Sounding device for measuring a distance to objects

Claim 1

Apparatus for measuring and displaying the distance to an object comprising: means for emitting sound waves and for receiving a reflected sound wave from an object; means coupled to said emitting and receiving means for generating a train of digital signals corresponding to said emitted and received reflected sound waves; a first clock-pulse generator having a variable repetition rate; a memory device having a predetermined memory capacity for storing digital signals from said digital signal generating means under the control of the clock pulses generated by said first clock pulse generator, said digital signal generating means and said first clock pulse generator being coupled to said memory device such that the repetition frequency of said first clock pulse generator solely determines and controls the sequential rate at which the individual pulses of said train of said digital signals are stored in said memory device; a second clock pulse generator coupled to said memory device for generating clock pulses to control the read-out operation of the stored contents of said memory device; and display means coupled to said memory device for providing an output display of said distances which correspond to the digital information read out from said memory device.