Bizarre Patents
A fork with timer for providing a cue to a user after an elapsed period of time for indicating that another bite of food using the fork may be taken.
PatentStorm News
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 |
| 7963166 | Ultrasonic fault detection system using a high dynamic range analog to digital conversion system A method and apparatus for effecting ultrasonic flaw detection of an object processes an echo signal received from the object being tested in at least three signal channels, wherein the echo signal is scaled to different degrees along each channel to increase and ex... | 06/21/2011 |
| 7306561 | Systems and methods for automatic time-gain compensation in an ultrasound imaging system The systems and methods described herein provide for automatic time-gain compensation of an ultrasound image with an image processing algorithm. A method of automatic time-gain compensation is provided where ultrasound image data is obtained comprising a plurality o... | 12/11/2007 |
| 7207940 | Ultrasonic probe and ultrasonic transmitting and receiving apparatus using the same An ultrasonic probe in which transducer array including ultrasonic transducers out of the specifications can be used so that the yield in the manufacture of transducer arrays is improved. The ultrasonic probe to be used when connected to an external apparatus main b... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7117134 | Method to optimize generation of ultrasound using mathematical modeling for laser ultrasound inspection The invention is directed to a laser ultrasound testing system with adaptive generation of sonic energy signals. The system may detect or test features of the manufactured object such as defects and layer properties. A laser generator initiates a sonic energy signal... | 10/03/2006 |
| 6988410 | Inspection method and apparatus for determining incipient mechanical failure A method for determining incipient mechanical failure of an object includes insonifying the object with ultrasonic energy at a selected fundamental frequency. Amplitude data is acquired from the insonified object at the fundamental frequency and at a second harmonic... | 01/24/2006 |
| 6968727 | Calibration method and device for long range guided wave inspection of piping The present invention is for a simple, reliable and inexpensive method to calibrate a defect signal to determine the size of a defect in a pipe. A first reflected signal is received from the test area of the pipe. After attaching a clamp, a second reflected signal i... | 11/29/2005 |
| 6807861 | Instrument for noncontact measurement of physical property A noncontact physical property measurement instrument which easily and accurately measures physical properties of an object using a nondestructive, noncontact sensor. A noncontact physical property measurement instrument 1 is provided with a transmitting sect... | 10/26/2004 |
| 6743174 | Ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system with automatically controlled contrast and brightness An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system includes a predetermined TGC characteristic which is automatically selected or calculated at the initiation of a diagnostic procedure. An automatic TGC circuit analyzes current image data to calculate an adjustment to the pred... | 06/01/2004 |
| 6679844 | Automatic gain compensation for multiple mode or contrast agent imaging The gain for multiple mode imaging and/or contrast agent imaging is automatically adjusted. The gain algorithm separately determines gain parameters for two different types of imaging, such as tissue and contrast agent imaging. The gain based on the contr... | 01/20/2004 |
| 6459748 | Floating ultrasonic testing end effector for a robotic arm An end effector for supporting an ultrasonic testing probe on a robot arm having a robot mounting bracket for use in a nuclear reactor pressure vessel. The end effector has a wrist assembly with a rotatable wrist axle. The wrist assembly is coupled to the... | 10/01/2002 |
| 6398733 | Medical ultrasonic imaging system with adaptive multi-dimensional back-end mapping A medical ultrasonic imaging system uses an adaptive multi-dimensional back-end mapping stage to eliminate loss of information in the back-end, minimize any back-end quantization noise, reduce or eliminate electronic noise, and map the local average of so... | 06/04/2002 |
| 6358205 | Medical diagnostic ultrasonic imaging system with adaptive front-end gain and adaptive transmitter gain The front-end gain of a medical diagnostic ultrasonic imaging system receiver is adaptively set by acquiring receive samples that vary in range, generating a gain function that varies in range as a function of envelope amplitude of the receive samples, an... | 03/19/2002 |
| 6314380 | Ultrasound transducer temperature compensation methods, apparatus and programs Method, apparatus and computer programs are described for compensating for the effect of temperature on the sensitivity of electrostatic ultrasound (US) transducers, particularly as used in an automotive occupancy sensing (AOS) systems for sensing the nat... | 11/06/2001 |
| 6202490 | Nondestructive testing apparatus A nondestructive testing apparatus is provided with a wave transmitter by a metal-based magnetostrictive vibrator, a magnetically excited current feeding device for feeding the magnetically excited current to the magnetostrictive vibrator, a wave receiver... | 03/20/2001 |
| 6132377 | Medical diagnostic ultrasonic imaging system and method using differential sub-band detection techniques A medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging system and method modulate the image signal as a function of the ratio of the harmonic receive signal to the fundamental receive signal. Tissue harmonic backscatter differs substantially in spectral shape as compare... | 10/17/2000 |
| 6120446 | Diagnostic medical ultrasonic imaging system and method with adaptive gain A diagnostic medical ultrasonic imaging system includes a gain processor that varies the receive signal path gain as a function of the signal to noise ratio of the echo signal. Background noise is either acquired or modeled in real time using currently pr... | 09/19/2000 |
| 5882307 | Method and apparatus for receive beamformer system The present invention includes a fully programmable plurality of multi-channel receivers, each receiver having a digital multi-channel receive processor and a local processor control. Each receive processor includes a first decimator, time delay memory, s... | 03/16/1999 |
| 5812495 | Ultrasonic rangefinder An ultrasonic rangefinder capable of effectively removing high-level, directly transmitted wave components. The rangefinder can be used even at low temperatures. The rangefinder comprises an input signal-processing circuit, an output signal-processing cir... | 09/22/1998 |
| 5797844 | Method and apparatus for ultrasonic imaging and ultrasonic image processing An ultrasonic image processing for accurately detecting the annulus portion from the ultrasonic image of the long axis view of a heart. A heart wall contour is extracted from the ultrasonic image, and a center of gravity of the heart wall contour is deter... | 08/25/1998 |
| 5646351 | Ultrasonic material hardness depth measurement The invention is an ultrasonic surface hardness depth measurement apparatus and method permitting rapid determination of hardness depth of shafts, rods, tubes and other cylindrical parts. The apparatus of the invention has a part handler, sensor, ultrason... | 07/08/1997 |
| 5579768 | Automatic gain compensation in an ultrasound imaging system The invention includes a method and system for automatic gain compensation in an ultrasound imaging system. The method and system may be used in place of, or in addition to, gain compensation selected by an operator. Gain compensation may be in response t... | 12/03/1996 |
| 5553499 | Ultrasonic microscope having an automatic focusing adjustment mechanism Ultrasonic wave converged by an acoustic lens is made incident onto a sample and wave reflected from the sample is received and converted into received electric signal by a transducer. A part of this electric signal is picked up by a gate section and the ... | 09/10/1996 |
| 5507293 | Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus Ultrasonic wave is emitted into an examined body. A first electric echo signal is generated in response to an echo of the ultrasonic wave. A controllable filter responsive to a control signal serves to extract components of the first electric echo signal ... | 04/16/1996 |
| 5455805 | Ultrasonic measuring apparatus having adjustable gain control In an ultrasonic measuring apparatus for emitting an ultrasonic pulse, receiving reflected echos and producing an echo signal representative of the echos resulting from each impulse, each echo signal has a first portion corresponding to echos from one gro... | 10/03/1995 |
| 5431056 | Method for depth compensation of amplitudes of echo-signals in an ultrasonic measuring device which uses the pulse-echo-technique A method and apparatus for depth compensating the amplitudes of echo signals in an ultrasonic measuring device to compensate for virtually unlimited depth measurements using an amplifier adjustment curve supplied in real time which is triggered with every... | 07/11/1995 |
| 5307815 | Ultrasonic transducer with integrated variable gain amplifier An ultrasound transducer apparatus for use with an ultrasound imaging system which includes signal transmission and signal receiving circuitry coupled to the transducer through a cable. The transducer apparatus includes a transducer for converting ultraso... | 05/03/1994 |
| 5257624 | Gain control for ultrasound system An operator adjusted lateral gain control (LGC) structure for an ultrasound imaging system, which may already include an operator adjusted time gain compensation (TGC) gain control structure. The LGC structure enables an operator to adjust the gain of one... | 11/02/1993 |
| 5235984 | On-line acoustic densitometry tool for use with an ultrasonic imaging system In an ultrasonic imaging system capable of generating conventional envelope detected acoustic data and/or integrated backscatter acoustic data, a mechanism is provided to select a plurality of pixels in a specified region of a two dimensional ultrasonic i... | 08/17/1993 |
| 5111824 | Composite beam ultrasound imaging system having reduced image artifact An apparatus for electrically blending echoes from a plurality of focused beams into a composite image having reduced image artifacts. The apparatus comprises a transducer generating a sequence of beams having different focal points and converting resulta... | 05/12/1992 |
| 5063931 | Method and apparatus for signal dependent gain control A method and apparatus are provided for gain control in a Doppler or other scan system which projects a plurality of scan lines at a given angle to determine velocity of movement of a predetermined medium at the angle. A training line is generated at the ... | 11/12/1991 |
| 5031627 | Method and apparatus for characterizing reflected ultrasonic pulses The invention is a method of and apparatus for characterizing the amplitudes of a sequence of reflected pulses R1, R2, and R3 by converting them into corresponding electrical signals E1, E2, and E | 07/16/1991 |
| 4935884 | Sonic pipe length detector An apparatus for determining the length of an open or closed-end pipe by measuring the propagation delay of a sound pulse transmitted down the pipe bore. The apparatus includes an acoustic transducer, an acoustic detector and associated circuitry for comp... | 06/19/1990 |
| 4862747 | Measurement of the thickness of layers of material by ultrasonic interferometry The invention relates to a method for the automatic correction of the variations of efficiency of an electroacoustic transducer as a function of the frequency for improving the accuracy of a device measuring the thickness of layers of materials by ultraso... | 09/05/1989 |
| 4852576 | Time gain compensation for ultrasonic medical imaging systems Time gain compensation is provided on an automatic basis by storing an amplification gain function for an amplifier operating on the received signals and automatically varying the function until the intensity versus time functions of the received signal i... | 08/01/1989 |
| 4733668 | Method and apparatus for compensation during ultrasound examination The time-gain function of an ultrasound receiver for medical examinations is modified to compensate for different attenuation characteristics in body structures. The slope of the time-gain function is increased at times associated with pulse transmission ... | 03/29/1988 |
| 4665924 | Ultrasonic imaging apparatus Ultrasonic imaging apparatus including ultrasonic transducers for emitting acoustic wave beams of various apertures, apparatus for directing two acoustic wave beams of substantially different focussing distances on the same beam direction, circuitry for r... | 05/19/1987 |
| 4662380 | Adaptive time gain compensation system for ultrasound imaging A gain control system for use in an ultrasound imaging system includes a histogram analyzer for identifying image pixel populations attributable to fluid, soft tissue, specular reflectors and artifacts. The histogram analyzer establishes mean peak values.... | 05/05/1987 |
| 4658827 | Ultrasound scanner for tissue characterization Both the linear attenuation coefficient and an index describing the heterogeneity of the scatterers of tissue can be obtained simultaneously by the method and system disclosed herein. The system also produces a B-scan image with optimal time-variable gain... | 04/21/1987 |
| 4578997 | Time-shaped AGC for ultrasonic liquid level meter of the echo-ranging type An ultrasonic, echo-ranging instrument for measuring the level of liquid in an open channel or tank. The instrument includes a transducer disposed at a fixed position directly above the liquid surface, the nature of the gaseous environment therebetween de... | 04/01/1986 |
| 4576046 | Device for the examination of objects by means of ultrasound echography A device for scanning objects by means of ultrasound echography, comprising at least one ultrasound transducer (10) which is connected to a transmitter stage (20) and to a receiver stage (30) which comprises an amplifier (40), a correction circuit (50) fo... | 03/18/1986 |
