This is an excerpt from A. Dyess, W. King and T. Greer, " HILFD-1400," ECE 4542: Design II, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mississippi State University, Fall 2003:

In November 2002, Dr. J.W. Bruce of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Mississippi State University informed us of the need for a large format display that conforms to the Hitachi HD44780 communication standard. He stated that the display would be used as a test device for the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department [3]. The display would allow groups of observers to easily view information from systems that use the Hitachi 44780 communication standard. After extensive research, we found that no such device exists, and that this device could be marketed toward people using LCD modules in testing and design.

Our product will bring several new advantages to the testing environment. The large display will enable several observers to view information with clarity and ease from comfortable viewing distances, thus increasing the ergonomic efficiency of the testing environment. Also, this device will allow users to connect their test systems quickly and easily without soldering. The size and portability of our device will allow testing environments to have only one display that will work for all systems that use LCD modules.