An apparatus records fluid level movement using a potentiometer that is rotated by a tape attached to a float and a counterweight. The output from the potentiometer is recorded by a microprocessor which is presettable for desired time intervals. Static friction in the moving parts causes small fluid displacement to go unrecorded until they accumulate to produce a larger rotation of the potentiometer, resulting in inaccurate data recording termed "staircasing." To overcome staircasing, before a r...

A tester exercises a DUT with a repetitive signal pattern, supplying a trigger signal for each repetition. The waveform on a conductor of the DUT is to be acquired by repeatedly measuring voltage at each of a number of sample points following the trigger, using a charged-particle probe system having an integrator-filter loop for analyzing energy of secondary particles. Before measurement at a sample point, integrator is reset and the filter voltage needed to settle the loop for the sample point ...

An automatic target acquisition and tracking system has been developed for a focal plane array seeker. The automatic target acquisition is achieved by three independent target acquisition algorithms, viz., the maximum likelihood classification, the video spatial clustering, and the target-to-interference ratio. Each algorithm operates asynchronously and provides independent target detection results. Target information is then combined hierarchically in a probabilistic fashion and prioritized. Th...

A method of acquiring frequency bursts in a PCN broadcast control channel, including the steps of: i) sampling PCN r.f. signals for successive blocks of time of duration of half the duration of a frequency burst; ii) determining the first block to have a spectrum level to exceed a threshold value, iii) comparing the spectrum levels of said first block and an adjacent block during successive occurrences of the frequency burst; and iv) adjusting the timing of the two blocks until the spectrum leve...

An information acquisition system for acquiring information which includes responses in answer to questions which participants have been asked by a radio or television broadcast program includes terminal equipment for inputting a response from a participant, an ATM network for transmitting, to a broadcasting station, information which includes the response inputted from the terminal equipment, network terminating equipment provided in the broadcasting station and connected to a predetermined ATM...

Data samples are obtained from a control device while in use to control a material process. Selected ones of these samples are stored which represent results of operating the device over portions of its characteristics, and they are selectively combined to provide an indication of the complete device characteristics. Selected such data samples are used provide information concerning selected control device parameters based on the device characteristics.

A modular data acquisition system includes a stacked assembly of a rain gauge module mounted on a data recorder module, in turn mounted on a water level sensor module which in turn is mounted on an observation well casing. Each module has a housing that is sized and configured to engage and nest with the adjacent housing and the housings can be locked together to minimize vandalism. The rain gauge module and the water level sensor module, have sensors that are electrically connected to a data re...

An analog data acquisition system in an integrated circuit automatically processes and stores analog data without sequencing support from a processor. The analog data acquisition system converts each analog input signal into digital data. The digital data are stored in registers in the integrated circuit that are directly readable by a digital signal processor without data moves and are directly usable by the digital signal processor without further processing or conversion. Consequently, the an...

Apparatus for acquiring and demodulating a communication signal employing a feedforward approach to minimize acquisition time. The apparatus includes a phase detection circuit for generating a phase difference signal indicative of the phase difference between an incoming signal and a local reference oscillator, and a phase rotation circuit for adjusting the phase of the local reference by the amount of the phase difference signal, so that the rotated local reference matches the phase of the inco...

A radiation detection and acquisition system including a plurality of radiation detector modules each characterized by the integration in a compact package of a scintillator probe and supporting electronics which provide digital pulse count signals in response to detected scintillations that may be transmitted by a differential line driver on twisted shielded wire pairs over great distances to a count signal processing unit while maintaining signal integrity. The digital pulse count output is in...