Abstract:
A substrate shipping container suitable for shipping solar cells, substrate wafers, or other suitable media. In some embodiments, the readily constructed container is made up of two identical container portions, each container portion having a horizontally-disposed base member and two adjacent vertically-disposed side members constructed of impact- absorbing double walls. The two container portions are shaped to be coupled using integrally formed tabs and slots located about the perimeter of the container portions. The horizontally-disposed base member of each container portion is equipped with a plurality of integrally formed pads. These pads serve as cushions to provide shock absorption in the vertical direction to substrates that are stacked between these members. Embodiments may further be comprised of molded polymers or pulp.
Abstract:
A method of generating a three-dimensional model of at least a portion of a heart (152) includes inserting an electrode (154) within the portion of a heart (152), robotically moving the electrode (154) therein, periodically detecting position information of the electrode (154) to generate a plurality of location points defining a space occupied by the portion of the heart (152), and generating a three dimensional model of the portion of the heart (152) including position information for at least some of the plurality of location points within the portion of the heart (152). The plurality of location points includes at least some location points on the surface of the heart and at least some location points interior thereto. The model is generated by utilizing a surface construction algorithm such as a shrink-wrap algorithm to identify the surface points and isolate or eliminate the interior points.
Abstract:
A method for registering a catheter navigation system to a three-dimensional image generally includes obtaining a three-dimensional image including position information for a plurality of surface points on a part of a patient's body, using a catheter navigation system to place a tool at a location on the surface of the patient's body, measuring position information for the surface location, identifying a corresponding location on the image, associating position information for the surface location and the location identified on the image as a fiducial pair, and using at least one fiducial pair to generate a mapping function. The mapping function transforms points within the coordinate system of the catheter navigation to the coordinate system of the three-dimensional image such that, for each fiducial pair, the mapping error is about zero. Suitable warping algorithms include thin plate splines, mean value coordinates, and radial basis function networks.
Abstract:
A method for transforming solid, three dimensional image data into three dimensional surface data first smoothes the surface of the solid image by removing (210) extraneous voxels both attached to main surface of the solid image as well as extraneous voxels about the main image before the surface transformation. Once the solid image is transformed into a surface image, the method again cleans the surface by removing (840) any significantly spiked structures that appear out of place when considered with respect to the surrounding topography. The amount of data required to render the surface image is reduced by removing (130) surface facets that fall within a planar threshold of the surrounding topography. The topography is also compressed in local areas to bring the topography toward a median level. The method may further cycle (140) to attempt to reduce additional surface facets that may fall now within the threshold limit.
Abstract:
The present invention provides systems and methods for interference matrix construction. Such an interference matrix (103) may be used to generate a cancellation operator that when applied to a signal may substantially remove selected interfering signals. In one embodiment of the invention, a system comprises an interference selector (101) configured for selecting one or more interferers for interference cancellation. The system also comprises a matrix generator communicatively coupled to the selector and configured for receiving selected interferers from the selector.
Abstract:
A robotic catheter control system includes a collision detection logic configured to determine a collision metric indicative of a collision between a medical device that is manipulated by the robotic control system and an object. The object may be an anatomical feature or can be another medical device, including another device being manipulated by the robotic control system. The collision detection logic produces virtual representations of the medical device and the object and uses these representation to determine collision. Geometrical solids, such as spheres, are used to represent the outer surfaces of the devices and the logic determines whether the respective surfaces intersect, thereby indicating collision. Collision avoidance involves estimating future device poses and then computing an alternate path computation so as avoid predicted collision(s).
Abstract:
A system 10 and method for automatically initializing or initiating a motion compensation algorithm is provided. The system 10 includes a processing apparatus configured to acquire data representing information relating to movement of a medical device 16, determine whether the medical device 16 is stationary based on the information represented by said data, and automatically initiate the execution of the motion compensation algorithm in response to a determination that the medical device 16 is stationary. In an exemplary embodiment, the system 10 further comprises the medical device 16. The method comprises acquiring data representing information relating to movement of a medical device 16. The method further comprises determining whether the medical device 16 is stationary based on the information represented by the acquired data. The method still further comprises automatically initiating the execution of the algorithm in response to a determination that the medical device 16 is stationary.
Abstract:
A method of registering two or more localization systems 8 utilizing unique coordinate frames A and B to a common coordinate frames includes measuring position information for one or more reference locations r in each coordinate frame (Ar and Br). For each reference location, a fiducial grouping is created from the respective position measurements (Ar, Br). The fiducial groupings are used to generate a mapping function f that transforms position measurements expressed relative to the second coordinate frame B to the first coordinate frame A. The mapping function f is defined such that a distance between f(Br) and Ar is about zero for each reference location r. Each localization system 8 may also measure position information for a respective fixed reference localization element. Divergence between these fixed reference localization elements in the common coordinate system may be used to monitor, signal, and correct for anomalies such as dislodgement and drift.
Abstract:
A method for registering a catheter navigation system to a three-dimensional image generally includes obtaining a three-dimensional image including position information for a plurality of surface points on a part of a patient's body, using a catheter navigation system to place a tool at a location on the surface of the patient's body, measuring position information for the surface location, identifying a corresponding location on the image, associating position information for the surface location and the location identified on the image as a fiducial pair, and using at least one fiducial pair to generate a mapping function. The mapping function transforms points within the coordinate system of the catheter navigation to the coordinate system of the three-dimensional image such that, for each fiducial pair, the mapping error is about zero. Suitable warping algorithms include thin plate splines, mean value coordinates, and radial basis function networks.
Abstract:
A method of generating a three-dimensional model of at least a portion of a heart (152) includes inserting an electrode (154) within the portion of a heart (152), robotically moving the electrode (154) therein, periodically detecting position information of the electrode (154) to generate a plurality of location points defining a space occupied by the portion of the heart (152), and generating a three dimensional model of the portion of the heart (152) including position information for at least some of the plurality of location points within the portion of the heart (152). The plurality of location points includes at least some location points on the surface of the heart and at least some location points interior thereto. The model is generated by utilizing a surface construction algorithm such as a shrink-wrap algorithm to identify the surface points and isolate or eliminate the interior points.