Sewing – Method of sewing – Stitch forming
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-19
2001-11-27
Nerbun, Peter (Department: 3741)
Sewing
Method of sewing
Stitch forming
C112S102500, C112S445000, C345S667000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06321671
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a display apparatus for a sewing machine, in which a pattern can be edited via a pattern edit screen, and to a display apparatus that can display the pattern with high resolution.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventional electronically controlled sewing machine capable of embroidering the ROM (nonvolatile memory) stores pieces of pattern data related to utility stitch patterns such as straight and zigzag, character patterns such as letters and numerals, and embroidery patterns such as a symbol, for example, an animal or a flower. Patterns are shown on the display, and a desired one is searched over screens and selected thereon. For embroidery patterns edit processes, such as changing the sewing position of the pattern relative to an embroidery frame holding a material according to necessity, enlarging, reducing, and rotating the image of pattern, are performed via the pattern selection screen.
For example, a sewing data process device disclosed in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,013, has a pattern editing screen, which is used for editing, including a layout display. The pattern editing screen comprises a pattern display area in which a pattern to be sewn is displayed on the left, and function keys acting as touch keys placed on the right of the pattern display area such as move keys to move a pattern in each of eight directions, a zoom in key to magnify the pattern, and a zoom out key to reduce the display of the pattern. Various editing processes can be made on an embroidery pattern displayed on the pattern editing screen.
A sewing pattern display device disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-137468, has a liquid crystal display equipped with a control panel. A selected pattern is displayed on the layout area displayed on the display. Based on the magnification/reduction ratio set in the magnification/reduction input device provided on the control panel, only a specified portion of the pattern can be partially magnified or reduced on the display.
As mentioned above, in the sewing data process device described in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,013, embroidery patterns are edited through the use of a plurality of function keys. Therefore, the function keys are larger than the pattern display area for ease of use.
The size of the pattern display area is necessarily reduced by more than half of the screen. Accordingly, the magnification ratio can not be increased to magnify the display of the whole of the pattern, and the resolution to display the pattern in the pattern display area can not be raised.
Similarly, when the realistic image of the embroidery pattern found from the sewing data is displayed in the pattern display area, the image display area for editing can not be enlarged, and it is impossible to display images of stitches in detail. If a large-sized display is provided, the pattern display area can be enlarged. However, it leads to not only upsizing of the sewing machine but also raising of the manufacturing cost.
In the sewing pattern display device described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-137468, the layout screen is split in nine parts (three rows×three lines) based on the size of the embroidery frame, and only a specified split part is magnified to fill the layout screen. Although the size of the layout screen is unchanged, the size of the split part can be reduced to increase the magnification ratio, thereby seeing the split part as a larger view. However, this magnification is limited only to the split part and the entire pattern can not be magnified.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention provides a display apparatus for a sewing machine, having a display device for displaying a magnified image of a pattern as large as possible by making the use of whole display area of the display device. Also, the invention provides a display apparatus, which can achieve higher resolutions when displaying an image of a pattern for editing. Further, the invention provides a display apparatus, which can display the pattern image realistically.
In this regard, the display apparatus for a sewing machine of the invention may include a display device that displays a pattern on a display area thereof, a display controller that controls the display device to selectively display a first display screen for displaying a pattern and a second display screen for displaying a magnified image of the pattern, the second display screen being larger than the first display screen, and a display switching device that switches the display on the display device between the first display screen and the second display screen.
According to the sewing machine structured as described above, the first display screen displays the pattern in normal size for editing, such as a layout, of the pattern. When the display switching device switches the display on the display device from the first display screen to the second display screen, the second display screen displays the magnified image of the pattern. As the second display screen is larger than the first display screen, a user can easily confirm the pattern in detail by looking at the magnified image of the pattern on the second display screen.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the first display screen may be less than half of the whole display area. Therefore, the display area excluding the first display screen can display all of the information required for editing the pattern.
In another exemplary embodiment of the invention, the second display screen may be approximately as large as the whole display area. Therefore, the second display screen can display the pattern while magnifying the pattern as large as possible using substantially the whole display area.
In another exemplary embodiment of the invention, the display device may include a touch key panel and the display controller controls the display device to display at least one function key thereon. Therefore, the user can edit the pattern easily using the function keys displayed on the display device.
In another exemplary embodiment of the invention, the first display screen may include a predetermined number of function keys, and the second display screen may include less than the predetermined number of function keys. Therefore, when the display is switched to the second display screen, the second display screen can become as large as possible by eliminating the number of the function keys to be displayed on the display area because some of the function keys are not used while displaying the magnified image of the pattern. On the other hand, in the first display screen, the full set of function keys is available for editing the pattern.
In another exemplary embodiment of the invention, when the display on the display device is switched to the second display screen, at least one key is displayed on the display area except the second display screen. Therefore, the display can be switched from the second display screen to the first display screen at any time while the second display screen is displayed.
In another exemplary embodiment of the invention, the first display screen may be placed in a first orientation, the display area and the second display screen may be placed in a second orientation perpendicular to the first orientation, and when the display is switched between the first display screen and the second display screen, the pattern may be rotated 90°. Further, the first orientation may be a portrait orientation and the second orientation may be a landscape orientation. Therefore, the pattern, such as a train or a car, can be displayed in a portrait orientation in the first display screen. When the display is switched from the first display screen to the second display screen by the display switching device, the pattern is rotated 90° and displayed in a landscape orientation in the second display screen. Namely, as the pattern is displayed in appropriate orientation, it is possible to magnify the whole of the pattern through the e
Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Nerbun Peter
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
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