Programmable spectrophotometer using a data memory for storing a

Abstract

A color measuring system includes a portable spectrophotometer connectable to a general-purpose computer. The portable unit includes a microprocessor with a read-only program memory storing machine executable instructions to implement data processing for color measurement purposes and input/output functions including key reading and data transfer functions and display functions. A random-access data memory is used to temporarily store process data for later transfer to the general-purpose computer. An editor program and a compiler program in the general-purpose computer may be used to generate a program for the microprocessor using high-level, generalized commands. After such a program has been written and compiled in the general-purpose computer, it is transferred to a command buffer area in the random-access data memory of the microprocessor. The microprocessor, in its program memory, includes a command interpreter including a predefined sequence of machine executable instructions for each generalized command. When executed, the command interpreter reads a generalized command from the data memory and, if necessary, updates relevant data pointers and executes the predefined sequence of machine executable functions in the program memory corresponding to the generalized command being processed. A user, using the general-purpose computer, may specify any desired sequence of measurement operations by specifying functions to be performed by the microprocessor, including the display of prompts to the operator of the portable spectrophotometer to instruct the operator to perform various specified operations.