Abstract: An optical fiber manifold is provided for coupling light from an illumination source to a plurality of spaced, large diameter output fibers, or "light pipes", which are used for a variety of purposes, such as illuminating pools, spas, hazardous material zones, jail cells, and other applications where direct lighting is dangerous, difficult to maintain, or subject to vandalism. The manifold comprises a light converging element, which may be either a lens or a reflector, for converging light separately on each of the spaced optical fibers. The light converging element is segmented, with each segment corresponding to one of the optical fibers, and is precise enough that substantially all of the convergent light is received by the respective cores of each of the spaced output fibers, thereby minimizing light loss.

Abstract: The inventive system, which is used in transmitting illumination from a central source to a variety of remote locations, efficiently couples the light originating from an arc lamp, or similar source, into a multiplicity of flexible macroscopic fibers. The combination of the several elements of the inventive system results in a very efficient transfer of the energy of the light source to the fibers. The system also provides a very flexible mechanical means for distributing the energy to the fibers and to the remote locations at which the light is used.

Abstract: An optical fiber manifold is provided for coupling light from an illumination source to a plurality of spaced, large diameter output fibers, or "light pipes", which are used for a variety of purposes, such as illuminating pools, spas, hazardous material zones, jail cells, and other applications where direct lighting is dangerous, difficult to maintain, or subject to vandalism. The manifold comprises a light converging element, which may be either a lens or a reflector, for converging light separately on each of the spaced optical fibers. The light converging element is segmented, with each segment corresponding to one of the optical fibers, and is precise enough that substantially all of the convergent light is received by the respective cores of each of the spaced output fibers, thereby minimizing light loss.

Abstract: A parallel processing system for processing data matrices, such as images, is disclosed. The system includes a plurality of processing units, organized in four blocks of eight processing units per processing chip, and external cache burst memory, wherein each processing unit is associated with at least one column of the external memory. A barrel shifter connected between the memory and the processing units allows data to be shifted to adjacent processing chips, thus providing the means for connecting several of the chips into a ring structure. Further, digital delay lines are connected between the barrel shifter and the processing units, thus providing the capability of delaying, via a predetermined number of clock cycles, incoming column data. Each processing unit is provided with a nine bit cache memory.

Abstract: A power supply for an incandescent lamp by which sufficient power is supplied to the lamp to enable the lamp to reach its desired color temperature without exceeding the break over voltage of its filament even though the peaks of the alternating current voltage applied to the power supply exceed the break-over voltage of the filament of the lamp. This is achieved in a preferred embodiment by full-wave rectification of the alternating current voltage applied to the power supply to produced an unfiltered voltage comprising a series of half-cycle sine waves of a particular polarity. This voltage is applied to the lamp. However, when the voltage of each half cycle is above the breakover voltage of the lamp, the lamp is switched out of the circuit, so that only those portions at the beginning and end of each half cycle which are below a particular voltage are actually applied to the lamp.

Abstract: A backlight comprising a serpentine fluorescent tube nested in a uniquely shaped reflector. Much of the light emitted from the tube is directly emitted to a bounded image plane. The reflector reflects a substantial portion of the rest of the light emitted by the tube to the image plane in such a manner that a very bright and uniform image is formed at the image plane.

Abstract: A projection system comprising a liquid crystal light valve having a wider acceptance angle for incident light in a first direction than in a second direction transverse to the first direction and an illumination system. The illumination system provides light to the liquid crystal light valve at a greater beam spread angle in the first direction than in the second direction. The system also includes projection optics for receiving light from the liquid crystal light valve and projecting such light toward a projection surface.

Abstract: A system and method for floating point computations involving matrices or vectors includes a plurality of identical processing units connected to a linear chain with direct data communication links between adjacent processing units. Each such processor is also connected to its own private memory. A sequence of instructions is sent by a controller to all floating point processing units and their associated memories whereby all processing units in the chain receive the same instruction and all memories receive the same address at any given cycle in the instruction sequence. Each processing unit internally handles floating point operations such as normalization, sign changes, and multiplication in a bit serial manner.

Abstract: A system for processing data matrices such as images and spatially related data includes a plurality of neighborhood processing units connected in a linear chain with direct data communication links between adjacent processing units. A sequence of instructions are sent to the processing units by a single controller, where all neighborhood processing units in the system receive the same instruction at any given cycle in the instruction sequence. The width of the data matrix array is the same as a number of processors, so that there is one processor per column in the data matrix. The memory associated with each processor is external and large enough to hold the entire image or data matrix. The processors are able to operate arithmetically in a serial or parallel mode, where an efficient means is provided to transpose 8.times.8 bit submatrices between the two modes. An indirect addressing means is provided which operates on byte-wide memories external to the processing unit.

Abstract: A system particularly suited for serially processing spatially oriented data such as data matrices includes a plurality of serially connected processing cells for performing a number of successive, different operations on the data using pipeline processing techniques. In one embodiment, each unit cell comprises a memory in the form of a shift register for storing data received from the neighboring, upstream cell. The data is transferred from the memory to a time delaying storage medium such as a latch and to a processing circuit which operates on the data and provides data output to the neighboring, downstream cell. In another embodiment, a simple parallel-in, parallel-out latch is employed as the cell memory thereby allowing the processing circuit to simultaneously access all of the data stored in memory. Data is output from the latch in pre-determined groups and is multiplexed to one portion of the processing circuit.

Abstract: A system particularly suited for serially processing spatially oriented data such as data matrices includes a plurality of serially connected processing cells for performing a number of successive, different operations on the data using pipeline processing techniques. In one embodiment, each unit cell comprises a memory in the form of a shift register for storing data received from the neighboring, upstream cell. The data is transferred from the memory to a time delaying storage medium such as a latch and to a processing circuit which operates on the data and provides data output to the neighboring, downstream cell. In another embodiment, a simple parallel-in, parallel-out latch is employed as the cell memory thereby allowing the processing circuit to simultaneously access all of the data stored in memory. Data is output from the latch in pre-determined groups and is multiplexed to one portion of the processing circuit.

Abstract: An improved method and apparatus for accurately measuring the applied kilovoltage (KV) of an X-ray source over a wide dynamic operating range. A pair of radiation detectors are mounted beneath a rotatable disc having disposed thereon a plurality of metallic absorbers. To measure applied KV, two exposures are required. In the first exposure, called the "calibration" exposure, the detectors are filtered by two absorbers of equal thickness (t.sub.1) and the detected X-ray intensities are measured, processed, and stored in a digital memory. In the second X-ray exposure, referred to the "measure" exposure, the filter wheel is automatically advanced so that one detector is filtered by an absorber of thickness (t.sub.1) and the second detector is filtered by an absorber of thickness (t.sub.2). The detected X-rays are gain measured and the ratio of the signals calculated to determine the relative penetrating energy.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for automatically analyzing seed characteristics. The seeds are placed one each in associated cells in a tray and the cells are filled with a deionized liquid such as distilled water. After a predetermined period of time, the conductivity of the resultant exudates are measured to provide a visual indication of the seed characteristics such as viability, vigor, and physical damage. In the apparatus, a probe head having a plurality of electrode pairs is placed on the tray so that each electrode pair is immersed in the exudate in each of the cells. An electrical potential is established between each electrode pair and the current flowing therebetween is sequentially scanned to automatically provide a visual indication of the exudate conductivity for each of the seeds in the tray cells. Preferably, the electrodes are first brought to the same potential to stabilize the exudate before establishing the potential difference across the electrodes which creates the current flow.

Abstract: A rectangular digital logic array for performing transformations on data matrices for solving wave equations, image processing problems and the like, includes a plurality of identical cells each having a processing element which receives one of its inputs from a single bit accumulator and provides its output to a similar single bit accumulator. The input accumulators of each row in the array are formed by a single parallel input, parallel output shift register and the output accumulators of each column in the array are similarly formed by a parallel input, parallel output shift register. The shift registers operate to connect each cell except those at the edge of the array with two neighboring cells along one axis and two neighboring cells along the orthogonal axis.

Abstract: A transponder/interrogator system for remotely identifying objects. The interrogator emits infrared pulses to activate and remotely clock the transponder. Upon such activation, the transponder emits a unique code in the form of infrared pulses in accordance with a program stored in a recirculating shift register. The interrogator receives the infrared pulses from the transponder and decodes them. The decoded information is then supplied to a controller which runs various status checks on the object identified.

Abstract: A transponder/interrogator system for remotely identifying objects. The interrogator emits infrared pulses to activate and remotely clock the transponder. Upon such activation, the transponder emits a unique code in the form of infrared pulses in accordance with a program stored in a recirculating shift register. The interrogator receives the infrared pulses from the transponder and decodes them. The decoded information is then supplied to a controller which runs various status checks on the object identified.