Hughes Electronics Corporation

Hughes Aircraft Company

Pointsource Technologies, LLC

Raytheon Company

Institute of Critical Care Medicine

Digital Cinema Systems Corporation

Donald C Mead

Gregory M Quist

Ronnie R Burns

Irving Rabowsky

Ram Nagarajan

Peter H Au

Clay Davis

Ronald S Gold

Ronald M Finnila

Hanno Ix

Carl G Foster

Victor J Fritz

Lawrence P Seidman

An improvement in a system that includes a group of field units (A) that each identifies unknown microscopic particles by use of a computer that compares an unknown particle interrogation pattern to the interrogation patterns of a set of known species of particles, which facilitates upgrading of the group of field units. Each field unit is connected by a communication link () to a central station (). The central station can send interrogation patterns of a new species of particle to the field unit computers, which store them in a known-species-particle memory () that holds patterns of previously known species of particles. The field unit stores the patterns of unidentified particles in a memory () and notifies the central station when it has detected an invasion of a new species.

Particulate info to field units

An improvement is described for use in a system that identifies particles in a fluid such as water by passing the fluid through a passage in a transparent carrier and detecting light from a laser beam that is scattered by particles, followed by comparing the scatter pattern to those of known particles, which increases the rate at which particles are detected. A plurality of transparent carriers with through passages are provided, and a narrow beam is directed through each carrier to scatter light from particles at a detect zone in each carrier passage. In one arrangement (), the carriers () are connected in series, so a limited amount of water passes through detect zones (A,B.C) to generate a high rate of particle detection. In another arrangement (), the carrier passages are connected in parallel, so when a larger sample of water is available different parts of the water sample pass through different carrier passages, to again increase the rate of particle detection.

High detection rate particle identifier

This invention shows how an area CCD array can be partitioned into subsections to greatly improve the readout rates. Also disclosed is a technique of ping ponging the disk arrays so that the partitions can be stored for a frame time and then output to a common storage device.

High speed film to digital conversion

An improvement in a system that identifies unknown microscopic particles in a fluid such as water, by detecting scattering of a laser beam ( ) in multiple directions as a particle passes through a detect zone ( ) to generate an event vector, and by comparing the eventvector to those of particles of known species. When the eventvectors produce a cluster ( ) of particles in a multi-dimensional projection of the eventvectors, the computer signals that a possible new species has been found in the fluid. A background signature is generated for particles in the fluid when the fluid is safe. When new water is later passed through the apparatus, clusters of particles are searched for that are present in a much greater density than exists for the background signature for a safe fluid, to generate a signal indicating that the fluid may be unsafe.

Detection of new species of particles

A method and apparatus for transferring a data signal includes a transmitter having an encoder and a receiver having a decoder. The encoder includes a segment selector for identifying a signal segment from a group of speech, audio, video and graphic signals, each selected segment comprising a representation of an information quantity. The encoder includes a plurality of encoder libraries, one of the libraries containing a generic representation corresponding to the information quantity and a symbolic code corresponding to the object. The decoder has a second plurality of libraries corresponding to the plurality of encoder libraries, and one of the decoder libraries generates the information quantity as output in response to matching of the symbolic code transmitted from the encoder.

Encoding and decoding with super compression a via a priori generic objects

An apparatus for identifying microscopic particles in a fluid, includes a laser beam ( ) that passes though a narrow detect zone ( ), and photodetectors ( ) that detect light scattered by microscopic particles that pass through the detect zone. The laser beam has a horizontal width (W) that is a plurality of times as great as its average vertical thickness (T), to increase the number of particles passing through the zone while minimizing the time of each particle in the zone. A quadrant detector ( ) that is used to detect deviation of the laser beam from a predetermined path, is oriented about 45&deg; from the usual direction. The laser beam is generated by a diode laser ( ) whose output passes through two appropriately-positioned cylindrical lenses ( ) to produce the desired the ratio of width (W) to thickness (T).

Particle detection beam

A method and system are provided for generating an output time sequence of image frames from an input time sequence of image frames. For pairs of consecutive image frames of the input time sequence defining a frame rate less than a predetermined output frame rate, a plurality of feature points are identified and located in each of the consecutive image frames. Using the feature points, a first frame of the consecutive image frames is morphed with a second frame of the consecutive image frames to form at least one intermediate frame. The first frame, the at least one intermediate frame, and the second frame are then sequentially organized to form consecutive frames of the output time sequence having the predetermined output frame rate. Pairs of consecutive image frames of the input time sequence having at least the predetermined output frame rate are maintained as consecutive pairs in the output time sequence.

Method and system for generating image frame sequences using morphing

A method and apparatus for transferring data signals with personalization layers for symbolically compressed objects comprises a transmitter having an encoder and a receiver having a decoder. The encoder includes a segment selector for identifying signal segments from a group of speech, audio, video, and graphic signals, each segment comprising a representation of a physical waveform. The encoder includes a plurality of encoder libraries, one of the libraries containing the representation of a generic waveform and a symbolic code for the generic object. The decoder has a second plurality of libraries corresponding to the plurality of encoder libraries, and contain the generic waveform, the symbolic code corresponding to the generic physical waveform, and the difference information quantity as a personalization layer of data representing the difference between the generic object code and the waveform from which the generic object was extracted.

Downloading of personalization layers for symbolically compressed objects

A method for displaying a video sequence depicting motion of at least one video object by sequential presentation of a plurality of frames includes storing a low resolution representation of the video object, generating and displaying a first frame of the sequence based on the low resolution representation, updating the low resolution representation, and generating and displaying a subsequent frame of the sequence based on the updated representation. The method may include calculating a quality metric to determine when updating is necessary.

Hierarchical low latency video compression

A video image indexing system includes a method for identifying categories in compressed digital data for improved retrieval of video images. An encoder receives a frame and digitizes the image data while a sub-band coder codes each digitized frame at a plurality of transform levels to derive categorized data segments. Data segments are stored and then retrieved according to minimum entropy of Eigenvalues in a first transform level. Preferably, the compression is improved by creating a residual image of each frame by subtracting a predicted frame image from the actual frame image. This compression of data enhances the recreation of lossless video images at the receiver.

Content-based indexing of images by coding levels defined as a function

A system and method for communication of information using channels of different latency combine a high latency communication channel with a low latency communication channel to reduce the communication delay perceived by a user. The system and method includes separating information into first and second components based on a parameter correlated to the perceived delay, communicating the first component via a first channel, communicating the second component via a second channel having a communication delay greater than the first channel, and generating a representation of the information based on the first component. The second component of the information may be used to augment or modify the information represented by the first component. In one embodiment, the invention is applied to video teleconferencing where voice information and basis image information is transmitted via the low latency channel while background and other non-real-time information is communicated via the high latency communication channel.

System and method for communication of information using channels of

A system and method that covertly provides in-flight target update data to a large number of missiles. The system and method covertly guides the missiles using a transponder located on a satellite that relays encoded target update data to receivers located on each of the missiles. The target update data is derived from intelligence data acquired by a remote sensing device. The target update data is typically transmitted to the missile launch site where it is encoded and transmitted to the transponder on the satellite. The encoding is preferably accomplished using direct sequence spread spectrum/code division multiple access (CDMA) encoding produced using unique seeds that are supplied to pseudo random code generators that uniquely encode the data to be transmitted to each missile. The receivers on each of the missiles have pseudo random code generators that are loaded with the unique seeds. The present system and method enable rapid response to fast-changing battlefield environments, particularly where mobile or relocatable targets are involved.

System and method for simultaneously guiding multiple missiles

A self adjusting tiled image display system and method is provided. In operation, an image source having an array of tiled image displays projects a test image pattern. A positioning device is attached to a corresponding one of the image displays for positioning that image display. A sensor senses the test image pattern projected by the image displays and generates a sensor signal indicative of the sensed test image pattern. A processor compares the sensor signal to a proper alignment signal indicative of the image displays being properly aligned to generate a positioning signal. The processor applies the positioning signal to the positioning devices to position the image displays as a function of the positioning signal until the image displays are in the proper alignment.

Self adjusting tiled projector using test pattern and sensor

An analog-to-digital converter (20) forms a digital signal based upon an analog speech signal. A phoneme parser (22) parses the digital signal into at least one phoneme. A phoneme recognizer (24) assigns a symbolic code to each phoneme based upon recognition of the phonemes from a predetermined set. A read-only memory (34) contains a standard waveform representation of each phoneme from the predetermined set. A difference processor (32) forms a difference signal between a user-spoken phoneme waveform and a corresponding waveform from the read-only memory (34). The difference signal is stored in a storage device (40). A multiplexer (30) provides a bit stream signal based upon the symbolic code and the difference signal. A synchronizer (70) extracts the symbolic code and the difference signal from the bit stream. A phoneme generator (76) forms the speech signal based upon the symbolic code and the difference signal.

Growing community of inventors

Carlsbad, CA, United States of America

Donald C Mead