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A split-flap display, or sometimes simply flap display, is an electromechanical display device that presents changeable alphanumeric text, and occasionally fixed graphics. Often used as a public transport timetable in airports or railway stations, as such they are often called Solari boards after display manufacturer Solari di Udine from Udine, Italy, or in Central European countries they are called Pragotron after the Czech manufacturer. Split-flap displays were once commonly used at consumer scale in devices known as flip clocks. ==Description== Each character position or graphic position has a collection of flaps on which the characters or graphics are painted or silkscreened. These flaps are precisely rotated to show the desired character or graphic. These displays are often found in railway stations and airports, where they serve as flight information display system and typically display departure or arrival information, although digital equivalents are far more common now. Sometimes the flaps are large and display whole words, and in other installations there are several smaller flaps, each displaying a single character. The former method is limited to the words it can display on the flaps, while the latter system is not, and output messages can be changed without the need for the addition or replacement of flaps, although images cannot. In the example image on the right, the destinations in the centre of the picture are split into characters, while the messages left and right of these occupy one flap each. During a power loss or disruption the display will freeze. At first this may be an advantage because the information is still correct. When the information becomes outdated it might be worse than no information. Flip-dot displays and LED display boards may be used instead of split-flap displays in most applications. Their output can be varied more easily (by reprogramming instead of replacement of physical parts in the case of graphics) but they suffer from lower readability. They also can refresh more quickly, as a split-flap display often must cycle through many states. Advantages to these displays include: * high visibility and wide viewing angle in most lighting conditions * little or no power consumption while the display remains static * Distinct metallic flapping sound draws attention when the information is updated. *: The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has designed the new LED replacements for its aging Solari boards at North Station and South Station to emit an electronically generated flapping noise to cue passengers to train boarding updates. Many game shows of the 1970s used this type of display for the contestant podium scoreboards. Usually, the flip was left-to-right on a vertical axis, although up/down on a horizontal axis was not completely unknown. Early seasons of the game show ''Family Feud'' used a split flap display as part of the game board (subsequent seasons used more modern digital displays, and eventually simply used a large digital flat screen monitor). The game board on the Nickelodeon game show ''Make the Grade'' was a 7x7 split-flap display, used to display subjects and wild cards, as well as tracking contestants' progress. The television game show ''Chain Reaction'' on GSN features computer-simulated split-flap displays to display the various words in a chain. In Italy, split-flap displays have also been occasionally used as destination signs for transit vehicles, there was also a brief vogue for them in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Split-flap display」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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