Abstract: Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture consistent with the present invention determine the type of damage to a wire, the amount of damage, and the location of the damage based on the wire's broadband impedance measured from a single measurement point. The type of damage is determined by comparing the wire's calculated dielectric function, resistance and inductance to known values that correspond to types of wire damage. The amount of damage is determined by comparing the wire's low-frequency impedance phase to known low-frequency impedance phase information that corresponds to a known amount of wire damage. The location of damage is determined by comparing the wire's high-frequency impedance phase to known high-frequency impedance phase information that corresponds to a known location of wire damage.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture consistent with the present invention provide for determining the location of a short circuit in a branched wiring system. The distance from the short circuit to an impedance measurement point is determined based on a measured impedance of the branched wiring system. The branch in which the short circuit is located is then determined by identifying a calculated high-frequency impedance phase spectrum for the branched wiring system with one of the branches short-circuited that correlates to a measured high-frequency impedance phase spectrum for the branched wiring system. The measured high-frequency impedance phase spectrum is measured from the impedance measurement point.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture consistent with the present invention provide for identifying and locating wire damage on a wire. Broadband impedance phase and magnitude information for the wire is obtained. Potential wire damage on the wire is identified by analyzing the wire's low-frequency impedance phase information. The location of the wire damage is found by analyzing the wire's low-frequency impedance magnitude information.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture consistent with the present invention provide for determining the environmental resistance of a wire insulation. The broadband impedance of the wire is obtained before and after the wire is exposed to an environmental condition. The real and imaginary components of the dielectric functions are then extracted from the broadband impedances. A tangent of a ratio of the imaginary component to the real component of the dielectric function of the wire prior to exposure is compared to a tangent of a ratio of the imaginary component to the real component of the dielectric function of the wire after to exposure. The two tangents are then compared to determine the environmental resistant of the insulation.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for driving a passive liquid crystal display to obtain a high contrast ratio for both still image and video modes includes driving some or all of the row lines simultaneously. The row voltage wave forms are defined as a set of orthogonal functions and the column voltage wave forms are defined as a linear combination of the row voltages. The mean square voltage across each pixel and row is specified, and the corresponding column coefficient is calculated from which all coefficients in a column can be determined.

Abstract: The inventive method calculates the column coefficients for a liquid crystal display panel. By using this method, the invention shows that the select/nonselect ratio can be maximized by the following ways: (1) Scaling the image to the maximally physically realizable select/nonselect ration via the following equation ##EQU1## (2) Choosing an optimum value for row rms voltage "F", (3) Altering the statistics of an image, to reduce the variance of the different columns and/or increase the average of the columns, (4) Altering an image through fastest ascent or minimal error methods and (5) Designing the image to be predominantly at high rms voltage states. The select/nonselect ratio determines the available voltage range to achieve gray scale or variation in intensity. By maximizing the select/nonselect ratio, the present invention is able to obtain a wider range of intensity variation, i.e. larger contrast ratio.