Data Translation, Inc.

Stephen A Connors

John R Fierke

Suzanne G Ianni

A data acquisition circuit for receiving an analog input signal having a magnitude representing light intensity detected by a sequentially accessed, linear array of photocells of a line scan camera and providing digital data signals for use by a computer, the circuit including an analog-to-digital converter to convert said analog input signal to a stream of digital intensity signals, an offset memory storing offset correction values for respective photocells, a gain memory storing gain correction values for respective photocells, an adder connected to add or subtract the digital intensity signal for a given photocell to the offset correction value for that photocell and provide an offset-corrected digital signal, a multiplier connected to multiply the offset-corrected digital signal for a given photocell times the gain correction value for that photocell to provide a calibrated digital signal. Also disclosed are: comparing, on a photocell-by-photocell (i.e., pixel-by-pixel) basis, the value of the digital intensity signal for each photocell with a respective threshold value stored in a threshold memory; a processing circuit that determines when the intensity values for adjacent photocells in the linear array in the line scan camera have a change in value and stores identification of the photocell at which there was a change in value; and a data compressor that receives parallel multibit intensity signals and provides single bit signals based on the values of the parallel multibit signals and a serial-to-parallel converter that sequentially stores the single multibit signals and groups a plurality of them together into a compressed, parallel multibit signal.

System for locating failure signals by comparing input data with stored

A data acquisition circuit is disclosed which provides sampled input voltage signals generated in a hostile environment to an input device, for example, the input circuitry of a computer. The data acquisition circuit provides electrical isolation to prevent damage to the input circuitry caused by electrical transients and short circuits occurring in the hostile environment and is particularly useful for sampling input data from thermocouples because it eliminates the need for an isolated power supply normally used to detect broken thermocouples.

Growing community of inventors

Center Barnstead, NH, United States of America

Stephen A Connors