System and method for forming conductive material on a substrate

A method for forming a conductive material on a substrate includes laser annealing a selected portion of a blanket coated material to form a conductive region.

Multi-functional hand-held device

Disclosed herein is a multi-functional hand-held device capable of configuring user inputs based on how the device is to be used. Preferably, the multi-functional hand-held device has at most only a few physical buttons, keys, or switches so that its display size can be substantially increased. The multi-functional hand-held device also incorporates a variety of input mechanisms, including touch sensitive screens, touch sensitive housings, display actuators, audio input, etc. The device also incorporates a user-configurable GUI for each of the multiple functions of the devices.

Surgical instrument and method

A surgical instrument comprises a hollow tube (18) having a cutting window (16) at the distal end portion. An inner tube (15) is disposed within the tube (18) and is mounted for rotation about its longitudinal axis. A cutting tool (17) is located at the distal end of the tube (15), and is positioned adjacent to the cutting window (16). An outer tube (14) is provided over the tube (18). A motor (5) is provided for rotating the inner tube (15), and saline is fed to the cutting window (16) via a passageway (25) between the tubes (15) and (18). The inner tube (15) has a central lumen (24) through which tissue cut by the cutting tool (17) is removed under the action of a source of suction (12). The outer surface of the tube 18 is covered with an electrically insulating layer (22) and coagulating RF signals are supplied between the tube (18) and the outer tube (14) so as to coagulate tissue at the cutting window (16). Additional apertures (40, 42; 43, 45) in the outer tube (14) and the insulating layer (22) are aligned such that a portion of the hollow tube (18) is exposed other than in the area of the cutting window (16).

Cardiac tissue ablation instrument with flexible wrist

An articulate minimally invasive surgical instrument with a flexible wrist to facilitate the safe placement and provide visual verification of the ablation catheter or other devices in Cardiac Tissue Ablation (CTA) treatments is described. In one embodiment, the instrument is an endoscope which has an elongate shaft, a flexible wrist at the working end of the shaft, and a vision scope lens at the tip of the flexible wrist. The flexible wrist has at least one degree of freedom to provide the desired articulation. It is actuated and controlled by a drive mechanism located in the housing at the distal end of the shaft. The articulation of the endoscope allows images of hard-to-see places to be taken for use in assisting the placement of the ablation catheter on the desired cardiac tissue. The endoscope may further include couplings to releasably attach an ablation device/catheter or a catheter guide to the endoscope thereby further utilizing the endoscope articulation to facilitate placement of the ablation catheter on hard-to-reach cardiac tissues. In another embodiment, the articulate instrument is a grasper or any other instrument with a flexible wrist and a built-in lumen to allow an endoscope to insert and be guided to the distal end of the instrument.

Robot for surgical applications

The present invention provides a robot for use inside an open abdominal cavity during minimally-invasive surgery. The robot may include various sensors, imaging devices or manipulators.

Surgical assembly for tissue removal

A reciprocating surgical file system for precisely removing bone and/or other tissue is described. The system allows a user to maneuver the system and navigate into hard-to-access sites under a direct vision mechanism. A transmission mechanism converts rotary motion from a motor into reciprocating motion and provides it to the surgical file for precision removal of bone or other tissue. A pulsatile pump mechanism is operatively coupled with the transmission mechanism and provides irrigating fluid to the surgical site.

Signal processing apparatus and method

A method and an apparatus to analyze two measured signals that are modeled as containing desired and undesired portions such as noise, FM and AM modulation. Coefficients relate the two signals according to a model defined in accordance with the present invention. In one embodiment, a transformation is used to evaluate a ratio of the two measured signals in order to find appropriate coefficients. The measured signals are then fed into a signal scrubber which uses the coefficients to remove the unwanted portions. The signal scrubbing is performed in either the time domain or in the frequency domain. The method and apparatus are particularly advantageous to blood oximetry and pulserate measurements. In another embodiment, an estimate of the pulserate is obtained by applying a set of rules to a spectral transform of the scrubbed signal. In another embodiment, an estimate of the pulserate is obtained by transforming the scrubbed signal from a first spectral domain into a second spectral domain. The pulserate is found by identifying the largest spectral peak in the second spectral domain.

Flameless electronic atomizing cigarette

The invention relates to a non-smokable electronic spray cigarette which only comprises nicotine without harmful tar. The cigarette includes a smoke mouth integer comprised with a shell, a cell, a high frequency ionzer, nicotine solution storage and its container, control circuit, a display screen, a human contact sensor, a piezoelectric supersound atomizer, a high temperature vaporization nozzle and attachments, an electro-thermal vaporization nozzle installed in the air suction end of the shell goes through an electric control pump or a valve with a measuring chamber and a liquid storage container which contains nicotine solution and is connected to the electric control pump or a valve with a one-way flow valve, the control circuit plate has four export ends individually connected with the high frequency ionizer, electric heater, pump or valve and the display screen, a human resistence sensor and an air flow sensor are connected to the input end of the control circuit. The advantages of the present invention are smoking without tar, reducing the cancerogenic risk, the user still feel smoking and experiercing the excitement, the cigarette is no need to be lit and is no fire danger.

Hand held electronic device with multiple touch sensing devices

Hand held devices with multiple touch sensing devices are disclosed. The touch sensing devices may for example be selected from touch panels, touch screens or touch sensitive housings.

Internet appliance system and method

An Internet appliance, comprising, within a single housing, packet data network interfaces, adapted for communicating with the Internet and a local area network, at least one data interface selected from the group consisting of a universal serial bus, an IEEE-1394 interface, a voice telephony interface, an audio program interface, a video program interface, an audiovisual program interface, a camera interface, a physical security system interface, a wireless networking interface; a device control interface, smart home interface, an environmental sensing interface, and an environmental control interface, and a processor, for controlling a data transfer between the local area network and the Internet, and defining a markup language interface communicated through a packet data network interface, to control a data transfer or control a remote device.