Here are but a few of the projects we have played a major role in developing...
SWIFT: Space Weather Ionospheric Forecasting Technologies
Target Operating System(s): Windows NT 4.0.
This application is currently still in development for our client. Once completed and deployed, it will provide users with relatively accurate predictions of local ionospheric electric and magnetic conditions about an hour ahead. Severe solar (geomagnetic) storms cause communications problems, abruptly increase drag on spacecraft, and can cause electric utility blackouts over a wide area. The predications SWIFT will provide can be of great benefit to communications providers and the power distribution industry.
SWIFT is a work in progress, so anything displayed here is subject to change as the application evolves. This link leads to images of predicted potential patterns.Here is a contour plotting demonstration using some data from early verisons of SWIFT.
This is a link for more information about geomagnetic storms. This is a link to my report of an eclipse expedition I was part of in 1979.
Flexible Antenna Control Workstation
Target Operating System(s): Windows NT 3.51, 4.0
This application controls the positioning and tasking of a wide variety of movable antennas used in satellite tracking, terrestrial spectrum monitoring and high gain wireless communication systems.
The control axes include azimuth, elevation, two polarization axes and a time axis. All control axes are integrated with various other databases for antenna tasking, pointing and tracking.
Control of the antenna is augmented by a map showing current azimuthal orientation and a pointing database for "point-and-click" positioning. The acquisition of antenna physical geolocation and accurate GMT time, via GPS, and alignment / orientation, via an electronic compass, are integrated as well.
Multiple antennas can be controlled from a single operator workstation over a LAN or over the Internet utilizing TCP/IP.
Flexible Antenna Control Workstation
UHF / VHF Spectrum Monitoring / Signal Location System
Target Operating System(s): Windows NT 3.51, 4.0
This system was designed and built as an enforcement tool for the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore (TAS). It is used to monitor spectrum usage and to quickly locate transgressors in the frequency range from 20 MHz to 2 GHz.
The workstation software provides for manual control of the remote DF processors, geolocation of signals of interest (SOI), creation and scheduling of unattended data collection, analysis and storage of collected data and retrieval of the data from the system database.
Firmware Operating Systems / Superbird
Target Operating System(s): We developed the operating system(s). The target microprocessor is the Z80.
For this project, we developed embedded firmware operating systems for eight (8) distinct pieces of equipment which together comprise a complete remote satellite downlink/uplink station for a Japanese television company. The station can be controlled remotely via TCP/IP.
Each unit shares portions of a common operating system but has operating functionality unique to that unit added to the OS. The eight units are: Uplink, Downlink, Up/Down, Hub, Spectral Analyzer, IF, Recorder and Equalizer.
Employing a TCP/IP connection from a remote location...
- The system can be remotely controlled.
- Current system and individual unit status can be monitored.
- Outgoing (uplink) or incoming (downlink) signals can be switched to alternate paths.
- Signals can be analyzed.
- Remote diagnosis can be made for failure modes.
- The system can be restarted, unit-by-unit or all together.
The units are designed for complete remote control, but have a manual mode for on site diagnostics. I believe the actual installation was made on a remote island in the northwest part of the Pacific Ocean, near Japan.
TrueTest
Target Operating System(s): Windows NT 3.51, 4.0.
This is an equipment control application for testing and debugging apparatus used in the time-delay-of-arrival (TDOA) geolocation of cellular telephone transmissions.
It runs across a distributed network via TCP/IP, serial and IEEE 488 protocols. Several different pieces of equipment might need to be tested, each in a variety of configurations, so an extremely flexible, yet easily automated system was required.
We devised and wrote the scripting language which allows the user to directly interface with whatever pieces of test equipment are necessary to perform the task at hand. Multiple levels of includes, looping and real time parameter variation allows scripts to be reused even within a current test.
The user interface consists of two operation panels:
The purpose of the first control panel view is to directly create and edit test scripts using standard Windows user interface controls, such as radio buttons, check boxes, etc. The user can generate a script line-by-line without any knowledge of the underlying scripting language or can write the script by hand.
The second operator control panel is the script selection and execution panel. This control view allows the user to begin a test run, monitor the ongoing operation of the test, pause the test, step through the test or cancel the test. The results of the run are saved to a log file if the user chooses.
Message Server
Target Operating System(s): Windows NT 3.51
Message Server is a client-server, configurable, interapplication messaging system utilizing Named Pipes across LAN's. It is used on systems not having operative TCP/IP or where a separate messaging protocol is desirable, such as secure LAN's
This application was developed as a spin-off of the Pricer Project (see below).
Pricer ESL Project
Target Operating System(s): Windows NT 3.51.
The initial application, really a proof of concept, consisted of an IDE card driver which was created to demonstrate the functioning of an electronic shelf label infrared communication system running under Windows NT.
A secondary purpose was to develop the prototype user interface for further application development.
Electronic shelf label driver setup
Electronic shelf labels (tags) are currently used in some stores, mostly in Europe, to replace the paper pricing labels on merchandise. Several chains in the Midwest are currently committed to large scale tests of this ESL system.
The electronic shelf labels interface directly to the store's Point of Sale (POS) database through this application and can be updated at a high rate. An average store can have all shelf pricing changed overnight. The labels are communicated with via infrared transmitters located in the ceiling.
Data from the POS database is translated into a proprietary ASCII text based message format and then translated into binary data for transmission to an individual label.
Jupiter NT
Target Operating System(s): Windows NT 3.51
This application is the Windows NT front end to an existing UNIX server based database retrieval application named RS/1. RS/1 represents a large application legacy of data retrieval capability for many of BBN's clients and needs an NT interface in order to remain viable in the coming years.
SpeechWare™ OrderDesk™ for Windows
Target Operating System(s): Windows 3.11 (Windows for Workgroups) with Win32s extensions and Windows NT 3.1, 3.51
OrderDesk is a continuous speech order entry system for use in Windows NT. The objective is to reduce keyboard use through speech input, put disabled workers back to productive work and prevent further disabilities in other workers.
OrderDesk is a customizable package consisting of advanced continuous speech recognition, proprietary post recognition processing and contextual processing. It is tightly integrated into a Windows application suitable for a wide variety of host and mainframe connections.
This particular custom version of OrderDesk consists of approximately 35 modeless dialogs, each corresponding to a mainframe screen performing the same functions.
The application interfaces directly to the client's mainframe database. Communication with the mainframe is via IRMA Workstation for Windows. In order to support IRMA, OrderDesk contains a HLLAPI (High Level Language Application Programming Interface) module for processing mainframe messages.
The base vocabulary used for continuous speech recognition is approximately 1,000 discrete words, which in turn can be strung together to create approximately 10,000 valid phrases, not including variations for numeric entry (i.e. the number 1234 567 890 counts as the same phrase as 0987 654 321). If all numeric variations are taken into account the number of unique valid phrases recognized by this version of OrderDesk are well over ten million.
If we can help you with a custom software solution, feel free to contact us at Human Software Corp.
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