Surgical instrument guide device

An instrument guide device comprises an elongated guide shaft having proximal and distal ends and including an instrument lumen for receiving therethrough a manually operated instrument having an instrument shaft. A distal bendable member is disposed at the distal end of the guide shaft and a proximal bendable member is disposed at the proximal end of the guide shaft. Actuation means extends between the distal and proximal bendable members and provides a bending of the distal bendable member controlled from the proximal bendable member. The proximal bendable member is controlled from the manually operated instrument to cause a corresponding bending of said distal bendable member.

Motorized surgical handpiece

A motorized surgical handpiece comprises a housing enclosing an interior containing a motor and an output shaft for being driven in rotation by the motor. The output shaft has a central longitudinal axis, a bore extending therethrough for receiving a shank of a surgical tool to be rotatably driven by the output shaft, a forward end portion extending forwardly beyond the motor and a rearward end portion extending rearwardly beyond the motor. The housing has a continuous lumen extending entirely therethrough formed in part by the output shaft bore for insertion of a bore brush through the lumen for cleaning when the surgical tool is removed from the handpiece. The handpiece has forward and rearward labyrinth seals comprising rotor components respectively attached to the forward and rearward end portions of the output shaft for rotation in corresponding stator components with there being a labyrinthine clearance between each rotor component and its stator component to receive pressurized air during use and during cleaning of the handpiece to avoid the entry of contaminants.

Molecular encoding of nucleic acid templates for PCR and other forms of sequence analysis

In a first aspect, the present invention provides methods for authenticating a nucleic acid molecule and its sequence with a molecular barcode and batch-stamp. In another aspect, the present invention provides methods for authenticating a nucleic acid amplification product. In a further aspect, the present invention provides compositions for encoding both single-stranded and double-stranded target nucleic acids with coded oligonucleotides. The compositions are useful in the practice of the methods of the invention.

Non-invasive measurement of analytes

This invention provides devices, compositions and methods for determining the concentration of one or more metabolites or analytes in a biological sample, including cells, tissues, organs, organisms, and biological fluids. In particular, this invention provides materials, apparatuses, and methods for several non-invasive techniques for the determination of in vivo blood glucose concentration levels based upon the in vivo measurement of one or more biologically active molecules found in skin.

Laparoscopic ultrasound robotic surgical system

A LUS robotic surgical system is trainable by a surgeon to automatically move a LUS probe in a desired fashion upon command so that the surgeon does not have to do so manually during a minimally invasive surgical procedure. A sequence of 2D ultrasound image slices captured by the LUS probe according to stored instructions are processable into a 3D ultrasound computer model of an anatomic structure, which may be displayed as a 3D or 2D overlay to a camera view or in a PIP as selected by the surgeon or programmed to assist the surgeon in inspecting an anatomic structure for abnormalities. Virtual fixtures are definable so as to assist the surgeon in accurately guiding a tool to a target on the displayed ultrasound image.

Force reflective robotic control system and minimally invasive surgical device

A robotic system has been designed that can be used as a minimally invasive surgical device. The system has a master end and a slave end. The master end has five physical movements corresponding to physical movements at the slave end with five degrees of freedom. There is force feedback from the slave end to the master end for each physical movement. The interface can be one or more computers. The master end can be remote from the slave end and the slave end can be a surgical robot or a simulation program on a computer.

Wireless computer wallet for physical point of sale (POS) transactions

Methods and systems provide a secure transaction server (STS); provide an authentic point of sale (POS) device, according to a first authentication parameter of the STS; provide an authentic mobile purchasing device, according to a second authentication parameter of the STS; provide a short-range communication method between the POS device and the mobile purchasing device; correlate by the STS a personal identification entry (PIE) and the authentic mobile purchasing device; transmit, by the POS device, a time dependent transformed secure POS authenticable POS purchase action to the STS; input the PIE to the mobile purchasing device to transmit a time dependent transformed secure user authenticable POS purchase action to the POS device via the short-range communication method; and approve, by the STS, the POS purchase action for the POS device and for the mobile purchasing device, according to the authentic POS device, and according to the authentic mobile purchasing device and the STS correlating of the PIE and the authentic mobile purchasing device.

Wireless power transmission systems and methods

Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to power a device using wirelessly transmitted power are disclosed. Initially, a wireless base unit obtains a request for wireless power. The wireless base unit then determines a power requirement associated with a wireless field unit and compares the power requirement to a remaining power capacity of the wireless base unit. The wireless base unit then transmits power wirelessly to the wireless field unit based on the comparison of the power requirement to the remaining power capacity. The wirelessly transmitted power is associated with powering a field device operatively coupled to the wireless field unit.

GeSn alloys and ordered phases with direct tunable bandgaps grown directly on silicon

A method for depositing an epitaxial Ge—Sn layer on a substrate in a CVD reaction chamber includes introducing into the chamber a gaseous precursor comprising SnD4 under conditions whereby the epitaxial Ge—Sn layer is formed on the substrate. the gaseous precursor comprises SnD4 and high purity H2 of about 15-20% by volume. The gaseous precursor is introduced at a temperature in a range of about 250° C. to about 350° C. Using the process device-quality Sn—Ge materials with tunable bandgaps can be grown directly on Si substrates.

Method for forming a high density dielectric film by chemical vapor deposition

A method for forming a high density dielectric film by chemical vapor deposition. The method comprises: (a) a substrate is provided in a processing chamber; (b) a first gas is introduced into the processing chamber with a first pressure and adsorbed on the substrate, wherein the first gas comprises silicon-containing or carbon-containing gas; (c) the first gas is stopped, and the first pressure is lowered to a second pressure; (d) a second gas is introduced into the processing chamber with a third pressure, and forced to react with the first gas absorbed on the substrate and remained in the processing chamber, wherein the second gas comprises oxidizer or reduction agent; (e) the steps (b)˜(d) are repeated until a high density dielectric film is formed on the substrate.