...During the Civil War, the Confederacy established its own Patent Office which issued 266 patents, a third of which concerned implements of war.
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8142351 | Endoscope with movable optical member and heating unit An endoscope insertion portion includes an imaging unit including a distal end optical member arranged at a distal end portion of the imaging unit and a movable optical member configured to be moved relative to the distal end optical member, an actuator unit arrange... | 03/27/2012 |
| 8075479 | Endoscope In a drive mechanism which displaces a movable lens to be displaced, a shape memory element which is displaced due to heating. A displaceable range of a movable lens is restricted between a first position and a second position. With the shape memory element in a hea... | 12/13/2011 |
| 8033994 | Endoscopic apparatus An endoscopic apparatus comprises: a movable lens that is movably built in an objective optical system arranged at an tip of an insert part of an endoscope; a piezoelectric-element drive mechanism that causes the movable lens to move forward and backward in an optic... | 10/11/2011 |
| 8016754 | Endoscope apparatus An endoscope apparatus includes a front end section which is rigid, and a flexible tube which has a bent portion. One end of a tube which can be bent is fixed to a lens barrel which holds an optical mechanism having a movable section. The tube is extended in a longi... | 09/13/2011 |
| 7892168 | Confocal endoscope system There is provided a confocal endoscope system which is provided with an electronic endoscope having a confocal optical unit configured to emit illumination light toward an object and to obtain only light from a certain point of the object, and a processor to which t... | 02/22/2011 |
| 7419467 | Medical inspection device A dental/medical instrument is provided for use in diagnostic and related patient inspection/examination. The device includes a body having an integral speculum with a video image capture device, a power supply and a display. These components, and user actuatable co... | 09/02/2008 |
| 7399275 | Otoscope An otoscope permitting examination of a patient's ear is defined by an instrument head including a proximal end and a distal insertion portion that is insertable into the ear. The otoscope includes an imaging lens train disposed within the instrument head, wherein e... | 07/15/2008 |
| 7385772 | Optical device with lens positioning and method of making the same Optical devices which accurately position optical elements and methods for producing such optical devices. Each optical element is carried by a support on an axis that has portions plastically deformed to overlap portions of the faces of the optical element adjacent... | 06/10/2008 |
| 7339750 | Focusing a laser beam A device for focusing a laser beam includes a first telescopic configuration and a second telescopic configuration. The first telescopic configuration includes a collimating optical element for collimating the laser beam and a downstream focusing optical element for... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7322934 | Endoscope An endoscope comprises an inserting unit main body, and a head unit that is freely detachably attached to the distal end of the inserting unit main body and that includes an image pickup device which picks up an image of an object and a light emitting element which ... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7319896 | Capsule endoscope A capsule endoscope is disclosed that includes a light source, an objective optical system that forms an image of an object that is illuminated by the light source, an image pickup device that receives the image formed by the objective optical system; and a transpar... | 01/15/2008 |
| 7317180 | Imaging optical system and endoscope provided with imaging optical system An imaging optical system includes a spherical or nearly spherical viewing port, an objective lens that includes an aspheric surface and is formed as a single lens element, and a solid-state image sensor that receives an image formed by the imaging optical system. S... | 01/08/2008 |
| 7309311 | Endoscopic observation apparatus and medical device holder An endoscope is connected optically removably to a TV camera through an adapter. A plurality of fixing pins is arranged on both sides of an insertion axis of an insertion part of the endoscope. A fixing unit to fix the endoscope removably is provided at the front en... | 12/18/2007 |
| 7310547 | Fluorescent fiberoptic probe for tissue health discrimination A system and method for the in situ discrimination of healthy and diseased tissue. A fiberoptic based probe is employed to direct ultraviolet illumination onto a tissue specimen and to collect the fluorescent response radiation. The response radiation is observed at... | 12/18/2007 |
| 7309867 | Methods and apparatus for characterization of tissue samples The invention provides methods for determining the probability that a given region of a tissue sample contains tissue of a given category, such as CIN 1 (cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, grade 1), CIN 2/3 (cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grades 2 and/or 3), no... | 12/18/2007 |
| 7294102 | Method and apparatus for providing depth control or z-actuation A position control apparatus for controlling position along an axis, comprising: an extensible member that can be extended and contracted along said axis, comprising shape memory alloy locatable to expand and contract along said axis, heating means for controlling s... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7282723 | Methods and apparatus for processing spectral data for use in tissue characterization The invention provides methods for processing tissue-derived spectral data for use in a tissue classification algorithm. Methods of the invention comprise application of spectral and/or image masks for automatically separating ambiguous or unclassifiable spectral da... | 10/16/2007 |
| 7280274 | Three-dimensional image observation microscope system A three-dimensional image observation microscope system includes an imaging unit that captures images focused at different object point distances in an optical axis direction and a display unit that displays a plurality of the images captured by the imaging unit for... | 10/09/2007 |
| 7260248 | Image processing using measures of similarity The invention provides methods of relating a plurality of images based on measures of similarity. The methods of the invention are useful in the segmentation of a sequence of colposcopic images of tissue, for example. The methods may be applied in the determination ... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7253384 | Focusing system using light source and image sensor An apparatus comprising a movable optical element having an optical axis and including one or more focusing elements, an image sensor positioned along the optical axis and substantially normal thereto, and a radiation source attached to the movable optical element, ... | 08/07/2007 |
| 7244229 | Capsule endoscope A capsule endoscope is disclosed having an illumination means, an imaging system that includes an objective optical system, and a transparent cover. The invention is characterized by one of: (1) the transparent cover has a larger radius of curvature in a central reg... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7229407 | Capsule endoscope with electroluminescence light source A capsule endoscope includes a capsule portion. The capsule portion includes at least an observation optical unit having an image pick-up element and an optical lens that forms an objective optical system, an illuminating unit having an illuminating substrate, an el... | 06/12/2007 |
| 7187810 | Methods and systems for correcting image misalignment The invention provides methods of determining a correction for a misalignment between at least two images in a sequence of images due at least in part to sample movement. The methods are applied, for example, in the processing and analysis of a sequence of images of... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7187413 | Method and system for using an image based autofocus algorithm An image based autofocus method and system that includes receiving image data; monitoring and analyzing the contrast between different portions of the image data in determining the location of a target wherein the different portions of the image data contain at leas... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7177088 | Compact objective optical system and examination apparatus By reducing the outer diameter, increasing the overall length, and correcting chromatic aberration well, the invention realizes an objective optical system and examination apparatus that are suitable for in-vivo examination with a sufficiently increased length and w... | 02/13/2007 |
| 7160249 | Endoscope image pickup unit for picking up magnified images of an object, a focus adjustment apparatus and method, and a focus range check apparatus and method for the same An endoscope image pickup unit is disclosed that captures magnified images of an object. An objective optical system of the image pickup unit includes, in order from the object side, a front lens group having positive refractive power and an aperture stop. Various c... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7160248 | Optical device for viewing of cavernous and/or inaccessible spaces An optical device for viewing an object at a range of working distances. The device comprises a slender tube of a certain length and having a distal end and a proximal end. The device further comprises an imaging system disposed at the distal end and having a wide v... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7158099 | Systems and methods for forming a reduced-glare image A method and system are disclosed for producing a reduced-glare image. The method and system use at least two light sources located a selected distance apart from each other. An image acquisition device acquires a first image of an object using illumination from the... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7137948 | Medical inspection device A dental/medical instrument is provided for use in diagnostic and related patient inspection/examination. The device includes a body having an integral speculum with a video image capture device, a power supply and a display. These components, in addition to user ac... | 11/21/2006 |
| 7136518 | Methods and apparatus for displaying diagnostic data The invention provides methods for displaying diagnostic results obtained from a tissue sample. In general, the invention assigns tissue-class probability values to discrete regions of a patient sample, and creates an overlay for displaying the results. The overlay ... | 11/14/2006 |
| 7127282 | Optical methods and systems for rapid screening of the cervix A method and a system is provided for discriminating between healthy cervical tissue and pathologic cervical tissue based on the fluorescence response of the tissue to laser excitation (LIF) and the backscatter response to illumination by white light (in the spectra... | 10/24/2006 |
| 7125378 | Hermetically sealed imaging system for medical applications An imaging system includes: an optical-system holding member for holding an optical system to form an optical image of a subject; an imaging-device holding member for holding an imaging device to obtain the optical image formed by the optical system; a case for herm... | 10/24/2006 |
| 7123288 | Electronic endoscope eliminating influence of light distribution in optical zooming The invention provides an endoscope having a scope that takes an image enlarged by driving a movable lens of an optical zoom mechanism by a CCD and displays an image of an object to be observed, wherein a multiplier multiplies RGB color signals by a coefficient set ... | 10/17/2006 |
| 7103401 | Colonic polyp discrimination by tissue fluorescence and fiberoptic probe A system and method for the in situ discrimination of healthy and diseased tissue. A fiberoptic based probe is employed to direct ultraviolet illumination onto a tissue specimen and to collect the fluorescent response radiation. The response radiation is observed at... | 09/05/2006 |
| 7099078 | Borescope with simultaneous video and direct viewing An assembly is described for connection to a borescope to simultaneously provide a virtual image for direct viewing by an observer and a video image for viewing on a display. The assembly (10) comprises a body (12) with a distal end for connection to a... | 08/29/2006 |
| 7086859 | Compact digital intraoral camera system The present invention is a true digital output intraoral camera with a docking station. ... | 08/08/2006 |
| 7084899 | Cable with built in-frame grabber for a dental video camera A cable assembly for a dental video camera system includes a dental video camera with a camera cable and a camera connector, a monitor with a monitor cable and a monitor connector and a power supply with power supply cable and a power supply connector. The cable ass... | 08/01/2006 |
| 7066930 | Arrangement for the treatment of barrett's esophagus A method for the treatment of Barrett's Esophagus of a patient having endothelial esophageal complications. The treatment comprises connecting a wavelength specific light source to an elongated light guide having a distal end, the light guide arranged within a lumen... | 06/27/2006 |
| 7056285 | Apparatus for positioning at least one component within an endoscopic system A description is given of an apparatus for positioning at least one component within an endoscopic system, having a hermetically tight housing, having at least one external magnetically active element which is arranged outside the housing, and having at least one in... | 06/06/2006 |
| 7056293 | Apparatus and method of use for identifying and monitoring women at risk of developing ovarian surface epithelium derived carcinomas An apparatus and method of use thereof for identifying and monitoring women at risk of developing OSE-derived carcinomas is provided. The apparatus includes an introducer needle configured to be capable of insertion into a female such that a terminal end of the need... | 06/06/2006 |