A video image of a relatively simple nature is produced by scanning using a conventional TV camera (1), and the scan results are converted into a Cartesian co-ordinate form for image analysis. This involves seeking a point of interest during the scan, the number of scan steps along a scan line as indicated by a counter (11) defining the point's location along the line. The point of interest's location in the other co-ordinate is indicated by the setting of a scan line counter (6). After each det...

A data communication receiver that provides very low pulse distortion at excellent sensitivity over a wide range of optical signal levels and simplified circuitry for the detection of data collisions. The receiver comprises an amplifier having a series of stages, all but one of which is directly coupled to the preceding stage and one of which is capacitively coupled by a capacitor that also functions as part of an RC differentiator. The output of the amplifier is a series of peak signals that ar...

A data carrier (preferably shaped as a credit card or the like) holds information about the owner, card issuing organization, account number, etc., and comprises an internal processor for processing supplied identification information of the owner during a card verification process, and for generating an acceptance signal as a result of a positive verification. The internal processor includes a verification device which comprises a sensor (2) for sensing a fingertip of the owner and obtaining co...

The decoder is capable of locating a data signal within any horizontal line of a video signal, thereby eliminating the necessity for keeping track of the line numbers. The pre-data portion is detected and the data portion is stored in the same register. DC level restoration of the video signal is performed periodically during digitizing. When the decoder is used to receive a data signal in the standard FCC waveform, the clock run in portion, normally used for synchronization in conventional deco...

The data synchronizer overcomes problems with mismatched recording and analyzing equipment and can be used for multiple channel recording. By preliminary analysis a reference point is located on the record signal and used to trigger the data processor. Each channel of the recorder is then played into the data processor using the data synchronizer to provide a triggering signal for the data processor. Each channel is thus able to be analyzed from the same time reference. The data synchronizer dec...

Data points for a sinusoidal waveform are assigned 2 bit values which indicate the state of the amplitude (positive or negative) and the slope of the sinusoidal signal at the particular data point (positive or negative). The 2 bit values for a plurality of sinusoidal waveforms are compared to determine the phase misalignment between the plurality of sinusoidal waveforms.

A stream of source characters, which occur with varying relative frequencies, is encoded into a compressed stream of codewords, each having one, two or three subwords, by ranking the source characters by their current frequency of appearance, encoding the source characters having ranks no higher than a first number as one sub-word codewords, source characters having ranks higher than the first number but no higher than a second number as two sub-word codewords, and the remaining source character...

In a method for transmitting interleaved data, when the respective data blocks to be transmitted are interleaved and augmented by the error correcting parity codes before being transmitted on the transmission channel, a prescribed number of dummy data are provided between the respective data blocks so that the data block and the neighboring data blocks are not in the interleaving relation. In this matter, data addition, correction and substitution can be made easily for each data block or a grou...

A data system for transmitting multi-state data streams between a data transmitting station (1,10) and a data receiving station (2), coupled together by a data transmission line (3). Associated with the data transmitting station (1,10) is an encoder (10) for encoding the data stream prior to transmission and associated with the data receiving station (2) is a decoder (23,24) for decoding the received signals. The encoder (10) comprises signal generating means (15,16,17) which selectively generat...

In a system in which a continuous, periodically repeated, pulse duration type signal is utilized to transmit information to a computer, the pulse duration type signal is converted into a series of clock pulses. The clock pulses are then counted for a period of time equal to the repetition period of the pulse duration type signal. This count is then latched and transferred to the computer to thereby accomplish the transfer of information to a computer by means of a continuous, periodically repeat...