Manually driven surgical cutting and fastening instrument

A surgical cutting and fastening instrument that includes an elongate channel that is attached to a handle assembly by an elongate shaft assembly. The elongate channel is configured to receive a cartridge and has a pivotally translatable anvil attached thereto and a knife bar supported therein. The anvil may be selectively opened and closed by manipulating a closure trigger supported by the handle assembly. The knife bar may be distally advanced through the elongate channel by actuating a firing trigger that cooperates with a reversible rotary drive supported by the handle assembly. The knife bar may also be retracted to its starting position by actuating the firing trigger after the reversible rotary drive has been shifted to a retraction orientation.

Surgical manipulator

The present invention provides a surgical manipulator including a manipulator arm, an end-effector held by the robotic arm, surgical tools held by the end-effector and manipulator joints, particularly right-angle drive devices for transmitting rotational motion in one axis to a perpendicular axis.

System and method for multi-instrument surgical access using a single access port

A system for performing multi-tool minimally invasive medical procedures through a single instrument port into a body cavity includes an expandable frame that carries a pair of tool cannulas, each of which has a lumen for receiving a tool useable to perform a procedure in the body cavity. The frame is expandable to orient the tool cannulas such that they allow the tools to be used in concert to carry out a procedure at a common location in the body cavity.

Powered Hand Tool

The invention relates to a hand tool for use with attachments. The hand tools of the invention may be used with attachments with various speed and torque requirements. Preferred hand tools comprise a body with a brushless DC motor and means. which control the energisation of the motor. In use the brushless DC motor of the preferred hand tool is electrically supplied to drive a power output means connected to said motor. Another preferred hand tool comprises a body with a motor contained therein, a void space between an internal surface of the body and at least a part of the motor, a fluid inlet port provided and a fluid outlet port provided in or on the body, and ducting means which provides a channel for fluid supplied via the fluid inlet port to and from the void space and then on to the fluid outlet port.

Apparatus and method for facilitating money or value transfer

An apparatus and method for transferring money or value, using a wide range of interfaces to initiate a transfer and a wide range of options for receiving the transfer, including receiving the transferred sum directly to the communication device/account of the receiver. The receiver can use the transferred sum as an airtime credit, to obtain cash or to pay for other goods or services.

Increased tool utilization/reduction in MWBC for UV curing chamber

A pump liner is used to direct a laminar flow of purge gas across a workpiece to remove contaminants or species outgassed or otherwise produced by the workpiece during processing. The pump liner can take the form of a ring having a plurality of injection ports, such as slits of a variety of shapes and/or sizes, opposite a plurality of receiving ports in order to provide the laminar flow. The flow of purge gas is sufficient to carry a contaminant or outgassed species from the processing chamber in order to prevent the collection of the contaminants on components of the chamber. The pump liner can be heated, via conduction and irradiation from a radiation source, for example, in order to prevent the condensation of species on the liner. The pump liner also can be anodized or otherwise processed in order to increase the emissivity of the liner.

BIOFOULING SELF-COMPENSATING BIOSENSOR

An in vivo biosensor disposed upon a subject comprising an electrochemical cell having a plurality of electrodes and a computer-controlled voltage source incorporating a potentiostat that is generative of a poise potential regime, which computer-controlled voltage source is operationally coupled to a computing device that: computes an output current whose magnitude is proportional to an amount of an analyte in a bodily fluid of the subject; and, adjusts the output current for drift due to biofouling at points in time greater than or equal to an induction period; and, outputs the amount of the analyte by transducing the adjusted output current. Methods and algorithms for adjusting the output current for drift due to biofouling are provided.

Non-contact cardiac mapping, including preprocessing

A non-contact cardiac mapping method is disclosed that includes: (i) inserting a catheter into a heart cavity having an endocardium surface, the catheter including multiple, spatially distributed electrodes; (ii) measuring signals at the catheter electrodes in response to electrical activity in the heart cavity with the catheter spaced from the endocardium surface; and (iii) determining physiological information at multiple locations of the endocardium surface based on the measured signals and positions of the electrodes with respect to the endocardium surface. Related systems and computer programs are also disclosed.

Port pooling

In one embodiment, methods and systems for port pooling are described. An interface may communicate with at least one physical server. The at least one physical server may host a plurality of virtual servers and be connectable via a plurality of gateway ports to a storage area network (SAN). A virtual server manager configured to arrange the plurality of gateway ports in a plurality of port pools, define a virtual server group including a plurality of virtual servers, associate each virtual server with one or more port pools, the one or more port pools defining available gateway ports for access by the particular virtual server; and provide configuration instructions to allow the particular virtual server to communicate with the SAN through the available gateway ports.

Digital cameras with direct luminance and chrominance detection

Digital camera systems and methods are described that provide a color digital camera with direct luminance detection. The luminance signals are obtained directly from a broadband image sensor channel without interpolation of RGB data. The chrominance signals are obtained from one or more additional image sensor channels comprising red and/or blue color band detection capability. The red and blue signals are directly combined with the luminance image sensor channel signals. The digital camera generates and outputs an image in YCrCb color space by directly combining outputs of the broadband, red and blue sensors.