Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090159687 | Card reader device - A card reader device has a card entrance for receiving a card and a card enclosure in registration with the card entrance. The card enclosure defines an area in which the card is read. The card reader also has a card transport mechanism for drawing a card into the card enclosure and for ejecting the card from the card enclosure. A sensor is provided for sensing displacement of part of the card transport mechanism in a direction transverse to the plane of transport of the card, and a control circuit ascertains if the displacement of the card transport mechanism fulfils an alarm criterion. | 06-25-2009 |
20090321623 | Security markers for identifying a source of a substance - A method of identifying a source of a substance incorporating one or more luminescent markers comprises illuminating the substance to stimulate emission from at least one of the luminescent markers. A luminescent signature is generated from the detected luminescent emission. The source of the substance is identified based on a match between the generated luminescent signature and a pre-defined luminescent signature. | 12-31-2009 |
20110157292 | PRINTER AND METHOD OF PRINTING - A printer comprises a moveable print head such that print elements of the print head are able to print to two streams of media having different physical locations. | 06-30-2011 |
20120032896 | SELF-SERVICE TERMINAL AND CONFIGURABLE SCREEN THEREFOR - A touch screen unit comprises a touch sensitive layer, a display and a processor. The processor is arranged to receive a signal indicative of a parallax error between a user's view of the touch sensitive layer and the user selectable objects displayed on the display and to correct for this parallax error. | 02-09-2012 |
20130054472 | SYSTEM AND METHOD OF WIRELESSLY DOWNLOADING DIGITAL MEDIA ITEMS - A system and method of wirelessly downloading digital media items which automatically downloads the digital media items to portable communication devices in environments where users are engaged with other activities. An example system includes a network including a wireless network defining a zone of coverage, and a server. The server stores locked digital media items, establishes an account for a digital media customer, automatically downloads selected locked digital media items to a portable communication device of the customer when the customer has brought the portable communication device within the zone of coverage and the portable communication device is connected to the server through the wireless network, processes payment from the customer for a number of downloaded locked digital media items, and provides keys for unlocking the number of downloaded locked digital media items. | 02-28-2013 |
20130154612 | FOREIGN BODY DETECTING - A method of operating a sensor | 06-20-2013 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090192396 | Apparatus and method for detecting a fetal heart rate - An apparatus and method for detecting the heart rate of a fetus. The apparatus includes three detectors detecting heart beats of the fetus, each detector including at least two electrodes detecting ECG signals, the detectors being positioned on an abdomen of a mother in use. The apparatus also includes a processor coupled to the detectors, the processor being adapted to process the ECG signals received from the detectors and determine a heart rate of the fetus. The method of determining the heart rate of the fetus includes determining a position of the fetus within a womb, placing the detectors on an abdomen of the mother, monitoring the ECG signals obtained from the detectors for a predetermined length of time, and processing the ECG signals obtained from the detectors positioned on the abdomen of the mother to determine heart beats of the mother. | 07-30-2009 |
20090306487 | PHOTOPLETHYSMOGRAPHY - A photoplethysmograph device includes a light source for illuminating a target object. A modulator drives the light source such that the output intensity varies as a function of a modulation signal at a modulation frequency. A detector receives light from the target object and generates an electrical output as a function of the intensity of received light. A demodulator with a local oscillator receives the detector output and produces a demodulated output,insensitive to any phase difference between the modulation signal and the oscillator, indicative of blood volume as a function of time and/or blood composition. A number of demodulators may be provided to derive signals from multiple light sources of different wavelengths, or from an array of detectors. The plethysmograph may operate in a transmission mode or a reflectance mode. When in a reflectance mode, the device may use the green part of the optical spectrum and may use polarising filters. | 12-10-2009 |
20100294917 | Apparatus and Methods for Imaging - For imaging, an electromagnetic radiation sensor is used to produce an output when illuminated by a modulated laser light. In use, the output is determined by a laser Doppler signal illuminating the sensor. Various examples are described for achieving integration of on-chip processing onto the substrate providing the sensor. In one example, the output of the sensor is a logarithmic function of the illuminating laser Doppler signal. In another example, the output of the sensor is normalized. In another example, an amplifier arrangement is provided to amplify the output of the sensor, the amplifier gain being lower at DC than at the frequency range of the laser Doppler signal. In another example, a filter is integrated into the semiconductor device. In another example, a bandpass filter and frequency weighted filter are provided, and their outputs are processed to average values over time. | 11-25-2010 |
20120150053 | Apparatus and method for detecting a fetal heart rate - An apparatus and method for detecting the heart rate of a fetus. The apparatus includes three detectors detecting heart beats of the fetus, each detector including at least two electrodes detecting ECG signals, the detectors being positioned on an abdomen of a mother in use. The apparatus also includes a processor coupled to the detectors, the processor being adapted to process the ECG signals received from the detectors and determine a heart rate of the fetus. The method of determining the heart rate of the fetus includes determining a position of the fetus within a womb, placing the detectors on an abdomen of the mother, monitoring the ECG signals obtained from the detectors for a predetermined length of time, and processing the ECG signals obtained from the detectors positioned on the abdomen of the mother to determine heart beats of the mother. | 06-14-2012 |
20140243622 | PHOTOPLETHYSMOGRAPHY - A photoplethysmograph device includes a light source for illuminating a target object. A modulator drives the light source such that the output intensity varies as a function of a modulation signal at a modulation frequency. A detector receives light from the target object and generates an electrical output as a function of the intensity of received light. A demodulator with a local oscillator receives the detector output and produces a demodulated output, insensitive to any phase difference between the modulation signal and the oscillator, indicative of blood volume as a function of time and/or blood composition. A number of demodulators may be provided to derive signals from multiple light sources of different wavelengths, or from an array of detectors. The plethysmograph may operate in a transmission mode or a reflectance mode. When in a reflectance mode, the device may use the green part of the optical spectrum and may use polarising filters. | 08-28-2014 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090201576 | OPTICAL FIBER AMPLIFIER AND A CONTROL METHOD THEREFOR - A fiber amplifier having two erbium doped fiber coils and a pump laser diode optically coupled, through a fiber array, to a planar lightwave circuit, is described. A photodetector array, a multiport free-space optical isolator, and a strip of thin-film gain flattening filter are attached to a side surface of the planar lightwave circuit, which has a tunable optical power splitter for variably splitting the optical pump power for the laser diode between the two erbium doped fiber coils, and variable tilters for correcting the gain tilt of the amplifier. The variable splitter and the tilters are thermally tunable Mach-Zehnder interferometers. | 08-13-2009 |
20110170867 | Wavelength Switch - The present invention relates to a wavelength switch including two switching stages. A single actuation array of reflecting elements of a first switching stage routes sub-beams at different wavelength bands to a plurality of actuation arrays of reflecting elements of a second switching stage. Each second-stage actuation array routes sub-beams to a group of output ports associated with that second-stage actuation array. Advantageously, the sub-beams are redirected from the first switching stage to the second switching stage by a reflecting relay assembly, without being combined or coupled into fibers. | 07-14-2011 |
20130209031 | MULTICAST OPTICAL SWITCH - A multicast optical switch uses a diffractive bulk optical element, which splits at least one input optical beam into sub-beams, which freely propagate in a medium towards an array of directors, such as MEMS switches, for directing the sub-beams to output ports. Freely propagating optical beams can cross each other without introducing mutual optical loss. The amount of crosstalk is limited by scattering in the optical medium, which can be made virtually non-existent. Therefore, the number of the crossover connections, and consequently the number of inputs and outputs of a multicast optical switch, can be increased substantially without a loss or a crosstalk penalty. | 08-15-2013 |