A sixteen-segment display (SISD) is a type of display based on sixteen segments that can be turned on or off to produce a graphic pattern. It is an extension of the more common

seven-segment display A seven-segment display is a form of electronic display device for displaying decimal numerals that is an alternative to the more complex dot matrix displays. Seven-segment displays are widely used in digital clocks, electronic meters, bas ...

, adding four diagonal and two vertical segments and splitting the three horizontal segments in half. Other variants include the fourteen-segment display which does not split the top or bottom horizontal segments, and the twenty-two-segment display that allows lower-case characters with descenders. Often a character generator is used to translate 7-bit ASCII character codes to the 16 bits that indicate which of the 16 segments to turn on or off.

Applications

Sixteen-segment displays were originally designed to display

alphanumeric Alphanumericals or alphanumeric characters are a combination of alphabetical and numerical characters. More specifically, they are the collection of Latin letters and Arabic digits. An alphanumeric code is an identifier made of alphanumeric c ...

characters (Latin letters and Arabic digits). Later they were used to display

Thai numerals Thai numerals ( th, เลขไทย, , ) are a set of numerals traditionally used in Thailand, although the Arabic numerals are more common due to extensive westernization of Thailand in the modern Rattanakosin period. Thai numerals follow t ...

and Persian characters. Non-electronic displays using this pattern existed as early as 1902.''Means for controlling illuminated announcement and display signals''
US Patent 744,923 filed 1902-08-15 Before the advent of inexpensive dot-matrix displays, sixteen and fourteen-segment displays were some of the few options available for producing

characters on

calculator An electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics. The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. Pocket-sized ...

s and other

embedded system An embedded system is a computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is ''embedded ...

s. However, they are sometimes used on VCRs,

car stereo Vehicle audio is equipment installed in a car or other vehicle to provide in-car entertainment and information for the vehicle occupants. Until the 1950s it consisted of a simple AM radio. Additions since then have included FM radio (1952), ...

microwave oven A microwave oven (commonly referred to as a microwave) is an electric oven that heats and cooks food by exposing it to electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency range. This induces polar molecules in the food to rotate and produce ...

s, telephone

Caller ID Caller identification (Caller ID) is a telephone service, available in analog and digital telephone systems, including voice over IP (VoIP), that transmits a caller's telephone number to the called party's telephone equipment when the call i ...

displays, and

slot machine A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...

readouts. Sixteen-segment displays may be based on one of several technologies, the three most common

optoelectronics Optoelectronics (or optronics) is the study and application of electronic devices and systems that find, detect and control light, usually considered a sub-field of photonics. In this context, ''light'' often includes invisible forms of radiat ...

types being LED, LCD and VFD. The LED variant is typically manufactured in single or dual character packages, to be combined as needed into text line displays of a suitable length for the application in question; they can also be stacked to build multiline displays. As with seven and fourteen-segment displays, a decimal point and/or

comma The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline ...

may be present as an additional segment, or pair of segments; the comma (used for triple-digit groupings or as a

decimal separator A decimal separator is a symbol used to separate the integer part from the fractional part of a number written in decimal form (e.g., "." in 12.45). Different countries officially designate different symbols for use as the separator. The choi ...

in many regions) is commonly formed by combining the decimal point with a closely 'attached' leftwards-descending arc-shaped segment. This way, a point or comma may be displayed between character positions instead of occupying a whole position by itself, which would be the case if employing the bottom middle vertical segment as a point and the bottom left diagonal segment as a comma. Such displays were very common on

pinball Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails call ...

machines for displaying the score and other information, before the widespread use of dot-matrix display panels.

Examples

IIDX 16seg display.jpg, A sixteen-segment display on a ''

Beatmania IIDX is a series of rhythm video games, that was first introduced by Konami in Japan on February 26, 1999. ''IIDX'' has since spawned 31 arcade releases and 14 console releases on the Sony PlayStation 2. It is the sequel to the '' beatmania'' gam ...

'' arcade machine Индикатор ИВ-4.JPG, A sixteen-segment

vacuum fluorescent display A vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) is a display device once commonly used on consumer electronics equipment such as video cassette recorders, car radios, and microwave ovens. A VFD operates on the principle of cathodoluminescence, roughly ...

File:Single Board Computer AIM-65 (1978) (26589109399) (cropped).jpg, A sixteen-segment display on a

AIM-65 The Rockwell AIM-65 computer is a development computer introduced in 1978 based on the MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor. The AIM-65 is essentially an expanded KIM-1 computer. Available software included a line-oriented machine code monito ...

References

External links

View and create sixteen-segment display characters
- Editable SVG-Font, Open Font License
Sixteen Segment Display with the HTML5 Canvas

Web App to design segment-display

Spinning segment display

TwentyfourSixteen
— CC0 sixteen segment TTF font based on the HP/Siemens/Litronix DL-2416 character set {{DEFAULTSORT:Sixteen-Segment Display Display technology

Applications

Examples

See also

References

External links