9918 results about "Line segment" patented technology

A suture lock utilizes a first engaging element and a second engaging element to define a non-through bore capture zone. Each of the engaging elements possesses a surface including at least one mating element that corresponds to a mating element on a surface of the opposing engaging element. When engaged across suture segments, the mating elements apply a frictional holding force to the suture segments. The frictional holding force secures the suture along the length of the suture in the capture zone between the mating elements.

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for recognizing multiple input point gestures. A recognition module receives an ordered set of points indicating that contacts have been detected in a specified order at multiple different locations on a multi-touch input surface. The recognition module determines the position of subsequently detected locations (e.g., third detected location) relative to (e.g., to the left of right of) line segments connecting previously detected locations (e.g., connecting first and second detected locations). The gesture module also detects whether line segments connecting subsequently detected locations (e.g., connecting third and fourth detected locations) intersect line segments connecting previously detected locations (e.g., connecting first and second detected locations). The gesture module recognizes an input gesture based on the relative positions and whether or not line segments intersect. The gesture module then identifies a corresponding input operation (e.g., cut, paste, etc.) to be performed.

Devices for welding suture segments in lieu of tying knots in sutures applied during endoscopic surgery. The devices provide for snaring loose suture ends and drawing the suture ends into a space between heating surfaces, and provide for closing the heating surfaces.

Disclosed is a method and system for inserting redundant paths into an integrated circuit. Particularly, the invention provides a method for identifying a single via in a first path connecting two elements, determining if an alternate route is available for connecting the two elements (other than a redundant via), and for inserting a second path into the available alternate route. The combination of the first and second paths provides greater redundancy than inserting a redundant via alone. More importantly, such redundant paths provide for redundancy when congestion prevents a redundant via from being inserted adjacent to the single via. An embodiment of the method further comprises removing the single via and any redundant wire segments, if all of the additional vias used to form the second path can be made redundant.

A user configurable RAID system designed to provide RAID functions as well as mass storage functions in a non-RAID mode. Flexibility is built into the system to allow the user to configure the SCSI bus to which removable drive modules are connected into one or more channels to define some of the drive modules in a RAID set and others as stand-alone drives which are independently operated or logically grouped and operated in a non-RAID mode. Removable internal SCSI bridges allow the SCSI bus to be configured into one or more channels. In the RAID mode, the system is configured to prevent a wrong drive from being removed from the system in the event of a drive failure. The system automatically unlatches only the failed drive. The RAID system includes an intelligent control unit ("ICU"), a RAID controller and a modem. The ICU allows the system administrator to access the RAID system Monitor Utility so that the status of the system may be monitored and its configuration changed. The ICU also monitors the failure status of the various components of the system. The ICU has a built-in pager feature that can be configured with the Monitor Utility to page the system administrator via the modem when a component or system failure is encountered. The RAID controller controls the functions of the RAID set as programmed and configured using the Monitor Utility. The Monitor Utility may be remotely accessed using a computer via the modem. Redundant removable power supply and fan units are provided to improve system integrity. The removable power supply and fan units are configured such when the unit is plugged into the system housing, the fan is first turned on and the power through the unit is allowed to stabilize before turning on the power supply to begin providing DC power to the components in the system. A set of manual release buttons are provided for manually unlatching the drive modules from the system housing. A locking mechanism is provided for simultaneously locking all the manual release buttons.

A method and system monitor a communications network, e.g., a controller area network (CAN), and more specifically, an in-vehicle communications network, by maintaining a count of each type of error code and a histogram of all network messages seen by each of the controllers during a measurement period; and by determining a bus health index of the communication bus based upon a percentage of a given type of error to the total count of all errors during a measurement period. An individual controller or controller area network bus segment can be indicated as having a communications problem as a result of the health index.

The present invention facilitates solid object reconstruction from a two-dimensional image. If an object is of known and regular shape, information about the object can be extracted from at least one view by utilizing appropriate constraints and measuring a distance between a camera and the object and / or by estimating a scale factor between a camera image and a real world image. The same device can perform both the image capture and the distance measurement or the scaling factor estimation. The following processes can be performed for object identification: parameter estimation; image enhancement; detection of line segments; aggregation of short line segments into segments; detection of proximity clusters of segments; estimation of a convex hull of at least one cluster; derivation of an object outline from the convex hull; combination of the object outline, shape constraints, and distance value.

A small antenna has two or more feeding ports. A radiator is made of a planar conductor having a substantially circular shape having the diameter of a substantially half wavelength or a substantially regularly polygonal shape where the length of a diagonal line passes through the center point is the substantially half wavelength. A ground plate is faced to the radiator. On the radiator, the feeding ports are connected to feeding points on two orthogonal line segments passing through the center of the radiator. This antenna is used as not only a single antenna but also two independent antennas having secured isolation between the feeding ports. A small antenna device used as two independent antennas is thus provided. The radiator is formed in a hat shape having an edge, has an Stepped Impedance Resonator (SIR) structure where the diameter of a crest part is a quarter wavelength, and is shortened.

This invention provides a system and method for determining the three-dimensional alignment of a modeledobject or scene. After calibration, a 3D (stereo) sensor system views the object to derive a runtime 3D representation of the scene containing the object. Rectified images from each stereo head are preprocessed to enhance their edge features. A stereo matching process is then performed on at least two (a pair) of the rectified preprocessed images at a time by locating a predetermined feature on a first image and then locating the same feature in the other image. 3D points are computed for each pair of cameras to derive a 3D point cloud. The 3D point cloud is generated by transforming the 3D points of each camera pair into the world 3D space from the world calibration. The amount of 3D data from the point cloud is reduced by extracting higher-level geometric shapes (HLGS), such as line segments. Found HLGS from runtime are corresponded to HLGS on the model to produce candidate 3D poses. A coarse scoring process prunes the number of poses. The remaining candidate poses are then subjected to a further more-refined scoring process. These surviving candidate poses are then verified by, for example, fitting found 3D or 2D points of the candidate poses to a larger set of corresponding three-dimensional or two-dimensional model points, whereby the closest match is the best refined three-dimensional pose.

Nanowire articles and methods of making the same are disclosed. A conductive article includes a plurality of inter-contacting nanowire segments that define a plurality of conductive pathways along the article. The nanowire segments may be semiconducting nanowires, metallic nanowires, nanotubes, single walled carbon nanotubes, multi-walled carbon nanotubes, or nanowires entangled with nanotubes. The various segments may have different lengths and may include segments having a length shorter than the length of the article. A strapping material may be positioned to contact a portion of the plurality of nanowire segments. The strapping material may be patterned to create the shape of a frame with an opening that exposes an area of the nanowire fabric. Such a strapping layer may also be used for making electrical contact to the nanowire fabric especially for electrical stitching to lower the overall resistance of the fabric.

A planar inverted F antenna may be configured for operation at an operating frequency band, and the planar inverted F antenna may include first, second, and third antenna segments, a reference voltage coupling, and a feed coupling. The first and second antenna segments may be separated by at least approximately 3 mm, and the third antenna segment may couple the first and second antenna segments. The reference voltage and feed couplings may both be provided on the first antenna segment, and a current null may be present between the feed and reference voltage couplings at the operating frequency band. Related communications devices are also discussed.

The present invention discloses a method for performing CT imaging on a region of interest of an object under examination, comprising: acquiring the CT projection data of the region of interest; acquiring the CT projection data of region B; selecting a group of PI line segments covering the region of interest, and calculating the reconstruction image value for each PI line segment in the group; and combining the reconstruction image values in all the PI line segments to obtain the image of the region of interest. The present invention further discloses a CT imaging device using this method and a data processor therein. Since the 2D / 3D slice image of the region of interest can be exactly reconstructed and obtained as long as the X-ray beam covers the region of interest and the region B, it is possible to use a small-sized detector to perform CT imaging on the region of interest at any position of a large-sized object, which reduces to a great extent the radiation dose of the X-ray during the CT scanning.

A method and associated apparatus is provided for improving the performance of a high speed memory bus using switches. Bus reflections caused by electrical stubs are substantially eliminated by connecting system components in a substantially stubless configuration using a segmented bus wherein bus segments are connected through switches. The switches disconnect unused bus segments during operations so that communicating devices are connected in an substantially point-to-point communication path.

A graphics controller which performs display list-based video refresh operations that enable objects with independent frame rates to be efficiently assembled is disclosed. The graphics controller maintains a virtual display refresh list (VDRL) comprising a plurality of pointers to scan line segments in memory. The graphics controller also creates, maintains, and deletes draw display lists (DDLs) that comprise pointers to object display list subroutines (ODLs) that independently draw objects in memory. The ODLs may allocated one or more buffers in memory into which different frames of the objects are drawn. When an ODL has completed executing, the corresponding pointer in the DDL may be updated to point to the buffer location in memory that stores the newly completed object frame. The VDRL is maintained independently (and may be doubled-buffered) and is updated using the DDLs. Motion estimation may be performed by the graphics controller using the different frames of objects that are drawn into memory by the ODLs. The different object frames may also be animated by the graphics controller once they are drawn into memory. The object frames stored in memory may be compressed to conserve memory.