Other

Chemetrics, Inc.

Franklyn M Rybak

Edward J Marcus

A portable hand held instrument is capable of making accurate colorimetric measurements in the field. The instrument has a body which houses the electronic circuitry and a door which allows a vial having a solution to be measured to be placed therein. The vial is illuminated lengthwise by a light beam of two wavelengths, one of which serves as a reference. The light emerging from the top of the vial is spatially integrated and directed to a detector. The detector measures the intensity of the transmitted light, and the electronic circuit determines the difference between the logarithms of the detected signals. This difference is multiplied by a constant to produce a signal representative of the concentration and is displayed. The resolution of the measurement is automatically increased when the processor senses that the signals are too small.

Portable spectrophotometric instrument having vial holder and light

An apparatus and method are disclosed which find particular utility as a component of a traffic control system known as a conflict monitor. The apparatus includes a number of solid state switches which are activated to scan inputs from traffic control signals. The inputs are sequentially applied to a A-D converter which samples the voltage and applies it to a microprocessor which is programmed to determine the voltage and analyze the signals for conflicts, or other errors. The input lines are also connected to terminals of a program board whereby the microprocessor can instruct a switch to ground the common pin on the program board to allow program board inputs to be applied to the microprocessor for indicating permissible conflicts. A method includes a technique for determining the voltage of an input analog signal by scanning a plurality of input signals and sampling them in accordance with a relationship which provides minimum error. A display may be operated in one of two modes. In the first mode, a display indicates the signals involved in a conflict, or other error determination. In a second mode, the display may be sequentially stepped through each signal to determine its particular state at the time of a conflict.

Growing community of inventors

Glen Arm, MD, United States of America

Franklyn M Rybak