38 SEGMENT DISPLAY

WHAT IS THIS:

My 38 segment display is designed to nicely display Chinese/Japanese numerals.

At 38 segments some may ask, "at that point why not just use a matrix display?"

and to them I say, yes...

WHY I MADE THIS:

I saw Posy's video on segmented displays and it made me wonder if anyone had tried to make one for Chinese/Japanese numerals. So I looked it up and was kinda disappointed with what I found. There are a lot of designs out there, and some of them are really cool! But pretty much every one I saw had 1 or 2 digits that were a bit wonky looking (either not nicely centred/poor readability, had noticeably smaller or bigger digits, or the whole design was squashed down to counteract some of these issues and looked strange to me)

I wanted to see if I could make a design that keeps all the numbers similar sizes, clear, and like they belong next one one another. So I just started drawing designs in a notebook when I was bored. I'd say I went through at least 10 different designs until I figured this one out. I actually gave up at one point but then had a dream about adding a bar in between the upper half, which would let me make 百, 千, and 万. That idea basically led to this final design from what I had already been making. I was really only focused on making ０一二三四五六七八九十百千万, but because I had added so many segments, by the end it was capable of making way more stuff.

Ultimately I just made this for fun. I don't have any plans to use it. But if you do want to use it just credit me, link to this video, and let me know.

Music - SpongeBob SquarePants SuperSponge - Jelly Fields (GBA)

[pekero]

Howdy, Lot's of people are asking for a font. I was in the process of making one, but after giving it some thought, I realised it'd be better if instead I just give you all a raw SVG of the the display. That way if you disagree with the way I made some symbols, or want to make more, YOU CAN! 😎🫵 All that I ask of you is to credit me as the creator and link to this video if you want to use it! Thanks for all the love

[papyrussemi]

We've long since past the line of practicality, and now we strive for uniqueness and stylishness.

[DDYVEN]

"just use pixels at this point"
- some guy from the modern era

[CrizzzCra]

8x8 led matrix ❌
Complex 38 segment display ✔️

[indecision]

Now to figure out how to make them display Bad Apple.

[SQUiB.]

This would feel right at home in a cyberpunk train station

[EnsignGeneric]

The hardware engineer in me is screeching in terror, but the designer in me is having a ball. Nicely done!

[_GhostMiner]

Dot matrix: Nah
Normal LED display: No
Over complicated segmented display: Heck yeah!

[jaspyjiindust.]

As someone who doesnt speak japanese nor mandarin i see this as an absolute win

[soup_GD]

Very well done! I love the concept, it works pretty well. The only issue I saw is how リ and ソ look very similiar, but I'm surprised you were able to differentiate all the other ones so clearly while still making so many readable characters with the limitations, awesome

[wonderstruck.]

0:51 It can display 1-10 in Chinese characters, plus the character for rice for some reason

[bryce]

I did not expect to click on this and be thrown back in time because of the SpongeBob game music lmao

[HipsterBaby]

Sad people are missing the point of all this great work... this is much more expressive for the Japanese characters than a dot matrix could be. This is so cool

[averagefearoftheocean]

Immediately flashbanged by the goddamn Spongebob Supersponge ost. Id recognize that anywhere

[whoeverest_the_whateverest]

"But upon more tinkering i found i was able to make more symbols"
Literally my first thought upon seeing the curved lines that bottom half's segments do was "he made it specifically to display the Atari logo

[pekero]

Thank you all again for you positive responses to this, still can't believe anyone is interested in this tbh 😂but I'm glad some of you are!

[MrKotoCraft]

Finally, the display that can display Щ and Ы.

[vnules]

Hungarian bus stations have a different kind of 38-segment display of (probably) German origin, based on a 3×5 matrix with cells cut into curved/sloped pieces. (-:

[NobodyYouKnow]

If the top bar were segmented, you could also do Ä, Ë, Ï, Ö, Ü, and a few other symbols with improved clarity

[aarocka]

Came for the matrix stayed for the SpongeBob music.

Incredible design. I want a physical implementation that’s electro luminescent or something.

Algorithm blessed me today