2075 results about "Contact force" patented technology

A polyaxial orthopedic device for use with rod implant apparatus includes a screw having a curvate head, a two-piece interlocking coupling element which mounts about the curvate head, and a rod receiving cylindrical body member having a tapered socket into which both the screw and the interlocking coupling element are securely nested. The interlocking coupling element includes a socket portion which is slotted and tapered so that when it is radially compressed by being driven downwardly into the tapered socket in the cylindrical body it crush locks to the screw. The securing of the rod in the body member provides the necessary downward force onto the socket portion through a contact force on the top of the cap portion. Prior to the rod being inserted, therefore, the screw head remains polyaxially free with respect to the coupling element and the body. In a preferred embodiment, the cap portion and the socket portion are formed and coupled in such a way that when the cap portion is compressed toward the socket portion, there is an additional inward radial force applied by the cap portion to the socket portion, thereby enhancing the total locking force onto the head of the screw.

A catheter for diagnosis or treatment of a vessel or organ is provided in which a flexible elongated body includes a tri-axial force sensor formed of a housing and a plurality of optical fibers associated with the housing that measure changes in the intensity of light reflected from the lateral surfaces of the housing resulting from deformation caused by forces applied to a distal extremity of the housing. A controller receives an output of the optical fibers and computes a multi-dimensional force vector corresponding to the contact force.

A respiratory mark assembly for delivering breathable gas to a patient includes a frame and a cushion. The cushion has a non-face contacting portion structured to be connected to the frame, a face-contacting portion structured to engage the patient's face, and an intermediate portion that interconnects the non-face contacting portion and the face-contacting portion. The intermediate portion includes a gusset portion that applies a first component of force to the patient's face through the face-contacting portion. A spring structure is coupled with the face-contacting portion of the cushion. The spring structure applies a second component of force to the patient's face through the face-contacting portion. The first and second components of force applied by the gusset portion and spring structure, respectively, determine a contact force of the cushion applied to the patient's face through the face-contacting portion. The intermediate portion may also include an elastic cuff portion. Further, in the case of an oral mask, the sealing section may include a portion that is designed to promote a better seal in the chin region of the mask.

A touch sensing catheter having a strain sensor assembly that may resolve the magnitude and direction of a force exerted on a distal extremity of the catheter, the strain sensor assembly being substantially insensitive to bulk temperature changes. A deformable structure having a plurality of optical fibers associated therewith that are strained by the imposition of a contact force transferred thereto. The optical fibers cooperate with the deformable structure to effect variable gap interferometers, such as Fabry-Perot resonators, that vary in operative length when a force is exerted on the deformable structure. The strain sensor assembly is rendered insensitive to bulk temperature changes by matching the coefficient of thermal expansion of the deformable body with that of the optical fibers. The strain sensor assembly may also be configured to mitigate the effects of thermal gradients using various thermal isolation techniques.

A compression connector for the end of a spiral corrugated coaxial cable is provided wherein one or more contact forces are provided between the connector and the cable by driving a coiled element of the connector into a groove within the corrugations of the cable and/or by causing an element of the compression connector to radially deform inward against the outer jacket of the cable.

A communications device such as a mobile phone has a main body communications circuit and a movable housing element such as a touch sensitive slide or a flip-type hinged structure. In one embodiment, the main body communications circuit responds to a touch sensitive slide signal, for providing a communications signal to a communications system. The communications device includes a main body or housing for containing the main body communications circuit of the communications device, as well as a speaker and display. The touch sensitive slide responds to a contact force by a user, for providing the touch sensitive slide signal containing information about a position of the contact force applied by the user on the touch sensitive slide. The touch sensitive slide is slidably or hingeably mounted on the main body, and may contain slide position sensing. In this embodiment, the touch sensitive signal contains information about the position of the touch sensitive slide in relation to the housing. The touch sensitive slide is adaptable for use as a mouse or a drawing table together with the display of the communications device, which enables for windows-based word and data processing and graphical applications, as well as internet applications.

A method and apparatus are disclosed providing a user interface using a touch input unit comprising a touch screen configured to detect a contact position and a contact force. The method comprises a step of the touch input unit receiving a touch input signal generated by a touch of a user's pointing object, a step of executing a step of a position processing unit identifying a contact position, corresponding to the received touch input signal, and a step of an intensity processing unit analyzing an intensity pattern of contact force, corresponding to the received touch input signal, simultaneously or sequentially, a step of a control unit determining an event corresponding to the touch input signal based on the identified contact position and the analyzed intensity pattern of contact force, and a step of an output unit outputting the determined event to a display screen.

A vehicular rearview assembly with a mirror element having a curved or rounded edge on the first surface that is fully observable from the front of the assembly, a complex peripheral ring, and a user interface with switches and sensors that activate and configure pre-defined function(s) or device(s) of the assembly in response to the user input applied to the user interface. The mirror element is supported by a hybrid carrier co-molded of at least two materials, a portion of which is compressible between the housing shell and an edge of the mirror element. The peripheral ring may include multiple bands. Electrical communications between the electronic circuitry, the mirror element, and the user interface utilize connectors configured to exert a low contact force, onto the mirror element, limited in part by the strength of adhesive affixing the EC element to an element of the housing of the assembly.

The present invention provides systems and methods for prosthesis fitting in joints that employ a trained neural network to predict at least one unknown set of data, such as position and contact force. The unknown data is predicted based on at least one known sensor value that is obtained intraoperatively. The predicted neural network data is made available to a physician and aids in the determination of whether to resect additional bone, release soft tissues, and/or select sizes for prosthetic components. Advantageously, increased data may be provided to a physician without the need to acquire numerous samples from a patient, and fewer sensors may be employed.

An intra-vascular balloon (110), comprising a balloon body (1010); and at least one springy and elongate stave (1030) attached to said balloon and conforming to a surface of said balloon, such that said stave can apply contact force to an object in contact with said balloon.

A system for ablating tissue includes a catheter having an elongate body, with at least one ablation element (e.g., RF electrode) and at least one acoustic transducer located within the body's tip region. The transducer receives acoustic signals from proximate the tip region. The system also includes a monitoring unit coupled to the transducer to interpret the received acoustic signals as data regarding at least one therapeutic parameter (e.g., pre-pop detection, lesion making progress, tissue interface detection, tissue contact force, tissue contact establishment, bubble spatial distribution, bubble depth, bubble size, bubble size distribution, tissue interface distance, tissue interface position, tissue attenuation, tissue thickness, lesion spectral fingerprint). The monitoring unit is operable to provide feedback to a practitioner, such as graphical, audible, and/or haptic output of sensed data, and may also be operable to control operation of the at least one ablation element in response thereto.

A method for the in vivo re-calibration of a force sensing probe such as an electrophysiology catheter provides for the generation of an auto zero zone. The distal tip of the catheter or other probe is placed in a body cavity within the patient. Verification that there is no tissue contact is made using electrocardiogram (ECG) or impedance data, fluoroscopy or other real-time imaging data and/or an electro-anatomical mapping system. Once verification that there is no tissue contact is made, the system recalibrates the signal emanating from the force sensor setting it to correspond to a force reading of zero grams and this recalibrated baseline reading is used to generate and display force readings based on force sensor data.

A force sensor particularly suited for use in an electronic stylus that senses the contact force on its nib for recording pen strokes and handwriting recognition. The sensor has a housing for a load bearing member for receiving an input force to be sensed and associated circuitry for converting the input force into an output signal indicative of the input force. The bearing member is movably mounted within the elongate body (up to 100 microns). The input force acting on the load bearing member is caused by contact on the nib. The load bearing member is biased against the direction of the input force. The force sensor also has a light source and photo-detector for sensing levels of illumination from the light source. Associated circuitry converts a range of illumination levels sensed by the photo-detector into a range of output signals, so that the illumination level sensed by the photo-detector varies with movement of the load bearing member within the elongate body such that the output signal from the circuitry is indicative of the input force. Using an optical sensor avoids the need to use a delicate piezo-resistive sensor that requires careful tolerancing during production.

Apparatus is provided for diagnosing or treating an organ or vessel, wherein a device having at optical fiber contact force sensors disposed in a distal extremity thereof and a deflection mechanism configured to deflect the elongate body at a location proximal of the distal extremity. The optical fiber contact force sensors are configured to be coupled to processing logic programmed which computes a force vector responsive to detected changes in the optical characteristics of the optical fiber contact force sensors arising from deflection of the distal extremity resulting from contact with the tissue of the wall of the organ or vessel.

The invention provides a control method of a human-machine interaction mechanical arm, which relates to a safe control method of a mechanical arm working under an unknown environment and solves the problem that an operator accidentally injured due to failure of the existing mechanical arm to accurately model the working environment when the mechanical arm works in close contact with the operator. A mechanical arm controller of the invention collects a joint position in a real time manner by a joint sensor and transforms the joint position q to a Descartes position x by the positive kinematics, and calculates the real-time trajectory planning xpg which is provided with a feedback of the Descartes force; the mechanical arm controller also collects the torque Tau by the joint sensor in a real time manner, calculates the expected torque Taur by Descartes impedance control, and calculates the input torque Taum of the mechanical arm joint by the dynamic compensation of a motor. The control method can effectively detect the force from each joint of the mechanical arm; when contacting an object, the mechanical arm can carry out a soft contact; when a collision happens, the mechanical arm can ensure that the contact force from each direction is within the range of the expected force, thus ensuring the safety of the mechanical arm and the operator.

A method and device for determining the transmuriality and/or continuity of an isolation line formed by a plurality of point contact ablations. In one embodiment, a method for determining the size of a lesion (width, depth and/or volume) is disclosed, based on contact force of the ablation head with the target tissue, and an energization parameter that quantifies the energy delivered to the target tissue during the duration time of the lesion formation. In another embodiment, the sequential nature (sequence in time and space) of the ablation line formation is tracked and quantified in a quantity herein referred to as the “jump index,” and used in conjunction with the lesion size information to determine the probability of a gap later forming in the isolation line.