The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 08, 1998
Filed:
Apr. 12, 1996
Gerhard Schafer, Weinsberg, DE;
Bernd Memmler, Rosengarten-Rieden, DE;
Temic Telefunken microelectronic GmbH, Heilbronn, DE;
Abstract
The invention relates to a method for detecting the beginning of time messages in the signal received from a time-signal transmitter. The signal of the time-signal transmitter consists of a series of blanking intervals on a carrier signal in the seconds clock cycle in which blanking intervals of different length cause different information units to be transmitted (ZERO pulse, ONE pulse, frame pulse). A time message, comprising the information units transmitted over a period of one minute, contains the actual time information in coded form. The time message has areas/sectors with defined, constant information units and areas/sectors with variable contents that code the time information. A reference message is stored in a first area of memory that contains the defined, constant information units that are located in fixed areas/sectors. A number of successive information units corresponding to the length of a time message are stored in a second area of memory. The contents of the first area of memory are compared unit for unit with the second area of memory. If an error occurs during comparison, the reference message in the first area of memory is shifted by one unit with respect to the received information units and subsequently compared again until no error occurs. When agreement is established, the number of shifts is used to determine the beginning of the received time message.