Abstract: An external ligament system is formed as part of a flexible knee brace by disposing a pair of cables so that they each run from an anchor point on one side of the leg at the thigh diagonally down across the front of the thigh, around the opposite side of the patella, and down across the front of the calf to an anchor point on the first-mentioned side of the leg at the calf. Rigid linkages hinged at the knee are provided on each side of the leg. The tension of the cable can be varied by pulling the ends of the cables together and securing them with adjustable fasteners.

Abstract: An implantable electric blood pump has a motor stator defining a cylindrical blood conduit, and a pump rotor in which the motor rotor is embedded. The pump rotor is conical at each of its ends and terminates at each end in a ball-and-cup structure washed directly by the pumped blood stream. Grooves may be formed in the ball-and-cup structure to enhance the heat-removing washing action of the blood stream. The pump rotor is nested in the stator blades to shorten the pump and wash the outlet bearing with a partially circumferential blood flow. Titanium-titanium carbide facing alumina are the preferred materials for the rotary-stationary interface, and the gap of the rotary-stationary interface is kept so small that no significant amount of blood serum can penetrate between the mating surfaces of the interface.

Abstract: A self-contained power system for powering a variable load uses a capacitor bank to power the load during periods of high current demand by the load at a steady load voltage. The capacitor bank is recharged during periods of lesser demand from a battery pack which has a lesser current output capability than the maximum load demand. The battery pack in turn is periodically recharged from an only intermittently available power source.

Abstract: A self-contained, self-configurable cascadable pipelined processor chip (160) is diclosed. The chip contains a computation section (FIGS. 1a-1d) which consists of various types of computation circuits (20-42) that can be software-interconnected in any desired configuration by a set of multiplexers (44-52) whose settings are under the control of a control section (FIG. 2 ). The control section consists of various types of control circuits (60-76) which are also software-interconnectable in any desired configuration under program control. The chip (160) is configured by a very long instruction word and then executes the algorithm defined by that configuration iteratively until stopped. The chip (160) can be programmed to reconfigure itself in response to computation results or other selectable parameters, either in accordance with internally stored configurations or in accordance with configuration information stored in an external random access memory (56, 58).

Abstract: Watercolor effects are simulated in computer graphics by defining a brush shape and brush type, selecting a wetness level for the drawing area and, in accordance with the selected wetness level, causing the brush stroke to merely interpolate the brush color with the pre-existing color in the stroked area, create a texture effect of diminishing brush color, or create a smearing effect by interpolating the pre-existing color at a new brush position with that of the previous brush position before interpolating it with the brush color. Apparatus is also disclosed for selecting various brush attributes and brush color parameters.

Abstract: A wave power generator is substantially continuously driven by a pair of floats connected to a common drive shaft and positioned side by side along a line perpendicular to the direction of wave motion, one float being specifically designed to efficiently drive the shaft during the rising portion of a wave, the other to efficiently drive the shaft during the falling portion of a wave. The generator's flywheel is maintained at a constant speed by an automatic load control throughout a range of wave patterns sufficient to encompass over 70% of the statistically expected wave patterns at the generator location. An inclined-bottom float is used for the rising wave drive, and a bottom-weighted float is disclosed for the falling wave drive. The floats may be disposed one above the other and may have mating conical surfaces for cushioning occasional contact between the floats.

Abstract: A centrifugal blood pump features a pump assembly including a cylindrical barrel insertable into a motor stator. The barrel contains a motor rotor which is directly coupled to the pump's impeller. The barrel can be oriented and locked in the motor stator in many different angular orientations. Hemolysis is prevented in spite of high speed operation by reducing the clearance between the impeller and the impeller chamber, rounding the edges of the impeller blades, and providing a deflector to prevent blood from being impelled more than once around the impeller chamber periphery. An efficient releasable locking mechanism is also disclosed, as is a preferred method of assembling the pump assembly with close tolerances.

Abstract: A connectivity algorithm hardware implementation system wherein a subject pixel in a raster-scanned digitized image is declared a pixel of interest, in real time, by it being part of a potential target where every pixel on a closed pixel path enclosing the subject pixel differs in intensity from the intensity of the subject pixel by a predetermined intensity level, the system including a sequential delay line array producing a plurality of sequentially delayed digitized video signals representative of the spatial relationship of the pixels in the digitized image, these signals being coupled to a magnitude comparator array along with a delayed subject pixel contrast signal produced by a threshold circuit coupled to the subject pixel intensity causing the comparator array to produce a plurality of resultant signals representative of a comparison of the video signals with the subject pixel contrast signal, which resultant signals are coupled to a path checking circuit that simultaneously identifies all predeterm

Abstract: In a FLIR target detection system, true targets (52) are isolated from potential false target indications produced by background clutter through the use of a connectivity algorithm which attempts to find around each potential target (52) a closed path (65) of lower (or higher) intensity without exceeding a predetermined distance from the centroid (64) of the potential target. If the attempt is successful, the potential target (52) is a true target; if not, it is clutter.

Abstract: A vibrato arm mounted on a floating bridge of a string instrument is adapted to engage an anchor seat attached to the body of the instrument, in order to lock the bridge in its centered position when the vibrato arm is parked. When the arm is moved to the play position, a cam arrangement raises the arm out of the anchor seat and frees the bridge for vibrato movement. A single adjustment of the riser on the vibrato arm selects both the desired park position and the vertical engagement position of the arm. The seat-engaging arm end and the seat itself are tapered to guide the arm into centered position. The anchor seat is eccentrically and linearly adjustable for precise centering of the bridge.

Abstract: A pre-processor (10) for target trackers is disclosed which allows several image analysis algorithms to be computed simultaneously so as to provide improved real-time target recognition. The pre-processor (10) is also equipped to compensate for the rapid rotation of the target image when the tracking aircraft performs abrupt turning maneuvers.

Abstract: Range discontinuities (44) in an imaged scene are located with superior accuracy by using a pair of stereoscopically related images (10, 12) of the scene to sense edges in the scene, and to determine the range of correlatable image pixels; segmenting the scene into regions (36) of similar intensity; assigning to each region (36) a range based upon the range of any correlatable pixels in it; and locating the boundary (44) between adjacent regions of substantially dissimilar range.

Abstract: Coolant passages (14) of non-machinable size and shape are formed in a ceramic body (10) by individually forming sections (16) of the body (10), embedding graphite (20) therein during preforming, assembling the sections (16) into a complete preform (11), integrating the preform (24) by densifying it in an inert atmosphere under heat and pressure, and then heating the densified preform (10) in air to vaporize the graphite (19,20). In another aspect of the invention, a ceramic body (32) is formed from a three-dimensional, filled-in weave of silica fibers (30) in which the fibers (34) extending in one of the three dimensions are graphite and are subsequently vaporized.

Abstract: A combined visual directory and spreadsheet for graphic files is disclosed. Graphic files can be selectively associated with cells of a matrix. A selectable portion of the matrix containing miniaturized versions of the graphic files associated with the cells of that portion is displayed on an editing monitor. Graphic functions of various kinds can be assigned to displayed cells by the operator to produce modification, animation, or display of graphics associated with selected cells.

Abstract: The electronic simplicity of a rotating-telescope target acquisition device and the noise immunity and wide field of view of a non-rotating array device are combined in an assembly (10) using a rotating refractory telescope (21) on a gimbaled platform (28) and a combination reticle (38) and infrared detector array (34) on the same platform (28). The detector array (34) is segmented (50) to detect the direction in which a target is substantially off the telescope's optical axis (32), and the detector array (34) is also shielded (35) against any radiation coming from outside the optical path of the telescope (21). The reticle (38) also serves as the electrical connection (42,62) between the detector segments (40,50) and the contact pads (44,64) on the detector plate (36) and as a non-emitting shield against any external radiation.

Abstract: Friction in a traction drive assembly having counter-rotating races interconnected by drive balls captured by a stationary retainer is substantially reduced, and the life of the assembly is substantially extended, by interposing rolling interface elements between the drive balls and the retainer. The interface elements may take the form of balls, pins or wheels, and separate lubricating means for them may be provided.

Abstract: A coated article comprising an article to be encapsulated within an encapsulant and subjected to hot isostatic pressing, and a coating. The coating is composed of boron nitride and carbon in an amount effective to reduce interaction between the article and the encapsulant during the hot isostatic pressing. The carbon is present up to about 30% by weight of the total boron nitride and carbon in said coating.

Abstract: A tool (b 10) for handling fiber optic connectors (46) in narrow spaces features a thin collet tube (34) tapered at its end (42), and a pintle (32) axially movable within the collet tube (34) with a generally axially oriented grasping surface (52) at its end (40). The taper of the tube (34) forces the grasping surface (52) toward the inside wall (48) of the collet tube (34) when the pintle (32) is extended through the tube (34). The tang (44) of a fiber optic connected (46) is grasped between the grasping surface (52) and the collet tube wall (48). The tip (56) of the collet tube (34) is inclined to prevent damage to the optical fiber (54). By slotting the collet tube tip (b 60), transversely extending workpieces (62) may also be grasped.

Abstract: The efficiency of a metal silicide infrared (10) in greatly enhanced by depositing on the substrate (14) a stack (30) of alternating metal silicide (12,24) and silicon layers (22). The metal silicide layers (12,24) are connected to each other and to a contact pad (20) in the substrate (14) by a metal silicide deposit (32) on one side of the stack (30) and the silicon layers (22) are connected to each other and to the substrate (14) by a silicon deposit (34) on another side of the stack (30). The stacking of layers is made possible by depositing the silicon layers (22) at a rate of 1 .ANG./sec or less in a vacuum of 10.sup.-9 torr or better at a temperature of about 250.degree. C.