Appeal No. 1996-3058
Application 08/192,520
the second gear. In particular, referring to Figure 2, disk
21 comprises an electrically insulating substrate with
conductive material 23 represented by hatched shading. Coding
is represented by five tracks 24, 26, 28, 30 and 32. Various
regions represent different gear states, i.e., 102-two-wheel-
drive high, 105-four-wheel-drive low or neutral, 107-four-
wheel-drive high.
Sole independent claim 1 is reproduced as follows:
1. A position-encoding system comprising:
a device adapted to shift gears of a motor vehicle;
and
an encoder coupled to said device to indicate the
current gear, said encoder further comprising:
a substrate; and
conductive material disposed on said substrate, such
that said conductive material forms patterns composed of a
series of states, each state composed of either a presence or
an absence of conductive material, wherein said encoder has a
plurality of regions characterized by said patterns, some of
said patterns indicating gears and some of said patterns
indicating intermediate positions between gears, wherein upon
movement from any first said gear to any second said gear, one
3
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