Did You Know...
...that several people are credited with the invention of the flush toilet? Most people have heard of Thomas Crapper (1837-1910), the sanitary engineer who invented the valve-and-siphon arrangement that made the modern toilet possible. Another claimant to "the throne" was British inventor Alexander Cumming who patented a toilet in 1775. Then there's a nameless Minoan (a native of ancient Crete) who lived 4,000 years ago who supposedly was ahead of his time and created the first flush toilet!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7241272 | Method and composition for removing uremic toxins in dialysis processes Methods and devices for providing dialysis treatment are provided. The device includes a resin bed including zirconium phosphate, zirconium oxide, and urease. ... | 07/10/2007 |
| 7235051 | Noncontact tonometer A tonometer for quickly and efficiently remeasuring intraocular pressure when an intraocular pressure is higher or lower than a predetermined pressure. It is determined whether a predetermined number n of intraocular-pressure measurements have been completed, wherei... | 06/26/2007 |
| 7204806 | Method and apparatus for obtaining corrected intraocular pressure values The disclosed methods and systems use measured values from applanation tonometry and pachymetry, and corneal curvature values to produce corrected values of intraocular pressure to diagnose and treat pressure related eye diseases. ... | 04/17/2007 |
| 7200248 | Eye image pickup apparatus and entry/leave management system An eye image pickup apparatus includes an image pickup unit, a guide mirror, a range sensor, and an infrared illuminating section. The image pickup unit includes an objective lens, an image pickup element such as a CCD, a shooting section and a light guide section a... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7101335 | Non-contact type tonometer A non-contact type tonometer includes a fluid blowing device which blows fluid against a cornea of an eye of an examinee; an intraocular pressure measurement part which detects a deformed state of the cornea caused by the blown fluid and determines intraocular press... | 09/05/2006 |
| 7098668 | Digital measuring head A digital measuring head in a measuring apparatus measures a work by making a contact element abut to the work. The digital measuring head includes an arm supported rotatably around a support point arranged on a base; a finger having the contact element at a tip end... | 08/29/2006 |
| 6997874 | Noncontact ophthalmotonometer In a noncontact ophthalmotonometer: an image processing operation is performed on an image signal subjected to an imaging operation to extract a pupil, to compute location of the center of gravity thereof, and to move a measuring mechanism so that the center of grav... | 02/14/2006 |
| 6945650 | Alignment system for hand-held ophthalmic device An alignment system for an ophthalmic instrument comprises an optical axis along which an operator can directly view the patient's eye and the patient can fixate on a dark fixation target surrounded by a bright background that helps to illuminate the eye for operato... | 09/20/2005 |
| 6758814 | Combination magnifying device, particularly a microscope comprising a measuring device The invention concerns a combination of a microscope with a measurement device, in particular a diagnostic device, that is usable during an operation on or examination of a specimen performed with the microscope. During the operation or examination, specimen data th... | 07/06/2004 |
| 6726625 | Non-contact tonometer having improved air pump A non-contact tonometer of a type having a cylinder, a piston received by the cylinder for axially directed movement relative to the cylinder, and a driven member for causing the piston to move relative to the cylinder in a compression stroke to generate a fluid pul... | 04/27/2004 |
| 6679842 | Tonometer calibration tool An apparatus for calibrating a non-contact tonometer comprises an electronic eye having a damped pressure sensor for receiving a tonometer air pulse and providing a pressure signal in response to the air pulse, and an applanation simulator connected to th... | 01/20/2004 |
| 6616609 | Method for optimizing piston diameter in a non-contact tonometer, and non-contact tonometer having fluid pump designed by said method A fluid pump system of a non-contact tonometer is numerically simulated through its compression stroke by a simulation software program. System dynamic behavior is modeled for a variety of piston diameters, whereby an optimal piston diameter or range of p... | 09/09/2003 |
| 6602192 | Noncontact type tonometer A noncontact type tonometer monitors the rate of change X(t) in pressure between a standard curve and a measured curve. If X(t) exceeds a value of 1.3, the application of air pressure is stopped to prevent an abnormal rise in pressure. If X(t) is equal to... | 08/05/2003 |
| 6595920 | Non-contact instrument for measurement of internal optical pressure A method and apparatus for measuring the intraocular pressure of a cornea includes an interferometer directing a beam of a coherent light along a path to the cornea, a sensor for sensing the reflected light from the cornea, an air supply device for direct... | 07/22/2003 |
| 6419631 | Non-contact tonometry method During corneal deformation induced by a fluid pulse, observations associated with an inward first state of applanation and an outward second state of applanation are processed to provide a final reported intra-ocular pressure value that is substantially w... | 07/16/2002 |
| 6361495 | Hand-held non-contact tonometer A hand-held non contact tonometer includes a piston having a transparent plane parallel window normal to a measurement axis of the tonometer along which the piston travels to discharge a fluid pulse without interfering with optical alignment functions of ... | 03/26/2002 |
| 6234966 | Noncontact type tonometer A noncontact type tonometer monitors the rate of change X(t) in pressure between a standard curve and a measured curve. If X(t) exceeds a value of 1.3, the application of air pressure is stopped to prevent an abnormal rise in pressure. If X(t) is equal to... | 05/22/2001 |
| 6131574 | Ophthalmological apparatus An ophthalmological apparatus includes a projecting system for projecting a light from an index light source emitting a visual ray onto an eye to be examined, and a reflecting optical system located so as to face to the eye to be examined and adapted to r... | 10/17/2000 |
| 6120444 | Noncontact tonometer capable of measuring intraocular tension by optically detecting deformation of cornea caused by air current A noncontact tonometer comprises an air current blowing means for blowing an air current against an eye, a cornea deformation measuring means for optically measuring a change in the shape of the cornea caused by the air current blowing means, and an arith... | 09/19/2000 |
| 5989195 | Noncontact tonometer A noncontact tonometer is provided which is capable of intercepting out-of-axis light of an index beam of light and performing precise alignment. The noncontact tonometer includes an index projecting optical system for projecting an index frontally onto a... | 11/23/1999 |
| 5964704 | Intraocular pressure measuring apparatus In the non-contact intraocular pressure measuring apparatus for measuring the intraocular pressure of the eye to be examined for a suitable measurement time, after alignment of the apparatus main body with the eye to be examined is performed, the time req... | 10/12/1999 |
| 5954645 | Applanation detection system for a non-contact tonometer A non-contact tonometer is improved by providing a non-telecentric applanation detection system enabling relaxation of instrument alignment requirements during testing. In a preferred embodiment, the applanation detection system comprises an emitter for d... | 09/21/1999 |
| 5833606 | Noncontact tonometer for measuring intraocular pressure A noncontact tonometer for measuring intraocular pressure is provided. When a rotary solenoid (7) is supplied with electric power, a piston (4) within a cylinder (2) is moved up, and thereby air is jetted through a nozzle (9) of a head (3) toward an eye (... | 11/10/1998 |
| 5779633 | Tonometer air pulse generator An air pulse generator for a non-contact tonometer comprises a bi-directional linear motor drivably connected to a compression mechanism and responsive to an applanation signal for reducing unnecessary air pulse energy delivered to an eye. Upon receiving ... | 07/14/1998 |
| 5776061 | Noncontact tonometer A noncontact type of tonometer is provided which includes air injection device (70) for jetting a fluid from a nozzle (18) onto a cornea (C) of a subject's eye (E), an alignment light projecting optical system (30) for projecting a beam of light onto the ... | 07/07/1998 |
| 5754273 | Non-contact tonometer having off-axis fluid pulse system A non-contact tonometer includes a fixation axis intersecting the corneal vertex, and a fluid axis angularly displaced from the fixation axis to form a non-zero angle therewith. A nozzle is axially aligned along the fluid axis for discharging a fluid puls... | 05/19/1998 |
| 5727551 | Non-contact tonometer A non-contact tonometer measures an intraocular pressure precisely based on a deformation amount of a cornea when a pressurized pulse of air is injected to the cornea. The intraocular pressure is measured on the basis of the maximum value of a correlation... | 03/17/1998 |
| 5523808 | Ophthalmic apparatus having an intraocular pressure measuring system A composite ophthalmic apparatus includes an intraocular pressure measuring system for spraying a fluid from a nozzle against an eye to be examined to deform its cornea and detecting a deformation amount of the cornea to measure the intraocular pressure o... | 06/04/1996 |
| 5474066 | Non-contact tonometer An improved tonometer is disclosed having a pachymetric device means for measuring a patient's corneal thickness to allow for correction of the intraocular pressure measurement where the corneal thickness measurement deviates from a calibration mean corne... | 12/12/1995 |
| 5465123 | Noncontact type tonometer A noncontact type tonometer is provided which is capable of easily detecting whether optical members of the tonometer are stained with dirt or not, and easily finding which one of the optical members is stained. In the noncontact type tonometer, alignment... | 11/07/1995 |
| 5383467 | Guidewire catheter and apparatus for diagnostic imaging A catheter comprising a unitary guidewire and single mode optical fiber is used to illuminate human body channels, such as a tissue mass within a blood vessel, for purposes of diagnosis. A low coherent light source illuminates the tissue and provides a re... | 01/24/1995 |
| 5299573 | Tonometer A non-contact type tonometer in which an air is sprayed on an eye to be examined to deform the cornea and measure the intraocular pressure of the eye to be examined. The tonometer is provided with a cylinder, a piston for compressing the air in the cylind... | 04/05/1994 |
| 5279300 | Noncontact type tonometer A noncontact type tonometer comprising with a nozzle for directing fluid into a cornea of a patient's eye and for deforming the cornea from a normally convex state, through a flat state, to a concave state, a detector for detecting fluid pressure within t... | 01/18/1994 |
| 5165408 | Gas jet shooting device for use with a non-contact tonometer A gas jet shooting device for use with a non-contact tonometer, having a hollow head (19) with a nozzle (27) secured thereto, a cylinder (10) which communicates with the head, and a piston (11) reciprocatably mounted in the cylinder and defining a compres... | 11/24/1992 |
| 5165409 | Tonometry apparatus Apparatus for measuring pressure within an eye includes means for increasingly inwardly deforming a surface of the eye by applying a progressively increasing force onto the surface, means responsive to inward deformation of the eye surface for taking a me... | 11/24/1992 |
| 5131739 | Ophthalmological instrument for cornea curvature and pressure measurement The present invention relates to an ophthalmological instrument capable of measuring the intraocular pressure of an eye to be tested in an noncontact manner and capable of measuring the radius of curvature of the cornea of the eye, provide a single ophtha... | 07/21/1992 |
| 5092334 | Noncontact type tonometer A noncontact type tonometer projects a fluid toward an eye-to-be-tested and obtains a measured value of eye pressure from a relation between transfigurations of the eye due to the fluid projection and the pressure projecting of the fluid. A detecting circ... | 03/03/1992 |
| 5076274 | Non-contact tonometer An eye pressure meter provided with a pressing system for deforming the cornea of an eye to be examined, a detecting system for detecting the speed of deformation of the cornea, and a calculating system for calculating eye pressure value information on th... | 12/31/1991 |
| 5048526 | Gas jet shooting device for use with a non-contact tonometer A gas jet shooting device for use with a non-contact tonometer, having a hollow head (19) with a nozzle (27) secured thereto, a cylinder (10) which communicates with the head, and a piston (11) reciprocatably mounted in the cylinder and defining a compres... | 09/17/1991 |
| 5042483 | Noncontact type tonometer In a noncontact type tonometer including an air puff system for discharging fluid toward the cornea of an eye to be tested upon receipt of a projection signal and a pulse wave system for detecting the pulse of a patient which outputs an alternating voltag... | 08/27/1991 |
