Multifunction sequence operated integrated switch-display device

摘要

A contact responsive integrated switching and display system intended as an improvement to electromechanical devices such as rotary switches. The switching device controls the sequencing of displayed characters, by controlling gating of clock pulses into a counter, with activation of a function (such as selection of a circuit) corresponding to a selected displayed character produced by release of the switching device and discontinuance of the sequencing. The switching device is disclosed as physically directly associated or integrated with the display. The switch/display device can be self-contained or can be integrated in a system such as computer-data processing applications. An application of the device to data programming of a computer system is disclosed, in which a multidigit display is interfaced with a computer for operation in computer display, count advance and computer input modes. For each digit of the display, contact with the face of the display element gates clock pulses into a counter. The contents of the counter may be selectively displayed and/or output to the computer by way of a bidirectional data bus. The computer has a digit selection capability. The mode selection switch is implemented as a contact responsive visual display element.