963 results about "Optic disk" patented technology

The present invention provides systems and methods for selectively applying electrical energy to a target location within a patient's body, particularly including tissue in the spine. The present invention applies high frequency (RF) electrical energy to one or more electrode terminals in the presence of electrically conductive fluid to contract collagen fibers within the tissue structures. In one aspect of the invention, a system and method is provided for removing a vertebral disc in preparation for implanting a prosthetic disc or removing a portion of the vertebral disc such as the nucleus pulposus in preparation for placing a prosthetic nucleus within the annulus of the disc. The present invention also teaches shrinking residual tissue in preparation for placing the implants.

Apparatus and methods are disclosed for accessing the interior of an intervertebral disc to perform a function within the disc. The apparatus comprises a catheter having a lumen; and a guide wire having a distal portion and a proximal portion, and configured to be positioned within and moved relative to the lumen of the catheter; wherein the guide wire is capable of navigating itself within an intradiscal section of the intervertebral to a selected section of the disc and the catheter is capable of being advanced relative to the guide wire such that the catheter follows a path of the guide wire within the intradiscal section of the disc to the selected section. These apparatus and methods may be used for the treatment of intervertebral disc disorders such as sealing fissures of the annulus fibrosus, which may or may not be accompanied with contained or escaped extrusions. These apparatus and methods may also be used for the removal or addition of material to the intervertebral disc.

A method for electrically stimulating an area in a spinal disc is presented. The method comprises implanting a lead with one or more electrodes in a placement site in or adjacent to one or more discs at any spinal level from cervical through lumbar, connecting the lead to a signal generator, and generating electrical stimulation pulses using the generator to stimulate targeted portions of the disc. Additionally, a system for relieving pain associated with a spinal disc is presented that comprises a lead with one or more electrodes, an introducer for introducing the lead to a placement site in or adjacent to the disc, a removable stylet for guiding the lead to the placement site in the disc, and a generator connected to the lead for generating electrical pulses to the lead for stimulating the disc.

Prosthetic intervertebral discs, systems including such prosthetic intervertebral discs, and methods for using the same are described. The subject prosthetic discs include upper and lower endplates separated by a compressible core member. The subject prosthetic discs exhibit stiffness in the vertical direction, torsional stiffness, bending stiffness in the saggital plane, and bending stiffness in the front plane, where the degree of these features can be controlled independently by adjusting the components, construction, and other features of the discs.

A local adaptive method is proposed for automatic detection of microaneurysms in a digital ocular fundus image. Multiple subregions of the image are automatically analyzed and adapted to local intensity variation and properties. A priori region and location information about structural features such as vessels, optic disk and hard exudates are incorporated to further improve the detection accuracy. The method effectively improves the specificity of microaneurysms detection, without sacrificing sensitivity. The method may be used in automatic level-one grading of diabetic retinopathy screening.

The invention discloses an eye fundus image characteristics extraction method for diabetic retinopathy by utilizing an eye fundus image shot by a digital mydriatic-free eye fundus camera. The method comprises the following steps of (1) selecting an RGB channel of the eye fundus image; (2) positioning the optic disk of the eye fundus image; (3) extracting the hard exudate characteristics and the cotton wool spot characteristics of the eye fundus image, generating an extracted eye fundus image if at least one characteristic is discovered, if no characteristic is discovered, extracting microaneurysm characteristics and retinal hemorrhage characteristics, and generating an extracted eye fundus image. The method belongs to a non-intrusive technology, and is simple, rapid, convenient and effective, and the processed image is clear and obvious in symptom, so the diagnosis of a doctor is facilitated.

Prosthetic intervertebral discs, systems including such prosthetic intervertebral discs, and methods for using the same are described. The subject prosthetic discs include upper and lower endplates separated by a compressible core member. The subject prosthetic discs exhibit stiffness in the vertical direction, torsional stiffness, bending stiffness in the sagittal plane, and bending stiffness in the front plane, where the degree of these features can be controlled independently by adjusting the components, construction, and other features of the discs.

Check reins in the form of elongated members are used to limit the extreme range of motion which would otherwise be permitted by some ADR designs. The check reins serve two main purposes. First, they retain disc spacers, if present. Additionally, the wedge shape of ADRs and the removal of the Anterior Longitudinal Ligament (ALL) and a portion of the Annulus Fibrosus (AF) to insert the ADR from an anterior approach, favor anterior extrusion of disc spacers. In preferred embodiments the check reins are therefore limited to the anterior portion of the periphery of the ADR. Second, check reins serve to prevent excessive spinal motion. Again, although they may be helpful in other locations, anterior check reins help restore the motion limiting functions of the ALL and AF that were removed in anterior approaches to the spine.

A CD-ROM control chip is provided for a use of firmware information update in the CD-ROM system. The control chip at least includes a microprocessor, a decoder, a controller, and an extra memory. The microprocessor is coupled to a data bus, and further coupled to an external ROM, which stores all firmware information. The decoder is coupled to the microprocessor through the data bus, and is also coupled to an external buffer memory and an external main board interface. The external main board interface allows the CD-ROM control chip to communicate with an external computer. The controller is coupled to the decoder, and is coupled to the microprocessor the data bus. The controller is used to receive information and control signals from an external CD. The extra memory is coupled to the microprocessor through the data bus. When the microprocessor starts to update the firmware information, it generates at least one output enabling signal, one chip selecting signal, and one writing-in signal, and sends these signals to the external ROM. The external ROM is treated as an information storing space, and the extra memory is treated as execution space used by an update program routine.

The invention discloses a retina eyeground image segmentation method based on a depth full convolutional neural network. The retina eyeground image segmentation method includes the following steps of:selecting a training set and a test set, extracting retina eyeground images to obtain optic disk positioning area images, and performing blood vessel removal operation on the optic disk positioning area images; constructing the depth full convolutional neural network, taking the optic disk positioning area images as the input of the depth full convolutional neural network, and performing the training of an optic disk segmentation model on the training set based on trained weight parameters as initial values to fine tune model parameters, and performing fine tuning on parameters of an optic cup segmentation model based on trained optic disk segmentation model parameters; and performing optic cup and optic disk segmentation on the test set by utilizing a trained optic cup segmentation model, performing ellipse fitting on final segmentation results, calculating a vertical cup-disk ratio according to optic cup and optic disk segmentation boundaries, and taking a cup-disk ratio result as important basis for a glaucoma auxiliary diagnosis. The retina eyeground image segmentation method achieves optic disk and optic cup automatic segmentation of the retina eyeground images, has high precision and fast speed.

A bio-disc device including new valve control means and fluid movement system, a bio-driver apparatus in which a controller disc including a controller for the bio-disc is installed, and an assay method using the same, which are suitable for labs-on-a-chips for various diagnostic assays, nucleic acid hybridization assays, and immunoassays, are provided. The bio-driver apparatus is compatible with general optical discs, including audio CDs, CD-Rs, game CDs, DVDs, etc., and the assay method is compatible with general optical disc drivers, including CD-ROMs, DVD players, etc. Thus, the bio-driver apparatus and the assay method offer and economical and convenient alternative to existing products. In addition, the bio-driver apparatus can be readily and easily applied in connection with a computer for remote diagnosis via the Internet.

An interbody implant (20) includes first and second members (22, 24) that are configured to allow the members (22, 24) to be inserted into a disc space separately and then connected together in the disc space to form the interbody implant (20). This allows for a larger interbody implant (20) because the combined size of the members (22, 24) can exceed the size of an access opening into the disc space, with each of the members (22, 24) being sized to pass separately through the access opening before being connected together in the disc space.

A partially releasable disc for processing recycling materials in general. More specifically a disc that is sufficiently flexible to function in heavy machinery without excessive wear while maintaining sufficient stiffness to avoid excessive fluctuations, wobbling, or other undesired excess deflection in the disc. An outer flexible portion may be wrapped around a less flexible core. A disc may comprise a plurality of outer impacting elements configured for engaging materials to be classified and propelling the materials in a conveying direction when a core is rotated. For ease of replacement, when the flexible portion is worn or damaged, the flexible portion may be removed without necessarily removing the inner core, saving labor and equipment expense when maintain a screen, such as the separation screens used for sorting recycled materials.

The invention discloses a separate detection system and method of rare cells based on a centrifugal micro-fluidic technology. The system comprises a micro-fluidic chip similar to an optical disk, a centrifugal drive module and an optical detection module, wherein the micro-fluidic chip comprises a plurality of groups of micro-channels and micro-cavities arranged in a radiation manner; and the entire chip structure is composed of an elastic micro-column guide rail layer, a deformable film layer, a pipeline / cavity layer, a filtering membrane layer and a liquid waste collecting layer. The method comprises the steps of: firstly, leading a sample solution and immune modified microspheres into a liquid storage cavity through an injection port of the micro-fluidic chip in use, putting the sample solution and the immune modified microspheres on a centrifugal platform of the centrifugal drive module, assembling an elastic micro-column, and rotating at a low speed, so as to achieve fully mixing and reacting of the sample solution and immune modified microsphere liquid in the liquid storage cavity, separating by a high-speed rotary chip, and then dropwise adding a specifically recognized fluorescently-labeled antibody solution in each separate cell collection area, carrying out incubate reaction, adding a buffer solution and centrifuging, and finally identifying and analyzing through the optical detection module.

The invention discloses a fundus image optic disc segmentation method and a system for assisting glaucoma screening, and relates to the technical field of image information processing. The fundus image optic disc segmentation method comprises the steps that a plurality of fundus images are collected and preprocessed, and a training image sample set and a verification image sample set are obtained;training of a constructed W-Net-Mcon full convolutional neural network by using the training image sample set to obtain an optimal W-Net-Mcon full convolutional neural networkis carried out; preprocessing the fundus image to be segmented, and inputting the preprocessed fundus image to be segmented into the optimal W-Net-Mcon full convolutional neural network to obtain a prediction target result image; Processing prediction target result graph by utilizing polar coordinate inverse transformation and ellipse fitting to obtain final segmentation result so as to obtain cup-to-disk ratio and finally obtain glaucoma preliminary screening result. According to the method, image semantic information can be effectively extracted in a multi-size mode, fusion of features of different levels, fusion of global features and detail features and encouragement of feature multiplexing are carried out, gradient back propagation is improved, and the image segmentation precision is improved.

This invention relates to the field of sports training devices and more specifically electronic training devices that show the user in a quantitative manner the quality of a particular performance criteria to be measured. The device is either part of or is attached to a flying disc, and is used for measuring and improving rotational velocity and time aloft, both of which help athletes-beginners to advanced-improve their overall throwing skill. There are many disc sports that are growing and can use such a device to provide instant feedback, which is a fundamental training technique that enables quick improvement of skills.

The application discloses a lesion detection method and apparatus of an eye fundus image. The method comprises the following steps: carrying out pretreatment on a to-be-detected eye fundus image; carrying out optic disk positioning on the eye fundus image after pretreatment and determining an optic disk region; carrying out morphological processing on the eye fundus image after pretreatment to obtain a healthy background image; and according to the healthy background image and the optic disk region, determining an effusion region in the eye fundus image after pretreatment. Therefore, the detection speed of the eye fundus image can be increased and accuracy of positioning of a lesion region can be improved.

For warranting a validity of data recorded on a medium such as a rewritable magneto-optic disk etc, when registering a plurality of documents (n, n+1 . . . ) on the same recording medium, an n-th authenticator obtained by executing an encrypting process of data of the n-th document is recorded together with the n-th document data, and, when registering data of the (n+1)th document, an (n+1)-th authenticator is generated by executing the encrypting process of the n-th authenticator and the (n+1)-th document data as the (n+1)th authenticator.

The invention is a suspension plate system for providing access to hanks of fiber. The system may include a circular, transparent, plastic disc having a plurality of truncated conic circular bores located equidistant from the center of the disc and being substantially equidistant from each other. Each bore has a larger diameter opening on the top of the disc and a smaller diameter opening on the bottom of the disc. A plurality of generally radial slots equal in number to the number of bores are located on the disc to communicate between each bore and the outer edge of the disc. Each bore provides a device wherein a hank of fiber, cut into substantially equal lengths to other hanks and divided by color and / or nature can be presented for display and use. The hank of fiber of like color and / or nature is bound by a knob-like binder that can be captured in one of the bores, with the hank of fiber suspended down from the disc, thus locking the hank of fiber in place relative to other hanks and to the disc. The binder is captured because its effective diameter is between the diameters of the upper and lower openings of the bore. The slot allows the hank of fiber to be axially placed within the bore without the hank having to be threaded longitudinally into the bore.

The invention discloses an arteriovenous retinal blood vessel classification method based on an eye fundus image. The method includes the steps that first, a global blood vessel set and optic disk positioning information of the fundus image are acquired, the global blood vessel set is a set of all blood vessels in the fundus image, and the optic disk positioning information comprises the optic disk center of the fundus image; second, main blood vessels are determined according to the global blood vessel set and the optic disk positioning information and classified so that main blood vessel classification information can be obtained; third, the main blood vessel classification information is used for classifying the blood vessels in the global blood vessel set through a breadth first-search algorithm based on SAT so that global classification information can be obtained. According to the method, the classification information of the main blood vessels around an optic disk is first obtained, external expansion diffusion is performed from the main blood vessels through the breadth first-search algorithm based on SAT so that all the blood vessels can be obtained, a complete automatic blood vessel classification method is achieved, manual intervention is not needed, and classification precision is high.

A method for optic disk detection in retinal images, includes: extracting a vessel tree from a retinal image; locating an optic disk in the retinal image using the vessel tree; enhancing a contrast of the optic disk; removing vessels from the contrast enhanced optic disk; detecting a boundary of the optic disk with vessels removed by generating an edge map; projecting the edge map at a plurality of angles by using a radon transform; and estimating a radius and center of the optic disk using the projections.

An optical disk 100 is provided with a hub 3 at the central portion of a substratel. A relationship Y / X≧0.015, preferably Y / X≧0.05 is satisfied where X is the projected area of the substrate 1 and Y is a contact area between the hub 3 and the substrate 1. As result, no slippage occurs between the hub 3 and the substrate 1 even when they are rotated at high speed than conventional. With this higher rotational speed, the data transfer rate is improved, and irregular rotation and the camming are suppressed, thereby reducing tracking errors and write / read errors.

The invention discloses an eye fundus image registration method, an eye fundus image optic disk nerve and vessel measuring method and an eye fundus image matching method. The eye fundus image registration method includes determining a model eye fundus image and an eye fundus image to be registered; selecting an interested area on the model eye fundus image; traversing to form all edge points of vessels in the eye fundus image to be registered, and calculating sg value simultaneously; and determining whether registration succeeds or not by judging the sg value. Both the eye fundus image optic disk nerve and vessel measuring method and the eye fundus image matching method are realized based on the eye fundus image registration method. The eye fundus image registration method is high in speed, correctness and precision, measuring results obtained by the eye fundus image optic disk nerve and vessel measuring method based on the eye fundus registration method are high in accuracy, and the eye fundus image matching method based on the eye fundus registration can realize accurate matching of multiple eye fundus images.

This invention relates to methods of using an optical disc reader to detect an analyte of interest that is associated with an optical disc assembly. The method includes the steps of: (1) providing the optical disc to the optical disc reader; (2) directing at least one beam of electromagnetic radiation to the optical disc and scanning the beam over the optical disc; (3) acquiring radiation returned from or transmitted through the optical disc using a detector of the optical disc reader; (4) generating from the acquired radiation at least a signal which is indicative of the presence of the analyte; and (5) generating from the acquired radiation signals which enable the optical disc reader to track operational structures impressed or encoded in the optical disc.