Data transmission systems with error detection and correction capabilities

Claim 1

FOR AN ELECTRONIC DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM WHEREIN INFORMATION IS PROCESSED IN THE FORMAT OF DIGITAL SEQUENCES OF BINARY CODED ELECTRONIC SIGNALS AND SAID SEQUENCES INCLUDE MESSAGE DIGITS AND PARITY GENERATED BY CONVOLUTIONAL PROCESSING OF SAID MESSAGE DIGITS, ERROR CORRECTING APPARATUS INCLUDING A DECODER FOR SAID SEQUENCES, WHICH DECODER COMPRISES: MATRIX MEANS FOR PROCESSING SAID SEQUENCES IN A CYCLIC PARITY-DIGIT-GENERATING OPERATION WHEREIN EACH MESSAGE AND EACH PARITY DIGIT OF SAID SEQUENCE IN PROCESSED THROUGH EACH POSITION OF SAID MATRIX AND IS CHECKED AGAINST OTHER MESSAGE AND PARITY DIGITS OF SAID SEQUENCE IN A SEPARATE OPERATION FOR EACH POSITION OF SAID MATRIX TO PROVIDE ELECTRONIC SIGNAL INDICATION OF ERRONEOUS DIGITS IN SAID SEQUENCE; STORAGE MEANS, CONNECTED TO SAID MATRIX MEANS, FOR STORING SAID INDICATIONS OF ERRONEOUS DIGITS;FIRST PULSE SHIFTING REGISTER MEANS CONNECTED SAID STORAGE MEANS FOR PROCESSING BINARY SIGNAL INDICATION OF THE PATTERN OF OCCURRENCE OF SAID ERRONEOUS DIGITS; SECOND PULSE SHIFTING REGISTER MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID FIRST SHIFT REGISTER MEANS FOR INDICATING, IN COMBINATION WITH SAID FIRST SHIFT REGISTER MEANS, THE LOCATION OF SAID ERRONEOUS DIGITS WITHIN A GIVEN FORMAT; MEANS FOR CYCLING SAID FIRST AND SAID SECOND SHIFT REGISTER MEANS TO ACHIEVE A DESIRED RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SIGNAL CONTENTS OF SAID REGISTERS AND SAIDSTORAGE MEANS; AND, MEANS RESPONSIVE TO SAID ACHIEVEMENT OF SAID RELATIONSHIP FOR IMPLEMENTING CORRECTION OF ERRONEOUS DIGITS IN SAID SEQUENCES.