956results about How to "Economical to use" patented technology

An electrosurgical medical device and method for creating thermal welds in engaged tissue that carries the electrosurgical components in a disposable cartridge. The instrument also can carry a blade member in a disposable cartridge, thus making the instrument system inexpensive to use. In another embodiment, the electrical leads of the cartridge have a surface coating of a thermochromic material to provide the physician with a visual indicator of operational parameters when applying energy to tissue.

An adjustable drilling guide, removably mountable to a patient's teeth, having a guide block with at least one stent for guiding a dental drill is disclosed. In a first embodiment, the guide block has a plurality of guide holes disposed at differing angles which may receive a stent for precise drilling at the selected angle. If minor variations need be made, the stent may be moved to a second or third of the guide holes to adjust the angle. In a second embodiment, three distinct stents are formed directly in the guide block allowing for drilling at up to three different angles. A third embodiment has a stent which is pivotable about a pivot point within the guide block, allowing drilling at any angle within the arc of the pivot. The guide block may be fitted to a model of the patient's teeth prior to installation into the mouth to ensure proper fit.

This invention relates to an assembly and method for forming a hydraulic seal at the junction of a multilateral well bore drilled through a window in at least a main well bore comprising a tubular member which is run into the well bore casing and has a sealing member positioned about the tubular member for seating, at least one orientation member being provided for orientation of the tubular member and sealing member in the main well bore casing, and having a tubular sleeve member for insertion in the well bore which has an aperture through at least one side of the tubular sleeve member for alignment of the aperture with the window and having a seating surface on the inside of the tubular sleeve member proximate the aperture, with the aperture in some embodiments being adjustable, and having a deflection member positioned and releasable sealed in the tubular sleeve member for deflecting the tubular member through the window in the well bore when the tubular member is run into contact with the deflection member, and having at least one orientation member for orientation of the deflection member relative to the window in the at least well bore casing and for aligning the aperture in the tubular sleeve with the window and a method of using the assembly to form a seal at the junction which can be executed in one run into the well bore casing in at least one embodiment.

A cutting tool is provided with an arcuate cutting blade that preferably engages a guide tool to create a curved resected surface during an arthorplasty procedure. In one embodiment, a depth of the cutting blade is sufficient to permit the simultaneous creation of resected surfaces on two bones that articulate, such as both the femor and the tibia for a given condyle, without the need to reposition the guide or the leg. In another embodiment, a cutting member has a generally rectangular cross-section along a longitudinal axis with a first and second surface having cutting teeth defined thereon and a third and fourth surface adapted to interface with a cutting guide positioned proximate the bone. In this embodiment, the cutting tool can resect the bone in two different directions without reorienting the cutting member.

A device is disclosed which is therapeutically beneficial to the well-being of living organisms such as humans, animals, and/or plant life, using photon or light waves. The device is intended to lie against the skin or surface, near the skin/surface, and/or from a distance ranging up to several feet from the skin/surface. The device is intended to be used for: general relaxation and detoxification of an organism; stimulating the healing process in an organism which is ill, diseased or injured; aiding in the elimination of pain and inflammation in an organism; stimulating/sedating the acupressure meridian system of an organism and rebalancing the electromagnetic energy-field surrounding the organism.

The invention comprises a set of complementary techniques that dramatically improve enterprise search and navigation results. The core of the invention is an expertise or knowledge index, called UseRank that tracks the behavior of website visitors. The expertise-index is designed to focus on the four key discoveries of enterprise attributes: Subject Authority, Work Patterns, Content Freshness, and Group Know-how. The invention produces useful, timely, cross-application, expertise-based search and navigation results. In contrast, traditional Information Retrieval technologies such as inverted index, NLP, or taxonomy tackle the same problem with an opposite set of attributes than what the enterprise needs: Content Population, Word Patterns, Content Existence, and Statistical Trends. Overall, the invention emcompasses Baynote Search—a enhancement over existing IR searches, Baynote Guide—a set of community-driven navigations, and Baynote Insights—aggregated views of visitor interests and trends and content gaps.

A cutting tool for creating resected surfaces of bone during arthroplasty procedures has a single offset handle arm that presents a narrower effective width than a width of the cutting profile of the cutting tool along a longitudinal axis of the cutting profile. Preferably, the single offset handle arm creates a cutting tool with a generally L-shaped outline simultaneously accounting for soft tissue/incision geometry and bony geometry to accommodate both in facilitating ease of use and minimal displacement of soft tissue during cutting. The cutting tool can be snaked into position through an incision approximately the size of the width of the handle arm, instead of requiring an incision that is essentially the width of the cutting path of the cutting tool. In alternate embodiments, the cutting tool is a milling tool, a wireplasty cutting tool, a band saw or reciprocating cutting tool.

A method of distributed statistical multiplexing of video data. The method includes generating a plurality of blocks forming a pre-processed video media corresponding to an original video media, the plurality of blocks including, for one or more sub-portions of the original video media, a plurality of interchangeable blocks that represent the sub-portion. Optionally, at least some of the blocks are transmitted to at least one multiplexer and reconstructed by the at least one multiplexer, for a plurality of communication channels, from at least some of the transmitted blocks.

A smart charging system for mobile vehicles includes a charging apparatus, a meter, and a cloud server. The charging apparatus is connected between an electric grid and an electric vehicle. The charging apparatus is supplied by the electric grid and then provides power to supply the electric vehicle. The meter is operatively connected between the electric grid and the charging apparatus. The meter has a communication with the electric grid to obtain supplied power from the electric grid to the charging apparatus. The cloud server is operatively connected to the electric grid and further operatively connected to the charging apparatus via a gateway apparatus to receive power-supplying information of the electric grid and power-charging information of the electric vehicle. Further, the charging apparatus smartly charges the electric vehicle according to the power-supplying information and the power-charging information.

Cutting guides, cutting tools, and soft tissue management techniques permit the use of pivoting guide surfaces to facilitate in controlling the sweep or arc of a cutting tool used in connection with resection and arthroplasty procedures. In accordance with one embodiment, a guide structure is provided with one or more guide pivot aperture(s) and one or more guide pivot reference surface(s) that mate with a bushing assembly controlling a cutting tool. The bushing assembly possesses a bushing reference plan which mates with the pivot reference surface(s) of the guide structure and a bushing pivot pin which mates with the guide pivot aperture(s) of the guide structure. In one embodiment, a bushing guide lumen is operably coupled to the guide structure for articulated and/or axial guidance of the cutting tool.

A method of creating thin wafers of single crystal silicon wherein an ingot of single-crystal silicon with a (111) axis is flattened and polished at one end normal to the axis, and a notch with a vertex in the (111) plane is produced on a side or edge of the ingot, such that the distance between this vertex and said end is the desired thickness of a wafer to be cleaved from the ingot and such this vertex is in the desired plane of cleavage. Light of a wavelength able to penetrate into the silicon crystal without significant absorption, when the intensity of the beam is low, but is efficiently absorbed and converted to heat when the intensity of the beam is high, is focused to an elongated volume with an axis of elongation in the desired cleavage plane, parallel to and a short distance from said notch edge. Heating and the resulting transient local expansion of the silicon in this illuminated volume causes tensile stress at the vertex of said notch, substantially normal to the desired cleavage plane, thereby causing fracture of the crystal in the chosen cleavage plane. Movement of the illuminated volume relative to the ingot allows the fracture to propagate across the desired cleavage plane, thereby completely severing the wafer from the rest of the ingot.

A master control system for conserving water used by sprinkler systems within a predetermined geographical region includes a plurality of sprinkler systems each of which is assigned an identifying indicia. A transmitting station is arranged for transmitting control signals receivable at any location within the geographical region. A valve connects each sprinkler system to a water source for selectively feeding water to an associated sprinkler system when the valve is open and for precluding water from being fed to the associated sprinkler system when the valve is closed. A receiver is provided for each sprinkler system within the region connected to an associated valve for receiving the control signals and generating a disabling signal for causing only said valves for the sprinkler systems assigned said identifying indicia to open independently of their status. In this manner, said transmitting station can control and override the operation of selected sprinkler systems assigned said identifying indicia to regulate the extent to which water may be used within said geographical region in accordance with protocols established for the consumption of water by such sprinkler systems within said geographical region.

The invention relates to a method for texturizing virtual three-dimensional objects, particularly virtual three-dimensional building objects and city models with a photographic image (1) of a real object, particularly of a picture of a façade. The method is characterized by the following steps: Projecting the photographic image (1) onto a virtual surface (2) of the virtual three-dimensional object to produce a raw texture; localizing a raw texture element (3) in the raw texture by using a classification method; computer-compatible description of the localized raw texture element by a formal feature set for the raw texture element, particularly a feature vector; comparing the formal feature set of the raw texture element with each feature set of predefined library elements (4), and determining degrees of similarity between the raw texture element and each library element; replacing the localized raw texture element with at least one library element when a predefined degree of similarity is present, and reshaping the raw texture into a generalized texture (5) of the virtual object by replacing all raw texture elements with library elements.

Provided is a cooking vessel (1) including a body (2) equipped with a bottom (3) and a lateral wall (4), a handle (20) mounted to the body (2) by mounting means (6, 22), and a sensor (30) disposed in a receiving housing (11) near the bottom (3) and equipped with at least one electrically insulated conducting element (31, 32) , said sensor (30) and said conducting element (31, 32) being mounted to a support (40) which extends from the bottom (3) along the lateral wall (4) and which is mounted to the handle (20). The support (40) includes a retaining part (42) for the sensor and the conducting element and at least one programmed deformation area (50, 55a, 55b) to allow mobility between the retaining part (42) for the sensor and the conducting element and the handle (20) in at least one direction.

The present invention relates to heavy metal chelate compositions, which are used as fungicides and bactericides, and methods of using the compositions. In particular, the present invention relates to a chelate, that is an EDDHA (copper-ethylenediamine-di-o-hydroxyphenylacetic acid), combined with a heavy metal, including iron, tin, zinc, manganese, copper, and combinations thereof.

A method is provided of producing a multiple focus stack image of a target. The stack image has a plurality of images of the target, each image having a corresponding focal range or position. The method utilises relative scanning movement between the target and an array of light detectors, the array being used to repeatedly receive image information as scan lines from the target during the scan. During the scan the relative focus between the target and the array is modified between the focal range or position of the respective images so as to obtain the images in the stack. Each image is thereby formed from the image information obtained at the respective focal range or position during the scan. Apparatus for performing the method is likewise provided.