5846 results about "Navigation system" patented technology

An advancer system is described for moving an elongate medical device within a body. The system includes a drive unit having a motor. The drive unit is configured to translate movement of the motor to the device so as to alternately advance and retract the device relative to the body. The advancer system also includes a user-operable control system configured to control the drive unit. The control system can interface with a magnetic navigation system. The above-described system allows an operating physician to control catheter advancement and retraction while remaining outside an x-ray imaging field. Thus the physician is freed from repeated x-ray exposure.

A navigation system for a vehicle includes a vehicle-based telematics system, a vehicle-based global positioning system and a control. The telematics system is operable to receive a user input from a driver of the vehicle and to download directional information from an external service provider to the control in response to the user input and an initial geographic position of the vehicle. The directional information comprises at least two instructions with each of the instructions being coded or associated with or linked to a respective geographic location. The control is operable to provide an output corresponding to each of the instructions in response to a current actual geographic position of the vehicle. The control is operable to provide each instruction only when the then current actual geographic position of the vehicle at least generally corresponds to the particular geographic location associated with the instruction.

The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for sending and retrieving location relevant information to a user by selecting and designating a point of interest that is displayed on a graphical user interface and sending the location information associated with that point of interest to a receiver that is also selected using the graphical user interface. The location relevant information may also include mapped routes, waypoints, geo-fenced areas, moving vehicles etc. Updated location relevant information may also be continuously sent to the user while generating updated mapping information on the graphical user interface. The present invention may be practiced by using communication devices such as a personal computer, a personal digital assistance, in-vehicle navigation systems, or a mobile telephone.

Apparatus and methods are disclosed for use within an image-guided surgical navigation system for the storage and measurement of trajectories for surgical instruments. An icon representing the real-time trajectory of a tracked instrument is overlaid on one or more pre-acquired images of the patient. At the surgeon's command, the navigation system can store multiple trajectories of the instrument and create a static icon representing each saved trajectory for display. The surgeon may also measure a planar angle between any two trajectories. The angle is computed in the plane of the image, and therefore will be computed separately for each image displayed. Furthermore, the surgeon has the option of computing and displaying the three-dimensional distance between two points defined by any two trajectories.

This invention relates to a display method and apparatus, and more particularly, this invention relates to a user interface with multiple applications which can be operated concurrently and/or independently by using simple finger gestures. Furthermore, the user is allowed to intuitively operate and control digital information, functions, applications, etc. to improve operability. In one exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the user is able to use finger gesture to navigate the user interface via a virtual spindle metaphor to select different applications. The user can also split the user interface to at least two display segments which may contain different applications. Moreover, each display segment can be moved to a desirable location on the user interface to provide a seamless operation environment. This invention can also be used in vehicle navigation systems to reduce driver distraction when the display segments can be split and each application can be moved around, so that the passenger can operate the navigation system while the user is driving.

A system for internet navigation using soft hyperlinks is disclosed, in connection with an illustrative information retrieval system with which it may be used. The navigation tool provides freedom to move through a collection of electronic documents independent of any hyperlink which has been inserted within an HTML page. A user can click on any term in a document page, not only those that are hyperlinked. For example, when a user clicks on an initial word within the document, the disclosed system employs a search engine in the background to retrieve a list of related terms. In an illustrative embodiment, a compass-like display appears with pointers indicating the first four terms returned by the search engine. These returned terms have the highest degree of correlation with the initial search term in a lexical knowledge base that the search engine constructs automatically. The disclosed system allows the user to move from the current document to one of a number of document lists which cover different associations between the initial word clicked on by the user and other terms extracted from within the retrieved list of related terms. The disclosed system may further allow the user to move to a document that is considered most related to the initial word clicked on by the user, or to a list of documents that are relevant to a phrase or paragraph selection indicated by the user within the current page.

A display and navigation system for use in guiding a medical device to a target in a patient includes a tracking sensor, a tracking device and display. The tracking sensor is associated with the medical device and is used to track the medical device. The tracking device tracks the medical device with the tracking sensor. The display includes indicia illustrating at least five degree of freedom information and indicia of the medical device in relation to the five degree of freedom information.

A system for wirelessly providing data regarding surgical implements such as surgical tools, trial and inserts themselves to a surgical navigation unit. Each implement includes an RFID in which data regarding the implement are stored. The tool used to fit the implement has a first coil positioned to exchange signals with a complementary coil integral with the RFID. The tool also has a prism for receiving a navigation tracker. A second tool coil, in the prism, is connected to the first coil. The second tool coil is also connected to an RFID integral with the tool. The tracker, through the tool coils, reads the data in the implement RFID and the tool RFID. A transmitter in the tracker wirelessly forwards the data to the surgical navigation system. The data are used to facilitate reactive workflow guidance of the procedure and monitor the position of the implement.

The present invention relates to a helicopter having a modular airframe, with multiple layers which can be connected easily, the layers which house the electronics (autopilot and navigation systems), batteries, and payload (including camera system) of the helicopter. The helicopter has four, six, and eight rotors, which can be easily changed via removing one module of the airframe. In one embodiment, the airframe has a vertical stacked appearance, and in another embodiment, a domed shape (where several of the layers are stacked internally). In one embodiment, there is a combination landing gear and camera mount. The helicopter allows for simple flight and usage by remote control, and non-remote control, users.

A navigational control system for an autonomous robot includes a transmitter subsystem having a stationary emitter for emitting at least one signal. An autonomous robot operating within a working area utilizes a receiving subsystem to detect the emitted signal. The receiver subsystem has a receiver for detecting the emitted signal emitted by the emitter and a processor for determining a relative location of the robot within the working area upon the receiver detecting the signal.

An interactive navigation system includes a navigation processing unit, a current position sensor, a speaker, a microphone and a display. When it is preliminary inferred, based on receipt of a detection signal from the sensor, that a vehicle has probably been diverted from a drive route determined by the navigation processing unit, a machine voice question is produced through the speaker for confirmation of the inferred probability of diversion. A driver or user in the vehicle answers the question, which is input through the microphone and analyzed to be affirmative or negative, from which a final decision is made as to the vehicle diversion. In a preferred embodiment the question is spoken by a personified agent who appears on the display. The agent's activities are controlled by an agent processing unit. Communication between the agent and the user improves reliability and accuracy of inference of any vehicle condition which could not be determined perfectly by a sensor only.

The navigation system method described herein could guide people around urban environments, detect guide and navigate them to destinations, add-on to the portable phone. We have focused on the task of detecting and navigating even in situations in which Global Positioning Systems (GPS) cannot provide this information, such as when the person is indoors or in crowded urban areas where there is no line of site to the GPS satellites. The information will be received directly from RF sensors and will display on the existing cellular phone as Bluetooth application

Program products, methods, and systems for providing location-aware fitness monitoring services are disclosed. In an embodiment of the present invention, a method of displaying a route traversed by an athlete equipped with a location-aware portable fitness monitoring device includes the steps of (a) receiving data describing a plurality of satellite navigational system waypoints that are acquired as the athlete engages in a fitness activity, (b) identifying a map area based on a location indicated by the data describing the plurality of satellite navigational system waypoints, (c) determining the route traversed by the athlete based on the data describing the plurality of satellite navigational system waypoints and based on the location of one or more known paths associated with the map area, and (d) displaying the route traversed by the athlete on top of the map area.

Each respective vehicle of a plurality of vehicles transports a vehicle navigation system. A position determining system determines a position and a velocity of the respective vehicle and an information acquisition system is operable to determine a displacement and velocity between the respective vehicle and a vehicle adjacent to the respective vehicle. An information communication system of a respective vehicle is operable to transmit first information (that vehicle's velocity and position) to other vehicles and to receive information from other vehicles regarding their velocities and positions. A vehicle routing system can determine a target routing and target velocity for moving the respective vehicle over a path including the roadway. Based on the received or determined information, the velocity of the respective vehicle can be controlled.

System, method and apparatus are provided through which in some embodiments, a tool interface unit (TIU) of a medical navigation system or an integrated medical imaging and navigation system includes a wireless transceiver to communicate with a navigation computer in order to reduce or eliminate cabling between the TIU and the navigation computer. In some embodiments, the TIU is mounted to a side of a surgical table in order to reduce the possibility of contamination of the cables from a non-sterile environment. In some embodiments, the TIU is battery powered and includes a battery and a battery charger.

A mobile navigation system implemented as an embedded system in a vehicle is easy to use, does not detract the driver's attention from the road, and limits the number of choices presented to the user of the navigation system according to a predetermined set of preferences or personalized information. Choices are filtered according to a set of driver preferences, according to the vehicle's geographic position, direction of motion, and the driver's intended itinerary. The itinerary, including intermediate stops, is calculated on an external computing system. The information is downloaded from the computing system to a memory device such as, for example, a smart card. The information is then transferred from the smart card to the embedded vehicle navigation system. In one application of the invention, a kiosk located at a car rental agency may be used to create and store personalized navigation information onto a smart card which the customer then inserts into the vehicle navigation system that is installed in the rental car.

An interface for remotely controlling medical device in a patients body provides a two dimensional display of a three dimensional image of the operating region, and allows the user to select the orientation of distal end of the medical device on the display and then operate a navigation system to cause the distal end of the medical device to assume the selected orientation.

A vehicle navigation system that is capable of learning user habits/preferences, mistakes in a digital map database, and new roads that may have been added or constructed after release of the digital map database is disclosed. The vehicle navigation system monitors a driver's habits and updates a database to thereby cause the vehicle navigation system to have a preference for the driver's habits. The vehicle navigation system may also monitor the geographic position of the vehicle and allow the driver to update or change data contained in the digital map database if an error exists. The vehicle navigation system is also capable of learning new roads that exist that are not included in the road network map of the digital map database and is also capable of adding these new roads to the digital map database.

A navigation system includes: an information center; a navigation device of a vehicle communicating with the information center; a communication unit transmitting information of a destination to the information center; a center side transmission unit searching positional information of the destination in a database of the information center and transmitting the positional information to the navigation device; a calculation unit of the navigation device calculating a first route to the destination; a navigation side transmission unit transmitting first route calculation result to the information center; and a determination unit of the information center calculating a second route to the destination, comparing second route calculation result with the first route calculation result, and determining whether the navigation device guides a route to the destination based on the first or second route calculation result.

A method for navigation includes storing map data on a server, the map data including vector information delineating roads in a map. A portion of the vector information corresponding to an area in which a user of a mobile client device is traveling is downloaded from the server to the client device. Approximate position coordinates of the user are found using a location providing device associated with the client device and are corrected in the client device, using the downloaded vector information, so as to determine a location of the user on one of the roads in the map. A navigation aid is provided to the user of the client device based on the determined location.

A map scrolling method and apparatus for a navigation system prevents from displaying certain icons while displaying other icons based on conditions and settings of the navigation system during a transition period of a map scrolling operation. The map scrolling method includes the steps of: detecting activation of a map scrolling operation; checking whether there is any limit condition attached to icons as to remove them from a map image; scrolling the map image while removing the icons to which the limit condition is attached from the map image during a transition period of the map scrolling operation; and displaying all of the icons when the map scrolling operation is completed.

Methods and apparatus using a surgical navigation system to position the femoral component of a prosthetic hip during hip joint replacement surgery without separately affixing a marker to the femur. The navigation system acquires the center of rotation of the hip joint as well as at least one point on the femur in the pelvic frame of reference. From these two points, the navigation system calculates the position and length of a first line between the center of rotation of the hip joint and the point on the femur. Optionally, a second point on the femur that is not on the first line is palpated. The system can calculate the position and length of a second line that is perpendicular to the first line and that runs from the first line to the second palpated point on the femur. The prosthetic cup is implanted and its center of rotation is recorded. A tool for forming the bore within which the stem of the femoral implant component will be placed is tracked by the navigation system. While the tool is fixed to the femur, the surgeon re-palpates the same point(s) on the femur that were previously palpated. The navigation system calculates the position and length of a first line between the center of rotation of the prosthetic cup and the re-palpated first point. If a second point on the femur was re-palpated, the navigation system also calculates the position and length of a perpendicular line between the first line and the second point. The surgical navigation system uses this information to calculate and display to the surgeon relevant information about the surgery, such as change in the patient's leg length and/or medialization/lateralization of the joint.

A system and method for providing an in-building navigation service using VLC are provided, in which transmitters control lamp modules to generate visible light signals each in a combination of different wavelengths as information for a navigation function, a mobile terminal receives visible light signals from a plurality of lamp modules that illuminate an area where the mobile terminal is located, location information about a current location of the mobile terminal is acquired through the visible light signals received from the plurality of lamp modules, and navigation information including information that matches the location information to map information is displayed on the mobile terminal.

A information search and navigation system indexes, categorizes and condenses data from text or other documents. In various embodiments, the invention further can utilize user information goals, document or website types and multi-page link path options that together provide a fast, multi-page Web navigation system.

An Ultra-Tightly Coupled GPS-inertial navigation system for use in a moving agile platform includes a range residual extractor that uses best curve fitting of a third order polynomial for estimating range residual. The curve-fitted residual is used to update an error Kalman filter. The error Kalman filter includes correction for navigation solution, and IMU and GPS parameters. The navigation solution together with GPS parameter corrections are used in a Tracking Predictor to generate high-sampling-rate carrier and code replicas. The curve-fitting error covariance indicates signal to noise ratio for the tracked GPS signal and may be used for early indication of interference or jamming.

A data-driven, hierarchical information search and navigation system and method enable search and navigation of sets of materials by certain common attributes that characterize the materials. A rules engine provides for manipulation of the content displayed to the user based on the query entered by the user. The rules engine includes one or more rules with a trigger and an action. The action of a rule is performed only if the trigger is satisfied. A trigger may be specified in terms of expressions of attribute-value pairs and is evaluated against a given query or navigation state. The actions can include various techniques for content manipulation, such as supplementing content, rendering content in a particular way, and sorting content in a particular way. An action may be specified in terms of navigation states. The rules engine may include a script for processing the rules.

A GUI containing a panel along each of its edges is produced within a computer's display. Each of the four panels are always visible and accessible within the GUI and contain items that display or reference network-based information, communication, navigational systems, computer programs, and other items. These items have been assigned to the panels based upon a hierarchal containment system which, in the preferred embodiment of the invention, uses the categories “people, places, things, and home” as its first logical grouping of the various items and services a user would seek to utilize within the GUI. This organizational system, and its associated visual representation within the panels, enables the GUI to be displayed and operated within multiple computer devices, even though the designs of those devices may include a wide range of display and control systems. This consistency across various computing devices enables a user to quickly apply knowledge gained from having used the GUI on another computing device. Furthermore, the items presented within the GUI, as well as the GUI's configuration, are stored in, and retrieved from, a networked “server” computer thereby enabling a user to produce and access their familiar GUI workspace and items using a variety of networked computer devices. The GUI therefore may be accessed within multiple computing devices and provide access to information, computer programs, and electronic communications.

A computer-aided communication and navigation system that uses a computer or other processor in wireless communication with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags to aid a blind person. A communication module worn by the user receives information from one or more RFID tags readers and provides audio and, optionally, stimulatory information to the blind person. In one embodiment, a tag reader is provided in a walking cane. In one embodiment, tag readers are provided in one or more ankle bracelets or shoes. In one embodiment, a wireless (or wired) earpiece is provided to provide audio information to one or both ears. In one embodiment, audio information is provided through one or more transducers that couple sound through bones. The use of bone coupling allows the blind person to hear the sound information from the communication module in concert with normal hearing. The tag readers provided to the ankles or shoes communicate with the communication module to allow the blind user to navigate by following a “trail” of RFID tags.

A method of operation of a navigation system includes: generating a maneuver instruction for a driving maneuver, the maneuver instruction including an explanation of how to turn, merge, park or operate a driver's vehicle; monitoring a maneuver attempt for a compliance to the maneuver instruction; modifying the maneuver instruction based on the maneuver attempt; assigning a driver skill grade for the maneuver attempt based on the compliance to the maneuver instruction; and generating a training feedback to improve the driver skill grade of the maneuver attempt for displaying on a device.

A navigation system uses a dead reckoning method to estimate an object's present position relative to one or more prior positions. In some embodiments, the dead reckoning method determines a change in position from the object's heading and speed during an elapsed time interval. In embodiments suitable for use with wheeled objects, the dead reckoning method determines the change in position by measuring the heading and the amount of wheel rotation. Some or all of the components of the navigation system may be disposed within a wheel, such as a wheel of a shopping cart.