2704 results about "Home position" patented technology

A surgical instrument includes a drive member movable by a drive motor between a home position and an end of stroke. A mechanical stop is disposed at or near the end of stroke and is structured to increase resistance to movement of the drive member from a first position to a second position. A control system detects a current spike associated with the increased resistance and interrupts power to the drive motor.

This invention relates to a device (20) for inserting and positioning surgical instruments (10) in the body of a patient, with an outer cover (22), into which outer cover (22) at least a front part (11) of the surgical instrument (10) is insertable, and which outer cover (22) is removable for positioning the surgical instrument (10) at the point of application, the outer cover (22) being pulled away from the front part (11) of the surgical instrument (10) by means of a pulling device (21). In particular, the outer cover (22) is able to be pulled backwards over the front part (21) <sic. (11)> of the surgical instrument (10), and the surgical instrument (10), or respectively its front part, is able to be uncovered again, so that the function assigned to the surgical instrument (10) is able to be carried out unimpeded. The outer cover (22) can be returned to the starting position, in particular also by means of a return device. The outer cover (22) is preferably able to be controlled by means of the pulling device (21) using the handle (15) of the surgical instrument (10).

Methods and apparatus for forming one or more trans-sacral axial instrumentation / fusion (TASIF) axial bore through vertebral bodies in general alignment with a visualized, anterior or posterior axial instrumentation / fusion line (AAIFL or PAIFL) in a minimally invasive, low trauma, manner and providing a therapy to the spine employing the axial bore. Anterior or posterior starting positions aligned with the AAIFL or PAIFL are accessed through respective anterior and posterior tracts. Curved or relatively straight anterior and curved posterior TASIF axial bores are formed from the anterior and posterior starting positions. The therapies performed through the TASIF axial bores include discoscopy, full and partial discectomy, vertebroplasty, balloon-assisted vertebroplasty, drug delivery, electrical stimulation and various forms of spinal disc cavity augmentation, spinal disc replacement, fusion of spinal motion segments and implantation of radioactive seeds. Axial spinal implants and bone growth materials can be placed into single or multiple parallel or diverging TASIF axial bores to fuse two or more vertebrae, or distract or shock absorb two or more vertebrae.

A self contained motor-powered disposable loading unit for use with a surgical cutting and stapling apparatus. The disposable loading unit may contain a battery that is retained in a disconnected position when the disposable loading unit is not in use and is moved to a connected position when the disposable loading unit is coupled to the surgical cutting and stapling apparatus to permit the motorto be selectively powered thereby. Indicators may be supported on the disposable loading unit to indicate when the axial drive assembly thereof is in a starting position and an ending position. Another indicator may be provided to indicate when the anvil assembly is in a closed position.

Methods and apparatus for forming one or more trans-sacral axial instrumentation / fusion (TASIF) axial bore through vertebral bodies in general alignment with a visualized, anterior or posterior axial instrumentation / fusion line (AAIFL or PAIFL) in a minimally invasive, low trauma, manner and providing a therapy to the spine employing the axial bore. Anterior or posterior starting positions aligned with the AAIFL or PAIFL are accessed through respective anterior and posterior tracts. Curved or relatively straight anterior and curved posterior TASIF axial bores are formed from the anterior and posterior starting positions. The therapies performed through the TASIF axial bores include discoscopy, full and partial discectomy, vertebroplasty, balloon-assisted vertebroplasty, drug delivery, electrical stimulation and various forms of spinal disc cavity augmentation, spinal disc replacement, fusion of spinal motion segments and implantation of radioactive seeds. Axial spinal implants and bone growth materials can be placed into single or multiple parallel or diverging TASIF axial bores to fuse two or more vertebrae, or distract or shock absorb two or more vertebrae.

A medication dispensing apparatus that provides a mechanical advantage. During dose preparing, a nut rotating element (410) and a screw element (368) are in a first axial arrangement such that a screwing motion of the nut rotating element and screw element relative to the apparatus housing that moves the elements a first axial distance from a home position screws a nut (364) along a drive member threaded shaft (362) a second axial distance different than the first axial distance. During dose dispensing, the nut rotating element and the screw element are in a second axial arrangement, whereby a screwing motion of the screw element relative to the housing back toward the home position advances a plunger (366) in the distal direction to axially advance the nut and thereby the drive member and a fluid container piston to dispense medicine.

A system and method for automatically generating a set of geo-fences to be used by a telematics device mounted on a mobile asset in tracking the mobile asset traveling from a starting location to and ending location, wherein the set of geo-fences is selected from a library of geo-fences based an expected route of travel between the starting location and the ending location and one or more criteria.

Methods and systems for autonomous vehicle recharging or refueling are disclosed. Autonomous vehicles may be automatically refueled by routing the vehicles to available fueling stations when not in operation, according to methods described herein. A fuel level within a tank of an autonomous vehicle may be monitored until it reaches a refueling threshold, at which point an on-board computer may generate a predicted use profile for the vehicle. Based upon the predicted use profile, a time and location for the vehicle to refuel the vehicle may be determined. In some embodiments, the vehicle may be controlled to automatically travel to a fueling station, refill a fuel tank, and return to its starting location in order to refuel when not in use.

A system and method is disclosed for a shopping system, the system including a shopping cart including a plurality of wheels; a portable electronic device (e.g., a CST or POS terminal), coupled to the shopping cart, for displaying shopping data; and a position mapping system, coupled to the electronic device, for developing a shopper location relative to a start location, the mapping system including a distance measuring system, coupled to one of the plurality of wheels; for providing a distance signal indicating a distance of movement of the shopping cart; and a direction measuring system for providing a direction signal concurrent with the distance signal. Another embodiment is a shopper tracking system including a shopping cart having a plurality of wheels; a portable electronic device, coupled to the shopping cart, for displaying shopping data; and an energy generator, coupled to one of the plurality of wheels, for adding energy to a power source of the portable electronic device. The shopper tracking method includes the steps of measuring a net distance traveled by a shopping cart and measuring direction information concurrently with the distance information to produce a relative location that is offset from a known location and converting the relative location to an absolute coordinate by providing absolute coordinates for the known location.

The input method defined with initial position and moving direction has one control module to distinguish different gestures in the touch controller to generate different control signal for subsequent control function in the system unit. The first touch position of the touch controller is set as the initial position, which is matched with different moving directions to define compared parameter data set, corresponding gesture is then searched, and the searched gesture is finally compared with the defined parameter data set in the control module and the comparison result is fed to the system unit.

An apparatus and method for monitoring and reporting the status of a mobile asset are described, where the mobile asset may be moved by a transport vehicle from a starting location to a destination location. The method includes providing destination information to a tracking device on the mobile asset, and setting a boundary about the destination location which is also referred to herein as a geoboundary. As the mobile asset moves from the starting location to the destination location, the current location of the mobile asset is determined, and a determination is made whether the current location is within the geoboundary. If the current location of the mobile asset is within the geoboundary, an arrival message is transmitted from the tracking device. Preferred embodiments of the invention include the step of transmitting a departure message from the tracking device if the current location of the mobile asset moves from within the geoboundary to outside the geoboundary. The tracking device apparatus preferably includes a tether sensor and one or more door sensors. The tether sensor senses whether the mobile asset is electrically connected to or disconnected from the transport vehicle, and the one or more door sensors sense whether one or more doors on the mobile asset are open or closed. The apparatus includes a processor, a location determining device for determining the geographic location of the mobile asset, and a transceiver for transmitting and receiving status messages related to the status of the mobile asset.

An apparatus for application of surgical clips is provided and includes a lockout system selectively engageable with a pusher bar to prevent the pusher bar from returning to a home position and to prevent a trigger from completing a full stroke when a plurality of clips are substantially exhausted. The apparatus may include a trip mechanism including a trip lever biased into contact with the pusher bar, wherein distal movement of the drive bar moves the trip mechanism until the trip lever engages a lip of the pusher bar and in turn distally moves the pusher bar. The apparatus may include a wedge plate including a distal end placeable between spaced-apart jaw members, wherein the wedge plate is moved proximally to withdraw the distal end thereof from between the jaw members when a drive channel is moved in a distal direction.

Laser scanning module employing a scan mirror and magnet rotor subassembly supported by a stationary stator structure. The scan mirror and magnet rotor subassembly includes: a silicone frame having a pair of silicone torsional hinges (i.e. posts) aligned along a scan axis and a supported by a pair of support elements associated with the stator structure, to support the scan mirror and magnet rotor subassembly. When the scan mirror and magnet rotor subassembly is rotated about its scan axis, by forces generated by an electromagnetic coil structure acting on the permanent magnet mounted on silicone frame, the silicone torsional hinges are elastically distorted and generate linear restoring forces which return the rotor subassembly back to its home position about the scan axis.

A method of locating an imaged bar code in a captured image frame for an imaging-based bar code reader. The steps of the method include: a) determining a mode of operation of the reader; b) if the reader is being operated in a hand-held mode of operation, utilizing a first method of locating an imaged bar code; and c) if the reader is being operated in a fixed position mode, utilizing a second method of locating an imaged bar code. The first method of locating an imaged bar code includes searching for an imaged bar code commencing at a starting location near a geographic center of the selected image frame. The second method of locating an imaged bar code includes determining a location corresponding to movement in a selected image frame of the series of image frames and searching for an imaged bar code commencing at the movement location.

A system and method for improved mapping and routing. A request for the determination of a route is received over a network. The request comprises an identification of a requesting user, and at least one objective. Spatial, temporal, topical, and social data available to the network which relating to the requesting user and the request objectives are retrieved using a global index of data available to the network. At least one entity which satisfies at least one request objective and which has a physical location known to the network is selected using the retrieved spatial, temporal, topical, and social data. At least one physical route is mapped between a starting location and the selected entity and is displayed on a display medium. Sponsored and recommended content available to the network which relates to the requesting user, and at least one objective can additionally be displayed on the display medium.

A system for automatically acquiring high-resolution images by steering a pan-tilt-zoom camera at targets detected in a fixed camera view is provided. The system uses automatic or manual calibration between multiple cameras. Using automatic calibration, the homography between the cameras in a home position is estimated together with the effects of pan and tilt controls and the expected height of a person in the image. These calibrations are chained together to steer a slave camera. The manual calibration scheme steers a camera to the desired region of interest and calculates the pan, tile and zoom parameters accordingly.

In one embodiment, a network architecture includes a plurality of application monitoring modules for monitoring network traffic data in a plurality of network segments. Network monitoring modules include a staging area that receives network traffic data from a packet capture and analysis engine and an indexing area that stores the data in meta-flow tuples with associated measures divided into time interval buckets. Index tables store dimension-based sorted pointers to the storage locations in the data buckets. HyperLock queries collect time aggregated results for measure based operators with respect to a queried dimension. For each value of the queried dimension, the time interval buckets are traversed compiling a partial result that is finally stored in a stack as the time aggregated value. The stored sorted pointers are used to determine the starting location in each bucket with respect to the next value of the queried dimension.

Systems, methods, apparatus, and computer-readable media provide for allocating vehicle resources to future vehicle requirements. In some embodiments, allocating a vehicle resource to a vehicle requirement may be based on an iterative analysis of candidate vehicle resources using one or more of: a suitability of a candidate vehicle resource to fulfil the vehicle requirement, a journey time from a vehicle location to a start location, and / or a start time for the vehicle requirement.

A medication dispensing apparatus that provides a mechanical advantage. During dose preparing, a nut rotating element (410) and a screw element (368) are in a first axial arrangement such that a screwing motion of the nut rotating element and screw element relative to the apparatus housing that moves the elements a first axial distance from a home position screws a nut (364) along a drive member threaded shaft (362) a second axial distance different than the first axial distance. During dose dispensing, the nut rotating element and the screw element are in a second axial arrangement, whereby a screwing motion of the screw element relative to the housing back toward the home position advances a plunger (366) in the distal direction to axially advance the nut and thereby the drive member and a fluid container piston to dispense medicine.

A method for developing traffic messages for broadcast is disclosed. Data indicating a plurality of traffic conditions on a road network are obtained. For each of the traffic conditions, the data provides a start location at which the traffic condition begins and an end location at which the traffic condition ends. For each of the traffic conditions, a road length from the start location to the end location is determined. The traffic conditions are assigned a priority based upon the road lengths. The data indicating the traffic conditions are transmitted in the assigned priority as a plurality of traffic messages.

A method and apparatus for the automated milking of dairy cattle employing live capture of the teats of a dairy cow without requiring identification of a particular dairy cow or the prior knowledge of the location of the individual teats. The live capture milking apparatus locates the individual teats of a dairy cow and attaches a teatcup to the teat without the need for human intervention. After the milking operation is completed, the live capture milking apparatus returns to a home position where cleaning and sanitization the milking equipment occurs.

A multi-function force reflecting haptic interface including various sub-assemblies is disclosed. The sub-assemblies include multiple function user interfaces, a user interface docking station for setting the interface to a home position, temperature monitoring and control systems, and various kinematic cable drive systems.

A point-of-interest mapping search system that combines inexact string searches with a proximity search to provide an extremely high probability of return of a set of search results in an initial search response that are useful to the user. Relevance of any particular point-of-interest item in a combined inexact string / proximity is dependent on both (1) a quality of the name match; and (2) a proximity to the starting location (or other relevant search center point) of the POI search. The inexact string name / proximity search is performed efficiently by iteratively expanding a search radius around a given location, searching concentric circles of proximity until a specified target number of relevant results have been found. It is the combination of the use of a combined inexact string match together with a proximity search performed against a database of geo-referenced business names that provides advantageous results.

An efficient method and apparatus for storing and retrieving memory ranges is disclosed. A key range that is stored or to be stored is associated with a node in the tree hierarchy encompassing the entire memory address space. All previously stored ranges are listed or otherwise associated with each node, and all possible nodes that may contain ranges that overlap the key range, regardless of starting or ending locations or range length, are found. Partitions are developed in the tree structure of the available address space and the width of the key range (w), the widths of the partitions (d), and the range of offsets in the starting location of the key range with respect to a partition (o) are used to develop a formula that finds a partition suitable for storing the key range. Hashing and dynamic tree building may be used.

The present invention provides methods and systems for scanning an illumination spot over a target area. The present invention removes stored energy from a scanning element to stop the scanning element from vibrating and to substantially return the scanning element to its starting position so as to enable high frame rates.