Abstract: A pulsed diode light source driver includes a variable output power supply, an output capacitor, a switchable linear current driver, a temperature sensor, a conditioning circuit, and a voltage monitor. The temperature sensor monitors the temperature of the capacitor while the voltage monitor circuit monitors the output voltage level. The conditioning circuit and the voltage monitor cooperatively control the output voltage of the variable output power supply, so that temperature-related changes in the characteristics of the capacitor are compensated for, and a constant current is maintained through the diode load over a desired range of temperature. The driver is suitable for laser diodes and light emitting diodes.

Abstract: A personal digital electronic device is provided with two enhancements, namely (a) an IR receiver and associated circuitry and software/firmware for mimicking a laser scanner operation, so that information existing in physical form with an associated bar code may be entered into the personal digital electronic device at the point of transaction; and (b) a radio receiver and associated circuitry and software/firmware to receive and process RDS feeds, so that offers, coupons and promotions embedded in the RDS feeds may be detected and used to place or update information on the personal digital electronic device. The personal digital electronic device is enabled for communication with a bar code scanner preferably using the “active light” communication technology.

Abstract: To control cardiac arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation post-operatively, various non-ablative agents include polymers, fibroblasts, neurotoxins, and growth factors are introduced into one or more cardiac fat pads into the atrioventricular nodal fat pad in proximity to the autonomic ganglia therein. Any desired technique may be used for introducing the agent, including injection. The sinoatrial nodal fat pad target site and the atrioventricular nodal fat pad target site are identified using a stimulator, which may have electrodes coupled thereto or which may coupled to electrodes built into a delivery system.

Abstract: Single-use electrical leads for a nerve stimulator include a status flag element such as a fuse, which is deliberately blown after use of the leads has begun to indicate that the leads are not to be reused. The nerve stimulator has a “test mode” that determines a current value for treatment, and a “therapy mode” that administers treatment with the chosen current value. If the fuse in the electrical leads is blown, then the stimulator assumes that the leads have already been used and does not enter therapy mode. If the fuse in the electrical leads is intact, then the stimulator assumes that the leads are as yet unused, and allows the user to enter either test mode or therapy mode. The fuse is deliberately blown after a particular amount of time spent in therapy mode. After the fuse is blown, the user may still complete the therapy mode.

Abstract: A nonhemolytic sensor for determination of analytes in erythrocyte-containing biological fluids is disclosed that comprises an optical material having a deposit on a surface thereof, where this deposit includes an analyte-reactive reagent and a particulate means for suppressing hemolysis of erythrocytes in an erythrocyte-containing biological fluid, such as whole blood. Thus, a porous array of negatively charged particles, e.g., polymeric beads having a plurality of carboxylate surface groups, are disposed on a sampling surface of an optical sensor, and suppress hemolysis of erythrocytes coming into contact with the sampling surface. In the case of an optical sensor, such particles can simultaneously enhance reflectance of a light beam transmitted through the optical material to the sampling surface site.

Abstract: Techniques are described for facilitating the reliable communication of information to bar code scanners from mobile digital devices, thereby enabling mobile digital devices to easily access the current commercial infrastructure. These techniques may be used to access many other goods and services in addition to conventional commercial services. The core enabling technology is the use of various elements commonly found on mobile digital devices to provide light that simulate a reflection of a scanning beam being moved across a static bar code image, and to confirm completion of the scan. The control system may interpret the light provided by the mobile digital device as merely a conventional identification type bar code, although the control system may be enhanced to identify and receive other types of information, including identity and credit information.

Abstract: Structurally supportive material is implanted or injected into cardiac veins as discrete masses at various sites in the cardiac venous system to reinforce the myocardium for the purpose of preventing, moderating, stopping or reversing negative cardiac remodeling due to various adverse cardiac conditions, both acute and chronic, or for the purpose of treating localize anomalies of the heart, or for both purposes. The sites may be arranged in a pattern about one or more chambers of the heart such that the masses cooperatively reduce stress in the chamber wall and reduce chamber size. Some patterns also cause a beneficial global reshaping of the chamber. These changes occur quickly and are sustainable, and have a rapid and sustainable therapeutic effect on cardiac function.

Abstract: A Break Over Diode (“BOD”) device is a gate-less two terminal high power semiconductor switch in which transitions from a blocking state to a conducting state are triggered by a dV/dt pulse to the anode. The BOD device can be thought of as two cross-coupled PNP and NPN transistors, and includes both anode and cathode shorts which reduce the gain of the NPN and PNP transistors by shunting some current away from their bases directly to their emitters, thereby improving blocking. Moreover, the anode and cathode shorts in conjunction with the device blocking junction form PN diodes which are distributed throughout the bulk of the material and function as anti-parallel diodes to the base-emitter junctions of the PNP and NPN transistors, which enables the BOD device to handle a larger current reversal for a longer period of time. The P base layer may be made thin to decrease the voltage fall time from full blocking to full conduction, and the cathode and anode shorts may be provided in a honeycomb pattern.

Abstract: An accessory for a personal electronic device detects data encoded into light, sound, vibration energy, radio frequency energy, or a combination thereof, and provides the encoded data either to a bar code scanner using light, or to an NFC terminal using NFC protocols. The accessory may be stand-alone, or attachable to the personal electronic device from a suitable housing or integrated into a housing component of the personal electronic device.

Abstract: Each device of a family of removable digital media devices (310, 320, 330, 340, 350 and 360) may be plugged into a host to permits the host to store data in it or to retrieve data from it. The form factors of the digital media devices in the family and the connector system used by the digital media devices are compact for minimizing the volume of space occupied in portable devices and for easy storage. Some embodiments (310, 320, 330, 350 and 360) provide an elongated compact form factor that provides easy and firm grasping for insertion and removal. The digital media devices of the family have respective body portions (312, 322, 332, 342, 352 and 362) preferably of a rigid or semi-rigid material. Preferably, the digital media devices of the family use serial memory requiring few power and signal lines, so that few electrical contacts are required.

Abstract: Each device of a family of removable digital media devices (310, 320, 330, 340, 350 and 360) may be plugged into a host to permits the host to store data in it or to retrieve data from it. The form factors of the digital media devices in the family and the connector system used by the digital media devices are compact for minimizing the volume of space occupied in portable devices and for easy storage. Some embodiments (310, 320, 330, 350 and 360) provide an elongated compact form factor that provides easy and firm grasping for insertion and removal. The digital media devices of the family have respective body portions (312, 322, 332, 342, 352 and 362) preferably of a rigid or semi-rigid material. Preferably, the digital media devices of the family use serial memory requiring few power and signal lines, so that few electrical contacts are required.

Abstract: A memory device (100) includes a user device information sector (122) in addition to normal sectors (124) of a memory array. The user device information sector includes a product identification field (240) and a restricted address list field (250), and optionally includes a customer identification number field (220) and a serial number field (230). The product identification field includes such information as the manufacturer ID, a part number ID, package/speed identification, temperature/voltage identification, and byte locations for special options. The device identification field is factory programmed using a high voltage enabling signal applied to a write control logic circuit (102) in the memory device in conjunction with a "Device Information Sector Program" instruction is applied to the SPI command and control logic (110). The device information sector is read from the application using a "Read Device Information" instruction.

Abstract: An optical body cavity probe (110, 310, 1200, 1300) is provided with a disposable flexible comformable sheath (120) having an optical window (220), or a disposable rigid sheath (320, 1210, 1310) having an optical window (420). The electronic system includes optical sources for generating the illuminating electromagnetic energy, filters or spectrum analyzers for isolating returned wavelengths of interest, and a computer for processing the returned wavelengths of interest to determine the tissue properties of interest as well as to calibrate the system. For calibration purposes, a removable calibration body (510, 910, 1010, 1220, 1330, 1430) bearing a fluorescence pattern resides on the outside of the optical window (500, 900, 1000, 1210, 1310, 1420) so as to be in the field of view of the probe when the sheath is installed over the probe.

Abstract: A programmable memory device includes circuits that permit the selective disabling of certain functions when a battery supply voltage falls below the point necessary to sustain those functions while not disabling other functions of the device capable of working at the lower supply voltage. The programmable memory device includes a controller (422), programmable memory (426), and a voltage monitor (424), and is used in an application having additional circuitry (430). Power is furnished between the main voltage V.sub.CC terminal and the ground GND terminal from an external power source, typically a set of batteries. The voltage monitor enables full extension of the operational voltage range for specific functions of the programmable memory device, or for the application circuitry, or for both by reliably detecting the voltage level of the power source and providing an indication thereof.

Abstract: Each device of a family of removable digital media devices (310, 320, 330, 340, 350 and 360) may be plugged into a host to permits the host to store data in it or to retrieve data from it. The form factors of the digital media devices in the family and the connector system used by the digital media devices are compact for minimizing the volume of space occupied in portable devices and for easy storage. Some embodiments (310, 320, 330, 350 and 360) provide an elongated compact form factor that provides easy and firm grasping for insertion and removal. The digital media devices of the family have respective body portions (312, 322, 332, 342, 352 and 362) preferably of a rigid or semi-rigid material. Preferably, the digital media devices of the family use serial memory requiring few power and signal lines, so that few electrical contacts are required.

Abstract: A computer system includes a computing device such as a microcontroller and a memory device. The memory device is illustratively a serial device connected to the serial port of the microcontroller. The memory device includes a page latch load circuit which provides serial I/O to the microcontroller and transfers I/O bits in a predetermined order to/from the page latches. Page latches are connected over many bit lines to a memory cell array. The page latches not only supports programming and reading of sectors in the memory cell array, but also provides one or more of the following functions: directly accessible to the microcontroller as an SRAM scratch pad, directly loadable from the memory cell array to facilitate single byte "read-modify-write" operations, and loadable during programming operations to support real time applications.

Abstract: A low power recording devices permits various flexible power options, including a no-battery option in which the recording device satisfies its entire power requirements from the telephone wall socket and from the RS-232 socket of a computer, and a no-battery option in which the recording device satisfies its entire power requirements from the power source for the mobile telephone. Neither no-battery option exerts a significant additional load on the power source. Voice signals are digitized and stored in low power non-volatile memory. Facsimile signals either are digitized and stored in low power non-volatile memory, or are decoded and stored in low power non-volatile memory. An audio recording and playback capability through an integrated speaker-microphone pair is provided.

Abstract: Each device of a family of removable digital media devices (310, 320, 330, 340, 350 and 360) may be plugged into a host to permits the host to store data in it or to retrieve data from it. The form factors of the digital media devices in the family and the connector system used by the digital media devices are compact for minimizing the volume of space occupied in portable devices and for easy storage. Some embodiments (310, 320, 330, 350 and 360) provide an elongated compact form factor that provides easy and firm grasping for insertion and removal. The digital media devices of the family have respective body portions (312, 322, 332, 342, 352 and 362) preferably of a rigid or semi-rigid material. Preferably, the digital media devices of the family use serial memory requiring few power and signal lines, so that few electrical contacts are required.

Abstract: Signal communication paths between multiple chips are established through inter-chip electro-magnetic coupling, thereby potentially eliminating mechanical inter-chip contacts and increasing inter-chip interconnection capacity while maximizing chip real estate allocated to a circuit layer. In one embodiment, multiple chips each include a conductive layer, disposed over a circuit layer on a substrate, divided into electro-magnetic coupling device elements such as capacitor plates. When utilizing capacitor plates, chips are arranged face-to-face with opposing chips having mirror image capacitor plate patterns to form a plurality of capacitors. Conventional signal transmission circuits produce time-varying signals which propagate to conventional signal receiving circuits of another chip via an embodiment of electro-magnetic signal communication paths formed by the capacitors.

Abstract: A computer system includes a computing device such as a microcontroller and a memory device. The memory device is illustrtively a serial device connected to the serail port of the microcontrollerThe memory device includes a page latch load circuit which provides serial I/O to the microcontroller and transfers I/O bits in a predetermined order to/from the page latches. Page latches are connected over many bit lines to a memory cell array. The page latches not only supports programming and reading of sectors in the memory cell array, but also provides one or more of the following functions: directly accessable to the microcontroller as an SRAM scratch pad, directly loadable from the memory cell array to facilitate single byte "read-modify-write" operations, and loadable during programming operations to support real time applications.