Self clocking sampled analog data transmission system

Claim 3

The method of claim 1 comprising in addition: adding the signal of one of said plurality of sources to provide a fixed value offset signal to each of the signals from each of the other sources prior to transmission of said serial sampled analog signals to provide linear transmission of said sampled analog signals; and removing said offset signal from said received signals prior to sampling and holding each received signal to thereby preserve the original relative amplitudes of said analog signals.

Claim 4

The method of claim 2 comprising in addition: providing in said transmitter a predetermined magnitude of a gain-reference signal as one of said plurality of said transmitter sampled analog signals; sampling and holding in said receiver the received sampled analog gain-reference signal to provide a continuous analog gain-reference signal; amplifying said continuous analog gain-reference signal in said receiver by a variable gain amplifier to provide a received continuous gain-reference signal output; minimizing the difference of the received continuous gain-reference signal output amplitude and a signal in the receiver having the same amplitude as the transmitter predetermined gain-reference signal amplitude by providing a gain control signal to said variable gain amplifier to minimize said difference; and amplifying each analog signal of the remaining channels in variable gain amplifier means having said gain control signal to provide the same amplification as said received gain-reference signal to reestablish, at the receiver channels, the same amplitudes of analog signals as were transmitted.

Claim 7

The system of claim 4 comprising in addition: means for adding to each of said transmitted sampled analog signals a fixed prescribed value of offset signal, said offset signal being transmitted as one of said plurality of sampled analog signals; said means for transmitting over a transmission means comprises a light emitting diode having a linear region encompassing said value of offset signal to provide linear amplitude transmission of said sampled analog signals; said transmission means comprising a fiber-optic line; said means for receiving said signals from said transmission means comprises a light responsive means; said means for sampling and holding being responsive to the pulsed analog offset signal to provide a continuous analog offset signal; means integrating said continuous offset signal; and means for subtracting the output of said integrating means from each of said received sampled analog signals of the channels including said offset signal channel to provide the original relative amplitude relationships of said sampled analog signals at the outputs of said sample and hold means.

Claim 8

The system of claim 5 comprising in addition: one of said sampled analog values of said transmitted signals being a predetermined gain-reference signal; said means for sampling and holding the received sampled signals providing a continuous analog gain-reference signal output; means for controlling the amplification of each received analog signal; means comparing the analog gain-reference signal output to the predetermined analog gain-reference signal to provide a signal to said amplification control means to cause the difference of said compared signals to decrease to a predetermined value, whereby the amplitudes of the analog signals at the outputs of said receiving means are equal to the amplitudes of said signals in said transmitting means.

Claim 9

A signal transmission and reception system comprising: a transmitting system comprising: a plurality of analog signals; means for sequentially sampling each of said signals: means for providing a digital signal interleaved with each of said sampled signals to form a serial sequence of digital and associated sampled analog signals; means for causing a plurality of a prescribed number of said digital signals to have a prescribed code; means for causing the remaining plurality of digital signals other than said plurality of said prescribed number of digital signals having a prescribed code to provide a serial digital information stream; an optical radiation generating means; means for providing said plurality of interleaved digital and associated sampled analog signals to said radiation generating means; and the radiation magnitude of said generating means corresponding to the amplitude of said digital and sampled analog signals being transmitted over the same transmission path, said radiation being transmitted over a radiation propagation medium, the receiver comprising: means responsive to said propagation medium radiation to provide a signal containing said interleaved digital and associated sampled analog signals; means for recovering said digital signals form said interleaved signals and providing corresponding sampling signals; means responsive to said recovered digital signals for detecting said coded sequence to provide a timing reference for said sampled pulses; and a plurality of sampling and holding means each responsive to a different sampled analog signal and to the sampling signal associated with said sampled analog signal to provide continuous output signal values at the output of each sampling and holding means corresponding to the transmitted sampled analog signals.

Claim 10

A signal transmission and reception system comprising: a transmitting system comprising: a plurality of analog signals; means for sequentially sampling each of said signals: means for providing a digital signal interleaved with each of said sampled signals to form a serial sequence of digital and associated sampled analog signals; means for causing a plurality of a prescribed number of said digital signals to have a prescribed code; means for causing the remaining plurality of digital signals other than said plurality of said prescribed number of digital signals having a prescribed code to provide a serial digital information stream; an optical radiation generating means; means for providing said plurality of interleaved digital and associated sampled analog signals to said radiation generating means; and the radiation magnitude of said generating means corresponding to the amplitude of said digital and sampled analog signals being transmitted over the same transmission path, said radiation being transmitted over a radiation propagation medium, the receiver comprising: means responsive to said propagation medium radiation to provide a signal containing said interleaved digital and associated sampled analog signals; means for recovering said digital signals form said interleaved signals and providing corresponding sampling signals; means responsive to said recovered digital signals for detecting said coded sequence to provide a timing reference for said sampled pulses; and a plurality of sampling and holding means each responsive to a different sampled analog signal and to the sampling signal associated with said sampled analog signal to provide continuous output signal values at the output of each sampling and holding means corresponding to the transmitted sampled analog signals.