a two-dimensional array of rows and columns, each cell storing at least one symbol image to be displayed on said screen; a key arrangement that selects one of the cells displayed on said screen as a candidate image by moving a point of selection by a distance corresponding to one cell of said memory in response to a user's operation and enters a user's decision command when a desired candidate image is displayed at the center of said screen; and a control unit that performs the functions of reading a matrix array of cells from said memory including said selected cell and adjacent cells surrounding the selected cell and displaying the matrix array on said screen so that the selected cell is positioned at the center of said screen and replaces an adjacent cell which was previously displayed at said center, and repeatedly performs said functions of reading and displaying in response to each of said cells being subsequently selected by a user's operation until said user's decision command is entered.