An instantaneous compressor and an instantaneous expandor both of which use the logarithmic characteristics of diodes to provide compression and expansion, respectively, of uncompressed analog PAM signals and compressed analog PAM signals. Both the compressor and expandor also include circuitry having a temperature dependent gain characteristic. The signal at the compressor output is a temperature independent compressed analog signal which follows the compressor's logarithmic encoding characteri...

The invention relates to switches used in the automatic drive control of hoisting and conveying plant, machine-tools and other industrial equipment and, more specifically, to instantaneous switches used as limit switches. The instantaneous switch contains fixed contacts, fastened to the base, movable contacts, an operating element, two levers and two spiral springs. The ends of the levers are connected to the ends of the springs and bear against the fixed limit stops made fast to the base. The f...

A circuit, for detecting a junction temperature of an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) which is alternately biased on and off in response to a gate signal, includes a differentiator circuit operable to receive a collector to emitter voltage of the IGBT and produce an output voltage proportional to a rate at which the collector to emitter voltage changes; and a feedback circuit operable to receive the output voltage and alter the gate signal when the output voltage indicates that the rate...

An insulated composite hot water heater is disclosed. The heater comprises an inner plastic pressure vessel for storing and heating water. The pressure vessel has an access opening provided with a removable closure plate. A heat exchanger unit is provided within said pressure vessel and retained therein by the closure plate. An outer housing surrounds the inner plastic pressure vessel and a thermal insulating material is interposed between the vessel and the housing.

An instantaneous connection device includes a tubular body and a tight element which is used to hold the end of a line in the body and includes a holding element arranged to receive the end of the line and a cam element arranged between the body and the holding element and used to move the holding element from a free state into a state wherein it grips the end of the line when it is axially displaced in the tubular body between a first position and a second position. The holding element includes...

A system for instantaneously monitoring traffic congestion including a plurality of monitoring electronic devices located in motor vehicles traveling on roadways in a selected region. Each monitoring electronic device is coupled to a GPS receiver that provides physical location to a wireless modem capable of connecting to a wireless communication network. The system also includes a central computer connected to a wide area network that is able of continuously downloading physical location inform...

An apparatus comprising a first oscillator, a second oscillator and a logic circuit. The first oscillator circuit may be configured to generate a first clock signal. The second oscillator circuit may be configured to generate a second clock signal. The logic circuit may be configured to generate an output clock signal by selecting either the first clock signal or the second clock signal.

A method of seismic data processing is described in which a particular wavelet is selected from a plurality of wavelets as being most characteristic of a received seismic signal. A subtracted signal can be determined by subtracting a weighted signal of the particular wavelet from the received signal. From the subtracted signal, an additional particular wavelet can be chosen. The process of subtracting a signal and determining an additional particular one of the plurality of wavelets can be repea...

This invention relates to a system for measuring in real time, by auto-correlation, the period and frequency of a periodic biomedical source signal with random components such as an ultrasound doppler fetal heart beat signal. Before and during delivery of a fetus, the invention enables an obstetrician to continuously monitor and record the heart rate of the fetus in real time.

A motor circuit protector that trips in accordance with an instantaneous trip curve that is split into three protection regions, a self-protection region, an in-rush avoidance region, and a locked-rotor avoidance region. Software modules for detecting whether primary current exceeds each region are run in parallel or simultaneously, providing redundant instantaneous trip detection, and these redundant protection regions remain active throughout the startup and steady-state modes of operation of ...