Abstract: The disclosure relates to a compact optical device, intended for use in a night vision telescope, that includes an objective, a standard light intensifier that rotates the image through 180° between its entry and its exit, an eyepiece, and four optical deflections, one in the objective and three in the eyepiece. The eyepiece, producing a single intermediate image between its entry and its exit, includes a combiner whose deflection angle ? depends on its optical index n and the half-field ? of the device. The field width of the device is at least 40°. The invention is applicable notably to night vision binoculars for aircraft or helicopter pilots.

Abstract: A device for distributing information and its fault management process which improves the robustness of a network, such as in an aircraft, a boat, or a train. The device or process includes one or more splitters of which an upstream input output is linked to a first end of a chain including stations, at lower overdimensioning cost, and with dynamic management of a fault which renders it transparent or of very short duration. A second end of the chain is linked to a downstream input output of another splitter and a fault management procedure is implemented activating or otherwise one of the ends of a chain depending on the nature and the conditions of the fault. Preferably, addresses of the elements of the network can reflect its topology and facilitate the shunting of the addresses of the stations between splitters.

Abstract: A device for the operating of an automative cruise control system for an automobile vehicle comprises means to separate the travel of the accelerator pedal into two parts. The depressing of the pedal in the first travel part engages the automotive cruise control system, the pull-back force of the pedal being smaller in the first travel part than in the second travel part. The device can be applied especially to vehicles equipped with means for checking the distance and/or the speed of obstacles located in the path of the vehicle, the pace of these vehicles being regulated or controlled as a function of the information on distance and/or speed given by said means. More generally, it can be applied to any vehicles equipped means of automative cruise control.

Abstract: Oxygen breathing masks with a sound pickup device. A microphone capsule of the sound pick-up device is positioned at the base of a mouth-piece whose aperture is placed just before the mask user's mouth. Such a mask may find particular application for aircraft pilots.

Abstract: A short wave high efficiency radio broadcasting transmitter for digital transmissions. The transmitter includes a power tube in which the grid is excited by a variable phase signal through an excitation device and in which the anode is amplitude modulated by the output signal from a modulator. The phase and amplitude signals applied to the grid and anode of the tube respectively represent the phase and amplitude of the complex signal to be transmitted. The amplification characteristic of the excitation device remains linear for low amplitudes of the signal to be transmitted and operates under saturated conditions when the amplitude of the signal to be transmitted exceeds a given threshold value, so that the amplification characteristic of the transmitter as a whole remains linear independently of the amplitude of the signal to be transmitted. Such a transmitter may find particular application as a short wave transmitter.

Abstract: The systematic, and possibly repeated, acquisition of several distinct quantities for exploitation by a user system by utilizing a multiplexer with staged architecture without all inputs hard-wired. Each multiplexer stage is addressed by an elementary counter chained with elementary counters for addressing lower stages. The multiplexer inputs are scanned by regularly incrementing the chain of counters. If no precaution is taken, all the multiplexer inputs are scanned without considering their possible absences. To remedy this drawback a first elementary counter addresses the first stage of adjustable counting capacity switches, the elementary counters can address intermediate stages of the switches with controllable shunting circuits, and a global counter is reconfigured, at the end of each counting cycle of the first elementary counter, by commands adjusting the first elementary counter capacity, and activating or inhibiting the shunting circuits.

Abstract: A device for the operating of an automative cruise control system for an automobile vehicle comprises means to separate the travel of the accelerator pedal into two parts. The depressing of the pedal in the first travel part engages the automotive cruise control system, the pull-back force of the pedal being smaller in the first travel part than in the second travel part. The device can be applied especially to vehicles equipped with means for checking the distance and/or the speed of obstacles located in the path of the vehicle, the pace of these vehicles being regulated or controlled as a function of the information on distance and/or speed given by said means. More generally, it can be applied to any vehicles equipped means of automative cruise control.

Abstract: The invention relates to a process and a system for voice recognition in a noisy signal. In a preferred embodiment, the system (2) comprises modules for detecting speech (30) and for formulating a noise model (31), a module (40) for quantifying the energy level of the noise and for comparing with preestablished energy spans, a parameterization pathway (5) comprising an optional denoising module (51), with Wiener filter, a module (52) for calculating the spectral energy in Bark windows, a module (50, 530) for applying a configuration of shift values (531), by adding these values to the Bark coefficients, as a function of the quantification (40), so as to modify the parameterization, a module (54) for calculating vectors of parameters, and a block (6) for recognizing shapes, performing the voice recognition by comparison with vectors of parameters prerecorded during a learning phase.

Abstract: The invention relates to a new type of encapsulated surface acoustic wave component and to a method for the batch production of such components. The component comprises a surface acoustic wave device on the surface of a substrate. The encapsulation package furthermore comprises the substrate, a first layer located on the substrate and hollowed out locally at least at the level of the active surface of the surface acoustic wave device, a printed circuit covering entire first layer and conductive via holes going through the unit formed by the first layer and the printed circuit so as to provide for the electrical connection of the surface acoustic wave device from the exterior.

Abstract: A process for the separation of static and dynamic components of a sequence of images separated in time and taken under the same conditions. The process includes recording a first intensity of a first pixel in at least one area in the sequence of images, recording subsequent intensities for identical pixels to the first pixel in subsequent recorded images, and using pixel intensity sort criteria on intensity changes between the first intensity and the subsequent intensities to discriminate in the subsequent recorded images pixels showing minimal intensity changes from pixels showing larger intensity changes as the sequence process. The process includes forming from the pixels showing minimal intensity changes a part of the static component of the sequence of images.

Abstract: A quantum well made out of a the stack of layers of III-V semiconductor materials comprises, in addition to the quantum well, an electron storage layer separated from the quantum well by a transfer barrier layer. The barrier layer has a thickness that is greater than the thickness of the quantum well by about one order of magnitude. This barrier thus enables the separation of the absorption function (in the quantum well) and the function of reading the photocarriers (in the storage layer) and therefore the limiting of the rate of recombination of the carriers, thus improving the performance characteristics of the detector.

Abstract: An optical device for a system presenting collimated images through an off-axis spherical concave mirror. An image can be presented to a user with correction of eccentric distortion caused by the off-axis spherical concave mirror without altering the quality of the image. A diffractive mirror is set in the neighborhood of an intermediate image, and preferably a second intermediate image. The extent of the neighborhood is limited by image resolution and, in the neighborhood, the correction by the diffractive mirror does not alter the resolution. The diffractive mirror may include a hologram which may be digital or made of a photosensitive material. A hologram substrate is preferably not planar to operate partly upon the correction, the residual correction being carried out by the hologram. Such a device may find application to an aircraft pilot's visor.

Abstract: A quantum encryption device comprises a transmitter and a receiver between which an encrypted piece of information is transmitted. The transmitter comprises at least means to send a first packet of photons and an information photon to the receiver, the appearance of the information photon following the packet being lagged by a period of time &tgr; according to a law of probability. The transmitter also comprises means for the encoding of the information photon. The receiver comprises at least means for the encoding of a second packet of photons coming from the first packet and substantially lagged by the period of time &tgr; with respect to this packet, and interference means to make an information photon interfere with the second packet of photons. These interference means provide a packet of photons to create a quantity of photons substantially equal to ±2 times the variance of the noise due to the second packet. The invention can be applied to the industrial-scale making of encryption systems.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to an optical disk of the type including at least one spiral track on which information marks are written in sectors whose addresses are substantially sequential along the track, wherein said disk includes a copy protection zone (PZ) comprising two parts of equal size each including a series of sectors designated by identical addresses on each of the two parts, the data written in this zone being shared between the sectors of the two parts, each sector of the zone also carrying an identifier (D1, D2) characteristic of the part to which the sector belongs, and specific protection data to enable verification of the presence and constitution of said protection zone (PZ) and to enable use of the data written in this zone, at least part of said specific protection data being recorded on said disk. The invention is notably applicable to anti-piracy protection of CD-ROM and DVD-ROM type disks.

Abstract: A process for neutralizing a tube of a high power digital radio broadcasting transmitter includes modulating two quadrature signals I(t), Q(t) at a transmission frequency (F0) by a modulator to control a grid of the tube which is configured to work at saturation with a gain V2. A phase-modulated input signal E(t) output from the modulator is amplified by an amplifier which is configured to work at saturation with a gain V1. The input signal E(t) is predistorted by digital means so as to compensate for an undesirable coupling between an anode and the grid of the tube of the transmitter so that an output of the transmitter corresponds to a desired output signal S(t). A corrector signal W(t) is calculated using the expression W(t)=jg(t)S(t).

Abstract: Disclosed are a digital display camera in a changing environment and an associated method of digital control. The method can be applied more particularly to digital cameras for endoscopy. It enables a user to access a very large number of parameters of settings while at the same time using only a limited number of data inputs. The camera is constituted by an optoelectrical detection head (DH) and a processing unit (PU) connected to the detection head. The processing unit is provided with a keyboard (FFK) and is connected to a remote control unit (RC). The processing unit (PU) contains pre-recorded digital functions, each enabling the setting of at least one parameter of the camera, as well as options that are characteristic of a given environment, grouping together a set of said functions.

Abstract: A method of controlling a unipolar semiconductor laser in the 4-12 &mgr;m mid-infrared range. This is an optical control method, unlike a purely electrical, power control method which injects a relatively large flux of electrons. The optical control method may advantageously include two optical beams of the same wavelength and a device for making those beams interfere in the active layer of the laser, the optical control beams having a much shorter wavelength than the wavelength of the unipolar laser and having a frequency capable of being modulated more rapidly than that of the laser.

Abstract: A process for the fabrication of a multielement acoustic probe. A flexible circuit having conducting tracks on at least one of its sides is used. This circuit is joined to a plate of piezoelectric material having metallizations. Vias are produced through the flexible circuit in order to address the metallizations and to produce electrical contacts within the vias. This process may be used in echography probes.

Abstract: An electronic keyboard, in particular one to be used in a dark environment and which therefore requires illumination of the keys. The keyboard includes a rigid printed circuit on which are soldered switches which can be actuated indirectly by the finger of the user, each switch being surmounted by an at least partially transparent key and an illumination device designed to illuminate the key from the rear of the key. A flexible printed circuit, carrying supply conductors for light-emitting diodes, is interposed between the keys and the rigid printed circuit carrying the switches. The flexible printed circuit includes a rigid part between a key and the corresponding switch, and the light-emitting diode which is to illuminate each key from the rear is soldered on the rigid part of the flexible printed circuit, between the key and the switch. The key preferably includes a cavity in which the diode will be housed. A key bears on the switch by way of the rigid part without bearing on the diode.

Abstract: A process for the construction of LDPC codes including N symbols, of which K are free, each code being defined by a check matrix A including M=N−K rows, N columns, and t nonzero symbols in each column. The method includes allocating the same number of nonzero symbols to all the rows of the check matrix A, taking t to be the smallest possible odd number, defining the columns of A such that any two columns of the check matrix A have at most one nonzero value in a common position, and defining the rows of A such that any two rows of the check matrix A have only one nonzero value in a common position.