Capacity encoder

Claim 1

AN ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL ENCODER COMPRISING: (A) AN INFORMATION CODE DISK ADAPTED TO RECEIVE ANALOG QUANTITIES IN THE FORM OF ANGULAR POSITION, HAVING A PAIR OF CONDUCTIVE PATTERNS ARRANGED IN A PLURALITY OF CONCENTRIC CODE TRACKS, EACH SAID CODE TRACK COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF SEGMENTS, AND EACH SAID SEGMENT INSULATED FROM ADJACENT SEGMENTS AND ALTERNATELY FORMING A PORTION OF ONE OF SAID PAIR OF CONDUCTIVE PATTERNS, (B) A.C. GENERATING MEANS ELECTRICALLY COUPLED TO SAID PAIR OF SAID CONDUCTIVE PATTERNS AND ADAPTED TO PROVIDE AN ELECTRICAL SIGNAL TO EACH SAID PATTERN AT FREQUENCIES OF DIFFERENT PHASES PROVIDING A VARYING ELECTROSTATIC FIELD SURROUNDING SAID ADJACENT SEGMENTS TO EACH SAID CONCENTRIC TRACK, SAID FIELD HAVING A FIXED ZERO POTENTIAL AT A LINE BETWEEN SAID ADJACENT SEGMENTS, (C) A PICKOFF DISK MOVABLE WITH RESPECT TO SAID INFORMATION CODE DIDK COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF CONCENTRIC PICKOFF TRACKS, EACH SAID TRACK COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF PICKOFF SEGMENTS, SAID PICKOFF SEGMENTS SPACED AT A PARTICULAR DISTANCE TO INSURE THAT ALL SEGMENTS ARE ELECTROSTATICALLY COUPLED TO SEGMENTS OF ONE PARTICULAR PHASE FOR RECEIVING ELECTRICAL SIGNALS INDICATIVE OF A PARTICULAR PHASE TO REPRESENT A BINARY O AND A DIFFERENT PHASE FOR A BINARY 1.