Information processing systems

Claim 3

A system in accordance with claim 1 wherein: the code elements are radiation-reflecting elements; and the sensing means comprises: means for scanning the radiation-reflecting elements with an incident beam of electromagnetic radiation; and means arranged to receive electromagnetic radiation reflected from the radiation-reflecting elements and operative in response to electromagnetic radiation received after reflection from the radiation-reflecting elements to produce electrical signals representative of the items of information encoded in The plurality of radiation-reflecting elements.

Claim 4

A system in accordance with claim 2 wherein the radiation-reflecting elements are retroreflective elements and the electromagnetic radiation is visible light.

Claim 5

A system in accordance with claim 1 wherein: the code elements are selected from retroreflective stripes of a first color, a second color, and a third color, and nonreflecting stripes of a fourth color, said stripes being arranged in a vertical array of different paired combinations of the stripes in accordance with a two-position base-four coding format, each pair of stripes representing a different item of information; and the sensing means comprises: means for scanning the stripes in succession with a light beam; and means arranged to receive light retroreflected from the stripes and operative in response to light received after reflection from the stripes to produce electrical signals representative of the items of information encoded in the array of stripes.

Claim 6

A system in accordance with claim 1 further comprising means operative to sense a respective portion of each electrical signal produced by the sensing means and in response to sensing a portion having a predetermined characteristic to clear the signal-processing means of the electrical signals being processed thereby.

Claim 7

A system in accordance with claim 1 wherein: the signal processing means includes shift register means having a plurality of successive storage sections for storing in succession the electrical signals produced by the sensing means; said system further comprising means operative in response to sensing a predetermined electrical signal produced by the sensing means and corresponding to the first item of information encoded in the plurality of code elements to reset all but the first storage section in the succession of storage sections.

Claim 8

A system in accordance with claim 1 wherein: the signal-processing means includes shift register means operative to store the electrical signals produced by the sensing means, the shift register means comprising a plurality of storage sections arranged in succession, each storage section corresponding to and storing a different one of the electrical signals representative of the items of information encoded in the plurality of code elements; said system further comprising means operative to sense the electrical signals stored in the first storage section in the succession of storage sections and in the last storage section in the succession of storage sections and in response to sensing simultaneously the presence of a predetermined first electrical signal stored in the last storage section and representative of the first item of information encoded in the plurality of code elements and a second predetermined electrical signal stored in the first storage section and representative of the last item of information encoded in the plurality of code elements to cause all of the electrical signals stored in the shift register means to be applied to output apparatus.

Claim 9

A system in accordance with claim 1 wherein the last-mentioned means includes: first means operative to receive each control signal generated by the control signal-generating means and to produce a predetermined output signal condition when the time duration between a pair of successive control signals exceeds a predetermined time duration; and second means operative in response to the predetermined output signal condition produced by the first means to clear the signal processing means of the electrical signals being processed thereby.

Claim 10

A system in accordance with claim 8 wherein the first means is a retriggerable means operative in response to each control signal generated by the control signal generating means to initiate an output signal of the predetermined time duration, the output signal caused to be initiated by a given control signal terminating if the next control signal is separated with respect tO the given control signal by a time duration greater than the predetermined time duration, the predetermined time duration being substantially equal to the expected time duration between successive control signals.

Claim 11

In a system for identifying a vehicle, apparatus comprising: a vertical array of substantially-parallel horizontal reflective stripes carried by the vehicle to be identified, the stripes being of four different colors and arranged in different paired combinations in accordance with a two-position base-four code format to represent in an orderly succession alpha-numeric items of identification information unique to the vehicle; scanning means for scanning the stripes in succession with a light beam; optical-electrical means arranged to receive light reflected from the stripes and operative in response to receiving the reflected light from each stripe-pair to produce an electrical signal representative of the item of information encoded in the stripe-pair; a plurality of storage shift register means for storing the electrical signals produced by the optical-electrical means; shift signal-generating means operative to generate a shift signal corresponding to each electrical signal for enabling the storage shift register means to store the electrical signal; retriggerable one-shot multivibrator means operative in response to each shift signal generated by the shift signal generating means to initiate an output signal of a predetermined time duration substantially equal to the expected time duration between successive shift signals, the output signal caused to be initiated by a given shift signal terminating if the next shift signal is separated with respect to the given shift signal by a time duration greater than the predetermined time duration; and gating means operative in response to the termination of an output signal produced by the retriggerable one-shot multivibrator means to cause resetting of the plurality of storage shift register means.

Claim 12

In a system for identifying a vehicle, apparatus comprising: a vertical array of substantially-parallel horizontal reflective stripes carried by the vehicle to be identified, the stripes being of four different colors and arranged in different paired combinations in accordance with a two-position base-four code format to represent in an orderly succession alpha-numeric items of identification information unique to the vehicle; scanning means for scanning the stripes in succession with a light beam; optical-electrical means arranged to receive light reflected from the stripes and operative in response to receiving the reflected light from each stripe-pair to produce an electrical signal representative of the item of information encoded in the stripe-pair; a plurality of storage shift register means for storing the electrical signals produced by the optical-electrical means; shift signal-generating means operative to generate a shift signal corresponding to each electrical signal for enabling the storage shift register means to store the electrical signal; retriggerable one-shot multivibrator means operative in response to each shift signal generated by the shift signal generating means to initiate an output signal of a predetermined time duration substantially equal to the expected time duration between successive shift signals, the output signal caused to be initiated by a given shift signal terminating if the next shift signal is separated with respect to the given shift signal by a time duration greater than the predetermined time duration; and gating means operative in response to the termination of an output signal produced by the retriggerable one-shot multivibrator means to cause resetting of the plurality of storage shift register means.

Claim 13

In a system for identifying a vehicle, apparatus in accordance with claim 10 wherein: each of the plurality of storage shift register means comprises a plurality of stages, corresponding stages of the storage shift register means being arranged in sets, each set corresponding to an item of information encoded in the array of stripes; said system further comprising: a first gating arrangement operative to sense a respective portion of each of the electrical signals produced by the optical-electrical means and in response to sensing a portion having a predetermined characteristic to cause resetting of all of the sets of stages of the storage shift register means; and a second gating arrangement operative to sense to the electrical signals stored in the first and last sets of stages of the storage shift register means and in response to sensing simultaneously the presence of a first predetermined electrical signal stored in the last set of stages of the storage shift register means and representative of the first item of information encoded in the first stripe-pair of the array of stripes and the presence of a second predetermined electrical signal stored in the first set of stages of the storage shift register means and representative of the last item of information encoded in the last stripe-pair of the array of stripes to cause all of the electrical signals stored in the storage shift register means to be applied to output apparatus.

Claim 14

In a system for identifying a vehicle, apparatus in accordance with claim 11 further comprising a third gating arrangement operative to sense the electrical signals produced by the optical-electrical means and in response to sensing the predetermined first electrical signal representative of the first item of information encoded in the first stripe-pair of the array of stripes to cause resetting of all but the first set of stages of storage shift register means.