Patents by Inventor Alain Minoz

Alain Minoz has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11596809
    Abstract: The invention relates to a position indicator for a system for moving a patient in a non-invasive therapy system, wherein the system for moving includes a patient support arranged outside a treatment space of a medical apparatus of the non-invasive therapy system, a treatment table arranged inside the treatment space in the medical apparatus, and a patient bed movable in a longitudinal direction from the patient support to the treatment table and back by means of activation of a transferring mechanism, wherein the position indicator comprises a number of light emitting elements arranged in the patient support and each being arranged to receive activation signals instructing a receiving light emitting element to emit light to indicate positions for treatment equipment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2023
    Inventors: Alain Minoz, Kjell Eldered
  • Publication number: 20200346039
    Abstract: The invention relates to a position indicator for a system for moving a patient in a non-invasive therapy system, wherein the system for moving includes a patient support arranged outside a treatment space of a medical apparatus of the non-invasive therapy system, a treatment table arranged inside the treatment space in the medical apparatus, and a patient bed movable in a longitudinal direction from the patient support to the treatment table and back by means of activation of a transferring mechanism, wherein the position indicator comprises a number of light emitting elements arranged in the patient support and each being arranged to receive activation signals instructing a receiving light emitting element to emit light to indicate positions for treatment equipment.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 1, 2017
    Publication date: November 5, 2020
    Applicant: Elekta Ltd.
    Inventors: Alain Minoz, Kjell Eldered
  • Patent number: 8653444
    Abstract: A method and a calibration system for calibrating a measurement tool for measuring the radiation in a radiation system, such as a radiation therapy system, are provided. The measurement tool, including a holder and at least one photodiode element, is adapted to be mounted in a positioning unit of the radiation system. The radiation sensitive volume of the photodiode element is embedded in a light transparent coating transparent for, for instance, light in the visible spectrum. Thereby, the position of the sensitive volume can easily be determined or calculated with high accuracy relative to the holder on which the photodiode element is arranged, from which the position of the sensitive volume can be determined or calculated in relation to the positioning unit of the radiation system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2014
    Assignee: Elekta AB (Publ)
    Inventors: Alain Minoz, Gunnar Backman
  • Publication number: 20110272568
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for calibrating a measurement tool for measuring the radiation in a radiation system, such as a radiation therapy system. The measurement tool, including a holder and at least one photodiode element, is adapted to be mounted in a positioning unit of the radiation system. The radiation sensitive volume of the photodiode element is embedded in a light transparent coating transparent for, for instance, light in the visible spectrum. Thereby, the position of the sensitive volume can easily be determined or calculated with high accuracy relatively the holder on which the photodiode element is arranged, from which the position of the sensitive volume can be determined or calculated in relation to the positioning unit of the radiation system. The invention also relates to a calibration system for performing the calibration method and a measurement tool for use in the calibration system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 22, 2008
    Publication date: November 10, 2011
    Applicant: ELEKTA AB (PUBL)
    Inventors: Alain Minoz, Gunnar Backman
  • Patent number: 7492866
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a collision detecting device for a radiation treatment apparatus, comprising a radiation unit having an internal space, for directing radiation beams towards a radiological focus in the internal space for treatment of a target in a patient's body therein. The collision detecting device comprises a collision detecting unit being electrically conductive at least on its outer surface and having a size slightly smaller than the internal space of the radiation unit, so as to be insertable into the internal space and held in an electrically insulating manner in respect of the radiation unit by spacer elements. The outer electrically conductive surface is connectible to an electrical voltage supply in order to detect if the outer surface of the collision detecting unit abuts against the inside surface of the radiation unit. The invention also relates to a method for performing such collision detection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2009
    Assignee: Elekta AB (Publ)
    Inventors: HÃ¥kan Nivestedt, Alain Minoz
  • Publication number: 20080089483
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a collision detecting device for a radiation treatment apparatus, comprising a radiation unit (3) having an internal space, for directing radiation beams towards a radiological focus in the internal space for treatment of a target in a patient's body therein. The collision detecting device comprises a collision detecting unit (1) being electrically conductive at least on its outer surface and having a size slightly smaller than the internal space of the radiation unit, so as to be insertable into the internal space and held in an electrically insulating manner in respect of the radiation unit by spacer elements (5). The outer electrically conductive surface (2) is connectible to an electrical voltage supply (10) in order to detect if the outer surface of the collision detecting unit abuts against the inside surface of the radiation unit due to deformation or displacement of the collision detecting unit caused by the body part (7) or any equipment (6, 8) attached thereto.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 23, 2005
    Publication date: April 17, 2008
    Inventors: Hakan Nivestedt, Alain Minoz
  • Patent number: 6245013
    Abstract: An ambulatory recording system for medical and especially diagnostic purposes is described having synchronized communication between two processors. The recorder features two processors which are of differing architectures—the first processor being a real time processor which handles the sampling function, the second processor being a non real time processor which handles the operating system function. The invention further includes a protocol for communication between the two processors which permits the two processors to have synchronized and reliable communication.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 1999
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2001
    Assignee: Medtronic, Inc.
    Inventors: Alain Minoz, Thorir Gunnarsson, Malcolm G. S. Williams, Arch W. Butler, Henrik E. Pedersen
  • Patent number: 6154668
    Abstract: An ambulatory recorder having real time non-real time processors is described. The real time processor handles sampling functions while the non real time processor handles other functions, such as high processing operations associated with multitasking, graphical user interface, floating point calculation, Infra Red communication and long term memory storage. The second processor is primarily provided to operate a Windows CE operating system as well as one or more embedded applications. Through this design, electrical power provided by a battery is only consumed by those components essential to device operation at any particular time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 1998
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2000
    Assignee: Medtronics Inc.
    Inventors: Henrik E. Pedersen, Malcolm G. S. Williams, Alain Minoz, Arch W. Butler
  • Patent number: 6141574
    Abstract: An ambulatory data recorder having a slidable patient activity period switch. The slidable patient activity period switch permits the patient to slide the switch from a first position to a second position upon the start of a pre-defined activity, e.g. eating. Upon completion of the pre-defined activity, the switch is slide from the second position back to the first position. While in either the first or second position the switch position corresponds to a marking on the recorder enclosure such that the patient can readily understand which activity the switch is indicating. The slidable patient activity period switch is further configured to have minimal power consumption. In one embodiment the switch is provided through a standard keyboard interrupt service routine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 1998
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2000
    Assignee: Medtronic, Inc.
    Inventors: Richard J. Satherley, Malcolm G. S. Williams, Alain Minoz
  • Patent number: 6128520
    Abstract: An ambulatory recorder having a volatile and a non-volatile memory is described. The recorder actively manages the transfer of the data in the volatile to the non-volatile memory. In particular, the sampling frequency and number of channels to be sampled are monitored. These parameters, along with the total buffer size available, are used to determine the final complete data set which can be stored in the buffer. Thereafter, the contents of the buffer are transferred to the non-volatile memory. In such a manner the recorder avoids filling the buffer in the middle of a sampling tick, in which case the remaining data to be sampled would be lost.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 1998
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2000
    Assignee: Medtronic, Inc.
    Inventor: Alain Minoz
  • Patent number: 6115622
    Abstract: An ambulatory recorder which features an enhance technique for sampling. The ambulatory recorder has a programmable number of channels, each channel having a programmable sampling frequency rate. The multi channel ambulatory recorder is fashioned so as to sample and records data only from each channel as desired at the frequency as desired. The recorder examines the frequencies on the channels for which data is to be sampled and recorded, and selects a common tick frequency for the microprocessor to awaken, sample and sleep again. Moreover, the microprocessor is directed to only sample at each tick on each channels as needed reducing the amount of required memory and shortening the time it is consuming power.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 1998
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2000
    Assignee: Medtronic, Inc.
    Inventor: Alain Minoz
  • Patent number: 6108571
    Abstract: An ambulatory recording system, for medical and especially diagnostic purposes, is described having a communication watchdog between two processors. The two processors may be of differing types. For example, the first processor may be real time processor ("RTP") which handles the sampling function, while the second processor may be a non real time processor ("NRTP") which handles the operating system function. This dual processor design permits relatively low power consumption for data recording (which is handled by the relatively lower power consuming RTP), while also providing a graphical user interface for user simple user operation (which is handled by the relatively higher power consuming NRTP). A communication watchdog between the two processors is provided to reset the device upon the detection of a processor failure or communication failure between the two processors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2000
    Assignee: Medtronic, Inc.
    Inventors: Alain Minoz, Thorir Gunnarsson, Malcolm G.S. Williams, Arch W. Butler, Henrik E. Pedersen
  • Patent number: 6014578
    Abstract: An ambulatory recorder which features a method of configuring the size of data subject to loss in volatile memory. The recorder of the present invention determines how many processor sampling cycles it will take to fill the memory buffer. As discussed above this will vary a great deal and will directly depend upon the programmed parameters, e.g. number of channels to be sampled and the various sampling frequencies. The device then determines the amount of time this number of processor sampling cycles will take. If this amount of time is greater than a pre-selected amount of time, then the number of sampling cycles is reduced to be less than the pre-selected amount of time. The recorder uses these calculations to thereby schedule the transfer of data from the volatile memory to the non volatile memory. Through such an operation the data in the memory buffer subject to loss is limited to only a pre determined amount of time, i.e.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2000
    Assignee: Meotronic, Inc.
    Inventor: Alain Minoz