Other

Dacom Corporation

Rapicom Inc.

James G Tisue

Donald R Weber

Irwin H Krull

Peter A Johanson

M Ann Tisue

A positioning system including a sensor 52, a drive control 54 and an actuator 56. Sensor 52 senses a mirror 64 position and provides actual position signals to drive controller 54, which responsively adapts and applies drive currents to actuator 56. The actuator positions the mirror to reflect an optical beam 38 as desired. Preprogrammed sequences of mirror stopping positions can be synchronized with a laser 58 to tune pulses at very high rates and peak power.

Adaptive resonant positioner having random access capability

A writing compensator for placing digital information or images onto film and other thresholded media using writing beams. The compensator includes a data storage unit, a pattern detector connected to the data storage unit, an exposure determination unit connected to the pattern detector, and a beam modulator connected to the exposure determination unit for providing a better controlled writing beam.

Writing compensator for thresholded media

The circuitry forms part of testing apparatus for measuring the concentration of ions in fluids, primarily body fluids, including the measurement of chlorides, ionized calcium, sodium and potassium as well as other ions. A small sample fluid is subjected to a controlled mechanical oscillation to thoroughly expose a true representative sample to the electrode for measurement. The apparatus has a digital readout display and two associated switches for calibrating the circuitry with high and low standard fluids. The low standard circuit is calibrated with the low standard sample to establish offset correction while the high standard circuit is calibrated with the high standard sample to establish gain correction. After the instrument has been adjusted for proper low and high standard values, for a particular electrode, the offset correction and gain correction parameters are established so that electrode input values cause proper concentrations to be displayed.

Electronic circuit for measuring and displaying ion concentration in

Apparatus for evaluating, characterizing and transmitting facsimile data at an efficiency exceeding one transmission bit per elemental scan area but in such a manner as to avoid the drop-out of data which is relatively close in size to an elemental scan area. An illustrative embodiment of one form of the present invention includes an image scanner (50) for line-scanning a document (56) and developing a series of scan data corresponding to the data character of scanned elemental areas of each scanned line, a first storage device (52) for storing a line of scan data, a second storage device (53) for storing a line of previously characterized preceeding line pair data, interpolation logic (54) responsive to the scan data, adjacent scan data previously stored in the first storage device (52) and proceeding line pair data stored in the second storage device (53) and operative to develop present line pair data, and a data utilization device (55) for transmitting, recording or otherwise using the present line pair data.

Facsimile transmission apparatus

A method and apparatus for suppressing the effects of surface light scatter in an optical reflective scanning system, wherein the method includes the steps of directly illuminating a small area upon the surface to be scanned, detecting the intensity of the light reflected by that area to produce a first signal proportional thereto, detecting the intensity of the light reflected from a scatter illuminated second area at least partially surrounding the directly illuminated area to produce a second signal proportional thereto, subtracting at least a portion of the second signal from the first signal to develop a compensated signal which represents the reflectivity of the directly illuminated first area as compensated for the light scattered back to the first area from the second area, and either using the compensated signal directly as analog data or converting it to a digital output signal which has a first state when the compensated signal is above a predetermined threshold and which has a second state when the compensated signal is below the predetermined threshold. The apparatus includes a light source and focusing optics for directly illuminating a small area of a surface to be scanned, detector optics for collecting light reflected from the directly illuminating area and directing it upon a first detector, and for collecting light reflected from a scatter illuminated second area at least partially surrounding the first area and directing it upon a second detector, and processing electronics responsive to signals generated by the first and second detectors and operative to produce an analog or digital output signal as described above.

Method and apparatus for suppressing the effects of surface light

A compensation circuit for use in a document reproduction system for correcting variations in white level occurring between different documents and due to nonuniformity of the scanning process including a variable voltage gain amplifier for compensatingly modifying the output of an image scanner and having a gain control system which drives the white level amplifier gain to a predetermined level so that the scanner output is made independent of certain well known causes of nonuniformity. The gain control system includes a comparator which compares the amplifier output to a white reference signal, a counter having a start count which may be present and which is incremented when the comparator output indicates that the amplifier output exceeds the reference signal, a memory which is addressed by signals developed by the scanner and which stores the output of the counter at intervals which in effect subdivide each scan line, the stored signals being used to preset the counter at the beginning of each particular scan interval, and a digital-to-analog converter for converting the counter output to a form which can be used to drive the amplifier.

Automatic illumination compensation circuit

An electronic half-tone generating circuit for enabling a black and white facsimile transmission system to accurately and efficiently transmit and reproduce images including shades of grey as well as black and white and including an integrator responsive to a first data signal and operative to integrate the difference between an input analog signal and a first reference potential to develop a first integral signal commensurate therewith, and responsive to a second data signal and operative to integrate the difference between the input analog signal and a second reference signal to develop a second integral signal commensurate therewith, a comparator responsive to the first and second integral signals and operative to develop a comparison signal when the first and second integral signals exceed a predetermined threshold value, and a signal generator responsive to the comparison signal and operative to develop the first data signal upon each odd numbered occurrence of the comparison signal and to develop the second data signal upon each even numbered occurrence of the comparison signal. The data signals are comprised of a series of data bits each of which identifies the data state of a discrete elemental area of the scanned information. Also disclosed are a screened version in which mezzo data is converted to a particular format for transmission, and a hybrid version in which mezzo system elements are used alternately with screened system elements to produce a reproduction having optimum picture quality.

Electronic half-tone generating means for facsimile reproduction system

An electronic nonuniform clock generating apparatus including a modulo N counter for counting uniform clock pulses in a controlled manner to develop a series of clock pulses which are nonlinearly related to the rotation of a scanning device to form a nonuniform clock signal comprised of a series of different clock states each including one or more uniform clock pulses, a clock signal counter for counting the nonuniform clock signal pulses, a clock signal decoder which is preprogrammed to develop an increment signal each time the count developed by the clock signal counter reaches a number commensurate with the number of pulses in a particular state, a state counter for counting the number of increment signals developed by the clock signal decoder to develop a clock signal decoder, and a state decoder responsive to the clock state signal output of the state counter and operative to control the operation of the modulo N counter.

Nonuniform clock generator for document reproduction apparatus

Video-to-binary conversion apparatus for use in image reproduction systems and the like to convert an input video signal to an output binary signal and comprising an output data normalizer for normalizing the binary output data signal relative to the input binary signal, an integrator for integrating the difference between the input video signal and the normalized output data signal and for developing an adaptable, data state determining threshold signal commensurate therewith, and a comparator for comparing the input video signal to the adaptive threshold signal to develop a binary output data signal which corresponds to the input video signal. The circuit electronically compensates for small signal errors which would otherwise occur in the transformation of the scan data from analog-to-binary form and which would give rise to a moire degradation in the reproduced image.

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

James G Tisue