Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1970 [PAGE 171]

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1968]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

171

an arrangement of piezo-electric Bimorph benders or twisters which are driven in such a way as to produce a raster. These devices may be utilized with ordinary light sources or, preferably, with lasers. T h e Committee recommends that the rights of the University be assigned to the inventor, subject to the rights of the sponsoring agency, and that if the inventor does not apply for a patent, the rights be assigned to the Advanced Research Projects Agency. 6. Random pulse sequence representation — Chushin Afuso, Assistant P r o fessor of Electrical Engineering at Washington University, St. Louis, formerly Research Assistant in the Digital Computer Laboratory, Urbana, and W . J. Poppelbaum, Professor of Electrical Engineering and of Computer Science, Urbana, inventors; developed under the sponsorship of the Office of Naval Research. This system proposes a method of variable representation in which the variable value is carried as the probability of appearance of pulses in given time slots. If such synchronous random pulse sequences are used, multiplication corresponds simply to using an A N D circuit to combine the respective sequences. It turns out that the operations of addition, subtraction, and division can also be considerably simplified^ by this variable representation and that it becomes in general possible to process analog information thus encoded by purely digital circuitry. The Committee recommends that the rights of the University in this invention be released to the sponsoring agency. 7. Phastor — W . J. Poppelbaum, Professor of Electrical Engineering and of Computer Science, Urbana, and David Aspinall, formerly Visiting Associate P r o fessor of Computer Science, Urbana, inventors; developed under the sponsorship of the Office of Naval Research. This invention solves the problem of storage of analog quantities for long periods of time by quantizing the analog voltages into a great number of steps (typically 100) and storing the quantized version as the phase difference between a free running multivibrator, synchronized by a central clock, and a standard multivibrator used for reference purposes. T h e advantage of this system is that only three transistors are necessary for a storage cell. The Committee recommends that the rights of the University in this invention be released to the sponsoring agency. 8. Potentiomatrix — W . J. Poppelbaum, Professor of Electrical Engineering and of Computer Science, Urbana, inventor; developed under the sponsorship of the Office of Naval Research. This is a display device necessitating only a restricted information input for the display of complicated curves. This is obtained by building a solid state analog of an electrolytic trough. This takes the form of a grid-work of resistors with imposed boundary conditions for a subset of nodes. In particular, two sets of nodes are put at ground level and a voltage V respectively. All nodes are connected to a bus via a sensor which lights up a little bulb when no potential difference is present. The voltage of the bus is then stepped from ground to V and a succession of equipotential lines becomes visible. Since many complicated curves are equipotential lines of simple boundary conditions, it suffices to transmit to the display system these simple boundary conditions. T h e Committee recommends that the rights of the University in this invention be released to the sponsoring agency. 9. Sod and stubble planter — Donnie R. Morris, F a r m Mechanic, Dixon Springs, and George E. McKibben, Associate Professor of Agronomy, Dixon Springs, inventors. Packer cutter wheel gives more uniform depth control on both sod and conventional seedbeds due to its close proximity to planter shoe and due to its smaller diameter than the conventional packer wheel. The Committee recommends that the rights of the University in this invention be assigned to the inventors. 10. Control system for off-highway vehicles — William Edward Larsen, formerly Research Associate in Agricultural Engineering, Urbana, inventor. A vehicle design concept and a control system to improve off-highway vehicle productivity by removing any restrictions on the vehicle's size and shape and by increasing vehicle maneuverability. Vehicle design utilizes hydrostatic powerwheels and a control system which controls the angle and the speed of each wheel. The resulting system places no limits on the vehicle's size and shape or on the number of wheels and their position on the vehicle. T h e unique feature of this