Did You Know...
...that while attempting to develop a super strong glue, 3M employee Spencer Silver accidentally developed a glue that was so weak it would barely hold two pieces of paper together? However, his colleague Art Fry needed the glue. Fry sang with his church choir and marked the pages of his hymnal with small scraps of paper that often fell out. He used Silver's glue to hold the papers in place. Today we call this invention Post-it Notes.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7961214 | Automatic gain control for a confocal imaging system Automatic gain control is provided for a confocal imaging system to improve the quality of images produced by the system. The confocal imaging system utilizes an illumination source, such as a laser, to produce illumination which enables imaging of an object. The au... | 06/14/2011 |
| 7365768 | Endoscope apparatus and function adjusting circuit for endoscope An endoscope includes an insert section, a CCD is mounted at the end of the insert section, and a CCU for producing a video signal is arranged in a control unit connected to a proximal end of the insert unit. The CCU includes a general-purpose DSP board having the f... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7361140 | Connector for a combination cable, combination cable connected thereto, socket therefor, device for feeding light, plug connection system and endoscopy system A connector for a combination cable comprising at least one light guide and several electric lines has body, which can be introduced in the plugging direction into a socket and by means of which the connector can be held in the socket, a light guide holder having a ... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7347817 | Polarized in vivo imaging device, system and method An autonomous in vivo sensing device may include a polarizing filter to polarize light emitted by an illumination unit, and to block light specularly reflected from a turbid media from reaching an imager of such device. An autonomous in vivo sensing device with mono... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7336894 | Electronic endoscope system, lighting device for electronic endoscope system, and light controller for electronic endoscope system A lighting device for an electronic endoscope system, includes a light source; a set of rotary shutters having at least two rotary shutters, having a rotational axis parallel to an optical axis of the light source, the rotary shutters alternately intercepting incide... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7321385 | Surgical lighting control and video system A surgical light system (10) includes a lighthead (44) coupled to a suspension arm (41′) adapted for mounting to a surface (14) of a surgical room. A bulb (130) is disposed in the lighthead. A processor (120) in the lighth... | 01/22/2008 |
| 7232410 | Adjusting method for endoscope systems An adjusting method for endoscope systems comprises a first adjusting step, a second light adjusting step and a storing step. The first adjusting step compares video signals, which are produced from illumination light rays that are reflected from an object and whose... | 06/19/2007 |
| 7221388 | Endoscope image sensing method and apparatus This invention relates to an endoscope image sensing apparatus which can switch suitable color matrixes in accordance with the type of observation region, the type of light source used, or the like, and obtain good color reproduction corresponding to the type of obs... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7209162 | Electronic endoscope apparatus An electronic endoscope apparatus has a moving-image displayer that reads image-pixel signals from an image sensor at predetermined time intervals to display a moving-image, a light-amount adjuster that adjusts an amount of light for illuminating a subject, and a st... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7136098 | Image illumination optimizing The brightness of an actual image produced by an image sensor (e.g., CCD) of an electronic camera, is controlled with image size detection circuitry which, in response to electrical signals received from the electronic camera, determines an actual image area occupyi... | 11/14/2006 |
| 7116352 | Capsule System for producing a stereoscopic image of an object, and displaying the stereoscopic image, the system including a capsule and a control unit, the capsule including a sensor assembly, a processor connected to the sensor assembly, a capsule transceiver connected t... | 10/03/2006 |
| 7109933 | Wearable jacket having communication function, and endoscope system employing wearable jacket A wearable jacket includes a 2D-DST substrate shaped to cover a body of a subject person. The 2D-DST substrate includes a first conductive sheet, a second conductive sheet and a plurality of communication modules. The first and second conductive sheets are overlappe... | 09/19/2006 |
| 7108687 | Medical system An endoscope surgery system is provided, as a medical system, to be easily used by a user who is not used to the operation. An endoscope operation system includes a trolley and a remote controller. The trolley includes a plurality of medical devices (having a TV cam... | 09/19/2006 |
| 7048686 | Endoscope system including a communications function An endoscope system has an electronic endoscope, a signal processing section and a data transmitting and receiving section. The electronic endoscope has an image pickup element at a distal end portion of an insert section thereof to be inserted in a body. The other ... | 05/23/2006 |
| 7015908 | Image generation system and information storage medium There are provided an image generation system and information storage medium which can generate an image of a simple object with reduced processing load, the brightness of the simple object being variable according to the amount of light sent from a light source and... | 03/21/2006 |
| 6980227 | Electronic endoscope with light-amount adjustment apparatus An electronic endoscope has a video-scope with an image sensor and a video-processor. The video-scope has an objective lens and an illuminating lens in a tip portion. Further, the electronic endoscope has a luminance calculator and a light-amount adjuster. The lumin... | 12/27/2005 |
| 6976954 | Endoscope system An endoscope system is provided that includes a processor connectable to various endoscopes to process signals generated by the endoscope being connected. The processor further includes a database, a data selector and a data register. The database is configured to b... | 12/20/2005 |
| 6961149 | Color reproducing device In a color reproduction device, an input profile that is referenced in converting an input image from an image input device into a device-independent color image is created based on image input device information, shooting- and observation-time lighting data, and su... | 11/01/2005 |
| 6943822 | Electronic endoscope with color adjustment function An electronic endoscope includes a video-scope with an image sensor and a video-processor, to which the video-scope is detachably connected. The electronic endoscope has a light source that emits illuminating light for illuminating a subject, a color adjuster that p... | 09/13/2005 |
| 6932762 | Endoscope having red component cut filter An endoscope includes a red component cut optical filter having a characteristic that a spectral transmittance becomes half at 630 nm and zero at 670 nm, for example between a light source and an infrared cut filter, to remove a long wavelength component mainly in a... | 08/23/2005 |
| 6919914 | Powered optical coupler and endoscopic viewing system using same An endoscopic viewing system including a powered zoom coupler. The coupler is configured to attach the camera to a proximal end of an endoscope. The coupler includes a plurality of lenses that are positioned within a sleeve. The coupler includes a first motor and a ... | 07/19/2005 |
| 6770027 | Robotic endoscope with wireless interface An endoscope apparatus and method of operating the same. The endoscope apparatus comprises an endoscope portion and a control and display unit. The endoscope portion preferably comprises: (i) a sensor disposed at a distal end of the endoscope portion and providing e... | 08/03/2004 |
| 6734894 | Electronic-endoscope light quantity controlling apparatus The present invention is an electronic-endoscope apparatus for compensating for lack of light quantity caused by a delayed response from a light shielding mechanism when an all-pixel reading system is used. In the case of, for example, a moving image, this apparatus... | 05/11/2004 |
| 6734893 | Endoscopy illumination system for stroboscopy An endoscopy illumination system with a light-emitting element placed at the tip of an endoscope is disclosed. Pulses of light illuminate moving parts of the human body, enabling an observer to obtain information about the dynamical behavior of intracorporal structu... | 05/11/2004 |
| 6724418 | Electronic endoscope An electronic endoscope of the present invention includes a video-scope, video-processor, a light source, a luminance value calculator, a light-adjuster, and a determiner. The luminance value calculator successively calculates a luminance value indicating brightness... | 04/20/2004 |
| 6707485 | Light control system for electronic endoscopes The present invention relates to a light control system for electronic endoscopes which provides sufficiently bright images during observation of distant objects, allows stable light control during observation of close objects, and prolongs lamp life. The light cont... | 03/16/2004 |
| 6669628 | Electronic endoscope system enabling different type of electronic endoscope to be used When a new processor is connected to an old electronic endoscope provided with a memory storing B data for image processing specific to the scope, white balance control is carried out by a microcomputer. That is, at the time when power is turned on, this ... | 12/30/2003 |
| 6597390 | Electronic endoscope apparatus The present electronic endoscope apparatus makes it possible to select either of a conventional pixel mixing and reading system and a new all-pixel reading system. For example, an electronic endoscope apparatus having a pixel mixing and reading system cir... | 07/22/2003 |
| 6545703 | Electronic endoscope In an electronic endoscope, a flexible scope has an image sensor provided at a distal end thereof. A video-signal processing unit, to which a proximal end of the flexible scope is connected, processes image signals read from the sensor. A light source is ... | 04/08/2003 |
| 6518998 | Image quality by automatically changing the black level of a video signal A video camera and imaging system having signal processing circuitry configured to change the black level (pedestal) of a video signal in response to comparing an overall system gain (for instance, a gain value and the electronic exposure time of the imag... | 02/11/2003 |
| 6475141 | Electronic endoscope device using separated area photometry In an electronic endoscope, and a memory which contains image pickup area information including size and light distribution characteristics are provided, and in a processor device to which this electronic endoscope is connected, a photometric part for mea... | 11/05/2002 |
| 6464633 | Light source device for endoscope using DMD A larger number of micromirrors arranged on an illumination optical path of a lamp in a light source device for supplying an illumination light to an endoscope and by using a silicon chip as a base are arranged the micromirrors in a two-dimensional are se... | 10/15/2002 |
| 6421078 | Electronic endoscope system An electronic endoscope system comprises an electronic endoscope unit equipped with a solid state image pickup element for providing electric signals of an object and a processing unit for processing the electric signals to video signals. During performin... | 07/16/2002 |
| 6413207 | Electronic endoscope apparatus The present application relates to an electronic endoscope apparatus for forming a preferable static image by controlling blurring of an image at the time of picking up the image by using a variable-power mechanism. This endoscope emits stroboscopic light... | 07/02/2002 |
| 6414710 | Electronic endoscope In an electronic endoscope, a flexible scope has an image sensor provided at a distal end thereof, and an optical light guide extending therethrough. The scope is detachably connectable, at a proximal end thereof, to a processing unit, which processes ima... | 07/02/2002 |
| 6319198 | Electronic endoscope In an electronic endoscope, a video-scope has an image sensor for photographing an object image and a light guide for guiding light toward an object. A video-processor has a light source, a stop, a signal conversion circuit, a histogram processing circuit... | 11/20/2001 |
| 6234959 | Electronic-endoscope light quantity controlling apparatus The present invention is an electronic-endoscope light quantity controlling apparatus that can reduce costs by simplifying a configuration for setting a shielding period in executing an all-pixel reading system. This apparatus uses diaphragm controlling c... | 05/22/2001 |
| 6141037 | Video camera system and related method A video camera system is provided in which the camera head is powered at least in part by electrical energy converted from optical energy provided by a light source. In one implementation, communication between the camera head and control circuitry thereo... | 10/31/2000 |
| 6100920 | Video signal compensator for compensating differential picture brightness of an optical image due to uneven illumination and method A video signal compensator and method for compensating for differential picture brightness of an optical image due to uneven illumination is shown. The video signal compensator includes a device for generating a compensating signal substantially represent... | 08/08/2000 |
| 6080104 | Electronic endoscope system In an electronic endoscope system for detecting an image of an object using a CCD, a brightness signal is generated based on the output of the CCD, and a histogram processing is applied to the brightness signal. An aperture size for regulating the amount ... | 06/27/2000 |
