Ronald Hugh Barker FIEE(28 October 1915 – 7 October 2015) was a British physicist, mathematician and engineer whose work led to the identification of the binary sequences now known as Barker codes, first described by Barker in 1953. These sequences have favourable autocorrelation properties that allow reliable detection and timing synchronisation of signals in the presence of noise, and are widely used in radar, digital communication and other signal processing systems. Barker was born in Ireland and spent his professional career in the United Kingdom. He worked for much of his early career at the Signals Research and Development Establishment (SRDE), where he became superintendent in charge. His research on signal detection and coding contributed to developments in radar and digital communication techniques during the early development of modern electronic and information systems.
Early life and education Ronald Hugh Barker was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1915, to English parents. His education was disrupted by his father's frequent periods of unemployment and moves between Dublin, England and America to find work as an artist. At age 13, Barker (known as Roy) passed the entrance exam and was admitted to a new school, The Cedars (now known as Cedars Upper School) in Leighton Buzzard. Less than a year later his father died of pneumonia in Youghal, Co. Cork, Ireland. Despite the difficulties he excelled at school. His mother, a school teacher, assisted in his education and taught him to play the piano. Barker became very interested in emerging electronics building his own crystal and wireless sets. After matriculation he won a scholarship to University College Hull and in 1938 was awarded a 1st Class Honours degree in physics by the University of London.
Early career and wartime work In 1938 Barker joined Standard Telephones and Cables in London, working as a physicist on thermionic valves and X-ray equipment. With the outbreak of the Second World War, scientists were designated as a reserved occupation, allowing Barker to continue technical research rather than being conscripted. In 1941 he moved to the Signals Experimental Establishment of the Ministry of Supply. Following wartime relocations, the organisation became the Signals Research and Development Establishment (SRDE) at Christchurch in 1943. Barker's early work involved assisting with the design and testing of military radio and telemetry systems. This included the electronics of two-way radios for jungle use and the wireless sets used in armoured vehicles during the war. After the end of hostilities much of his work focused around the representation of data in binary number form and its application to servomechanism systems using pulse code modulation. Barker authored a classified report, code named Messina, on telemetry systems used in the German A4 (V-2) rocket programme at Peenemünde in 1945.
Post-war career
Following the war, Barker’s research increasingly focused on the theoretical and practical challenges of digital and sampled data systems, at a time when analogue signal methods still dominated engineering practice. He investigated the effects of sampling, quantisation, and time delay on system stability, and developed early methods for representing mechanical motion in digital form. In 1945, telemetry was becoming increasingly important in military applications, particularly for missile and aircraft testing. Initially the G.A.P. (Guided Air Projectile) system was used which allowed for real-time data collection and analysis, essential for improving their performance. A year later he was promoted to senior scientific officer and became responsible for advanced research in communications, telemetry, and guidance successfully developing and testing the first British telemetry-guided surface-to-air missile employing real-time telemetry for command guidance. The project is known as LOPGAP (Liquid Oxygen Propelled Anti-aircraft Guided Projectile) Weapons testing initially occurred at Ynyslas. The technology required reliable data transmission, synchronisation and control under extreme conditions. Barker’s work addressed issues related to signal encoding and three dimensional problems of controlling flight remotely. Robustness against electronic noise (signal processing) was key, a problem that would later inform his research into digital synchronisation and coding.
That same year Barker attended the first International Telemetering Symposium at Princeton University, New Jersey. He read two papers describing his guidance system as part of the classified Anglo-American “Bumblebee” research collaboration on guided missiles, pilotless aircraft and projectiles at supersonic speed. Bumblebee report No 42 included examples of nearly all possible systems of modulation and multiplexing were reported in this historic document. In 1947, Barker was quickly promoted again to principal scientific officer. He was asked to see how the digital technology could be integrated with radar into aircraft tracking. His memorandum describes one of the earliest air traffic control systems utilising digital electronics by combining graphical displays with synchronised digital data transmission and aircraft identifiers enabling the information be sent digitally with a synchronising signal via a telephone cable using teleprinters to other users.
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