Celebrity Inventors
Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) received Patent No. 121,992 for "An Improvement in Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments." He later received two more patents: one for a self-pasting scrapbook and one for a game to help players remember important historical dates.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 5954653 | Method and apparatus for automatically enhancing contrast in projected ultrasound image A method and an apparatus for automatically adjusting the contrast of a projected ultrasound image. An ultrasound scanner collects B-mode images in a cine memory, i.e., for a multiplicity of slices. The data from a respective region of interest for each s... | 09/21/1999 |
| 5891038 | Method, apparatus and applications for combining transmit wave functions to obtain synthetic waveform in ultrasonic imaging system A signal processing technique for improving the axial resolution and/or the sensitivity of an ultrasonic imaging system. This technique also improves the lateral resolution and the depth of field. The technique is based on combining two or more transmit w... | 04/06/1999 |
| 5865750 | Method and apparatus for enhancing segmentation in three-dimensional ultrasound imaging A method and an apparatus for three-dimensional imaging of ultrasound data by constructing projections of data from a volume of interest. An ultrasound scanner collects B-mode or color flow images in a cine memory, i.e., for a multiplicity of slices. A mu... | 02/02/1999 |
| 5844139 | Method and apparatus for providing dynamically variable time delays for ultrasound beamformer A phased array sector scanning ultrasonic system includes a separate receive channel for each respective element in an ultrasonic transducer array. Each receive channel imparts a delay to the echo signal produced by each respective element. The delayed ec... | 12/01/1998 |
| 5841889 | Ultrasound image texture control using adaptive speckle control algorithm A method for controlling the contrast resolution and the tissue texture of ultrasonic images employs a signal processing algorithm to adjust an image by changing the tissue texture (speckle grain size). The algorithm increases the image contrast by alloca... | 11/24/1998 |
| 5840032 | Method and apparatus for three-dimensional ultrasound imaging using transducer array having uniform elevation beamwidth A method and an apparatus for three-dimensional imaging of ultrasound data by constructing projections of data from a volume of interest. An ultrasound scanner collects B-mode or color flow images in a cine memory, i.e., for a multiplicity of slices. A mu... | 11/24/1998 |
| 5827189 | Method and apparatus for preventing axial spatial aliasing in ultrasound imager having complex signal detector A method using a progressive sampling rate technique to maintain the sampling rate at the Nyquist frequency of the I/Q data through a tunable equalization bandpass filter in the front end of the imager and then increasing the sampling rate via axial inter... | 10/27/1998 |
| 5797847 | Method and apparatus for complex bandpass filtering and decimation in ultrasound beamformer A phased array sector scanning ultrasonic system includes a separate beamformer channel for each respective element in an ultrasonic transducer array. Each beamformer channel has a three-stage complex FIR filter downstream of an analog-to-digital converte... | 08/25/1998 |
| 5797846 | Method to control frame rate in ultrasound imaging A method for optimizing the beam distribution to obtain the highest frame rate together with the least amount of acoustic noise while limiting the spatial aliasing to an acceptable level. The beam distribution is adjusted according to the scan format and ... | 08/25/1998 |
| 5779641 | Method and apparatus for three-dimensional ultrasound imaging by projecting filtered pixel data A method and an apparatus for three-dimensional imaging of ultrasound data by reducing speckle artifact data before the acquired data from a volume of interest is projected onto an image plane. An ultrasound scanner collects B-mode or color flow mode imag... | 07/14/1998 |
| 5735797 | Method and apparatus for combining topographic flow power imagery with a B-mode anatomical imagery An ultrasound imaging system for displaying edge-enhanced topographic flow power data surrounded by B-mode anatomical data without masking out any significant edge-enhanced topographic flow power data and without displaying any significant flow power back... | 04/07/1998 |
| 5721463 | Method and apparatus for transferring heat from transducer array of ultrasonic probe A device for improving thermal transfer inside an ultrasound probe and reducing heat build-up near the transducer face. The cable components are used as heat conductors which conduct heat out of the probe handle. These heat pipes are coupled to an interna... | 02/24/1998 |
| 5711058 | Method for manufacturing transducer assembly with curved transducer array A method of manufacturing a transducer assembly having a curved transducer array. The method includes the steps of fabricating a laminated assembly by bonding the following layers together: a layer of electrically conductive, acoustic matching material, a... | 01/27/1998 |
| 5706564 | Method for designing ultrasonic transducers using constraints on feasibility and transitional Butterworth-Thompson spectrum A method for designing ultrasonic transducers used in diagnostic ultrasonic imagers, in particular, transducers made up of at least one piezoelectric layer and at least one acoustic matching layer, plus various bonding and backing layers. The method of tr... | 01/13/1998 |
| 5701742 | Configured indium gasket for thermal joint in cryocooler An indium gasket having a configuration which allows the indium to reach its yield point at a relatively low contact pressure. The indium gasket is provided with a multiplicity of openings which are filled by the deforming indium during compression betwee... | 12/30/1997 |
| 5668516 | Simplified active shield superconducting magnet assembly for magnetic resonance imaging An improved actively shielded superconducting magnet in which the main and bucking coils are directly wound onto respective coil support structures made of glass fiber-reinforced epoxy. The main and bucking coil cartridges are held in a fixed concentric r... | 09/16/1997 |
| 5657634 | Convection cooling of bellows convolutions using sleeve penetration tube A sleeve assembly for reducing the thermal conduction heat load from the bellows penetration tube to the heliumvessel of a superconducting magnet assembly. The sleeve assembly is designed to force helium boil-off gas to flow in intimate contact with the b... | 08/19/1997 |
| 5653236 | Apparatus for real-time distributed computation of beamforming delays in ultrasound imaging system An apparatus for generating the required beamforming delays for an ultrasound imaging system with minimal hardware and software. The apparatus performs an algorithm which allows the required computations to be separated into three groups. The first group ... | 08/05/1997 |
| 5615678 | Integral auto-selecting yoke/transducer connector for ultrasound transducer probe An integral yoke/transducer connector has built-in probe switches for detecting when a transducer probe has been removed from its yoke. Based on the status of the probe switch and other feedback information, a system controller activates the out-of-holder... | 04/01/1997 |
| 5598051 | Bilayer ultrasonic transducer having reduced total electrical impedance An ultrasonic transducer having reduced total electrical impedance is constructed by stacking a plurality of piezoelectric transducer element arrays on top of each other. For a given thickness, the electrical impedance of a multilayer stack of piezoelectr... | 01/28/1997 |
| 5577507 | Compound lens for ultrasound transducer probe A compound lens for focusing ultrasound emitted from an ultrasound probe having an array of piezoelectric transducer elements. The compound lens has an inner lens part with a convex cylindrical front face and a rear face which is acoustically coupled to t... | 11/26/1996 |
| 5568813 | Method for combining ultrasound vector data from multiple firings to improve image quality An ultrasound imaging system is provided with a vector compounder and a vector splicer for respectively compounding and splicing vector data from multiple firings along a scan line to improve image quality. The compounder consists of an accumulator which ... | 10/29/1996 |
| 5545942 | Method and apparatus for dissipating heat from a transducer element array of an ultrasound probe A device for improving heat dissipation inside an ultrasound probe and reducing heat build-up near the transducer face. Heat conductors are placed around the periphery of the transducer package, but within the probe housing, so that heat can be drawn away... | 08/13/1996 |
| 5541468 | Monolithic transducer array case and method for its manufacture A monolithic transducer array case having a bottom wall which is suitable for use as an acoustic impedance matching layer in an ultrasonic transducer. The array case is made from electrically conductive material having an acoustic impedance less than the ... | 07/30/1996 |
| 5535748 | Real-time graphics on cine playback in ultrasound imaging A method and an apparatus for displaying the graphics associated with cine images during cine replay in an ultrasound imaging system. A graphics frame array for storing flagged graphics data is incorporated in the timeline/graphics display memory. Each en... | 07/16/1996 |
| 5531224 | Framem interpolator for increasing apparent acoustic frame rate in ultrasound imaging A method and an apparatus for increasing the apparent acoustic frame rate of ultrasound images. Frames of acoustic data are acquired at the acoustic frame rate, stored in double-buffered acoustic frame buffers and scan converted one after the other. For e... | 07/02/1996 |
| 5524629 | Color flow processor having adaptive wall filter A color flow processor for color flow imaging of the velocity of scatterers flowing past slowly moving tissue. The processor has inputs for receiving basebanded signals derived from ultrasound reflected by the scatterers and by the slowly moving tissue; a... | 06/11/1996 |
| 5520187 | Ultrasonic probe with programmable multiplexer for imaging systems with different channel counts A programmable probe multiplexer which can be reconfigured for use with multiple imaging systems having different channel counts. The probe uses a system code that informs the multiplexer of the number of channels on the system to which it is connected. T... | 05/28/1996 |
| 5520186 | Method and apparatus for controlling transducer multiplexing in ultrasound imaging system A method and apparatus for controlling multiplexing of a transducer having more elements than the imaging system has receive channels. The active aperture is shifted in increments of a predetermined number of transducer elements, e.g., eight. While the ac... | 05/28/1996 |
| 5505203 | Method and apparatus for automatic transducer selection in ultrasound imaging system A method and an apparatus for activating one of a plurality of connected transducers in response to the operator picking up that transducer. This enables the selection of a transducer without the need for pressing a button or key. Automatic selection is a... | 04/09/1996 |
| 5493541 | Ultrasonic transducer array having laser-drilled vias for electrical connection of electrodes A system and process for electrically connecting all elements in a transducer array from one side. A flat block of piezoelectric ceramic material is patterned and drilled with a high-powered laser. The drilling is precisely controlled to define a series o... | 02/20/1996 |
| 5488957 | System and method for promoting adhesion between lens and matching layer of ultrasonic transducer An adhesion system specifically designed to achieve a good-quality adhesive bond between a silicone rubber lens and a plastic matching layer of an ultrasonic transducer. The adhesion system includes a layer of conventional silicone adhesive applied on the... | 02/06/1996 |
| 5409007 | Filter to reduce speckle artifact in ultrasound imaging A method for reducing speckle artifact in an ultrasound image using a two-dimensional median filter having a diamond-shaped five-point kernel. The entire pixel image data is passed through the filter in a manner such that the center point of the kernel is... | 04/25/1995 |
| 5398216 | Method for detecting two-dimensional flow for ultrasound color flow imaging A triangulation method and apparatus for measuring the velocity of a flowing material at a point of interest along two lines of sight which have different vector components. The flow velocity along two different image vectors is measured simultaneously by... | 03/14/1995 |
| 5383462 | Wideband time-domain cross-correlation method using baseband data A method for estimating the velocity of flow containing a cloud of ultrasound scatterers using time-domain cross-correlation of baseband data. When the scatterers move from one range cell to another between firings, the returning echo signals from adjacen... | 01/24/1995 |
| 5363851 | Ultrasound color flow extended velocity estimation A multi-lag method for estimating both high and low velocities of blood flow from a single set of firings in situations where both high-velocity and low-velocity signals are of interest. A color flow processor uses multiple lags in the firing sequence. Th... | 11/15/1994 |
| 5357965 | Method for controlling adaptive color flow processing using fuzzy logic A color flow processor has a fuzzy logic processor for determining when an adaptive wall filter can be turned off in response to the condition wherein flow signal will be treated as wall signal. The fuzzy logic processor uses details of wall velocity and ... | 10/25/1994 |
