Sampling digital differentiator for amplitude modulated wave

Claim 1

A DETECTOR FOR CONVERTING THE ANALOG DATA CONTAINED IN A MODULATED CARRIER WAVE TO DIGITAL FORM COMPRISING, A PLURALITY OF SAMPLE AND HOLD CIRCUIT MEANS HAVING A COMMON INPUT AND "N" OUTPUTS, WHERE "N" IS AN INTEGER GREATER THAN ONE TO SIMULTANEOUSLY STORE THE AMPLITUDE OF SAID CARRIER AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH OF "N" CONSECUTIVE TIME INTERVALS, A SEQUENCE OF "N" SUBTRACTOR MEANS EACH INTERCONNECTING A SEQUENTIALLY OPERATED PAIR OF SAMPLE AND HOLD CIRCUIT MEANS FOR EXTRACTING DIFFERENCE SIGNALS EACH OF WHICH IS EQUAL TO THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE EARLIER AND LATER SAMPLES HELD THEREIN, TRIGGER CIRCUIT MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID SUBSTRACTORS AND RESPONSIVE TO SAID DIFFERENCE SIGNALS FOR GENERATING A TRIGGER SIGNAL AS SAID DIFFERENCE SIGNALS CHANGE POLARITY, AN ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL ENCODER MEANS COUPLED TO SAID EACH OF SAID SAMPLE AND HOLD MEANS FOR TRANSFORMING PORTIONS OF SAID CARRIER WAVE AMPLITUDE TO DIGITAL SIGNALS, AND TIMING MEANS FOR SYNCHRONIZING SAID TRIGGER SIGNALS WITH THE PEAK DIGITAL SIGNAL GENERATED SIMULTANEOUSLY THEREWITH.