Did You Know...
...that after Parker Brothers executives turned down the game of Monopoly because it had "52 fundamental errors" (including taking too long to play), a copy of the game wound up in the home of the company president who stayed up until 1 a.m. to finish playing it? He was so impressed by the game that the next day he wrote to inventor Charles Darrow and offered to buy it!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 4819051 | Compensated rotary position encoder An angular position encoder utilizes Moire fringes formed by illuminating regions of coded images arranged circumferentially on wheels rotatable in accordance with angles to be encoded. Movement of the Moire fringes from a reference position is detected a... | 04/04/1989 |
| 4806749 | Optical coordinate system input device An optical coordinate system input device including multiple opposed pairs of light emitting elements and light receptor elements which are sequentially selectively activated via a switching circuit, a variable impedance circuit connected in series with t... | 02/21/1989 |
| 4803354 | Circuit for correcting output phase of rotary encoder A circuit for correcting a variation in phase of a train of clock pulses detected from a pattern of a coding disc of a rotary encoder which detects the rotation angle of a rotating shaft, comprises an ROM in which data for correction of a phase variation ... | 02/07/1989 |
| 4794251 | Apparatus for measuring lengths or angles An apparatus for measuring differences by incrementally counting graduations has additional equidistant graduations as well as a corresponding sensor and evaluation device. The intervals between the marks of each additional graduation are multiples of one... | 12/27/1988 |
| 4788422 | High resolution rotary encoder having appositely rotating disks A rotary encoder having first and second slit disks are disposed between a light emitting diode and a light sensor coaxially in proximity to each other, the two slit disks each having a large number of slits formed radially at equal intervals in a periphe... | 11/29/1988 |
| 4786803 | Single channel encoder with specific scale support structure The single channel encoder comprises a transparent scale in which the scale divisions are defined by transverse opaque lines having a width greater than the width between the opaque lines. An emitter holder and a detector holder snap together, clamping an... | 11/22/1988 |
| 4786891 | Absolute encoder for linear or angular position measurements An encoder device of the absolute position type for outputting a shift position or angle of rotation relative to the absolute position. The device comprises a code plate having first and second grid patterns wherein information is stored as 1 or 0 in a pe... | 11/22/1988 |
| 4782328 | Ambient-light-responsive touch screen data input method and system A convenient predetermined rectangular passive area is converted into a touch screen suitable for feeding X and Y cartesian coordinate data into a computer by employing ambient light as the medium to sense positioning of a pointer brought near to any desi... | 11/01/1988 |
| 4780703 | Rotary encoder apparatus A rotary encoder apparatus of an incremental-type construction, including: a rotary unit mechanically joined to a movable machine; a unit for outputting at least two signals having a phase shift and a periodic waveform in response to rotation of the rotar... | 10/25/1988 |
| 4774494 | Position encoder employing three or more colors An incremental position encoder comprising a first member arranged for movement with a second member the movement of which is to be monitored, a plurality of light transmissive or reflective elements of three distinct colors, said elements being arranged ... | 09/27/1988 |
| 4769630 | Incremental optical code reader, particularly of the wholly integrated type An incremental optical code reader of the wholly integrated type including a reading assembly, a pair of photodiodes, a differential amplifier receiving the outputs of the photodiodes and a trigger connected to the output of the amplifier. An electronic a... | 09/06/1988 |
| 4761550 | Scanning system for optical coordinate input device with scan interrupt control A scanning system for an optical type coordinate input device comprises a plurality of light emitting elements and photoreceiving elements opposed to each other and a coordinate detection section for successively scanning a plurality of light emitting ele... | 08/02/1988 |
| 4757196 | Optical encoder and method for producing same An optical encoder and a method for producing the same in which each slit on a pulse scale of the encoder, which is an encoder wheel in the case of a rotary type encoder, is formed as a plurality of parallel grooves. The grooves are formed by depositing a... | 07/12/1988 |
| 4746792 | Optical transducer element and displacement meter comprising such an element Displacement of an object is sensed by a transducer element having light first strips and dark second strips alternating in a direction of object displacement. The first strips are formed as phase gratings having grating lines extending in the direction o... | 05/24/1988 |
| 4746770 | Method and apparatus for isolating and manipulating graphic objects on computer video monitor A method of selection and/or manipulating graphic objects such as may appear on a computer video monitor is provided as is associated apparatus. A frame member cooperates with a plurality of optical sensors and a plurality of light occluding objects which... | 05/24/1988 |
| 4740690 | Absolute combinational encoders coupled through a fixed gear ratio An encoder system and technique is disclosed for providing greater resolution for position indications. The encoder includes multiple small absolute encoders coupled through a fixed gear ratio to provide an increase in the number of positions which may be... | 04/26/1988 |
| 4736187 | Encoder for measuring both incremental and absolute positions of moving elements An optical encoding system for determining the absolute and the incremental positions of a movable member relative to a stationary member. For example, three stationary light sources may be supported by the stationary member for emitting three narrow ligh... | 04/05/1988 |
| 4733069 | Position encoder using a laser scan beam Known absolute type position encoders have poor resolution due to bits density of tracks formed on an encoding member and mechanical size of sensors opposed to the encoding member for reading absolute position data from the tracks. This invention provides... | 03/22/1988 |
| 4727356 | Optical rotary encoder An optical rotary encoder is formed by a control pulse generator portion and a selector switch portion which are of the unitary construction. The control pulse generator portion is formed by a code plate having a plurality of alternately formed reflecting... | 02/23/1988 |
| 4720631 | Electro-optical compass card wherein transmissive member has random patterns that repeat for particular rotational positions Apparatus, such as a compass, for determining the positional relationship between two structures having limited motion therebetween is disclosed. The apparatus includes a photoelectric array spaced from an illuminating or light source. The array and light... | 01/19/1988 |
| 4720699 | Optical encoder using line array detectors Absolute optical encoder device using a line array detector in conjunction with a single strip of encoding bars. The bars are orthogonal to the detector array line and may be long enough to allow motion parallel to the bars without loss of measurement con... | 01/19/1988 |
| 4719449 | Transport apparatus for transporting part-carrying members to various work stations and for reading data encoded on said part-carrying member Each movable member (1) has a disk (6) which is mounted free to rotate about an axis (5) and which includes an annular area (7) of radial stripes (8) together with three concentric coding and read areas (9, 10, 11) having holes therethrough. The read stat... | 01/12/1988 |
| 4717824 | Photoelectric displacement detecting apparatus A photoelectric displacement detecting apparatus for measuring a length from a repeated number of bright and dark portions of light formed by the repetitions of overlappings of slits in respective slit rows during a relative movement between a main scale ... | 01/05/1988 |
| 4716399 | Optomechanical control apparatus A control apparatus for use in a fly-by-wire flight control system. The apparatus comprises a support structure, a tube (22) mounted to the support structure for rotation about the tube lengthwise axis, at least two joysticks (18, 20) mounted to the tube,... | 12/29/1987 |
| 4710759 | Interactive CRT with touch level set A touch panel level set for a CRT including a plurality of energy paths crisscrossing the faceplate of the CRT includes a microprocessor for energizing and interrogating the energy paths on a regular basis. A specific threshold level for each energy path ... | 12/01/1987 |
| 4704523 | Optical rotary encoder device An encoder device having a rotating plate (6) provided with a plurality of light transmission areas (61) and light shielding areas (62), a first optical fiber cable (7, 8) for guiding light from a light emitting element (33a, 33b) at one side of the rotat... | 11/03/1987 |
| 4703309 | Precision optoelectronic rotational position sensor An apparatus for determining the rotational position of a shaft comprises opposed first and second disks mounted for relative rotation about a predefined axis, with one of the disks being mounted to the shaft for rotation therewith and the other of the di... | 10/27/1987 |
| 4701615 | Measuring scale coding system for length or angle measuring instruments A system for distinguishing identical reference marks located on a graduation used in an instrument for measuring the relative position of two objects. An individual code mark, comprised of multiple code mark elements, is allocated to each reference mark.... | 10/20/1987 |
| 4700062 | Position measuring device with a scanned absolute scale A measuring instrument for determining the absolute angular position of two rotatable objects. The instrument comprises a housing which encapsulates a first information carrier with an incremental scale, a second information carrier with a absolute scale,... | 10/13/1987 |
| 4700063 | Encoder output error detecting circuit An encoder having improved output abnormality detection. First and second input signals differing in phase from one another are compared by respective first and second comparators with a first reference level at an amplitude center of each of the first an... | 10/13/1987 |
| 4698616 | Optoelectronic rotational position sensor An apparatus is disclosed for sensing rotational or angular position of a shaft. The apparatus incorporates two light transmission paths, each having a separate photodetector providing an electrical signal in response to the intensity of received light. T... | 10/06/1987 |
| 4694584 | Reduced volume digital inclinometer A high resolution, digital inclinometer having a full 360° linear range with accuracy which is independent of the angle of inclination. The linearity of the inclinometer is essentially flat throughout its range and greatly exceeds analog equivalents. A m... | 09/22/1987 |
| 4694157 | Temperature compensated electro-optical light transmission circuit for use in a position detector The present invention provides an opto-electric position detector circuit utilized in encoders or the like which determine the position and speed of the motion of robots, processing machines, recorders or the like. The output from a photodetector is input... | 09/15/1987 |
| 4692756 | Device for generating a 2-axis control signal An X-Y signal generator comprising a guide block having parallel cylindrical guide surfaces at opposite edges of the block, and a sleeve closely fitting about the block and riding on those surfaces. A planar window area is arranged close to the sleeve alo... | 09/08/1987 |
| 4691101 | Optical positional encoder comprising immediately adjacent detectors An optical shaft encoder has a light detector configuration that includes the function of a phase plate. The light detectors are one-half the width of a code wheel transmissive section and are arranged in groups of four so that each group corresponds to o... | 09/01/1987 |
| 4686362 | Incremental optical encoder with a tuned vernier The encoder comprises a rotor formed from a disc and a window-containing ring surrounding the disc periphery and able to undergo adjustment movements with respect to the disc. The encoder also comprises reading units formed from a light emitting diode, a ... | 08/11/1987 |
| 4683375 | Apparatus for detecting a steering angle and a steering angular velocity An apparatus for detecting a steering angle and a steering angular velocity of a steering mounted in a vehicle. The apparatus has a sensor mounted on a steering column tube, and a disc secured onto the outer periphery of a steering shaft. The steering col... | 07/28/1987 |
| 4680466 | Displacement transducer which simultaneously extracts signals via sequential switching A displacement transducer comprising a code disk on which a plurality of light permeable slits arranged with a fixed pitch are formed, a light source which emits light to the code disk, and an image sensor which receives the light from the light source th... | 07/14/1987 |
| 4678910 | Reference position-detecting device for photoelectric encoder A reference position-detecting device for use with a photoelectric, incremental encoder which produces a sinusoidal signal in response to the movement of an index scale relative to a main scale. A pattern comprising bright portions and dark portions alter... | 07/07/1987 |
| 4673808 | Disc for rotary encoder and method for producing same A rotary disc for an optical rotary encoder has a diameter of 15 to 50 mm, a thickness of 20 to 200 μm and 200 to 1,500 slits. The disc is made of nickel phosphorous alloy. A warpage of the disc is not greater than 100 μm. Such a rotary disc is produced... | 06/16/1987 |
