Decoder

Claim 1

A DECODER COMPRISING A SOURCE OF INFORMATION, A PLURALITY OF INFORMATION INPUT MATRICES, EACH OF SAID MATRICES HAVING A PLURALITY OF CONDUCTIVE ELEMENTS BUNDLED TOGETHER SO AS TO PROVIDE A COMPACT UNIT, MEANS COUPLED TO SAID SOURCE OF INFORMATION FOR SELECTIVELY ENERGIZING ON A SEQUENTIAL BASIS INDIVIDUAL ONES OF SAID INPUT MATRICES IN RESPONSE TO THE INFORMATION RECEIVED FROM SAID SOURCE, SAID SELECTIVE ENERGIZING MEANS COMPRISING A SOURCE OF LIGHT, SAID ENERGIZING MEANS SERVING TO ENERGIZE SIMULTANEOUSLY ALL OF THE CONDUCTIVE ELEMENTS OF THE SELECTED INPUT MATRIX, AN OUTPUT MATRIX HAVING CONDUCTIVE ELEMENTS ARRANGED IN A GIVEN PATTERN, MEANS FOR UTILIZING INFORMATION REPRESENTED BY ENERGIZED CONDUCTIVE ELEMENTS OF SAID OUTPUT MATRIX, AND MEANS INDIVIDUALLY ASSOCIATED WITH EACH OF SAID INPUT MATRICES FOR INTERCONNECTING CONDUCTIVE ELEMENTS OF THE CORRESPONDING INPUT MATRIX AND GIVEN ONES OF THE CONDUCTIVE ELEMENTS OF SAID OUTPUT MATRIX, EACH OF SAID CONDUCTIVE INTERCONNECTING MEANS BEING INDEPENDENT OF THE OTHER CONDUCTIVE INTERCONNECTING MEANS, SAID CONDUCTIVE ELEMENTS AND SAID INTERCONNECTING MEANS EACH COMPRISING LIGHT GUIDES, SAID GIVEN ONES OF SAID CONDUCTIVE ELEMENTS BEING LOCATED IN SAID PATTERN SO AS TO DEFINE A PREDETERMINED CHARACTER SHAPED PATTERN, SAID PREDETERMINED PATTERN BEING DIFFERENT FOR EACH ONE OF SAID INPUT MATRICES WHEREBY SELECTIVE ENERGIZATION OF SAID INPUT MATRICES GENERATES CORRESPONDING CHARACTER SHAPED PATTERNS OF ENERGIZED CONDUCTIVE ELEMENTS IN SAID OUTPUT MATRIX.