33754results about How to "Improve versatility" patented technology

A medical diagnostic instrument includes a housing containing at least one battery and a light source, such as a lamp, for illuminating a medical target. A switch includes a movable member that selectively moves at least one of the battery and the lamp into and out of electrical connection with the other. The instrument is preferably fabricated from a diecast or an extrusion process wherein a thin plastic sleeve member having text and / or graphic materials can be shrink fitted onto an extruded handle.

Medical devices and related methods for closing a perforation in a bodily wall are provided. The medical device generally includes an introducer device having a base defining a plurality of recesses formed therein. Visceral staples are disposed within the recesses in a delivery state and are biased toward a deployed state. A holding mechanism retains the staples in the delivery state, and the holding mechanism is moveable relative to the base to allow the staples to extend out of the recesses. The biased nature of the staples will cause them to transition into the deployed state after the staples have been released, such that the staples will thereby pierce adjacent tissue and remain closed. The holding mechanism can be retractable or pivotable out of engagement with the staples. The introducer device can include upper and lower jaws or a slidable cover relative to the base.

The present invention is directed to an expandable spinal fusion intervertebral implant that provides for maintaining and creating lordosis in the human spine that can be filled with biologics while in situ to encourage spinal fusion. A threaded rod that traverses an insertion / injection handle can be rotated to operate a screw within the interbody cage that displaces opposing vertical tapped sliding wedges, causing them to converge towards each other. Such contact causes the operation of a horizontal wedge that acts as a lift to expand the interbody cage to one of various dimensions in a preferred range. At its desired expansion, the spinal fusion implant of the present invention is sized to fit within the disc space between two vertebral bodies and fill all voids left while the vertical and horizontal wedges operate within, due to the biologics being contained within the interbody cage.

A method of operating a computerized document search system where information is matched against a database containing documents in response to user queries includes receiving a query identifying a source document that has information content related to the documents within the database. Important words within the source document are detected automatically, where at least one of the important words has been processed using at least two dictionary functions consisting of Derived Words, Acronym, Word Capitalization, and Hyphenation. An importance value is generated for important words in a processed document using a WordRatio and at least one of a selected set of values. A score is generated for a processed document based partly on the importance value of at least one important word in that document. A document list is created for identifying documents that are related to a source document.

A device for monitoring heart rate and blood oxygen levels using improved pulse oximetry sensors. Pulse oximetry sensors function in either transmission mode or reflectance mode. The device of the present invention provides improved sensors functioning in transmission mode to be useful on anatomical structures with dense tissue, such as the wrist. Additionally, a combination of sensors are used to enhance the performance of monitoring devices using pulse oximetry technology. By combining sensors that function in transmission mode and reflectance mode, quality and accuracy of the monitoring device is enhanced. The data from the sensors are communicated with a microcontroller for analyzing the data. More accurate data collection translates to more accurate analysis using formulas or algorithms. The resulting analysis is conveyed to the user through a display, either digitally or in color.

The invention discloses a method for accelerating convolution neutral network hardware and an AXI bus IP core thereof. The method comprises the first step of performing operation and converting a convolution layer into matrix multiplication of a matrix A with m lines and K columns and a matrix B with K lines and n columns; the second step of dividing the matrix result into matrix subblocks with m lines and n columns; the third step of starting a matrix multiplier to prefetch the operation number of the matrix subblocks; and the fourth step of causing the matrix multiplier to execute the calculation of the matrix subblocks and writing the result back to a main memory. The IP core comprises an AXI bus interface module, a prefetching unit, a flow mapper and a matrix multiplier. The matrix multiplier comprises a chain type DMA and a processing unit array, the processing unit array is composed of a plurality of processing units through chain structure arrangement, and the processing unit of a chain head is connected with the chain type DMA. The method can support various convolution neutral network structures and has the advantages of high calculation efficiency and performance, less requirements for on-chip storage resources and off-chip storage bandwidth, small in communication overhead, convenience in unit component upgrading and improvement and good universality.

The invention relates to a micro-interface enhanced reactor bubble scale structure-activity regulation and control model building method. The diameter dmax of the largest bubble of a micro-interface enhanced reactor and the diameter dmin of the smallest bubble of the micro-interface enhanced reactor serve as independent variables, the average diameter d32 of the bubble Sauter serve as a dependentvariable, and a numerical relationship is built; based on the Kolmogorov-Hinze theory, the relationship between the diameter dmax of the largest bubble of the micro-interface enhanced reactor, the diameter dmin of the smallest bubble and the parameters of the reactor is built. According to the method, the reactor bubble scale is associated with the structural parameter, the operation parameter andthe physical property parameter of the reactor by using specific numerical relationship, the numerical relationship has the guiding significance for the design of the reactor and can be applied to avariety of reactors, the versatility is good, by means of a bubble scale regulation and control model built through the method, by adjusting the structural parameter and the operation parameter of thereactor, and the maximization of energy efficiency and material efficiency in the reaction process can be achieved, or under the condition that reaction targets, energy consumption and material consumption are given, a high-efficiency reactor structure is designed.

A display system includes a substrate upon which the display system is fabricated; a printable electrooptic display material, such as a microencapsulated electrophoretic suspension; electrodes (typically based on a transparent, conductive ink) arranged in an intersecting pattern to allow specific elements or regions of the display material to be addressed; insulating layers, as necessary, deposited by printing; and an array of nonlinear elements that facilitate matrix addressing. The nonlinear devices may include printed, particulate Schottky diodes, particulate PN diodes, particulate varistor material, silicon films formed by chemical reduction, or polymer semiconductor films. All elements of the display system may be deposited using a printing process.

A catheter includes a cryoablation tip with an electrically-driven ablation assembly for heating tissue. The cryoablation tip may be implemented with a cooling chamber through which a controllably injected coolant circulates to lower the tip temperature, and having an RF electrode at its distal end. The RF electrode may be operated to warm cryogenically-cooled tissue, or the coolant may be controlled to conductively cool the tissue in coordination with an RF treatment regimen, allowing greater versatility of operation and enhancing the lesion size, speed or placement of multi-lesion treatment or single lesion re-treatment cycles. In one embodiment a microwave energy source operates at a frequency to extend beyond the thermal conduction depth, or to penetrate the cryogenic ice ball and be absorbed in tissue beyond an ice boundary, thus extending the depth and / or width of a single treatment locus. In another embodiment, the cooling and the application of RF energy are both controlled to position the ablation region away from the surface contacted by the electrode, for example to leave surface tissue unharmed while ablating at depth or to provide an ablation band of greater uniformity with increasing depth. The driver or RF energy source may supply microwave energy at a frequency effective to penetrate the ice ball which develops on a cryocatheter, and different frequencies may be selected for preferential absorption in a layer of defined thickness at depth in the nearby tissue. The catheter may operate between 70 and minus 70 degrees Celsius for different tissue applications, such as angioplasty, cardiac ablation and tissue remodeling, and may preset the temperature of the tip or adjacent tissue, and otherwise overlay or delay the two different profiles to tailor the shape or position where ablation occurs or to speed up a treatment cycle.

Optical elements such as a vari-focal lens element, a vari-focal diffractive optical element and a variable declination prism usable as spectacle lens elements and so on.

Medical devices and related methods for closing a perforation in a bodily wall The medical device generally includes a suture having opposing first and second ends and a set of visceral anchors. Each visceral anchor includes a crossbar having opposing ends and a suture slidably attached thereto. Each visceral anchor is passed through the bodily wall adjacent the periphery of the perforation. The ends of the suture are tensioned to reduce the distance between the visceral anchors and compress the bodily wall around the perforation. The ends of the suture are secured to maintain the compression of the bodily wall and close the perforation.

It is an object to provide a semiconductor device in which power consumption can be reduced. It is another object to provide a highly reliable semiconductor device using a programming cell, such as a programmable logic device (PLD). In accordance with a change in a configuration of connections between basic blocks, power supply voltage furnishing to the basic blocks is changed. That is, when the structure of connections between the basic blocks is such that a basic block does not contribute to a circuit, the supply of the power supply voltage to this basic block is stopped. Further, the supply of the power supply voltage to the basic blocks is controlled using a programming cell formed using a field effect transistor whose channel formation region is formed using an oxide semiconductor, the field effect transistor having extremely low off-state current or extremely low leakage current.

A polyaxial bone anchor has a headless anchor member (e.g., a screw, hook, or other structure for attaching to bone) that allows the size of the bone anchor to be small. A locking element securely snap-fits over the headless anchor member such that inadvertent separation from the anchor member is unlikely. When the anchor member is attached to the locking element and the locking element is seated within the anchor head of the bone anchor, the headless anchoring member can polyaxially rotate about a central axis of the bone anchor before being locked in place.

A single integrated circuit includes first and second data processors operating on different instruction sets independently operating on disjoint programs and data. The single integrated circuit preferably includes an external interface, a shared data transfer controller and shared memory divided into plural independently accessible memory banks. The two data processors are preferably a digital signal processor (DSP) and a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) processor. The DSP and RISC processors are suitably programmed to perform differing aspects of computer image processing.

An audio-on-demand communication system provides real-time playback of audio data transferred via telephone lines or other communication links. One or more audio servers include memory banks which store compressed audio data. At the request of a user at a subscriber PC, an audio server transmits the compressed audio data over the communication link to the subscriber PC. The subscriber PC receives and decompresses the transmitted audio data in less than real-time using only the processing power of the CPU within the subscriber PC. According to one aspect of the present invention, high quality audio data compressed according to lossless compression techniques is transmitted together with normal quality audio data. According to another aspect of the present invention, metadata, or extra data, such as text, captions, still images, etc., is transmitted with audio data and is simultaneously displayed with corresponding audio data. The audio-on-demand system also provides a table of contents indicating significant divisions in the audio clip to be played and allows the user immediate access to audio data at the listed divisions. According to a further aspect of the present invention, servers and subscriber PCs are dynamically allocated based upon geographic location to provide the highest possible quality in the communication link.

A system for capturing super wide-angle panoramic images. In particular, a two-reflector system is disclosed which is substantially self-correcting in which optical aberrations are substantially eliminated, such as field curvature, astigmatism and the like. Moreover, the super wide-angle panoramic imaging apparatus of the invention captures a super-wide field of view from a substantially single reference viewpoint. The invention provides a substantially compact viewpoint, while also having a substantially flat and stigmatic image plane, in the context of a super wide-angle panoramic system. Devices and methods for capturing panoramic images of super wide-angle scenes are provided. In a particular embodiment of the invention, two reflectors are provided (e.g., one a hyperboloidal mirror, the other a concave ellipsoidal or spherical mirror), a relay system (e.g., optics such as a mirror, a lens, a pinhole and the like) and an image sensor (e.g., an electronic photo-sensor, a film and the like).

A headset having game, chat and microphone audio signals is provided with a programmable signal processor for individually modifying the audio signals and a memory configured to store a plurality of user-selectable signal-processing parameter settings that determine the manner in which the audio signals will be altered by the signal processor. The parameter settings collectively form a preset, and one or more user-operable controls can select and activate a preset from the plurality of presets stored in memory. The parameters stored in the selected preset can be loaded into the signal processor such that the sound characteristics of the audio paths are modified in accordance with the parameter settings in the selected preset.

A camera holding assembly that is configured to hold a plurality of cameras in a predetermined orientation includes a support having a plurality of receptacles. Each of the receptacles include at least one feature enabling a camera to be releasably retained therein as well as at least one and preferably at least three attachment features configured for enabling the camera holding assembly to be secured to another object. The receptacles are oriented about the support so that each camera, when loaded into the defined receptacles, is aimed in a different angular orientation. Images obtained from each retained camera can be stitched to create either a composite 360 degree×180 degree full spherical image or a composite 360 degree composite image of a scene of interest.

The present invention relates to a wireless home automation system having controllers for controlling a broad variety of functions via two-way communication with a plurality of devices. More specifically, the invention relates to sharing information related to the system between controllers, e.g. by updating a second controller with the newly learned information of a first controller, or by replicating a controller by making a second controller a complete copy of a first controller. The information can be shared by generating and transmitting, with a first controller, a list of device identifiers of devices controlled by the first controller to a second controller. The list is received by the second controller and stored in a memory of the second controller dedicated to store device identifiers of devices controlled by the second controller. This function proves advantageous when new controllers are introduced or if a controller is lost, worn out, or destroyed.

A pickup for an agricultural implement, the pickup including dual floating windguards that pivot and float causing the tines to maintain contact with the crop at all times as it moves over the pickup and across the stuffer.

Mechanically tunable electromagnetic and photonic devices featuring enhanced spectral tunability with minimal mechanical movement are provided. These nano / micro-electromechanically (N / MEMS) tunable elements, including filters and pixels, rely on leaky-mode resonance effects in subwavelength photonic lattices that constitute periodic wavelengths. Such elements can operate in reflection (bandstop) or transmission (bandpass) modes, and can be arranged in one-dimensional or two-dimensional arrays, or operated as single units, and their spectral regions are controlled by the element design. Input electromagnetic radiation illuminates the element and is then filtered, modulated, analyzed or tuned by the element. Mechanical motion alters the structural symmetry, and therefore, the tuning properties, of the nanostructured subwavelength resonance elements. Further, incorporating metals and dielectrics to generate coexisting plasmonic and leaky-mode resonance effects adds to the versatility of the potential applications.

A method and system are disclosed for the mapping of energy delivery devices to energy sources. Energy capable of affecting a measurable property of the system is delivered through the energy delivery devices from the energy sources. A change in a property when the energy is delivered is measured using measuring devices that are associated in a known way with the energy delivery devices. A profile of the change is compared to a profile of the energy output in order to determine which energy sources produce an output capable of affecting the property measurable by each measuring device and, because of the association between measuring devices and energy delivery devices, each energy delivery device.

The owner of proprietor interest is in a better position to control access to the encrypted content in the medium if the encryption-decryption key is stored in the medium itself and substantially inaccessible to external devices. Only those host devices with the proper credentials are able to access the key. An access policy may be stored which grants different permissions (e.g. to different authorized entities) for accessing data stored in the medium. A system incorporating a combination of the two above features is particularly advantageous. On the one hand, the content owner or proprietor has the ability to control access to the content by using keys that are substantially inaccessible to external devices and at the same time has the ability to grant different permissions for accessing content in the medium. Thus, even where external devices gain access, their access may still be subject to the different permissions set by the content owner or proprietor recorded in the storage medium. When implemented in a flash memory, the above features result in a particularly useful medium for content protection. Many storage devices are not aware of file systems while many computer host devices read and write data in the form of files. The host device provides a key reference or ID, while the memory system generates a key value in response which is associated with the key ID, which is used as the handle through which the memory retains complete and exclusive control over the generation and use of the key value for cryptographic processes, while the host retains control of files.

Gelled organic compositions and methods for using same. The gelled compositions may be liquid organic fluids, such as gelled liquid hydrocarbons, formed from a mixture of an organic-base fluid, a carboxylic acid, and one or more metal source compounds, such as a metal salt of carboxylic acid. The gelled compositions may be used in variety of applications including, but not limited to, oil field, pipeline and processing facility applications.

Sleeves for different portable electronic devices (portable media players, wireless telephones, handheld computers, etc.) adapt the outer contours of the devices such that all can fit within the pocket of a standard device dock. Each sleeve situates its portable electronic device within the pocket of the dock such that at least one of its power / communications ports is situated at a standard location. The device dock then also accommodates a connector which fits within the dock pocket, and which has power / communications ports situated at the standard location, such that when the sleeved device is inserted into the pocket, its power / communications ports interface with the power / communications ports of the connector. The connector can incorporate data storage devices, power supplies, interface cables extending to other devices (such as personal computers, stereo systems, etc.) such that it lends the functionality of these devices to the sleeved device situated within the pocket.

A shoe has a sandal and a removable bootie. The sandal is provided with at least one adjustable strap for securing the sandal about a wearer's foot and includes an outsole. The removable bootie is adapted to cover the wearer's foot and includes a sole, the removable bootie may be provided with an attachment system such as laces or straps for securing the bootie about the foot. The sandal and the bootie are configured to cooperate with each other so that when the bootie is inserted into the sandal and secured therein, the sandal and bootie combination results in the shoe, and wherein the sandal and the bootie can be worn independently of each other.

The present invention provides multifunctional magnetic nanoparticle probe compositions for molecular imaging and monitoring, comprising a nucleic acid or polypeptide probe, a delivery ligand, and a magnetic nanoparticle having a biocompatible coating thereon. The probe compositions may further comprise a fluorescent or luminescent resonance energy transfer moiety. Also provided are compositions comprising two or more such multifunctional magnetic nanoparticle probes for molecular imaging or monitoring. In particular, the nucleic acid or polypeptide probes bind to a target and generate an interaction observable with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or optical imaging. The invention thereby provides detectable signals for rapid, specific, and sensitive detection of nucleic acids, polypeptides, and interactions thereof in vivo.

In an inverse-stagger MOSFET (1), a gate insulating layer (4) made of amorphous aluminum oxide is so formed as to face a channel layer (5) which serves as the semiconductor layer, and which is made of zinc oxide. With this arrangement, a defect level at an interface between the channel layer (5) and the gate insulating layer (4) is reduced, thereby obtaining performance equivalent to that of a semiconductor apparatus in which all the layered films are crystalline. This technique is applicable to a staggered MOSFET and the like, and has high versatility.