Abstract: A method and apparatus for stimulating a muscle of a subject are provided. The apparatus comprises a signal generator for generating an electrical pulse signal of a frequency and a current amplitude for inducing contractions in the muscle, and an electrode apparatus for applying the signal to nerves associated with the muscle to be stimulated or adjacent the muscle of the subject for stimulating the muscle. The frequency and current amplitude of the electrical pulse signal are selected so as to maximize the bulk of the muscle being subjected to the contractions so as to generate a shivering phenomenon therein.

Abstract: A ranging and data taking system, useful as an acoustic sediment classification system. The system launches acoustic pulses into a water column above a sediment bed of interest (seafloor, riverbed, etc.) and records echoes from the pulses. The recorded echoes are transmitted to a processor, which uses the echoes to classify the sediment. Disposed between the hardware for data acquisition, and the processor, is S-RAM (static read only memory). This decouples data acquisition and data processing, which increases the speed of the system sufficiently that the system can display processed data, such as sediment contour plots, in virtual real time.