1590 results about "Computer aid" patented technology

A number of improvements are provided relating to computer aided surgery utilizing an on tool tracking system. The various improvements relate generally to both the methods used during computer aided surgery and the devices used during such procedures. Other improvements relate to the structure of the tools used during a procedure and how the tools can be controlled using the OTT device. Still other improvements relate to methods of providing feedback during a procedure to improve either the efficiency or quality, or both, for a procedure including the rate of and type of data processed depending upon a CAS mode.

A safety critical, time sensitive data system for projecting safety / mission critical data onto a display pair of Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) light weight projection glasses or monocular creating a virtual 360° HUD (Heads Up Display) with 6 degrees of freedom movement. The system includes the display, the workstation, the application software, and inputs containing the safety / mission critical information (Current User Position, Total Collision Avoidance System—TCAS, Global Positioning System—GPS, Magnetic Resonance Imaging—MRI Images, CAT scan images, Weather data, Military troop data, real-time space type markings etc.). The workstation software processes the incoming safety / mission critical data and converts it into a three dimensional space for the user to view. Selecting any of the images may display available information about the selected item or may enhance the image. Predicted position vectors may be displayed as well as 3D terrain.

The invention provides a system and method for computer-aided detection (“CAD”). The invention relates to computer-aided automatic detection of abnormalities in and analysis of medical images. Medical images are analyzed, to extract and identify a set of features in the image relevant to a diagnosis. The system computes an initial diagnosis based on the set of identified features and a diagnosis model, which are provided to a user for review and modification. A computed diagnosis is dynamically re-computed upon user modification of the set of identified features. Upon a user selecting a diagnosis based on system recommendation, a diagnosis report is generated reflecting features present in the medical image as validated by the user and the user selected diagnosis.

Non-Subjective Valuing ©& is a computer-assisted valuing system for discovering both an entity's actual current societal monetary value and its contemporary monetary worth specifically to the inquiring individual person, group or corporation, providing a user with such target entity's retail and wholesale prices along with its true worth and specific value to the explorer, employing as yardstick the NORM, which is the hypothetical unit in any group that is accurately calculated to be both precisely average in every one of its collectively discoverable characteristics and its price, to which NORM yardstick the present invention compares any test unit in that group on a natural, quantified point basis to obtain such precise current monetary worth of any such test unit, employing a specially conceived, designed and explained organic application of inductive statistics, accurate sampling, central tendency, and statistical inference, for calculating; drawing scientifically valid conclusions about surveying a constantly and factually representative community (such as the United States, 1999, for example), combined with certain new discoveries and unique, novel processes, as set forth herein, enabling Non-Subjective Valuing ©& instantly and conclusively to empower a prospective trader objectively to compare the contemporary monetary values of any and all competing units in or out of any probed group, regardless of such competing units' respective current prices.

Digitized image data are input into a processor where a detection component identifies the areas (objects) of particular interest in the image and, by segmentation, separates those objects from the background. A feature extraction component formulates numerical values relevant to the classification task from the segmented objects. Results of the preceding analysis steps are input into a trained learning machine classifier which produces an output which may consist of an index discriminating between two possible diagnoses, or some other output in the desired output format. In one embodiment, digitized image data are input into a plurality of subsystems, each subsystem having one or more support vector machines. Pre-processing may include the use of known transformations which facilitate extraction of the useful data. Each subsystem analyzes the data relevant to a different feature or characteristic found within the image. Once each subsystem completes its analysis and classification, the output for all subsystems is input into an overall support vector machine analyzer which combines the data to make a diagnosis, decision or other action which utilizes the knowledge obtained from the image.

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.

Methods, devices and systems for digitizing a patient's arch and manipulating the digital dental arch model. In one variation the methods includes producing a physical arch model for the patient's arch, separating the physical arch model into a plurality of arch model components, mounting the arch model components on a scan plate, capturing one or more images of the arch model components, and developing digital representations of the arch model components using the captured one or more images.

A safety critical, time sensitive data system for projecting safety / mission critical data onto a display pair of Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) light weight projection glasses or monocular creating a virtual 360° HUD (Heads Up Display) with 6 degrees of freedom movement. The system includes the display, the workstation, the application software, and inputs containing the safety / mission critical information (Current User Position, Total Collision Avoidance System—TCAS, Global Positioning System—GPS, Magnetic Resonance Imaging—MRI Images, CAT scan images, Weather data, Military troop data, real-time space type markings etc.). The workstation software processes the incoming safety / mission critical data and converts it into a three dimensional space for the user to view. Selecting any of the images may display available information about the selected item or may enhance the image. Predicted position vectors may be displayed as well as 3D terrain.

A computer based system and method of visualizing a region using multiple image data sets is provided. The method includes acquiring first volumetric image data of a region and acquiring at least second volumetric image data of the region. The first image data is generally selected such that the structural features of the region are readily visualized. At least one control point is determined in the region using an identifiable structural characteristic discernable in the first volumetric image data. The at least one control point is also located in the at least second image data of the region such that the first image data and the at least second image data can be registered to one another using the at least one control point. Once the image data sets are registered, the registered first image data and at least second image data can be fused into a common display data set. The multiple image data sets have different and complimentary information to differentiate the structures and the functions in the region such that image segmentation algorithms and user interactive editing tools can be applied to obtain 3d spatial relations of the components in the region. Methods to correct spatial inhomogeneity in MR image data is also provided.

A method of computer-aided contact lens design and fabrication uses spline-based mathematical surfaces without restrictions of rotational symmetry. The spline encompasses any piecewise function with any associated constraints of smoothness or continuity. The method comprises some or all of the following steps: data acquisition, three-dimensional mathematical surface model construction, posterior surface description, ray tracing for anterior surface, and peripheral edge system (PES) design. The result is a mathematical or algorithmic description of a contact lens. Based on the more powerful mathematical representation of splines, these contact lenses can have posterior surfaces that provide a good fit to corneas having complicated shapes. This enables the design and fabrication of lenses (including soft lenses) with good optics for irregularly shaped corneas.

A number of improvements are provided relating to computer aided surgery utilizing an on tool tracking system. The various improvements relate generally to both the methods used during computer aided surgery and the devices used during such procedures. Other improvements relate to the structure of the tools used during a procedure and how the tools can be controlled using the OTT device. Still other improvements relate to methods of providing feedback during a procedure to improve either the efficiency or quality, or both, for a procedure including the rate of and type of data processed depending upon a CAS mode.

Method for computer-aided motion estimation in a plurality of temporally successive digital images. The method includes first partial motion estimating in a second digital image relative to a first digital image temporally preceding the second digital image; constructing a reference image structure from the first digital image and the second digital image based on the first partial motion estimation, the reference image structure containing at least features from the first digital image and / or the second digital image; second partial motion estimating in a third digital image, which temporally succeeds the second digital image, relative to the second digital image; third partial motion estimating with a comparison of features of the third digital image and of the features contained in the reference image structure; and determining motion in the third digital image relative to the first digital image based on the third partial motion estimation, the second partial motion estimation and the first partial motion estimation.

A method and apparatus for improving the manufacturability of Integrated Circuits (ICs) formed on semiconductor dies is described. A plurality of different designs for some or all of the standard cells are made available to the circuit designer. Each different design may address a different problem associated with different manufacturing processes or a different design related yield limiter. Each of the design variants is characterized indicating its relative ease of manufacture, or it's yield sensitivity to certain IC design factors. The designer, typically with assistance from computer aided tools, can then select the standard cell variant for each of the cell used in the IC design that best addresses his or her design constraints. In other embodiments, variant versions of I / O cells and memory cells could also be created and made available to the designer in a similar fashion.

A Heads-Up-Display (“HUD”) system for projecting safety / mission critical data onto a display pair of light weight projection glasses or monocular creating a virtual 360 degree is disclosed. The HUD system includes a see-through display surface, a workstation, application software, and inputs containing the safety / mission critical information (Current User Position, Total Collision Avoidance System—TCAS, Global Positioning System—GPS, Magnetic Resonance Imaging—MRI Images, CAT scan images, Weather data, Military troop data, real-time space type markings etc.). The workstation software processes the incoming safety / mission critical data and converts it into a three-dimensional stereographic space for the user to view. Selecting any of the images may display available information about the selected item or may enhance the image. Predicted position vectors may be displayed as well as three-dimensional terrain.

One embodiment includes a portable e-book reading device for reading a paginated e-book, where each page includes one or more sections, with at least one section including a piece of text linked to an illustration. The device includes a controller, a display and a screen layout module coupled to the controller and the display. The module can be configured to layout the at least one section of the e-book at least by keeping the piece of text with the illustration to be displayed in one screen of the display, and to maintain the pagination if a page is in more than one screen of the display. Another embodiment includes a paginated e-book with a text sub file, an illustration sub file and a logic sub file. The text sub file can store at least one piece of text and an attribute regarding the text. The illustration sub file can store at least an illustration and an attribute regarding the illustration. Either the text sub file or the illustration sub file includes position information linking the illustration to a corresponding piece of text in the text sub file. The logic sub file can include a rule to instruct an e-book reading device on how a section of the e-book should be displayed on a screen of a display at the device. Yet another embodiment includes an e-book with a logic sub file that can analyze an attribute of and provide a response to the reader.

Methods and systems for automatically generating a mask delineating a region of interest (ROI) within an image containing skin are disclosed. The image may be of an anatomical area containing skin, such as the face, neck, chest, shoulders, arms or hands, among others, or may be of portions of such areas, such as the cheek, forehead, or nose, among others. The mask that is generated is based on the locations of anatomical features or landmarks in the image, such as the eyes, nose, eyebrows and lips, which can vary from subject to subject and image to image. As such, masks can be adapted to individual subjects and to different images of the same subjects, while delineating anatomically standardized ROIs, thereby facilitating standardized, reproducible skin analysis over multiple subjects and / or over multiple images of each subject. Moreover, the masks can be limited to skin regions that include uniformly illuminated portions of skin while excluding skin regions in shadow or hot-spot areas that would otherwise provide erroneous feature analysis results. Methods and systems are also disclosed for automatically registering a skin mask delineating a skin ROI in a first image captured in one imaging modality (e.g., standard white light, UV light, polarized light, multi-spectral absorption or fluorescence imaging, etc.) onto a second image of the ROI captured in the same or another imaging modality. Such registration can be done using linear as well as non-linear spatial transformation techniques.

The invention relates to an automatic detection system for a pulmonary nodule in a chest CT (Computed Tomography) image. The system provides improvements for the problems of large calculated amount of computer aided software, inaccurate prediction and few prediction varieties. The improvement of the invention comprises the steps of acquiring a CT image; segmenting a pulmonary tissue; detecting a suspected nodular lesion area in the pulmonary tissue; classifying nidi based on a nidus classification model of deep learning; and outputting an image mark and a diagnosis report. The system has high nodule detection rate and relatively low false positive rate, acquires an accurate locating, quantitative and qualitative result of a nodular lesion and a prediction probability thereof. The end-to-end (from a CT machine end to a doctor end) nodular lesion screening is truly realized, the accuracy and operability demands of doctors are satisfied and the system has wide mar5ket application prospects.

An implantable rod can be bent three-dimensionally in an automated system, which is especially useful for pre-surgical formation of implantable spinal rods. When local and / or global feedback processing accompanies a series of shaping steps automatically imposed on a rod or other article being shaped into three-dimensional form, formation time may be expedited compared to manual creation, and shapes difficult or impractical to create manually may be constructed simply.

A computer-aided decision-making system and method that is applicable to a variety of decision-making contexts and applications such as, but not limited to, automobile or home purchase decisions. The computer-aided decision-making system provides immediate, useful, and relevant information to a person in a decision-making context, overcoming common human cognitive problems that occur in decision-making, and enabling consumer purchases in an on-line sales environment. In particular, aspects of the invention that aid a person in decision-making include, but are not limited to: managing all the sub-decisions, educating the decision-maker, highlighting the most important sub-decisions, offering the most viable proposals for evaluation, distinguishing significant differences between proposals, supplying various evaluation tools, preventing blind spots, assisting the decision-maker's memory, gauging the progress of the decision process, and learning about the decision maker from the decision process.

A system is disclosed that provides computer-aided processing of a rebate on a product. The system includes a rebate processing center communicating over a network with a manufacturer, a distributor, and a consumer. The rebate processing center maintains a promotion table and a transaction table in order to facilitate processing of product rebates and to offer the consumer a choice of disbursement options.

Computer-aided methods (making and using), along with a corresponding machine, article of manufacture, and data structures, is provided for conducting a poll with high reliability to produce a demographic profile corresponding to an accumulation of response data from encrypted identities. The method includes: for each one of a plurality of local computers, carrying out registration substeps of: (i.) receiving an application for Participant registration, the application including Participant identification data and Participant demographic data; and (ii.) if the application is accepted, then issuing respective registration data, including encrypted Participant identification data; thereafter, for a portion of the local computers, carrying out polling substeps of: (iii.) receiving digital signals over the Internet including the encrypted Participant identification data and poll response data for a first question in a poll; and (iv.) responsive to said receiving of said encrypted Participant identification data, preventing more than one respective response to the first question; and associating the encrypted Participant identification data, the response data, and the demographic data, respectively, to produce a demographic profile corresponding to an accumulation of the response data from encrypted identities.

A method and system for contract based finance and time management is disclosed. The system establishes contract and project guidelines, gathers expense data, gathers time data, analyzes expense and time data within contract and project guidelines, routes expense data and routes time data. The system provides an intuitive and simple interface for entry of time and expense data as well as simplifies managerial and accounting tasks.

Disclosed are human tissue phantoms mimicking the mechanical properties of real tissue, and methods for manufacturing thereof including the steps of obtaining a computer aided three-dimensional design of a phantom mimicking the tissue in shape and size; fabrication of a mold form facilitating the production of the designed phantom; molding said phantom with the use of two-component silicon gels as a bulk tissue-mimicking material having Young's modulus in the range of 2 to 30 kPa; filling the enclosed volume of said phantom with anatomical and pathological tissue structures mimicking their respective mechanical properties and having Young's modulus in the range of about 30 to 600 kPa; covering said phantom by a protective layer having mechanical properties to a human tissue protective layer; and securing the phantom perimeter on a supporting plate by a rubber barrier. The example of used tissue-mimicking material is a two-component silicone SEMICOSIL gel with variable elastic properties and Young's modulus from 3 kPa to 600 kPa as a result of changing the silicon component ratio. As examples, the breast and prostate phantom tissue and their fabrication procedures are described.

A computer-aided method for implementing at least one synthetic investment fund. The method includes providing a digital electrical computer apparatus including a digital computer having a processor, the processor electrically connected to a memory device for storing and retrieving machine-readable signals, to an input device for converting input information into input electrical data, and to an output device for converting output electrical data into print, the processor programmed to control the apparatus to receive the input data and to produce the output data by steps including: forming a synthetic investment fund by entering, as some of the input information, at least one of the group consisting of an amount of an interest-bearing asset, and an amount of a derivative instrument, and entering a specification of a relationship for the amounts; entering, as some of the input information, respective market prices for the interest-bearing asset and for the derivative instrument; calculating a unit value for each said class of interests in the fund in response to the market prices; and generating output for investor reporting, the output including holding data for each said class of interests in the fund and the unit value for each said class of interests in the fund.

A computer-aided training and management system that uses a computer or other processor in wireless communication with an instrumented dog collar and / or optionally, one or more dog interaction devices, such as, for example, video monitors, loudspeakers, video cameras, training toys (e.g., ball, bone, moving toy, etc.), an animatronics “trainer,” a treat dispenser, a food dispensing and monitoring device, a water dispensing and monitoring device, tracking devices, a dog door, dog-monitoring doghouse, a dog-monitoring dog toilet, is described. In one embodiment, the instrumented dog collar is in two-way communication with a central computer system.

CAD (computer-aided decision) support systems, methods and tools for medical imaging are provided, which use machine learning classification for automated detection and marking of regions of interest in medical images. Machine learning methods are used for adapting / optimizing a CAD process by seamlessly incorporating physician knowledge into the CAD process using training data that is obtained during routine use of the CAD system.

Systems, methods and techniques for facilitating communication and investment between prescreened investors and businesses seeking capital. The computer-aided system and method comprise a secure platform through which investors and businesses can interact. Business data is made accessible to the appropriate users, and investors can browse the same while remaining anonymous. Additionally, the system and method can categorize and sort businesses into targeted subsets pursuant to investor-defined parameters, thereby enabling investors to focus on and research a smaller group of businesses. The facilitating communication and investment system and method hereof further enables investors to contact targeted businesses directly through the secure platform to facilitate communication therebetween.