US 5,400,138 A · Programmable spectrophotometer using a data memory for storing a sequence of generalized commands

Abstract

A color measuring system includes a portable spectrophotometer connectable to a general-purpose computer. The portable unit includes a microprocessor with a read-only program memory storing machine executable instructions to implement data processing for color measurement purposes and input/output functions including key reading and data transfer functions and display functions. A random-access data memory is used to temporarily store process data for later transfer to the general-purpose computer. An editor program and a compiler program in the general-purpose computer may be used to generate a program for the microprocessor using high-level, generalized commands. After such a program has been written and compiled in the general-purpose computer, it is transferred to a command buffer area in the random-access data memory of the microprocessor. The microprocessor, in its program memory, includes a command interpreter including a predefined sequence of machine executable instructions for each generalized command. When executed, the command interpreter reads a generalized command from the data memory and, if necessary, updates relevant data pointers and executes the predefined sequence of machine executable functions in the program memory corresponding to the generalized command being processed. A user, using the general-purpose computer, may specify any desired sequence of measurement operations by specifying functions to be performed by the microprocessor, including the display of prompts to the operator of the portable spectrophotometer to instruct the operator to perform various specified operations.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A color measuring system including a portable spectrophotometer comprising:

a light source for illuminating an object to be measured;
color measuring apparatus including photodetectors generating electrical output signals representative of light reflected from an object to be measured;
a programmable processor connected to the color measuring apparatus and including a read-only program memory and a random-access data memory for executing machine executable instructions permanently stored in the program memory and selectively reading data from and writing data into the data memory;
the program memory including a command interpreter program identifying a plurality of predefined generalized commands and a predefined sequence of machine executable instructions for each of the plurality of predefined generalized commands identified in the command interpreter program;
the data memory comprising a command buffer storing data defining a sequence of selected ones of the generalized commands;
the processor executing the command interpreter program by reading each of the generalized commands of the sequence of generalized commands in the command buffer and by executing for each generalized command read from the command buffer a corresponding one of the predefined sequences of machine executable instructions.

3 more elements

In a color measuring system including a spectrophotometer comprising color measuring apparatus generating electrical output signals representative of color measurements and a signal processor including a read-only program memory and a random-access data memory for executing sequences of machine language instructions from the program memory to perform signal processing functions on electrical signals generated by the color measuring apparatus, a method of executing functions to be performed by the spectrophotometer comprising the steps of:

fixing in the program memory indices identifying a plurality of predefined generalized commands and defining a sequence of machine executable instructions for each identified generalized command;
storing in the data memory a sequence of selected ones of the generalized commands;
reading a first generalized command from the data memory;
executing the sequence of machine executable instructions defined in the program memory for the first generalized command;
reading a next generalized command from the data memory and executing the sequence of machine executable instructions defined in the program memory for the next generalized command;
and
repeating the step of reading a next generalized command and executing the corresponding machine executable instructions until all generalized commands of the sequence of generalized commands has been executed.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Programmable spectrophotometer using a data memory for storing a sequence of generalized commands

Life of this patent

Programmable spectrophotometer using a data memory for storing a sequence of generalized commands

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims16