Abstract: A hybrid cellular mobile communication system is disclosed that contains a first layer having a plurality of radio communication micro-cells, and a second layer of radio communication cells of a larger size which, in operation, overlay the micro-cells. The hybrid cellular system provides that when a control switching center detects rapid amounts of micro-cell to micro-cell transfers of an ongoing call (such as when a call is occurring from a car moving on a highway), the call is transferred to the second cellular layer for handling. The second cellular layer includes cells which cover a larger geometric area, thereby reducing the number of "hand-offs" or transfers that the call would undergo when the mobile telephone user is traveling quickly across the geographic areas covered by the micro-cells.

Abstract: A sensor failure and detection apparatus and method for use in a redundant sensor system are disclosed. A control circuit disconnects reference power supplied to a sensor and then monitors the voltage decay output by the sensor. The monitored rate of voltage decay of the sensor is compared to the expected natural voltage decay of the sensor to detect failures caused by short or open circuits. An error counter keeps track of the number of failures. After a threshold number of times in which the monitored voltage decay does not compare to a predicted rate of decay, power to the sensor is removed and the sensor is isolated from the system.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a digital signal processor having a local buffer for storing decoded instruction words during the first pass through a program loop, so that subsequent iterations through the program loop can be accomplished without the use of the instruction fetch and decode circuitry, thereby saving power.

Abstract: The sealing apparatus of the present invention is a sample cuvette cap having a hole for inserting the nozzle of an auto-sampler therethrough. Located within the lumen of the hole is a small detent ball that can be positioned to block the lumen. The detent ball, which can be spring-operated or gravity-operated, blocks the fluid flow in the hole in its normal, closed position. When the auto-sampler nozzle hits the ball, the ball becomes deflected to one side into a recess, due to a difference in the nozzle axis relative to the center of the ball. By the dislocating the detent ball, the nozzle can be inserted into the cuvette smoothly as the air goes in and out through the space around the nozzle. This allows the pressure in the cuvette to be kept constant. After the nozzle is removed, the ball returns to its original position by gravity or by the force of a spring, resealing the cuvette. All of the parts for the sealing apparatus are solid parts which can be easily cleaned and reused.

Abstract: An integrated premixture chamber is disclosed, for mixing gaseous fuel and air for delivery to a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine. The integrated premixture chamber includes a mass air flow sensor, a throttle valve and position sensor, a fuel shut-off valve, a gas flow sensor and a fuel metering valve having discharge outlets downstream of the mass air flow sensor to provide more accurate metering. The integrated premixture chamber is controlled by an electronic unit separate from the engine's control unit.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for controlling the display of progressively refreshed decoded compressed image representative data is disclosed. Subframes of intracoded video signals, and subframes of intercoded video signals based on the intracoded video signals of successive video frames are used to construct a reference video frame. Refresh descriptor data is provided indicating the number of video frames necessary for acquiring intracoded video signals to form the reference video frame. The display of video frames is inhibited based on the refresh descriptor data until a suitable video frame of intracoded video signals and intercoded video signals based thereon is constructed. In another embodiment of the invention, at least one array of memory elements is provided for storing data corresponding to the subframes of a video frame. Each subframe of a video frame corresponds to one element of the memory array.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for varying the slew rate of a digital AGC circuit is disclosed. A gain amplifier receiving an analog signal from a tuner is converted by an A/D converter into a digital form. An ABS circuit then obtains an absolute value level of the signal, which is then low pass filtered. The filtered signal is compared to a reference level to determine if the gain should be increased or decreased. The filtered signal is also communicated to a lock detect circuit to determine how far out of the desired range the signal is, thereby requiring large step changes for a fast, coarse adjustment or smaller step changes fine adjustment of the gain. An integrator combines the two results to determine the varying slew rate of the gain signal, which is converted back to the analog domain to control the amplifier.