Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Jean K. Testa
-
Patent number: 7279893Abstract: An image reconstruction technique determines linear combinations of receiver channel information that contribute the most to image SNR and quantifies the SNR loss for the reduced receiver channel set for image reconstruction to reduce the computational burden placed on the reconstruction engine of an MRI system.Type: GrantFiled: June 27, 2006Date of Patent: October 9, 2007Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Luca Marinelli, Christopher Judson Hardy
-
Patent number: 7280631Abstract: Configurations for stationary imaging systems are provided. The configurations may include combinations of various types of distributed sources of X-ray radiation, which generally include addressable emitter elements which may be triggered for emission in desired sequences and combinations. The sources may be ring-like, partial ring-like, or line-like (typically along a Z-axis), and so forth. Combinations of these are envisaged. Corresponding detectors may also be full ring detectors or partial ring detectors associated with the sources to provide sufficient coverage of imaging volumes and to provide the desired mathematical completeness of the collected data.Type: GrantFiled: April 1, 2004Date of Patent: October 9, 2007Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Bruno Kristiaan Bernard De Man, Samit Kumar Basu, Peter Michael Edic, Robert Franklin Senzig, William Robert Ross, Xiaoye Wu, Colin Richard Wilson, Mark Ernest Vermilyea, Eugene Lino Saragnese
-
Patent number: 7257248Abstract: A system and method for non-contact measurement of a complex part is provided. The method comprises acquiring an image of the complex part including imposed laser lines on the complex part using at least one imaging device, determining a span of interest of the complex part being representative of at least a portion of the complex part and which comprises information related to a plurality of dimensions of a surface of the complex part, extracting information corresponding to the laser lines from the span of interest to reduce computation and further extracting a plurality of unique points from the information corresponding to the laser lines, the plurality of unique points representing the plurality of dimensions of the surface. The plurality of unique points is used for reconstructing a three-dimensional (3D) representation of the surface of the complex part.Type: GrantFiled: March 27, 2003Date of Patent: August 14, 2007Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Raghu Kokku, Glen William Brooksby, Peter Henry Tu
-
Patent number: 7254747Abstract: A technique is provided for selecting among a plurality of service models for addressing serviceable events and faults in a complex machine system. Indicators established for each of the models serve as the basis for comparison to input data acquired from the complex system or from manual or semi-automated data acquisition methods. Based upon the comparisons, and upon flexible selection criteria, one or more of the service models is selected to most efficiently address the most likely root cause of the serviceable event or fault.Type: GrantFiled: March 28, 2003Date of Patent: August 7, 2007Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Mark David Osborn, Rasiklal Punjalal Shah, Jieqian Cathy Chen
-
Patent number: 7227982Abstract: Methods for three-dimensional projecting and backprojecting rays with respect to voxels/detector bins to attenuate/eliminate high-frequency artifacts, are disclosed. A distance-driven technique wherein the transitions of the voxels and the detector bins are respectively projected onto a predetermined plane. This projection allows a determination of the contribution of each of the voxels/bins for each of the bins/voxels with lower computation time and improved artifact free images.Type: GrantFiled: January 31, 2003Date of Patent: June 5, 2007Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Bruno Kristiaan Bernard De Man, Samit Kumar Basu
-
Patent number: 7227923Abstract: A method for Computed Tomography (CT) imaging is provided. The method comprises rotating a gantry at a substantially slow rotation speed about a volume of interest. The gantry comprises a combination of X-ray source points. The X-ray source points comprise one or more discrete emission points and an arc of discrete or continuous X-ray source points. The method then comprises obtaining projection data from the combination of X-ray source points and performing a suitable reconstruction based on the projection data obtained from the combination of X-ray source points, to generate one or more reconstructed images.Type: GrantFiled: April 18, 2005Date of Patent: June 5, 2007Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Peter Michael Edic, Samit Kumar Basu, Bruno Kristiaan Bernard De Man
-
Patent number: 7218195Abstract: A magnetizing coil unit and a method of making a magnetizing coil unit is provided. The coil includes a solenoid coil having a coiled copper sheet in which the width of the copper sheet is equal to the height of the solenoid coil. A magnetizing assembly includes a plurality of magnetizing coil units.Type: GrantFiled: October 1, 2003Date of Patent: May 15, 2007Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Evangelos Trifon Laskaris, Paul Shadforth Thompson, Liang Li, Kathleen Melanie Amm, Bulent Aksel, Michael Anthony Palmo, Jr.
-
Patent number: 7215212Abstract: The present invention is directed to a system that enables the simultaneous remote monitoring of a plurality of infants' skin temperatures. The system comprises an electronic circuit that combines the functions of sensoring and multiple-channel transmitting, a pre-deployment temperature bath for calibration of the temperature sensor(s), and a receiving and reporting station for centralized monitoring the infants' skin temperatures. The present invention is further directed to a temperature sensor that measures the temperature and transmits the data in multiple channels to a remote receiver. In one embodiment, the temperature sensor comprises a ring oscillator, having a plurality of odd number of inverters, and the ring oscillator is capable of utilizing less than all of the inverters in the ring to modulate the frequency of the signal. In another embodiment, the temperature sensor comprises one inverter and a plurality of delay elements and sensor transmits phase shifted signals to modulate the signals.Type: GrantFiled: April 12, 2004Date of Patent: May 8, 2007Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Michael Joseph Mahony, Daniel White Sexton, John Erik Hershey
-
Patent number: 7208739Abstract: A method for correcting at least one of pileup effects or charge sharing effects in multi-cell photon counting detectors includes determining a correction coefficient using a count rate of an entire spectrum and applying the determined correction to the counts recorded in an energy window of interest.Type: GrantFiled: November 30, 2005Date of Patent: April 24, 2007Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Brian David Yanoff, Wen Li
-
Patent number: 7173426Abstract: An optical data link is provided for optically transmitting in free space data from a plurality of receiver coils in a magnetic resonance (MR) imaging system. This free space (e.g., through-the-air) optical data link provides a tether-less (i.e., no bundles of physical wires or optic fibers), essentially electro-magnetically immune (no interference as in radio-frequency wireless transmissions) and scalable solution to transmit data usable to create an MR image.Type: GrantFiled: November 29, 2005Date of Patent: February 6, 2007Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Selaka Bandara Bulumulla, Glenn Alan Forman
-
Patent number: 7167000Abstract: A cryogenically cooled radiofrequency (RF) coil structure for use in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and method for cryogenically cooling RF coils are provided. The cryogenically cooled RF coil structure comprises a sealed structure constructed of non-conducting material and adapted for containing a cooling substance and at least one RF coil disposed integrally in contact with the sealed structure such that sealed structure and integrally disposed RF coil are disposed about an object to be imaged.Type: GrantFiled: December 22, 2004Date of Patent: January 23, 2007Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Kathleen Melanie Amm, Ronald Dean Watkins, William Daniel Barber, Christopher Judson Hardy, Kenneth William Rohling
-
Patent number: 7164379Abstract: An analog to digital conversion circuit includes a first circuit (10) for receiving an analog signal (16) applied to an input (e.g., 26) of the first circuit via a connection to an analog source (e.g., 18) and generating a first residue (58) of the analog signal at an output (e.g., 32). The first circuit may be selectively configurable in a first mode for integrating the analog signal to generate an integrated analog signal and configurable in a second mode for disconnecting the first circuit from the analog source while folding the integrated analog signal to generate the first residue. The analog to digital conversion circuit also includes a second circuit (60) coupled to the output of the first circuit for resolving the first residue provided by the first circuit and for generating a further resolved second residue (98).Type: GrantFiled: November 30, 2005Date of Patent: January 16, 2007Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventor: Naresh Kesavan Rao
-
Patent number: 7145152Abstract: Storage capacitor design for a solid state imager. The imager includes several pixels disposed on a substrate in an imaging array pattern. Each pixel includes a photosensor coupled to a thin film switching transistor. Several scan lines are disposed at a first level with respect to the substrate along a first axis and several data lines are disposed at a second level along a second axis of the imaging array. Several data lines disposed at a second level with respect to the substrate along a second axis of the imaging array pattern. Each pixel comprises a storage capacitor coupled parallel to the photosensor, the storage capacitor comprising a storage capacitor electrode and a capacitor common electrode.Type: GrantFiled: October 14, 2003Date of Patent: December 5, 2006Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Ji-Ung Lee, Douglas Albagli, George Edward Possin, William Andrew Hennessy, Ching-Yeu Wei
-
Patent number: 7128712Abstract: A method and system for operating an ultrasound system is provided. The method comprising estimating a relative motion between a transducer and an imaging subject and controlling an adaptive beamformer system in response to to an estimation of the relative motion.Type: GrantFiled: June 21, 2004Date of Patent: October 31, 2006Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventor: Kenneth Wayne Rigby
-
Patent number: 7123774Abstract: A universal position coding method and system are provided for coding uncompressed data. Data symbols are assigned to a bin portion and a raw portion, and a data tree structure is utilized. A top down approach involves initializing a data tree based on the bit depth of the data; splitting a bin to form two separate bins based on a predetermined splitting condition; and repeating the splitting step until a terminating condition is achieved. A bottom up approach involves forming a data tree; merging two existing bins to form a new bin based on a merging condition; and repeating the merging step until a terminating condition is achieved.Type: GrantFiled: November 27, 2002Date of Patent: October 17, 2006Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Somasekhar Dhavala, Frederick Wilson Wheeler
-
Patent number: 7116810Abstract: A method for measuring tubular anatomical structures, for example lung airways, comprises isolating by at least one segmentation process a given tubular anatomical structure of interest and measuring at least one attribute of the structure of interest. A system for measuring lung airways using acquired image data is provided. The system comprises an imaging device for acquiring the image data and an image processing device coupled to the imaging device. The imaging processing device is configured for isolating by at least one segmentation process a given airway of interest, fitting an inner ellipse to an inner boundary of the given airway and an outer ellipse to an outer boundary of the airway structure using statistical techniques at a given point in the airway, and further configured for generating measurements of the given airway using the inner and outer ellipses.Type: GrantFiled: November 27, 2002Date of Patent: October 3, 2006Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: James Vradenburg Miller, Matthew William Turek, Joseph Leagrand Mundy, Peter Henry Tu
-
Patent number: 7095354Abstract: A multi-channel analog to digital conversion circuit and methods thereon are provided. The multi-channel analog to digital conversion cirucit comprises a plurality of linearized channels wherein each channel comprises a multi-stage pipelined charge-to-digital converter and an integrating capacitor within each stage of the multi-stage converter wherein analog residue is processed by subsequent analog to digital converter stages. Each stage of respective linearized channels is configured for calculating gain and offset for each stage in the channel and such gain and offset is used in subsequent integration periods.Type: GrantFiled: August 12, 2005Date of Patent: August 22, 2006Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Daniel David Harrison, Naresh Kesavan Rao, Shobhana Mani, Naveen Stephan Chandra, Oliver Richard Astley, Donald Thomas McGrath
-
Patent number: 7091865Abstract: A system and method for monitoring the activities of a resident living independently to distinguish normal activity from unusual activity. A variety of sensors distributed around the home collect data on activity in the home. The data is communicated to a remote monitoring center and collated in a database according to applicable time slots. The time slots for a twenty-four hour cycle are at least three and can be as many as forty-eight or more. Historical activity time lines are created and a buffer time is added to and offset from the maximum historical activity time line. If a new data point comes in that exceeds both the maximum historical activity time line and the buffer time, an alert is issued indicating the activity is unusual.Type: GrantFiled: February 4, 2004Date of Patent: August 15, 2006Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Paul Edward Cuddihy, Jenny Marie Weisenberg, Meena Ganesh, Catherine Mary Graichen
-
Patent number: 7085406Abstract: A method and system are provided for generating transfer functions for use in volume rendering of three-dimensional data of an object volume. The method comprises obtaining the three-dimensional data of the object volume, evaluating selected characteristics for a plurality of samples of the three-dimensional data and computing a transfer function range for volume rendering the three-dimensional data based on the selected characteristics. The system comprises an imaging device and an image processing device. The image processing device is adapted to generate at least one three-dimensional image data set of the object volume based on obtained image data and is further adapted to compute a transfer function range for use in volume rendering.Type: GrantFiled: July 27, 2001Date of Patent: August 1, 2006Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventor: Abdalmajeid Musa Alyassin
-
Patent number: 7068749Abstract: A stationary CT system comprising at least one annular x ray source assembly comprising a plurality of respective x ray sources spaced along the annular x ray source assembly. Each of the x ray sources comprises a respective stationary x ray target, an electron beam focusing chamber; an x ray channel; an electron beam source disposed in a spaced apart relationship with respect to the respective stationary x ray target; a vacuum chamber disposed in between the electron beam focusing chamber and an insulating chamber where the insulating chamber houses the electron beam source; a radiation window at a pre-defined angular displacement from the respective stationary x ray target and the x ray channel; and a target substrate attached to the respective stationary x ray target.Type: GrantFiled: May 19, 2003Date of Patent: June 27, 2006Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Manohar Gopalaswamy Kollegal, Colin Richard Wilson, Bernard Patrick Bewlay, Mark Gilbert Benz