Abstract: A motorcycle disk brake rotor in the shape of an annular ring is (i) mounted to the motorcycles rear wheel at the outside of its annulus and (ii) swept by the yoke of a disk brake caliper that is mounted to the inside of the annulus. A belt pulley affixes at its exterior circumferential region--either rigidly or "floating"--the exterior annular region of the disk brake rotor which is in the shape of the annular ring. A motorcycle disk brake caliper assembly is anchored at one mounting point to the motorcycle's rear axle shaft, and at a second mounting point to the motorcycle's suspension swingarm, engages the disk brake rotor from the inside of its annulus. The combined disk brake and belt pulley assembly is compact and visually regularly appearing. It may suitably be stylized with the same pattern as are the wheels of the motorcycle.

Abstract: A water station, or cabinet, or console, particularly for use in kitchens and in restaurant kitchens and in oriental restaurant kitchens, contains (i) a reverse osmosis system, and (ii) a sink. The water cabinet dispenses copious amounts of (i) water purified by reverse osmosis ("RO water"), as well as (ii) tap, or supply, water and (iii) waste water from the reverse osmosis (RO) process, respectively from three faucets in position over the sink. The cabinet is compact: it fits within the footprint of, and replaces, a conventional restaurant sink. The RO water purification performed by the RO system completely within the cabinet is water-conserving, typically producing RO purified water and waste water at a ratio as low as one-to one (1:1) by using an adjustable feedback path for waste water. Operational status is clearly visible. Maintenance is easy, with sediment filters replaceable on-line.

Abstract: A motorcycle's running, turn and/or stop lights are located in cavities at the ends of each leg of a "U" shape rear suspension swing arm. Lenses to each light are preferably integrated with the exterior contours of the swing arm, presenting illumination preferably to both the rear and the sides of the motorcycle. Connective wiring is preferably within the swingarm. The lenses are removable to expose both (i) axle nuts and (ii) axle adjustment screws, permitting full adjustment of both. The integrated swingarm and light assembly is completely compatible with, and may suitably be retrofitted to, existing motorcycles where it serves to present a sleek, smooth and compact appearance.

Abstract: A photoemissive photocathode, being a metal with a low work function and preferably tantalum-surfaced cesium-antimonide, is illuminated with pulses of 5320 .ANG. laser light, typically 20 psec at a 20 Hz repetition rate, to emit electrons by the photoelectric effect. The emitted electrons are accumulated in a spatial region near the photocathode by a grid electrode. The same laser pulses activate a semiconductor switch, normally an LiTaO.sub.3 crystal doped with 2.24% Cu, to apply a high voltage, typically 100 Kv, between the photocathode and an anode. The accumulated electrons are accelerated, and focused, as an electron beam that strikes the anode, typically in a focal spot of less than 0.5 mm diameter. Time-resolved x-ray pulses, typically K band of 20 picoseconds duration with 4-10 microjoules energy each, are produced. A laser-induced pulsed wide-area table-top-size embodiment of the x-ray source reliably generates a 1-10 mW/cm.sup.2 flux of hard, 0.

Abstract: A first assembly mounted to an external wall engages and holds a first end portion of a long gun between (i) a shackle having ends terminating in a stud portion and (ii) an elongate hollow housing with apertures accepting the shackle's stud portions. A slide member slides within the interior of the hollow housing to engage the stud portion of the shackle, normally in a keyhole-shaped hole. A key lock retains the slide in its position engaging the stud end portions of the shackle. A similarly-appearing second assembly, mounted to the wall in spaced-parallel relationship to the first assembly, has shackles with threaded ends that are permanently mounted to a second hollow housing by nuts. A long gun is slid under a permanent shackle of the second assembly, and shackled under a removable and locking shackle of the first assembly, in order to be securely, but visibly, held and retained.

Abstract: In a plastic "miniprep" device for separating liquid samples including (i) a first, sample, cylindrical container having an inlet and an outlet opening between which a separation layer is arranged, the outlet opening typically being connected to and enclosed by an outlet spout, fitting within a cylindrical bore of (ii) a second, collecting, container receiving the separated liquid discharged from the outlet spout, the cylindrical first container is (a) of lesser diameter than is the bore, and (b) possessed of longitudinal exterior rib hat hold it eccentric within the bore. According to the (a) lessor diameter and (b) eccentric mounting, access may be had by hypodermic syringe or thin pipette down the side of the first container to separated liquid present at the bottom of the second container.

Abstract: A method and related compositions for preparing a substrate for printing are described. The invention comprises coating a non-paper substrate with an adherent base coat and a hydrophilic top coat. The base coat adheres to the substrate and the top coat, which is applied to the base coat and adheres to it, provides an ink receptive surface on which ink pigment can be deposited. A base coating composition comprises a type-A gelatin and an acrylic polymer. A top coating composition comprises a type-A or type-B gelatin and a hydrophilic organic polymer. A base- and top-coated substrate of the invention is particularly suited for use with ink-jet printers that employ aqueous-based inks. Printing substrates include such materials as canvas, leather, polymeric films and sheets, and the like.

Abstract: A flexible elastomeric annulus-shaped membrane having a shape-retentive memory and exerting a force so as to assume and to maintain a predetermined closed-loop geometric shape, normally a circle, fits circumferentially about the cervix os of a human female so as to hold and retain medical instrumentation probes, preferably two opposed wire-connected ultrasonic transducers of a real-time transit-time ultrasonic monitor of cervical dilatation and effacement. The annular membrane may optionally extend as a tube downwards in the vaginal canal, in the manner of a female diaphragm, as to shield the wires from the walls of the vagina. The membrane expands and contracts with such cyclical variation in the dilatation and effacement of the cervix os as occurs from the earliest onset of labor until imminent childbirth.

Abstract: Immersive video, or television, images of a real-world scene are synthesized, including on demand and/or in real time, as are linked to any of a particular perspective on the scene, or an object or event in the scene. Synthesis is in accordance with user-specified parameters of presentation, including presentations that are any of panoramic, magnified, stereoscopic, or possessed of motional parallax. The image synthesis is based on computerized video processing--called "hypermosaicing"--of multiple video perspectives on the scene. In hypermosaicing a knowledge database contains information about the scene; for example scene geometry, shapes and behaviors of objects in the scene, and/or internal and/or external camera calibration models. Multiple video cameras each at a different spatial location produce multiple two-dimensional video images of the scene. A viewer/user specifies viewing criterion (ia) at a viewer interface.

Abstract: Two parts telescope so as to selectively engage the steering wheel at a portion of its rim. A third part independently telescopes relative to the first two parts so as to span a remaining portion of the diameter of the steering wheel, and so as engage the rim of the wheel at a point opposite to the portion where are located the first and second parts. One single key lock suffices to lock all telescoping parts in position, selectively engaging or releasing the device from the steering wheel at two points. The impediment presented by the locked device to turning the steering wheel is not subject to being defeated merely by cutting through either the steering wheel, or the device itself, at any single location.

Abstract: An assemblage which forms in-situ monolithic concrete slab-on-grade foundations is an internally collocating monolithic forming unit, which unit is typically light weight enough to be maneuvered intact. The unit is comprised of a number of form members and an overhead screed. The concrete-surface-defining form members, preferably sections of light-gage cold-formed metal, also serve as struts defining foundation horizontal geometry by having controlled lengths and interconnections. Corresponding pairs of squaring wires control geometry as well, and are removed before finishing the concrete slab. Temporary support of the forming unit is upon coarsely threaded stakes. Each stake screws into earth with a high speed pneumatic impact wrench, and quickly secures simple form support components such as a slab clip.

Abstract: The onset of spontaneous abortion or premature labor of a pregnant human female is continuously monitored, potentially for periods of several months and longer, by a real-time transit-time ultrasonic monitor of the dilatation and/or effacement of the cervix os, preferably by a computerized ambulatory monitor. The preferred computerized monitor sounds an alarm upon the detection of variably present conditions, normally the compound conditions of five or more 10% cyclical variations in the dilatation or effacement of the cervix os within a period of one hour, coupled with a greater than 1 centimeter increase over baseline of either dilatation or effacement, which compound conditions normally indicate the early onset of labor. The monitor connects to an infusion pump, likewise preferably ambulatory, for directing and controlling the infusion of one or more tocolytic, labor-preventing, drugs if labor continues.

Abstract: Multi-focal prescription composite lenses having at least two corrections are made by adhering a first-part lens having a predetermined positive or negative diopter correction realized by a cylinder correction prescription on a rear surface and a preselected front surface, to a second-part lens having a predetermined prescription correction at a portion of a front surface and a preselected rear surface that is complimentary to the front surface of the first lens. A lens attachment feature, normally a tab, is integral with at least one of the first- and second-part lens, and persists in the multi-focal prescription composite lens. An eyeglass frame has and presents a complimentary feature, normally a channel within a front piece to the frame, that engages and holds the multi-focal prescription lens to the frame at an adjustable pupillary distance. Two composite lenses are assembled, and permanently mounted in and to the frame, totally without power tools.

Abstract: An amphibious vehicle, normally an automobile, has a centrally located displacement hull body portion, containing a passenger compartment and an engine, that is of excellent hydrodynamic profile similar to a canoe. Wheels located at the end of four-wheel-drive axle half-shafts in, preferably, a DeDion suspension are located entirely outboard of the displacement hull. The wheels are conventionally suspended in their lowered positions on land, and are raised by actuators on water. Moveable skis first move on a pantograph linkage from first locations upwards and to the rear of the front wheels into second, forward, locations where the ski tips slide under the raised front wheels, deflecting water under the front wheels and generally improving vehicle hydrodynamics in the manner of outriggers. With increasing speed of the vehicle through the water, the skis are moved aft and downward on the pantograph linkage to lowered third locations.

Abstract: A turn-on/turn-off stage for an electronic voltage regulator operates (i) between a battery voltage and a ground, and (ii) responsively to a control signal received from an alternator, in order to (1) turn on the voltage regulator, enabling regulation of the alternator, and also to (2) turn off the voltage regulator, presenting a high impedance to a battery. For an "A"-Type Voltage Regulator ("B"-Type Voltage Regulator) the stage includes, in electrical parallel between the battery voltage and the ground, (1) a first resistor in electrical series with (2) a "two-legged" circuit. The (2) "two-legged" circuit includes (2a) a first leg consisting of a first diode forward-biased to the battery voltage in electrical series with (a second diode forward-biased to the battery voltage in electrical series with) a second resistor, in electrical parallel with (2b) a second leg consisting of a second (third) diode forward-biased to the battery voltage and a capacitor.

Abstract: Each and any viewer of a video or a television scene is his or her own proactive editor of the scene, having the ability to interactively dictate and select--in advance of the unfolding of the scene and by high-level command--a particular perspective by which the scene will be depicted, as and when the scene unfolds. Video images of the scene are selected, or even synthesized, in response to a viewer-selected (i) spatial perspective on the scene, (ii) static or dynamic object appearing in the scene, or (iii) event depicted in the scene. Multiple video cameras, each at a different spatial location, produce multiple two-dimensional video images of the real-world scene, each at a different spatial perspective. Objects of interest in the scene are identified and classified by computer in these two-dimensional images. The two-dimensional images of the scene, and accompanying information, are then combined in the computer into a three-dimensional video database, or model, of the scene.

Abstract: Metal, normally gold or platinum, is printed, and is adhered by a glass frit, on the top and/or bottom surfaces of a multi-layer laid-up green ceramic wafers containing typically up to 16 layers and 800+ separate devices, typically 800+ monolithic, buried-substrate, ceramic multiple capacitors. The wafer is diced, and the multiple ceramic capacitors each with its patterned surface metal are co-fired. The integrally formed, top and bottom surface, conduction traces connect similarly formed pads, typically disposed in a "pin-grid" pattern, to later-added side traces or conductive castellations that connect to the electrodes of multiple buried-substrate capacitors. The pads are precisely located, and extend over such ample areas, to support the stable surface mounting, and the reliable electrical connection of, diverse external electrical circuits and components.

Abstract: An inexpensive, simple and easy-to-use illuminator element--consisting of chromophores, particularly fluorophores, and/or light-scattering bodies in a stable, typically a polymer plastic, matrix--completely replaces an infinite set of condensers for a optical microscope, and works equally well with microscope objective lenses of any and all numerical apertures. Illuminator elements of a fluorescent type are employed in combination with a primary source of light that is external to the illuminator element itself, and that is preferably but a simple incandescent light bulb. Nonetheless to be energized with spectrally impure light, each illuminator element produces spectrally pure light(s) of a predetermined color or colors, including a pseudo-white light. Sets of illuminator elements permit the ready production of colored light(s) of any desired spectral characteristics from primary light sources that are no more sophisticated, nor any more expensive, than common electric light bulbs.

Abstract: Each and any viewer of a video or a television scene is his or her own proactive editor of the scene, having the ability to interactively dictate and select--in advance of the unfolding of the scene and by high-level command--a particular perspective by which the scene will be depicted, as and when the scene unfolds. Video images of the scene are selected, or even synthesized, in response no a viewer-selected (i) spatial perspective on the scene, (ii) static or dynamic object appearing in the scene, or (iii) event depicted in the scene. Multiple video cameras, each at a different spatial location, produce multiple two-dimensional video images of the real-world scene, each at a different spatial perspective. Objects of interest in the scene are identified and classified by computer in these two-dimensional images. The two-dimensional images of the scene, and accompanying information, are then combined in the computer into a three-dimensional video database, or model, of the scene.

Abstract: Two or more alternators--each typically of an economical cost and of any mixture of types and capacities--are turned by a single motive power source--normally the engine of a large commercial truck or bus. The several alternators are electrically connected in tandem-parallel across a battery/load. A corresponding number of electronic voltage regulators, preferably of the type described in patent application Ser. No. 08/645,611, respectively individually control the alternators. One electronic voltage regulator that is modified to become a designated master produces a "universal" control signal in response to variations in a voltage across the battery/load. This "universal" control signal is further used in the master electronic voltage regulator itself to develop a conventional signal providing regulation to an associated alternator.