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:
Oct. 09, 2007
Filed:
Oct. 29, 2004
Kai Erik Thomenius, Clifton Park, NY (US);
Rayette Ann Fisher, Niskayuna, NY (US);
Robert Gideon Wodnicki, Niskayuna, NY (US);
Christopher Robert Hazard, Schenectady, NY (US);
Lowell Scott Smith, Niskayuna, NY (US);
David Martin Mills, Niskayuna, NY (US);
Kai Erik Thomenius, Clifton Park, NY (US);
Rayette Ann Fisher, Niskayuna, NY (US);
Robert Gideon Wodnicki, Niskayuna, NY (US);
Christopher Robert Hazard, Schenectady, NY (US);
Lowell Scott Smith, Niskayuna, NY (US);
David Martin Mills, Niskayuna, NY (US);
General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US);
Abstract
A device comprising an array of sensors that are reconfigurable by means of a switching network. The sensors may be optical, thermal or pressure sensors or ultrasonic transducers. More specifically, the device comprises: a multiplicity of sensor elements; a plurality of bus lines; a set of access switches for selectively connecting a set of the sensor elements in a row to a bus line, one of the access switches being connected to a first sensor element; a multiplicity of sets of matrix switches, each of the sets of matrix switches selectively connecting a respective sensor element of the multiplicity of sensor elements to a respective set of adjacent sensor elements, one of the matrix switches being connected to the first sensor element and to a second sensor element that is not a member of the set of sensor elements; and control circuitry that controls the access switches and the matrix switches in accordance with a selected switching configuration such that the first sensor element is connected to the bus line via said one access switch, while at the same time the second sensor element is connected to said one access switch via said one matrix switch.