146results about How to "Facilitate acquisition" patented technology

Devices and methods for tissue acquisition and fixation, or gastroplasty, are described. Generally, the devices of the system may be advanced in a minimally invasive manner within a patient's body to create one or more plications within the hollow body organ. A tissue treatment device attached to a distal end of a flexible elongated member and has a cartridge member opposite an anvil member. The cartridge member and the anvil member are movable between a closed position and an open position relative to one another, and the cartridge member is re-loadable with a removable staple cartridge to form multiple plications within the organ with the same tissue treatment device.

Devices and methods for tissue acquisition and fixation, or gastroplasty, are described. Generally, the devices of the system may be advanced in a minimally invasive manner within a patient's body, e.g., transorally, endoscopically, percutaneously, etc., to create one or several divisions or plications within the hollow body organ. Such divisions or plications can form restrictive barriers within a organ, or can be placed to form a pouch, or gastric lumen, smaller than the remaining stomach volume to essentially act as the active stomach such as the pouch resulting from a surgical Roux-En-Y gastric bypass procedure. Moreover, the system is configured such that once acquisition of the tissue by the gastroplasty device is accomplished, any manipulation of the acquired tissue is unnecessary as the device is able to automatically configure the acquired tissue into a desired configuration.

Devices and methods for tissue acquisition and fixation, or gastroplasty, are described. Generally, the devices of the system may be advanced in a minimally invasive manner within a patient's body, e.g., transorally, endoscopically, percutaneously, etc., to create one or several divisions or plications within the hollow body organ. Such divisions or plications can form restrictive barriers within a organ, or can be placed to form a pouch, or gastric lumen, smaller than the remaining stomach volume to essentially act as the active stomach such as the pouch resulting from a surgical Roux-En-Y gastric bypass procedure. Moreover, the system is configured such that once acquisition of the tissue by the gastroplasty device is accomplished, any manipulation of the acquired tissue is unnecessary as the device is able to automatically configure the acquired tissue into a desired configuration.

A method for monitoring the health of a system comprises performing at each of a plurality of times the steps of:

constructing a condition signature from a plurality of condition indicators including (a) a plurality of vibration measurements acquired from the system or (b) one or more vibration measurements and one or more performance parameter measurements acquired from the system;

predicting a normal signature from a model defining one or more inter-dependencies between said condition indicators, the normal signature corresponding to the condition signature for a healthy system;

comparing the condition signature with the normal signature; and

registering an event if the condition signature differs from the normal signature by more than a predetermined threshold.

Disclosed are systems and methods which provide availability of information on a network wide basis, with the network or information technology (IT) fabric spanning a wide range of institutions and other sources of information, including correctional facilities, without regard to which jurisdiction the source of information belongs, e.g. police, courts, federal investigation agencies, public databases etcetera. Embodiments provide an electronic based capability to identify useful information and for locating, collecting, compiling, aggregating, distilling, and/or reporting robust data.

This invention relates generally to methods and apparatus for utilizing energy, e.g., optical radiation, to treat various dermatological and cosmetic conditions. A handheld dermatological device that facilitates viewing and measuring parameters of a treatment area before, during, and after application of a treatment modality, and methods of use therefor, are disclosed. The device can include a deflective device that can steer radiation to control a target position of the radiation. The device can also include a control device to allow a user to control the radiation through manipulation of the deflective device.

One or more methods and systems of updating software in wireless communication devices are presented. In one embodiment, software updates are generated by a generation environment and distributed by a distribution environment. One or more wireless communication devices receive one or more software updates from the distribution environment. In one embodiment, software updates are generated from processing performed at a pre-processing device such as a cable television set-top-box or a server of the distribution environment. A software processing package, provided by the generation environment, is used to generate such software updates for the one or more wireless communication device. One or more methods of provisioning and billing wireless communication devices are also presented.

Obtaining spectral images of an eye includes taking an optical system that images eye tissue onto a digital sensor array and optically fitting a multi-spectral filter array and the digital sensor array, wherein the multi-spectral filter array is disposed between the digital sensor array and an optics portion of the optical system. The resulting system facilitates acquisition of a snap-shot image of the eye tissue with the digital sensor array. The snap shot images support estimation of blood oxygen saturation in a retinal tissue. The resulting system can be based on a non-mydriatic fundus camera designed to obtain the retinal images without administration of pupil dilation drops.

The present invention provides a handheld dermatological device for visualizing a skin treatment region prior to, during, or after therapeutic treatment with therapeutic energy. An apparatus according to the teachings of the invention can include an image capture device and a display device mounted to the apparatus and electrically coupled to the image capture device. The display device is capable of displaying images of the treatment area captured by the image capture device. The apparatus can further include a head capable of transmitting therapeutic energy to a treatment area, which can be precisely aligned by the user to a desired portion of the treatment area through the use of the display device. In some embodiments, the apparatus can include one or more illumination sources for illuminating a skin target region, and shield for shielding the image capture device from direct reflection of the illuminating radiation from a selected skin surface portion.

A system and method that translates sentences of natural language text into sets of axioms of formal logic that are consistent with parses resulting from NLP and acquired constraints as they accumulate. The system and method further present these axioms so as to facilitate further disambiguation of such sentences and produces axioms of formal logic suitable for processing by automated reasoning technologies, such as first-order or description logic suitable for processing by various reasoning algorithms, such as logic programs, inference engines, theorem provers, and rule-based systems.

Design, manufacture and use of optical discs that permit the concurrent and discriminable acquisition of signals from both operational features and nonoperational features is presented. The disc geometries and tracking schemes permit such discs to be read in, and data encoded by nonoperational features reported by, standard (or minimally-modified), optical disc readers. Single data layer first and second surface discs are described, as are multiple data layer discs. Use of the disks in analyte-specific assay is presented.

The invention aims at providing a server which manages address information for servers subordinate to a port-forwarding relay device (router) thus allowing an access from a wide area network. A representative server issues a request to assign a default port number to a router. The port management unit of the representative server registered to a default port number acquires the IP address of the router (wide area network address) and port mapping information (port number information on other equipment) from the router and retains the information acquired. In case it is determined that an access from the wide area network is first directed to a representative server, the representative server displays in a list the port number information on the accessing terminal in response to an access from the wide area network. This allows an external user to readily access desired equipment. The representative server periodically makes a port mapping information to the router and updates the information.

Techniques for context-sensitive language learning are disclosed. For example, a language learning system may include an interface for communicating with at least one user, at least one sensor for collecting at least one form of data regarding the context in which the system is being used, and a processing device capable of making at least one adjustment to the communication with the user based on analysis of at least a portion of the data collected by the at least one sensor. The data may include audio data, visual information, biometric data, location, or velocity and the sensors may include a microphone, a camera, a biometric sensor, a global positioning system (GPS) device, or a velocimeter. The system may also use this data, alone or in combination with schedule data obtained from an external source, to determine the attention level of the user and to make corresponding adjustments to the communication. The system may further be capable of tracking changes to the data collected by the sensor and/or the number and/or type of errors made by the user and making corresponding adjustments to the communication.

A system and method for time-shifting a live broadcast, and facilitating the purchase of live or time-shifted broadcast content. The device records broadcast content being listened to by user, which gives the user the option to replay content. The device and method also provides a preview service that allows the user to experience fresh media content on a regular basis, even where a live signal is not available. The broadcast source broadcasts new content on a regular basis to avoid providing users with stale content. The user identifies content using the device and data is stored that corresponds to the identified content. The broadcast source or a third-party content provider uses the corresponding data to provide the identified content to the user. In addition to audio content, the device also provides and facilitates the acquisition of video, graphics, text or any other media content.

A multi-channel, reconfigurable fiber-coupled Raman instrument uses fiber optic switches for laser and calibration light routing to facilitate automated calibration, diagnosis and operational safety. The system allows wavelength axis calibration on all channels; laser wavelength calibration (including multiple and/or backup laser options); fiber coupling optimization; fault detection/diagnosis; and CCD camera binning setup. In the preferred embodiment, dedicated calibration channels surround data channels on a 2-dimensional CCD dispersed slit image implemented using a unique cabling architecture. This “over/under” calibration interpolation approach facilitates quasi-simultaneous or sequential calibration/data acquisitions. CCD binning between sequential calibration and data acquisitions enables higher density multi-channel operation with tilted images based upon a multiplexed grating configuration. A diamond sample is used as a Raman shift reference for laser calibration, preferably in the form of a small disc sampled with an edge-illuminating probe using two unfiltered fibers. Detection of beam transmitted through the diamond reference is also used to optimize laser coupling efficiency with motion servos. An “intrinsically safe” laser interlock circuit also serves as current source for probe head “laser on” diode indicator. The integrity of key components is monitored through strategically placed photodiodes positioned, for example, at fiber bends to detect light leakage from bent fiber as verification of commanded laser path through fiber switches and at neon and halogen lamp locations to verify lamp operation. The optical switches used for calibration may also be configured for use as a laser shutter.

A system for quoting vehicle accessories includes an internet accessible computer database having information regarding vehicle accessories including a suggested price; and application software including a routine permitting a user to generate a user profile to select accessories of interest from the database and enter a price adjustment for the accessories of interest to create a filtered database based on the information regarding vehicle accessories and filtered to include information on the accessories which is user specific. A method for quoting an installed price for a vehicle accessory, including: providing an internet accessible computer database including information regarding a plurality of accessories, including an accessory identifier and price for each of the plurality of accessories; providing a user profile for a user, the user profile including a selection of accessories of interest, and an installation cost adjustment and being populated with the price for each of the plurality of accessories from the computer database; and querying the user profile to output an installed price for an accessory of interest based on the installation cost adjustment and the price for each of the plurality of accessories from the computer database. The system and method can facilitate the sale of vehicle accessories, for dealerships, mechanics, vehicle parts installers, etc. When used for insurance settlement applications, the database can facilitate the acquisition of information relating to the installed costs of accessories when assessing part replacement in an insurance claim.

A method and system for scene parsing and model fusion in laparoscopic and endoscopic 2D/2.5D image data is disclosed. A current frame of an intra-operative image stream including a 2D image channel and a 2.5D depth channel is received. A 3D pre-operative model of a target organ segmented in pre-operative 3D medical image data is fused to the current frame of the intra-operative image stream. Semantic label information is propagated from the pre-operative 3D medical image data to each of a plurality of pixels in the current frame of the intra-operative image stream based on the fused pre-operative 3D model of the target organ, resulting in a rendered label map for the current frame of the intra-operative image stream. A semantic classifier is trained based on the rendered label map for the current frame of the intra-operative image stream.

A method and an apparatus for non-contact (non-invasive) monitoring the cellular bioactivity by means of tracking the impedance changes which occur due to the transition movements and reactions of ionized molecules across the cellular membrane, or by tracking the cellular movement or flow within the body. Tracking the impedance changes is based on the transmission line impedance match and mismatch phenomena, by means of monitoring the slight match and mismatch variations between the resultant impedance of the body being monitored and the output impedance of a stable source of EMW.