Rca Inc.

Viz Manufacturing Company

Michael D Ross

Luken W Potts

Jon K Clemens

Maurice Friedman

Alfred R Schenker

Gary Rogers

Robert W Fischer

Jack S Fuhrer

John J Gibson

Frank B Lang

Raymond L Truesdell

A novel hybrid air bag inflator system includes a differential pressure monitoring switch which comprises a sealed module containing a gas under a threshold pressure mounted in a gas bag filler tank. The capsule comprises a movable diaphragm connected to a fixed top plate and the diaphragm is supported on a shaped mandrel mounted on a switch body. The switch body and the mandrel are provided with a central aperture through which moves a movable piston and the movable piston forms a support for switch contacts which are normally open until the pressure P1 in the hybrid air bag gas filler tank falls below a predetermined operable reference pressure P at which time the switch contacts reach a closed position indicative of a failed or inoperative hybrid system.

Method of assembling a differential pressure monitoring device

A novel hybrid air bag inflator system includes a differential pressure monitoring switch which comprises a sealed module containing a gas under a threshold pressure mounted in a gas bag filler tank. The capsule comprises a movable diaphragm connected to a fixed top plate and the diaphragm is supported on a shaped mandrel mounted on a switch body. The switch body and the mandrel are provided with a central aperture through which moves a movable piston and the movable piston forms a support for switch contacts which are normally open until the pressure in the hybrid air bag gas filler tank falls below a predetermined operable reference pressure at which time the switch contacts reach a closed position indicative of a failed or inoperative hybrid system.

Differential pressure monitoring device

A passive ranging system for determining the slant range from a ground station to a drifting radiosonde. In one embodiment, the ground station receives meteorological data ranging and internal temperature signals from the radiosonde. The data signals are read out as ambient conditions of the atmosphere and the range signal is phase-compared to a reference signal at periodic intervals. Changes in frequency due to temperature fluctuations in the radiosonde components are factored into the phase-comparison, and the resultant change in phase represents movement of the radiosonde. In another embodiment the range tone from a remote broadcast station is retransmitted by the radiosonde and received at the ground station simultaneously with the same tone directly from the broadcast station. The phase lag is measured and coupled with measurements of direction from the ground station to the radiosonde, and with the distance between the ground station and the broadcast station for determining the slant range.

Passive ranging system utilizing range tone signals

Passive ranging system for radiosondes

A signal substitution system is employed in audio processing circuitry to compensate for impulse noise and signal dropouts. Stored or delayed audio signal is substituted in the IF portion of the receiver circuitry ahead of the IF filters thereby precluding the noise impulses from exciting the filters into a ringing mode and significantly broadening what are otherwise very narrow signal disturbances. To insure that the substitution signal is in relative phase coherence with the substituted signal, the substitution signal is delayed an integral number, N, of cycles of the audio carrier. The number N is chosen to be small, resulting in the change in the modulating signal corresponding to the stored portion of the carrier being small. The affect on the baseband signal is that during instances where defects occurred the signal appears to have been sampled and held, but the duration is so short that they are not audibly distinguishable.

Noise reduction circuitry for audio signals

Selected fields of a redundant field slow motion video tape reproduced video signal are stored in a memory at a given clock rate and recovered from the memory at a clock rate inversely proportional to the number of times each field is repeated so as to produce a non-redundant video output signal of reduced bandwidth yet processing the full informational content of the original video signal. The original signal normally exhibits an ordered color field sequence but is subject to anomalous variations from time to time which causes anomalous variation of the chrominance-burst phase relationship of the video output signal. A detector, responsive to a change of a parameter of the ordered sequence of the video input signal, supplies an enabling signal to an inverter circuit which inverts the phase of the burst component of the video output signal whereby the chrominance-burst phase relationship of each field of the video output signal remains unaltered in the presence of said anomalous variations of the ordered sequence of the video input signal.

Slow down processor for video disc mastering having color phase error

Luminance and chrominance components of a video input signal are stored at one rate and recovered at a lesser rate, 1/N, by means of a frame store to effect video signal bandwidth reduction. Burst is not stored but rather is regenerated and added to the video output signal to conserve memory space. To avoid undesirable hue changes and the necessity of rephasing the regenerated burst signal when switching between different video sources, the burst regenerator includes means for forming a product signal from two signals. One signal is locked to incoming burst, and the other signal is derived from a reference source having a phase related to that of burst. The latter signal is reduced in frequency by a factor (N-1)/N prior to forming the product signal and phase shift is added to a signal path such that the resultant difference component of the product signal exhibits a phase relative to that of the recovered chrominance component which equals the chroma-burst phasing of the video signal supplied to the frame store by any of the video sources. The difference component is then added as a burst component to the recovered chrominance component to form a composite output signal.

Color subcarrier regenerator for slow down processor

In a video disc system, geometric variations are recorded on the surface of the record and are representative of recorded picture and sound information. In a video disc playback apparatus for recovering picture and sound information from such a prerecorded record, a playback stylus is utilized to detect the geometric variations. Sound interference in the video signals may be produced by the non-linear characteristics of the playback stylus. A non-linear aperture correction circuit interposed between the playback stylus and the demodulator circuitry of the playback apparatus effects a substantial control of the intermodulation products.

Non-linear aperture correction circuit

A monitoring circuit for monitoring and measuring the mechanical characteristics of a piezoelectric video disc recording cutterhead takes the form of a bridge network. The motional charge or motional current, which are related to the mechanical characteristics of the cutterhead, is measured by providing signals of a first polarity to one leg of the bridge and signals of a polarity opposite to the first to another leg of the bridge. One leg of the bridge includes the cutterhead and a sensing capacitor connected in series while the other leg includes the sensing capacitor and a balancing capacitor connected in series. When the capacitance value of the balancing capacitor is properly chosen, the voltage drop across the sensing capacitor is proportional to certain mechanical characteristics of the cutterhead (e.g., displacement).

Apparatus for measuring the characteristics of a wideband

Selected fields of a redundant field slow motion video tape reproduced video signal are stored in a memory at a given clock rate and recovered at a lower clock rate that is inversely proportional to the number of times each field is repeated so as to produce a non-redundant video signal of reduced bandwidth. An audio signal is simultaneously reproduced from the tape at a rate less than that at which it was originally recorded and combined with the recovered video signal to produce a composite audio-video signal of reduced bandwidth possessing the full informational content of the original audio and video signals. The composite signal is suitable for application to the cutterhead of a video disc mastering lathe operating at reduced turntable speed whereby full bandwidth master recordings may be made with a cutterhead of lesser bandwidth.

Slow down color processor for video disc mastering using a special mode

Composite color video signals, of the PAL format, are applied to the input of a 1H delay line (exhibiting a 64 microsecond delay, when f.sub.H = 15,625 Hz.). Output of a first comb filter, using additive combination of delay line input and output signals, is applied to a lowpass filter having a cutoff frequency below the lowest color subcarrier sideband frequency. Output of a second comb filter, using subtractive combination of delay line input and output signals, is applied to: (1) a second 1H delay line; (2) a delay device, providing delay correpsonding to a quarter-cycle at the color subcarrier frequency; and (3) a low pass filter having a cutoff frequency below the lowest buried subcarrier sideband frequency. Outputs of two low pass filters are combined to form luminance signal. Outputs of quarter-cycle delay device and second 1H delay device are additively combined to obtain 'V' component of PAL signal, and subtractively combined to obtain 'U' component thereof. 'V' component is synchronously detected, de-switched, and remodulated on R-Y phase of buried subcarrier (e.g., with frequency at (189/2) f.sub.H + 1/2 f.sub.V), while ' U' component is synchronously detected, and remodulated on B-Y phase of buried subcarrier. Remodulator outputs are combined with luminance signal to form composite color video output signal.

Transcoding apparatus

Luminance signals, subject to high frequency pre-emphasis, are applied to a first double-ended signal clipping circuit prior to combination with chrominance signals (in the form of modulated color subcarrier waves) to form a composite color video signal. The composite signal is fed to a second double-ended signal clipping circuit having clipping levels beyond those of the luminance signal clipper. The output of the second clipping circuit serves as the modulating signal input for a picture carrier frequency modulator.

Color video signal processing circuits

In playback of a video record (e.g., in video disc form) employing a FM carrier recording format, a defect compensation system is provided which substitutes delayed video signals for current video signals when a defect is encountered. The current video signals are obtained from the output of the player's pickup-responsive FM detector (illustratively of the zero-crossing detector type) via appropriate frequency responsive circuitry comprising a low pass filter (encompassing the recorded video signal bandwidth: e.g., 0-3 MHz.). To detect the occurrence of a defect, the FM detector output is also supplied to additional frequency responsive circuitry having a wideband response which desirably extends from DC to an upper frequency limit (e.g., 0-6 MHz.) well above the highest frequency of the video signal subject to recording. The wideband circuit output is supplied to pair of voltage level comparators, one supplying an output pulse of a given polarity whenever the wideband circuit output voltage level exceeds a level representative of the FM detector output for the maximum frequency of the FM carrier deviation range employed in recording, and the other supplying an output pulse of the given polarity whenever the wideband circuit output voltage level falls below a level representative of the FM detector output for the deviation range's minimum frequency. The comparator outputs are added together to form a defect indication signal. Switching between current and delayed video signals is controlled in response to the defect indication signal. Operation in the delayed signal mode is maintained for a short period after defect indication pulse termination (to allow video circuitry stabilization following the defect transient) by rendering a retriggerable one-shot responsive to the defect indication signal, and combining the output of the one-shot with the defect indication signal to form the switching control signal.

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Somerdale, NJ, United States of America

Michael D Ross