Opto-coupling interface

The power cable and the connecting interface cable from the salinometer s digital output to a personal computer may act as antennae. Shielded power and data cables should therefore be used. Computers should be de-coupled electrically from the salinometer and therefore communicate with the salinometer through opto-coupling interfaces only. 

An opto-isolated interface is used to couple the MS/EOID to a mini-computer where a new complete spectrum can be taken as often as every 50 milliseconds. With real time decalibration "on-the-fly" complete spectra can be processed every 4.5 seconds. 

For several years, operating systems were character based. They displayed information on the screen in text format and people interacted with them using command words. Then, a couple of people at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), intrigued with the idea that computers should be friendly and easy to use, started working with a graphical user interface (GUI), which used pictures to represent computer entities (like files, disks, and so on). To interact with the pictures, a special device was introduced into the computer world. This device was the mouse. The mouse translates movements on a horizontal surface into movements of a pointer on the screen. There are two methods of making these translations opto-mechanical and optical. 

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