US3639729A
Expired / Lapsed
US
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Data reading apparatus
Assignee: SCM-P&S Inc
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Filing: 1969-02-17
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Granted: 1972-02-01
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Expires: 1989-02-17
Abstract
Abstract Data groups are read from a perforated medium by an array of light emitting diodes. Light from the diodes passes through a cylindrical lens, through the perforated medium, and onto an array of photodetectors which detect the perforations. Illumination power for the light emitting diodes comes from a capacitor which is connected to the diodes by a controlled rectifier. The data reading process and the motion of the medium are synchronized either by controlling tape motion with a switchtail ring counter controlled stepping motor, or by inductively sensing magnetic elements which move synchronously with the perforated medium. Data bits retrieved from the medium are placed into a shift register, and are then shifted out of the register in the form of a teleprinter code. A new data group is automatically read as soon as this shift register becomes empty. The shift register may be easily reprogrammed so as to generate any desired teleprinter code. A NULL and DELETE data group detection circuit erases these groups from the shift register and thereby greatly speeds up the teleprinter code generation process.
Inventors
- 👤 Ray A Marshall
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-27 10:41
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06K; G06K7/00; G06K7/01; G06K7/016
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 21
Claim 1
Independent Claim
117 words
A drive mechanism for advancing paper comprising: a stepping motor mechanically coupled to said paper, said stepping motor having four windings; a switch-tail register including two flip-flops, each flip-flop having two outputs of opposite polarity, and further including a shift input terminal; circuit means for connecting each output to one of said windings, and for energizing or deenergizing each winding in accordance with the polarity of the output to which it is connected; and shift register advance means for supplying a fixed plurality of shift signals to said shift input terminal each time it is desired to advance the paper, whereby said stepping motor advances a fixed plurality of steps each time said advance means is activated.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
117 words
A drive mechanism for advancing paper comprising: a stepping motor mechanically coupled to said paper, said stepping motor having four windings; a switch-tail register including two flip-flops, each flip-flop having two outputs of opposite polarity, and further including a shift input terminal; circuit means for connecting each output to one of said windings, and for energizing or deenergizing each winding in accordance with the polarity of the output to which it is connected; and shift register advance means for supplying a fixed plurality of shift signals to said shift input terminal each time it is desired to advance the paper, whereby said stepping motor advances a fixed plurality of steps each time said advance means is activated.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
103 words
A drive mechanism in accordance with claim 1 wherein said shift register advance means comprises: a source of clock pulses; a first gate having as input signals an output signal from each of the two flip-flops, and having an output signal; a second gate having as input signals the clock pulses and the output signal from said first gate, and having an output signal that is fed to said shift input terminal; and toggle means for toggling one of the flip-flops whenever it is desired to advance the paper; whereby the stepping motor advances four positions each time the toggle means is actuated.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
46 words
A drive mechanism in accordance with claim 2 and further including a third flip-flop connected between the output of said first gate and an input to said second gate, said third flip-flop having an additional input, whereby said third flip-flop also serves as the toggle means.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
24 words
A drive mechanism in accordance with claim 2 wherein the toggle means comprises an additional direct input into one of the shift register flip-flops.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
34 words
A drive mechanism in accordance with claim 2 and further including reversing means for changing the position of the switch tail whenever it is desired to advance the stepping motor in the opposite direction.
Claim 7
Independent Claim
180 words
An apparatus for reading groups of data bits from an elongated medium in parallel and for converting this data into a serial teleprinter code, said apparatus comprising: a shift register having the capacity to hold at least as many data bits as there are bits in each group, said shift register having a parallel data input, a parallel data output, a serial data output, and a shift signal input; data reading means for reading groups of data bits from said medium and for loading said data into the parallel data input of said shift register; medium advancing means for advancing the elongated medium after each data group is read; shift signal generating means connected to said shift signal input for shifting data bits out of said shift register to form a serial teleprinter code after each data group is read; and a gate which receives as input signals the parallel data output of said shift register and which generates a signal when said shift register is empty, which signal activates said data reading means to read another group of data.
Claim 8
Independent Claim
180 words
An apparatus for reading groups of data bits from an elongated medium in parallel and for converting this data into a serial teleprinter code, said apparatus comprising: a shift register having the capacity to hold at least as many data bits as there are bits in each group, said shift register having a parallel data input, a parallel data output, a serial data output, and a shift signal input; data reading means for reading groups of data bits from said medium and for loading said data into the parallel data input of said shift register; medium advancing means for advancing the elongated medium after each data group is read; shift signal generating means connected to said shift signal input for shifting data bits out of said shift register to form a serial teleprinter code after each data group is read; and a gate which receives as input signals the parallel data output of said shift register and which generates a signal when said shift register is empty, which signal activates said data reading means to read another group of data.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
59 words
An apparatus in accordance with claim 6 wherein the shift register includes an output flip-flop which does not receive an input data bit and which does not supply an output signal to said gate, and which therefore can hold the final ''''stop'''' bit in a unit of teleprinter code until the next unit of code is ready for transmission.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
110 words
An apparatus in accordance with claim 6 wherein: the data reading means generates a bit signal representing each data bit in each group; the parallel data input to the shift register comprises a plurality of lines; and wherein each of these lines can be connected to any one of said bit signals, to a potential representing a start bit, to a potential representing a stop bit, or to a potential representing an unused shift register section; whereby the resultant apparatus can be easily reprogrammed to generate any desired teleprinter code pattern containing any desired number of bits, and whereby no time is ever lost in the transmission of unused bits.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
36 words
An apparatus in accordance with claim 7 to which has been added means for detecting a particular code group, and for inhibiting said signal generating means from forming a serial teleprinter code from this code group.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
46 words
An apparatus in accordance with claim 6 to which has been added means for detecting a particular code group, and means for clearing flip-flops within the shift register when this code group is detected, whereby no time is lost in the transmission of this code group.
Claim 13
Independent Claim
118 words
An apparatus for detecting code perforations in a moveable member comprising: a plurality of photodetectors positioned on one side of said moveable member; at least one light emitting diode positioned on the opposite side of said moveable member from said photodetectors; energy storage means comprising a capacitor for storing sufficient energy to illuminate said diodes, but not sufficient energy to damage said diodes; energy transfer means comprising a series circuit connected across said capacitor, said series circuit including said photodiodes and also a current switching device, said energy transfer means rapidly transferring energy from said energy storage means into said diodes whenever it is desired to detect said code perforation; and trickle charging means for recharging said capacitor.
Claim 14
Independent Claim
118 words
An apparatus for detecting code perforations in a moveable member comprising: a plurality of photodetectors positioned on one side of said moveable member; at least one light emitting diode positioned on the opposite side of said moveable member from said photodetectors; energy storage means comprising a capacitor for storing sufficient energy to illuminate said diodes, but not sufficient energy to damage said diodes; energy transfer means comprising a series circuit connected across said capacitor, said series circuit including said photodiodes and also a current switching device, said energy transfer means rapidly transferring energy from said energy storage means into said diodes whenever it is desired to detect said code perforation; and trickle charging means for recharging said capacitor.
Claim 15
Independent Claim
109 words
An apparatus for detecting code perforations in a moveable member comprising: a plurality of photodetectors positioned on one side of said moveable member; at least one light emitting diode positioned to the opposite side of said moveable member from said photodetectors; energy storage means comprising a capacitor for storing sufficient energy to illuminate said diodes, but not sufficient energy to damage said diodes; energy transfer means comprising a series circuit connected across said capacitor, said series circuit including said photodiodes and also a current switching device, said switching device being a controlled rectifier; trickle charging means for recharging said capacitor; and turnoff means for turning off said controlled rectifier.
Claim 16
Independent Claim
109 words
An apparatus for detecting code perforations in a moveable member comprising: a plurality of photodetectors positioned on one side of said moveable member; at least one light emitting diode positioned to the opposite side of said moveable member from said photodetectors; energy storage means comprising a capacitor for storing sufficient energy to illuminate said diodes, but not sufficient energy to damage said diodes; energy transfer means comprising a series circuit connected across said capacitor, said series circuit including said photodiodes and also a current switching device, said switching device being a controlled rectifier; trickle charging means for recharging said capacitor; and turnoff means for turning off said controlled rectifier.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
20 words
An apparatus in accordance with claim 12 wherein the turnoff means comprises an L-C circuit connected across the controlled rectifier.
Claim 18
Independent Claim
134 words
An apparatus for detecting code perforations in a moveable member comprising: a plurality of photodetectors positioned on one side of said moveable member; at least one light emitting diode positioned on the opposite side of said moveable member from said photodetectors; energy storage means comprising a capacitor for storing sufficient energy to illuminate said diodes, but not sufficient energy to damage said diodes; energy transfer means comprising a series circuit connected across said capacitor, said series circuit including said photodiodes and also a current switching device which switching device is a controlled rectifier, for rapidly transferring energy from said energy storage means into said Diodes whenever it is desired to detect said code perforations; and gateable trickle charging means that can be stopped whenever it is desired to starve the controlled rectifier into nonconduction.
Claim 19
Independent Claim
134 words
An apparatus for detecting code perforations in a moveable member comprising: a plurality of photodetectors positioned on one side of said moveable member; at least one light emitting diode positioned on the opposite side of said moveable member from said photodetectors; energy storage means comprising a capacitor for storing sufficient energy to illuminate said diodes, but not sufficient energy to damage said diodes; energy transfer means comprising a series circuit connected across said capacitor, said series circuit including said photodiodes and also a current switching device which switching device is a controlled rectifier, for rapidly transferring energy from said energy storage means into said Diodes whenever it is desired to detect said code perforations; and gateable trickle charging means that can be stopped whenever it is desired to starve the controlled rectifier into nonconduction.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
159 words
A high-speed printer comprising: a rotating drum carrying a plurality of circumferential arrays of type; a plurality of type hammers mounted adjacent said drum; a plurality of binary code comparators each having two binary code inputs and arranged to activate said type hammers when supplied with matching codes; data presentation means for presenting a code which is to be printed to a first binary code input of each comparator; a wheel attached to and rotating with said drum, said wheel bearing circumferentially spaced code groups aligned with the type in said circumferential arrays; code reading means positioned adjacent said code wheel; magnetic elements imbedded in said code wheel and aligned with the type in said circumferential arrays; an inductive pickup positioned adjacent the path along which said magnetic elements move; and circuit means responsive to signals from said inductive pickup for activating said code reading means and for feeding the data read to the remaining input of each comparator.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
159 words
A high-speed printer comprising: a rotating drum carrying a plurality of circumferential arrays of type; a plurality of type hammers mounted adjacent said drum; a plurality of binary code comparators each having two binary code inputs and arranged to activate said type hammers when supplied with matching codes; data presentation means for presenting a code which is to be printed to a first binary code input of each comparator; a wheel attached to and rotating with said drum, said wheel bearing circumferentially spaced code groups aligned with the type in said circumferential arrays; code reading means positioned adjacent said code wheel; magnetic elements imbedded in said code wheel and aligned with the type in said circumferential arrays; an inductive pickup positioned adjacent the path along which said magnetic elements move; and circuit means responsive to signals from said inductive pickup for activating said code reading means and for feeding the data read to the remaining input of each comparator.
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 1975-01-31 | 1975-08-02 | 1976-02-01 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 1979-01-31 | 1979-08-02 | 1980-02-01 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 1983-01-31 | 1983-08-02 | 1984-02-01 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |