Abstract: A smart electrical socket includes an electrical socket, an output relay, an energy unit, and a control unit. The output relay is connected between a power line and the electrical socket and upon receipt of a deactivation signal from the control unit can remove the power to the electrical socket. The energy unit includes an interrupt status register to provide an accurate interval timer. The control unit includes a processor and a temperature sensor, and the temperature is measured at certain time intervals provided by the energy unit, at the processor or at the electrical socket. The output relay is operated to shut off the power to a load if the temperature is greater than a threshold temperature.

Abstract: An improved rotating electric field ion mass spectrometer (REFIMS) provides for a smooth transition of the input ion beam from zero rotation to the desired level of field rotation. The REFIMS grid shape is changed from a fixed-diameter tunnel to that of a horn. The horn shape has a flare end with a larger entrance width that reduces the grid electric field strength to near zero and causes no abrupt deflection of the beam at the entrance, and tapers along the longitudinal z axis to a narrower width so that the field strength applied to the beam increases gradually until the correct field strength is obtained at its exit end for the desired rotation of the beam. Preferably, the horn shape in cross-section is hyperbolic, and the increase in field strength is approximately linear with distance along the z axis. The horn shaped device can provide a 2D spectral readout in which the ions are imaged on the target plane at radial positions increasing linearly with decreasing atomic mass units (amu).

Abstract: A system for measuring the illumination uniformity of a liquid light value (LCLV) for a LCLV projector includes a projection device including a first LCLV. The projection device reflects light from the first LCLV to form an image on a screen. An image sensing device senses illumination values for a plurality portions of said image. A processor is coupled to the image sensing device and the projection device. The processor determines an optimum voltage bias which provides a maximum illumination for the plurality of image pixels. The illumination uniformity measuring system can independently measure the illumination non-uniformity of the LCLV and illumination non-uniformity resulting from other sources such as projection lens roll-off, screen gain, and other illumination non-uniformities. Using the measured illumination non-uniformity, a correction system can improve the quality of the displayed image.

Abstract: Improved bias drive and noise reduction techniques for use with and image projector, such as a liquid crystal light valve image projector. A bias drive circuit produces a square wave-like signal to drive the liquid crystal light valve, for example, with a square wave signal. The square wave-like signal is phase-locked to the vertical refresh (vertical sync) signal of the projector. A frequency synthesizer is used to drive the bias drive circuit wherein the noise is interlaced by using every other field as the sync reference input to the bias drive circuit. The bias drive circuit is unique in how it reduces unwanted visual noise effects in a displayed image by waveshaping the drive signal and interlacing and phase-locking it to the vertical refresh signal of the projector. These aspects of the present invention combine to virtually eliminate visual noise in the projected image.

Abstract: Apparatus that implements a nonlinear transfer function (gain) that provides for gamma correction of nonlinear image projectors. The nonlinearity of the transfer function is designed to compensate for the nonlinearity of a nonlinear light modulator, such as a liquid crystal light valve and cathode ray tube combination, for example, that is used in the image projector. The gamma correction circuit comprises a plurality of amplifiers that include current sources coupled together to sum their output currents, and each amplifier is adapted to implement a predetermined transfer function, and provide differing levels of current. An optional output resistor may be employed to convert the composite output current into a corresponding output voltage. Each of the plurality of amplifiers typically comprises first and second emitter coupled pair transistors plus their associated current sources. The present invention corrects the grey scale linearity of the image projector in which it is employed.