Abstract: A mass memory storage system, capable of recording and/or playing back optical discs in any optical disc format. The system contains a plurality of optical discs arranged in a vertical array in the shape of a doughnut with no hole in the middle, each disc being stored in a separate radially oriented track. The system employs a central disc transport mechanism comprised of a plurality of read-head modules each of which is capable of picking up and reading data from or writing data to any optical disc in the system. The read-head modules are mounted on a central bi-directionally rotating platform driven by a stepper motor through a gear assembly. Each track contains one sunken area to store an optical disc and one sunken area from which the optical disc may be picked up by a read-head module. The stepper motor and the read-head modules are under control of a microprocessor.

Abstract: A process for converting the acid sludge produced by waste oil refineries into an acid sludge intermediary which can be used in the production of asphaltic mixtures. The process includes contacting the entire surface area of acid sludge with a pH altering agent such as an aqueous inorganic liquid, and separating the liquid layer from the sludge layer, thereby producing an intermediate sludge having properties which make it suitable for use in asphalt production.

Abstract: A YIG notch filter using full RF coupling loops and having a notch filter center frequency tunable as high as 18 GHz comprising a plurality of undoped YIG spheres of much smaller volume than used in the prior art and linearly arranged in a air gap. The spheres are suspended in cavities in a nonmagnetic block which are spaced much more closely than in the prior art. The 50 ohm stripline impedance inverters formed on a substrate and connecting the RF coupling loops of the spheres used in the prior art are eliminated. The quarter-wavelength impedance inverter function necessary to fabricate a notch filter is implemented by using the RF coupling loops themselves and measuring the distance from centerline to centerline of adjacent RF coupling loops. Twin insulated wires with up to one diameter separation for the RF coupling loops are preferred with the wires soldered together between the spheres.

Abstract: An integrated scanning tunneling microscope and an integrated piezoelectric transducer and methods for making both. The device consists of one or two arm piezoelectric bimorph cantilevers formed by micromachining using standard integrated circuit processing steps. These cantilevers are attached to the substrate at one area and are free to move under the influence of piezoelectric forces which are caused by the application of appropriate voltages generated by control circuitry and applied to pairs of electrodes formed as an integral part of the bimorph cantilever structure. The electric fields caused by the control voltages cause the piezoelectric bimorphs to move in any desired fashion within ranges determined by the design. The bimorph cantilevers have tips with very sharp points formed thereon which are moved by the action of the control circuit and the piezoelectric bimorphs so to stay within a very small distance of a conducting surface.

Abstract: A method for injecting viscous material into the eye. In the injection into the eye, sufficient material is injected to separate a membrane from the retina so that intraocular scissors may be manipulated between the membrane and the retina to cut the attachment points. The membrane is then aspirated away. The injection is done using a standard glue injector with a one-shot and a continuous mode. The glue injector is pneumatically coupled through a sterile filter and a custom adaptor to a sterile syringe storing the material to be injected.

Abstract: A pressure-sensitive control device for a simulated vehicle in a video game or simulator. In the preferred embodiment a brake pedal control device is implemented having a strain gauge which senses the strain in the material of the brake pedal. This strain is amplified by a differential amplifier having a self-adjusting input circuit with a long time constant which causes any variations in the input voltage not due to changing strain on the brake pedal to be applied to both inputs of a differential amplifier in common mode, thereby cancelling the effect thereof. Only voltage differences resulting from variations in the strain on the brake pedal are amplified by the differential amplifier and output for use by the video game or simulator.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for injecting viscous material into the body. In the case of injection into the eye, sufficient material is injected to separate a membrane from the retina so that intraocular scissors may be manipulated between the membrane and the retina to cut the attachment points. The membrane is then aspirated away. The injection is done using a standard glue injector with a one-shot and a continuous mode. The glue injector is pneumatically coupled through a sterile filter and a custom adaptor to a sterile syringe storing the material to be injected.

Abstract: An apparatus detects stoppage of a motor of a power driven screwdriver due to the excess load. After detecting stoppage, power to the motor is increased gradually to a predetermined value to firmly tighten the screw. The time of increase of power is determined at an arbitrary value.

Abstract: A bimorph using ultraviolet setting glue to laminate a piezoelectric film structure, having etched-back metalization patterns on the surfaces of the piezoelectric film. The bimorph is used in a bimorph light modulator including a substrate on which fiber optic input and output light guides are mounted. A gap between the light guides serve as an optical coupling. A bimorph is affixed to the substrate with a shutter attached to one end thereof and positioned within the gap for blocking the light coupling when the bimorph is in the unenergized state. When the bimorph is energized, it pulls the shutter out of the gap, thereby allowing light coupling. Top and bottom stops are used to limit the bimorph movement to damp resonant vibrations and improve on and off times. Viscous air damping is used to eliminate or minimize bounce of the top and bottom stops and to help damp resonant vibration.

Abstract: There is disclosed herein a machine for performing nucleic acid amplification under computer control. The machine utilizes any one of a number of heating and cooling systems under control of a host computer which directs the heating and cooling systems to heat and cool a reaction-chamber-containing heat exchanger at appropriate times in the process. The reaction chambers are pre-loaded with the nucleic acid(s) to be amplified, a thermostable enzyme to catalyze polymerization, specific oligonucleotide primers, and four different nucleotide triphosphates. Also disclosed is the process for the amplification chain reaction implemented by the machine, which utilizes a thermostable enzyme.

Abstract: A system for controlling an electromechanical system comprised of a number of electromechanical devices such as solenoid operated valves, motor, relays and other devices. The control system is comprised of a central processing unit and control software plus suitable interface circuitry to convert the digital data from the central processing unit into suitable control signals to operate the electromechanical devices. The control software is characterized by the ability to allow users to either select preprogrammed sequences of commands to be executed by the computer or to program unique sequence at either of two levels of complexity.

Abstract: There is disclosed herein several gas resupply valves for replenishment of lost gas in gas lasers in general and argon ion lasers in particular. The first embodiment uses a valve which controls flow of gas into a metering volume. The metering volume has an aperture therein which is microscopically small and which has a diffusion constant for gas moving through the aperture which is less than the time the valve is held open. The second embodiment uses the same general structure, but separates the soft sealing member of the valve from the solenoid core which moves to open and close the valve. The soft sealing member is attached to the valve body and supported above a valve seat surrounding the opening of the metering volume. The third embodiment uses a thin diaphragm which overlies a flat surface of the valve body in which are formed an input port and an output port. A solenoid applies pressure against the diaphragm to cause it to flatten against the flat surface thereby sealing the valve.

Abstract: A bit serial multiplier suitable for pipelined operations. This multiplier uses a conventional bit serial multiplier cell using Booth's algorithm and stored carry architecture, but modified in several respects. First, the partial product and carry storage registers may be put in a hold state so that their contents remain constant over as many clock cycles as a stall signal is asserted so that data may be inserted in the pipeline without destroying pipeline synchronization. Second, there are added two shift registers one of which parallel loads the partial product bits and the other of which loads the carry bits as each set of bits exists after all the multiplier bits have been shifted into the multiplier. After the parallel loading process, the partial product and carry latches in the main cell are cleared thereby allowing another multiplication with different operands to begin.

Abstract: There is disclosed herein a non linear transmission line comprised of a 50 ohm coplanar monolithic waveguide formed on top of a gallium arsenide substrate having a layer of lightly doped epitaxial gallium arsenide with a heavily doped buried layer, said epitaxial layer having spaced, electrically isolated islands. A self aligned Schottky diode junction is formed at the intersection of each isolation island with the center conductor of the transmission line. The second conductor of the transmission line is coupled through a contact window and an ohmic contact to the buried layer in each isolation island.

Abstract: A driving simulator for a video game is disclosed. It includes an apparatus and method for moving the visual display of the dashboard relative to the visual display of the outside scene by horizontal scrolling when the car is being turned. A model processor calculates an acceleration vector acting on the drivers head based upon conditions affecting the vehicle such as acceleration during turns. This acceleration vector is scaled and converted to an integer from floating point. The integer value is then digitally low pass filtered to eliminate the graininess of the discrete nature of the process. Finally two routines are called which use the integer data to calculate where the dash, mirror and cab sidepost are to be displayed in the scene of the simulated environment displayed to the driver. Another routine is then called to load the appropriate data into the hardware which performs the scrolling.

Abstract: There is disclosed herein a driver system for an ultrasonic probe for allowing a user to have proportional control of the power dissipated in the probe in accordance with the position of power dissipation controls operable by the user and for automatically tuning upon user request such that the driving frequency is equal to the mechanical resonant frequency of said probe and such that the reactive component of the load impedance represented by said probe is tuned out. The system uses a tunable inductor in series with the piezoelectric crystal excitation transducer in the probe which has a flux modulation coil. The bias current through this flux modulation coil is controlled by the system. It is controlled such that the inductance of the tunable inductor cancels out the capacitive reactance of the load impedance presented by the probe when the probe is being driven by a driving signal which matches the mechanical resonance frequency of the probe.

Abstract: There is disclosed herein an apparatus and method for performing liquid chromatography analysis with a stable baseline. The apparatus utilizes positive displacement means on each of two flow paths and a control system to regulate the flow such that the flow in both flow paths is identical. Only one flow path has sample injected therein. Each flow path is passed through a separate liquid chromatography column and a common detector at the output end of each column. Since one flow path contains solvent only and the other flow path contains both solvent and sample, any changes in the characteristics of the output streams of the liquid chromatography columns caused by changes in the solvent composition itself have a common mode. Therefore, only the difference signal is output from the detector which indicates changes in the characteristics of the output stream of the sample flow path caused solely by the presence of the sample components.

Abstract: There is disclosed herein an apparatus and method for performing liquid chromatography analysis with a stable baseline. The apparatus utilizes positive displacement means on each of two flow paths and a control system to regulate the flow such that the flow in both flow paths is identical. Only one flow path has sample injected therein. Each flow path is passed through a separate liquid chromatography column and a common detector at the output end of each column. Since flow path contains solvent only and the flow path contains both solvent and sample, any changes in the characteristics of the output streams of the liquid chromatography columns caused by changes in the solvent composition itself have a common mode. Therefore, only the difference signal is output from the detector which indicates changes in the characteristics of the output stream of the sample flow path caused solely by the presence of the sample components.