Small-sized sensor

• US 6,674,416 B2
• Filed: 03/16/2000
• Issued: 01/06/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Omron Corporation
• Original Assignee: Omron Corporation
• Inventors: Imai, Kiyoshi, Kamei, Takashi
• Primary Examiner(s): Hjerpe, Richard
• Assistant Examiner(s): ABDULSELAM, ABBAS I
• Application Number:
  US09/508,741
• Publication Number:
  US 20030095082A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,391 Days
• Field of Search: 345/33, 345/39, 345/35, 345/51, 345/34, 345/40, 235/462.17, 235/462.25, 235/462.42, 250/206.1, 340/691.6, 705/23, 705/414
• US Class Current: 345/39
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 7/00 Indicating measured values
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/208 Input by product or record sensing, e.g. weighing or scanner processing

Abstract

A photoelectric sensor 11 has a level display unit (28). The level display unit (28) is constituted by arranging a plurality of 7-segment indicators (33). The 7-segment indicators (33) are partially constituted of red LED segments (33b) and partially constituted of red/green two-color LED segments (33a). For a digital display, all of the segments are illuminated in red to display numerals. For a graph display, the red/green two-color LED segments are illuminated in green to present a bar graph.

Claims

1. A sensor device comprising:

feature amount acquiring means for acquiring a feature amount which represents a physical state of an object to be sensed;

threshold setting means for setting a threshold so as to determine the feature amount;

a display unit including a plurality of display segments arranged in an 8-shape to present a numerical display; and

display mode selecting means for selecting one of a numerical display mode and a graph display mode, wherein

at least a part of the display segments used for presenting the numerical display has a display color which can be changed,

the feature amount or the threshold is presented by the numerical display in one display color in the numerical display mode, and

in the graph display mode, the feature amount is displayed by a graph using display segments selected from the display segments used for presenting the numerical display, and a part of the display segments selected from the display segments used for presenting the numerical display presents a display color different from a display color of the graph in order to indicate position of the threshold in the graph by position of the part of the display segments.

2. The sensor device according to claim 1, wherein a range of value of said feature amount or said threshold displayed by the numerals is different from a range of value of said feature amount displayed by the graph.

3. The sensor device according to claim 1, wherein

display of said plurality of numerals and display of said graph are presented on said display unit in different colors respectively.

4. A sensor device comprising:

feature amount acquiring means for acquiring a feature amount which represents a physical state of an object to be sensed;

threshold setting means for setting a threshold so as to determine the feature amount;

a display unit displaying a number with a plurality of digits using a plurality of display segments, wherein seven display segments having four longitudinal display segments and three lateral display segments are used for each digit;

display mode selecting means for selecting one of a numerical display mode and a graphical display mode, wherein

the feature amount and the threshold is presented by the number displayed in the numerical display mode and the feature amount is presented by a graph using longitudinal display segments used to display the number in with two resolutions per digit of the number in the graphical display mode.

5. The sensor device according to claim 4, wherein a number of display digits of the display unit to be commonly used with the graphical presentation is equal to four.

6. The display unit according to claim 5, wherein a display color when displaying a numeral is different from a display color of a graph.

7. A display unit comprising:

a plurality of display segments arranged in an 8-shape to present a plurality of numerals; and

a graph displayed using a selected display segment among the plurality of display segments, wherein

display segments used for presenting the graph have a display color which can be changed,

a given feature amount or a threshold is presented by the numerical display in one display color when a numeral is displayed,

the given feature amount is displayed by the graph using display segments selected from the display segments used for presenting the numerical display, and

a part of the display segments selected from the display segments used for presenting the numerical display presents a display color different from a display color of the graph indicating a threshold position in the graph by a position of the part of the display segments.