1899results about How to "Shorten the time period" patented technology

Method and apparatus for obtaining a sample of blood from a patient for subsequent diagnostic tests, e.g., glucose monitoring. In one aspect of the invention, the method comprises the steps of:(a) placing a blood collection device over a region on the surface of the skin from which said sample is to be obtained,(b) forming a seal between said blood collection device and said surface of the skin,(c) creating a vacuum sufficient to result in said surface of the skin becoming stretched and engorged with blood,(d) triggering a lancing assembly and causing a lancet to penetrate said skin,(e) retracting said lancet,(f) withdrawing blood toward and onto a fluid collector, and(g) releasing the vacuum.In another aspect of the invention, an apparatus for carrying out the method described previously is provided. The apparatus comprises:(a) a housing having a sealable chamber located therein and a sealable opening in fluid communication with said sealable chamber,(b) a power source,(c) a vacuum pump operably connected to said power source, said vacuum pump in communication with said sealable chamber,(d) a lancing assembly positioned within said housing, said lancing assembly capable of moving a lancet towards said sealable opening, and(e) a fluid collector positioned in said sealable chamber, said fluid collector in fluid communication with said sealable opening.

A probe of an ear-type clinical thermometer 20 comprises a first heat insulation member 210 made of a resin material and a second high heat insulation member 220 made of a resin material that is connected to a distal end of the first heat insulation member 210 by conventional coupling means. The second high heat insulation member 220 is tapered forwardly and is provided on the distal end with a concave surface 221. A protection cover 230 sheathes the first heat insulation member 210 and second high heat insulation member 220. A thermistor fine lead wire 240 is embedded in the first heat insulation member 210 and second high heat insulation member 220 so that a turning end portion 241 of the wire 240 is bridged over the concave surface 221 of the second high heat insulation member 220 to be exposed above the concave surface 221. An ultrafast responsivity thermistor 250 is mounted substantially on a center of the turning end portion 241 of the thermistor fine lead wire 240.

An impeller assembly for centrifugal pumps that enables self-priming in a relatively short time period includes an impeller and at least one winglet (e.g., six winglets with a trapezium cross-sectional shape). The impeller includes an impeller body with an eye opening therein. The eye opening is configured for the passage of a fluid (e.g., water) therethrough when the impeller assembly is in use. The impeller body also includes at least one vane, with a leading end, disposed about the eye opening. The at least one winglet is positioned to protrude into the eye opening of the impeller body and may, for example, be coupled to the leading end of the vane.

A travel route generating method for an unmanned vehicle, which includes a condition input step of inputting a vehicle constraint condition including a vehicle width and a minimum turning radius of the unmanned vehicle, and a geometrical constraint condition including a travel route generation range in which the unmanned vehicle is to travel, an obstacle to avoid, and a position and a direction of an entrance point and an exit point; and a travel route generating step of generating a travel route such that the vehicle constraint condition and the geometrical constraint condition are satisfied, and such that a function value of a cost function having at least a magnitude of a curve and / or a rate of change in the curve as a cost element is minimized.

The present invention relates to a three-dimensional printing prototyping system which includes a prototyping chamber having a prototyping table capable of moving up and down by a predetermined range, a material containing chamber containing a powder material and having a material supply table capable of moving up and down by a predetermined range, and a material supplying means for supplying the powder material contained in the material containing chamber to the prototyping table as much as a sectional thickness corresponding to divided section data of a three-dimensional prototype to be prototyped. The system of the present invention comprises a printing head for injecting a photocuring adhesive material to a region, corresponding to the sectional data, on the powder material supplied to the prototyping table; a curing device for photocuring at least the region on which the adhesive material is injected; and a control computer for controlling the printing head and the curing device such that the adhesive material is injected and cured, respectively, on the region corresponding to the divided section data of the three-dimensional prototype. According to the present invention, a period of time required in curing a three-dimensional prototype can be remarkably shortened and the three-dimensional prototype with its superior solidity can be obtained.

A composite data detector having first and second data detectors. The second detector of the invention starts in a known state and only runs as long as is necessary before being switched off and handing control back over to the smaller detector. Therefore, the composite data detector of the invention consumes less power than the known composite data detector and estimates bits with higher accuracy.

A gaming device such as a slot machine may be operated in an automated play mode in which the need for player input is reduced or eliminated. Game play cycles may be continuously performed in the automated play mode without player input. One or more parameters for controlling the automated play mode may be determined based on player input and / or data or a program stored in the gaming device and / or data or a program stored in a controller in communication with the gaming device. Termination of the automated play mode may result from player input and / or may be determined on the basis of a parameter that may be determined on the basis of player input or may be determined automatically by the gaming device or by a controller in communication with the gaming device.

The present invention prevents extension of the time period from powering on a device to convergence of chromaticity of emitted white light on a certain chromaticity, irrespective of the temperature when the device is powered on. A color liquid crystal display apparatus includes a liquid crystal display unit, a backlight employing LEDs of red, green and blue as its light source, a drive unit for driving the LEDs of each color, a temperature sensor for sensing the temperature of the LEDs, and a chromaticity sensor for sensing the chromaticity of white light emitted from the LEDs. The drive unit supplies a current to the LEDs to drive them, and implements feedback control of the amount of current for the LEDs of each color based on a value sensed by the chromaticity sensor so that the white light has a certain chromaticity. Furthermore, upon powering on the backlight, the drive unit retrieves initial current values of the LEDs of each color from a non-volatile memory, and corrects the initial current values according to a value sensed by the temperature sensor to activate the LEDs of each color with the corrected value.

The invention relates to an X-ray device which includes an X-ray source and an X-ray detector which are mounted at a respective end of a common holding device. The holding device being attached to the room by way of a supporting device. In order to realize a more flexible construction of such X-ray devices that are widely used and are usually provided with a holding device in the form of a C-arm and nevertheless maintain a high positioning accuracy. The invention further relates to a supporting device constructed with a plurality of hinged, serially interconnected supporting members. The supporting device is formed notably by a serial manipulator, for example, a conventional robot arm.

A firing jig for a honeycomb molded body includes a housing body configured to place a pillar-shaped honeycomb molded body including silicon carbide as a main component with a side face of the honeycomb molded body facing down, and a coat layer formed on at least a placing face of the housing body configured to place the honeycomb molded body thereon. A main component of the coat layer is silicon carbide, the coat layer having an arithmetic average height Ra of about 10 μm or less obtained in conformity with JIS B 0601 (2001).

The present invention provides an active radio frequency identification (RFID) tag and an application system and method thereof. The system includes: a control processor; a coordinator; an active RFID tag, configured to perform an RF feature check first with very little time before spending more time to receive a whole valid data packet during the time period of an interception state; and a reader / writer. Therefore, the power consumption of an active RFID tag is reduced drastically. Further, the present invention also provides an active RFID tag having a plurality of fixed mode actions and the application system and method thereof, thereby improving the communication efficiency of the radio communication system and effectively reducing the probability of signal collision and mutual interference.

A wind power generation system wherein procedure for controlling the blade pitch is changed in accordance with the rate of decrease in the amplitude of the grid voltage, and when over current occurs in the grid-side power converter, the grid-side power converter is brought into the gate-blocked condition whereas the generator-side power converter continues its operation.

A storage system comprises a data set storage region or storing a data set containing data and update data for managing this data, and a control section. The data set storage region is divided into a plurality of storage regions including a first storage region and a second storage region. The control section generates a first data set containing first data and first update data which is update data for same, stores at least the first data of this first data set in the first storage region, generates a second data set containing second data and second update data which is update data for same, and stores at least the second data of this second data set in the second storage region, which is separate from the first storage region.

A composite data detector having first and second data detectors. The second detector of the invention starts in a known state and only runs as long as is necessary before being switched off and handing control back over to the smaller detector. Therefore, the composite data detector of the invention consumes less power than the known composite data detector and estimates bits with higher accuracy.

A gaming device such as a slot machine may be operated in an automated play mode in which the need for player input is reduced or eliminated. Game play cycles may be continuously performed in the automated play mode without player input. One or more parameters for controlling the automated play mode may be determined based on player input and / or data or a program stored in the gaming device and / or data or a program stored in a controller in communication with the gaming device. Termination of the automated play mode may result from player input and / or may be determined on the basis of a parameter that may be determined on the basis of player input or may be determined automatically by the gaming device or by a controller in communication with the gaming device.

An image processing apparatus is capable of generating distortion-free accurate image data. The image processing apparatus has an image entering unit, an image processor, and a memory. Slice data read by the image entering unit is stored in the memory. The image processor determines whether the slice data stored in the memory is of significance or not. Then, the image processor calculates a moved distance and tilt of the slice data that has been detected as being of significance, and calculates positional coordinates of a reconstructed image area to which the slice data is to be projected, based on the moved distance and tilt of the slice data which have been calculated, and generates reconstructed image data. The generated reconstructed image data is stored in the memory.

A radio base station device comprises: a preamble signal receiving unit (15) that receives a RACH preamble signal transmitted from a radio terminal device; a reception notice receiving unit (16) that receives, from a radio relay station device, a reception notice indicating that the radio relay station device has received the RACH preamble signal; and a response signal transmitting unit (18) which, when an identifier (RA-ID) of the RACH preamble signal transmitted from the radio terminal device matches an identifier comprised in the preamble reception notice transmitted from the radio relay station device, permits the use of an identifier by the radio relay station device and transmits, to the radio terminal device, a RACH response signal (RACH Response) comprising a cell identifier (Cell ID) of a cell managed by the radio relay station device permitted to use the identifier. Accordingly, the latency when establishing a connection can be reduced.

A plasma display panel and its driving method are provided, which is capable of improving high speed performance and reducing the necessary voltage for a selective discharge for switching a discharge cell and preferably of suppressing a brightness in a black display and making it easy to modulate the minimum brightness for improving the quality of image. A scanning pulse voltage and a high-level data pulse voltage are so set that even if a data pulse of a discharge cell is low level or this discharge cell is non-selected, then in this non-selected discharge cell, a weak discharge 501 is generated between a low resistive wiring 111b and a stepped portion 203 over a data electrode 210 which are overlapped each other, and if a data pulse of a discharge cell is high level or this discharge cell is selected, then the weak discharge 501 is generated immediately after application of the data pulse before this discharge expends to a position under a transparent electrode 111a, whereby the weak discharge 501 becomes a discharge 502.

An Internet on-line insurance policy service system that facilitates real-time automated communication of policy information, adjustment of policy parameters, calculation and communication of resulting policy quotes, and implementation of policy changes, while obviating insurer personnel involvement and supervision of the communication. The system comprises a plurality of software modules relating to on-line real-time communication of existing policy information, testing of a wide range of variations in policy parameters, computing and communicating changes in policy premiums that would result from such variations, communicating desired changes in policy parameters and implementing desired policy changes. Other modules relate to communication of claims information and the providing of on-line forms.

A procedure for shutting down an operating fuel cell system includes disconnecting the primary electricity using device and stopping the flow of hydrogen containing fuel to the anode, followed by quickly displacing the residual hydrogen with air by blowing air through the anode fuel flow field. A sufficiently fast purging of the anode flow field with air eliminates the need for purging with an inert gas such as nitrogen.

The present invention relates to a memory circuit and method of operating the same. In at least one embodiment, the memory circuit includes a resistive memory element coupled to a plate potential by a first terminal; a bit line which is connectable to a second terminal of the resistive memory element; a programming circuit operable to change the resistance of the resistive memory element; a bleeder circuit operable to provide a bleeding current to or from the bit line due to a change of the resistance of the resistive memory element caused by the programming circuit.

The invention relates generally to data security and to data memory technologies, and more specifically provides a method for storing and updating digital certificates in a flash memory, and provides further a flash memory and an electronic apparatus exploiting said method. The method according to the invention is applicable for a flash memory (110) having predefined erase-write blocks and write-read blocks, for enhancing the tampering proof characteristics of said flash memory (110), said certificates authenticating a computer program and being verified by a verification program associated with the computer program, said method comprising the steps of: (230) defining a plurality of memory slots within said at least one erased erase-write block wherein each memory slot have a commencing address comprising a binary “0”- or a binary “1” bit pattern, (240) writing a first and second digital certificate in a first and second one of said memory slots, (250) defining a certificate slot address pointer, (260) updating said certificate slot address pointer by replacing said “0”- or “1”-bit pattern of said pointer with a “1”-or a “0” bit pattern, respectively.

A hair dryer is provided, which includes a housing having an air outlet, fan disposed in the housing, a pair of air flow channels extending toward the air outlet in the housing, a partition wall for separating the channels from each other, heater disposed in only one of the channels, and a minus-ion generator disposed in the other channel. The partition wall is formed by a tubular member, which is disposed in the housing such that one of the channels is provided by an inner space of the tubular member, and the other channel is provided by a clearance between an inner surface of the housing and an outer surface of the tubular member. Therefore, it is possible to simultaneously provide a cold air flow with minus ions and a hot air flow from the air outlet, and thereby efficiently perform hair styling.

A packet size control method allowing reduction in the period of time during which transmission is in a blocked state is disclosed. The size of a packet to be sent is determined depending on a measured round trip time (RTT), a current bandwidth of the data link layer, and a current congestion window size. First, a maximum segment size (MSS) is obtained based on the measured RTT and the current bandwidth of the data link layer using a table obtained by data transfer simulation. Thereafter, the obtained MSS is corrected using the current congestion window size. And the correct MSS is used to determine the final segment of data to be sent.

An abrasive tip is used to exfoliate skin and tissue through abrasive materials integrated in the tip. The tip also delivers fluid to the skin and vacuums the fluid and abraded tissue during treatment. Treated skin will look younger and healthier in appearance. In an implementation, the tip is replaceable and disposable.

A blood purification device that does not require measurement of a patient's blood concentration performed ahead of time and that allows treatment time to be reduced, thus reducing the burden on the patient, and allows monitoring of problems in the internal elements. The present invention includes: blood purification device main units including a blood pump disposed in an arterial blood circuit, a blood purification device purifying blood, and an ultrafiltration pump for draining water from blood; first measuring means and second measuring means measuring hematocrit values and disposed at the arterial blood circuit and the venous blood circuit respectively; calculating means calculating a ratio for measured hematocrit values and a ratio for a theoretical hematocrit values determined from a predetermined equation and evaluating means evaluating whether the values determined by calculating means are roughly similar.

The present invention provides a new method for producing amplified RNA from a selected set of cells. This method combines and utilizes known methods in a novel way to produce the gene expression profiles. The methods of the present invention utilize thermostable DNA polymerases and RNase H to produce high fidelity second strand synthesis of nucleic acids from selected cells in a highly efficient mariner and in substantially reduced time.

A film deposition apparatus for depositing a film on a substrate by performing a cycle of alternately supplying at least two kinds of reaction gases that react with each other on the substrate to produce a layer of a reaction product in a vacuum chamber is disclosed. The film deposition apparatus includes a ring-shaped locking member that may be provided in or around a wafer receiving portion of a turntable in which the substrate is placed, in order to keep the substrate in the substrate receiving portion.

The present invention prevents extension of the time period from powering on a device to convergence of chromaticity of emitted white light on a certain chromaticity, irrespective of the temperature when the device is powered on. A color liquid crystal display apparatus includes a liquid crystal display unit, a backlight employing LEDs of red, green and blue as its light source, a drive unit for driving the LEDs of each color, a temperature sensor for sensing the temperature of the LEDs, and a chromaticity sensor for sensing the chromaticity of white light emitted from the LEDs. The drive unit supplies a current to the LEDs to drive them, and implements feedback control of the amount of current for the LEDs of each color based on a value sensed by the chromaticity sensor so that the white light has a certain chromaticity. Furthermore, upon powering on the backlight, the drive unit retrieves initial current values of the LEDs of each color from a non-volatile memory, and corrects the initial current values according to a value sensed by the temperature sensor to activate the LEDs of each color with the corrected value.

A wind power generation system wherein procedure for controlling the blade pitch is changed in accordance with the rate of decrease in the amplitude of the grid voltage, and when over current occurs in the grid-side power converter, the grid-side power converter is brought into the gate-blocked condition whereas the generator-side power converter continues its operation.