Abstract: An optical integrated circuit comprises an optical substrate and an optical waveguide supported by the substrate. A transducer is incorporated into the optical integrated circuit and coupled to the optical substrate. The transducer comprises a region of piezo-electric material and a set of electrodes for applying a voltage to the piezo-electric material for selectively causing the deformation of the piezo-electric material so as to alter the optical path length of the waveguide.

Abstract: A system which utilizes a bar code having an instruction field whose data specifies an action to be performed and also having a reference field whose data relates to the data in the instruction field. The system reads the instruction and reference fields of the bar code and processess the read data. This processing may determine from the instruction field data that the action or actions to be taken are to be taken on data other than that in the reference field of the bar code. It also may determine from the data in the instruction field that an action to be taken on the data in the reference field is other than an action identified in the instruction field of the bar code. Based on these determinations, the system continues the processing using the appropriate action and data.A unique bar is also used in the system. This bar code, between its start and stop fields, has a separator field whose width is greater than that of any of the individual bar code characters.

Abstract: A system for voice distribution amongst a plurality of telephone subscriber locations operating on a broadband cable network wherein RF transmitting and RF receiving channels for carrying voice and signalling information are established at the subscriber locations and coupled with the broad band network and a central switch is also coupled with the broadband network and enables each RF transmitting channel to be selectively coupled to any of the RF receiving channels. The system is further providing with an adjusting means which is responsive to the traffic on the central switch and which enables the power level in each of the channels to be selectively adjusted.

Abstract: An improved digital parallel correlator is disclosed. Illustratively, the inventive correlator utilizes a shift register which receives a signal comprising data bits encoded as chips. At each cycle of the signal, the chips in the shift register are compared to a reference sequence and the number of matches is obtained. Whenever the number of matches exceeds a fixed high threshold or falls below a fixed low threshold, indicating the presence of a binary 1 or binary 0 data bit, the chips in the shift register are set to a predetermined sequence such as the reference sequence or its complement. This amounts to correcting any chips of a bit that are received in error as soon as it is determined that the bit is a binary 1 or binary 0. This enables the high and low thresholds to be located as far as possible from the peak correlation values thereby increasing the number of chips that can be received in error.

Abstract: A system for performing optical pattern recognition includes a first detector neural network for detecting the presence of a particular optical pattern in an input image and a second locator neural network for locating and/or removing the particular optical pattern from the input image. The detector network and the locator network both comprise nodes which can take on the -1, +1, or undefined states. The nodes are arranged in layers and each node in a layer has a location corresponding to a pixel in the input image. A particular application of this neural network is in finding the amount field on a check and removing the line which borders the amount field.

Abstract: A system and method for automatically processing machine printed forms which are filled out by hand are disclosed. The inventive system and method eliminate the use of a manual data entry step. Typically each form has one or more fields, each field having a machine printed field identifier such as the words "name" or "social security number" and the corresponding information which is filled in by hand. A scanner or other device forms a digital image of each form. An optical recognition engine searches the digital image of each form through use of an algorithm which can recognize machine printed but not handwritten characters to locate the fields in the digital image by locating the machine printed field identifiers. An offline handwritten character recognition algorithm is then utilized to recognize the handwritten characters in each individual field. Symbolic information corresponding to the recognized handwritten characters is then stored in a database in a memory.

Abstract: A station controller for use with a centrex exchange in which the controller provides lamping signal control for the lamps of telephone stations forming multi-station pick-up groups and wherein the controller further provides cable pair information for use in establishing and updating an equipment port/cable pair/telephone station correlation table in the centrex exchange.

Abstract: A gaming apparatus for use with a telephone network which supports standard DTMF tones and to which is connected telephone stations capable of generating standard DTMF tones wherein the gaming apparatus generates and transmits DTMF tones to a calling telephone station, receives response DTMF tones from a player at the calling station and compares the transmitted and received DTMF tones to determine if there is a match.

Abstract: A back-up battery system for a switching equipment load in a telephone central office wherein the back-up battery system includes one or more rechargeable batteries having cells floated at a given float voltage and of a number such that when the batteries are switched in circuit across the load, the voltage of the batteries exceeds a minimum load voltage for a preselected period, and further being of a number such that the float voltage of the batteries exceeds a maximum load voltage.

Abstract: A filter for filtering a speech signal to reduce acoustic noise is disclosed. In accordance with the inventive filter, the parameters of an all-pole vocal tract model are first estimated from the noisy signal using a least mean square algorithm as if no noise were present, and then the speech signal is filtered using an approximate limiting Kalman filter constructed according to the estimated parameters.

Abstract: An automatic telephone number identifier and method are provided wherein the seven digits of a telephone number developed in response to reentry of the number by a caller are validated by comparing the first three digits of the number to the NNX codes of the terminating central office of the trunk group carrying the call.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for recognizing destination addresses in information packets wherein a recognition that a destination address corresponds to a source address is made based upon a first match decision in which fragments of the destination address are compared with representations of corresponding fragments of source addresses and a second match decision in which fragments of a scrambled version of the destination address are compared with representations of corresponding fragments of similarly scrambled versions of the source addresses.

Abstract: A dual mode LMS channel equalizer is disclosed. The inventive channel equalizer utilizes an LMS algorithm to both identify channel parameters and to smooth the received data signal to mitigate the effects of channel additive noise. In real time operation, the inventive equalizer first identifies the channel parameters in a training period. Thereafter, the same LMS algorithm is switched to smooth the received data signal, while intermittently, the LMS algorithm is switched back to track the slowly changing channel parameters. In comparison with the conventional LMS adaptive channel equalizer, the inventive dual mode channel equalizer achieves a significant performance improvement at little additional cost.

Abstract: A circuit and method is disclosed for recovering the transmitter clock at a receiver in a direct sequence spread spectrum communication system where a transmitter and receiver run independent clocks of nominally the same frequency. At the receiver, to select the phase of the local clock that yields the strongest signal, a clock recovery circuitry cycles through M phases of the locally generated receiver clock. The cycling is halted and the phase is locked soon as an indication is obtained that a phase is valid. Alternatively, all M phases of the local clock are tested for validity or invalidity, and depending on the resulting pattern of valid and invalid phases, a particular phase is selected for the local clock. A phase is valid or invalid depending on whether there is a second correlation crossing at the expected instant one data bit period after a first correlation crossing.

Abstract: A housing apparatus for storing a data storage device comprising a disk-shaped body having a cavity for receiving the storage device and configured to be stored in a storage facility adapted to store and receive magnetic tape-type reels.

Abstract: An information network for connecting input communication devices using a number of different access protocols to network hosts in which a packet switch is provided for enabling and disabling communication paths betweeen the input devices and hosts and in which an enhanced network function server is able to be used during operation of the packet switch by an enhanced network function access module which permits access to the enhanced function server for the different access protocols.

Abstract: An acceptable or desired plan for changing the links of a telephone network is developed by using knowledge based rules to generate an ideal plan which meets first constraints, such as demand and modernization constraints, and by modifying the ideal plan to meet one or more second constraints, such as overall cost, while deviating minimally from the ideal plan.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for transmitting a stream of data bits in a spread spectrum format is disclosed. The inventive method comprises providing 2.sup.N predetermined spreading sequences, where N is equal to or larger than 2. The predetermined spreading sequences have suitable autocorrelation and cross-correlation properties. For each group of N bits in a stream of data bits to be transmitted, a particular one from the 2.sup.N predetermined spreading sequences is selected and transmitted. In this manner, each transmitted spreading sequence corresponds to a particular arrangement of N bits. The invention achieves an N-fold increase in data rate for a particular symbol rate by encoding N bits in a spreading sequence.