US 5,051,799 AGranted

Digital output transducer

OwnerJon D. Paul, Mark D. Clayton +1inventors

InventorsJon D. Paul, Mark D. Clayton, Anthony M. Agnello

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Abstract

Contained within a single housing (120), is a transducer (100) for receiving an acoustic signal, an analog-to-digital converter (108), which changes the output of transducer (100) into a series of digital pulses representing the incoming acoustic signal. The output of the system may be in serial form. This serial output (114) is transmitted (116) to a remote receiver (122) by wires, light, optical fibers, or as radio waves. The receiver's (122) output (124) is applied to a digital system (130), which processes or reconstructs the acoustic signal. The system may include a digital signal processor (300) within the housing (120) for processing the signal (110) prior to transmission. The analog to digital converter may be a delta-sigma oversampling type, or a sub-ranging floating point type, or use adaptive differential pulse code modulation. Power may be derived remotely by transmission over the signal medium.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A transducer system for communicating varying energy by digital means, comprising:

(a) a housing,
(b) transducer means within said housing for converting varying input energy supplied to said transducer means into an analog electrical output signal,
(c) analog-to-digital converter means within said housing for sampling said analog electrical output signal from said transducer periodically, and for converting the resultant periodic samples of said analog electrical signal into a sequence of groups of digital bits which represent the values of said analog electrical signal at (the) each respective periodic (times) (of) sampling time,
(d) transmission means in said housing for transmitting said sequence of digital bits to a location remote from said housing,
(e) reception means at said remote location for receiving the transmitted sequence of said groups of digital bits, and
(f) a digital system at said remote location connected to said reception means for utilizing said received sequence of digital bits,
whereby said varying input energy will be converted into said sequence of digital bits, transmitted to said remote receiver in digital form, and utilized in digital form by said digital system located at said remote location so as to be able to transmit said varying input energy faithfully.

4 more elements

A transducer system for communicating varying energy by digital means, comprising:

(a) transducer means for converting varying input energy into an analog electrical signal, said analog electrical signal having a given bandwith,
(b) oversampling analog-to-digital converter means for sampling said analog electrical signal at periodic instants and for converting said sampled analog electrical signal into a sequence of groups of digital bits which represent the respective values of said analog electrical signal at said periodic instants, said sampling being performed at a rate greater than two times said given bandwidth of said analog electrical signal,
(c) transmit interface means for converting said sequence of groups of digital bits from said oversampling analog-to-digital converter to a single serial digital bit stream,
(d) transmission means for transmitting said single serial digital bit stream to a location remote from said transducer means,
(e) a transmission medium for conducting said transmitted single serial digital bit stream to said remote location,
(f) reception means located at said remote location for receiving said transmitted single serial digital bit stream,
(g) receive interface means for converting said single serial digital bit stream into a sequence of groups of digital bits corresponding to groups of digital bits applied to said transmit interface, and
(h) a digital system connected to said reception means for utilizing said output of said receive interface, whereby said varying energy is converted to a digital signal, transmitted to said remotte receiver in digital form as a single serial digital bit stream, and utilized by said digital system located at said remote location, such that said transmission will be performed in a highly faithful manner.

5 more elements

A transducer system for communicating acoustic signals by digital means comprising:

(a) a housing,
(b) transducer means within said housing for converting an acoustic signal into an analog electrical output signal from said transducer,
(c) analog-to-digital converter means within said housing for sampling said analog electrical output signal at periodic instants and for converting the sampled analog electrical output signal into a sequence of groups of digital bits which represent the respective values of said analog electrical output signal at said periodic instants,
(d) digital signal processing means located within said housing for modifying said sequence of groups of digital bits,
(e) means for storing a program for controlling said digital signal processing means,
(f) transmission means for transmitting said sequence of groups of digital bits to a location remote from said transducer means,
(g) reception means located at said remote location for receiving said sequence of groups of digital bits transmitted by said transmission means, and
(h) a digital system at said remote location, said digital system being connected to said reception means for utilizing said received sequence of groups of digital bits,
whereby said acoustic signal is converted to a digital signal, transmitted to said remote receiver in digital form, and utilized by said digital system located at said remote location such that said digital system at said remote location receives a highly faithful digital representation of said acoustic signal.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.