Patents Examined by Joel Lamprecht
  • Patent number: 11744556
    Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes: an ultrasonic probe that transmits/receives ultrasonic waves; a camera that captures a subject; an ultrasonic image generator that generates an ultrasonic image of the subject based on a reception signal acquired from the ultrasonic probe; a first hardware processor that generates a display image including a camera image acquired from the camera and the ultrasonic image acquired from the ultrasonic image generator, and reproducibly saves the display image in a storage; and a second hardware processor that decides a display style of the camera image to be arranged in the display image in accordance with a usage when reading the display image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: Konica Minolta, Inc.
    Inventors: Toshio Oka, Takashi Sakai
  • Patent number: 11744468
    Abstract: An ultrasound system includes an ultrasound transducer, an ultrasound controller structured to communicate with the ultrasound transducer, and a signal processing system structured to communicate with the ultrasound transducer. The ultrasound controller is structured to provide control signals to the ultrasound transducer to transmit a plurality of at least three non-coplanar A-line signals and to receive corresponding at least three non-coplanar A-line signals, and the signal processing system is structured to receive the at least three non-coplanar A-line signals from the ultrasound transducer and to form a generalized B-mode image based on the at least three non-coplanar A-line signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: The Johns Hopkins University
    Inventors: Xiaoyu Guo, Emad M. Boctor
  • Patent number: 11744557
    Abstract: An ultrasound system has user selectable tissue specific presets by which a user can condition the ultrasound system to be optimized for specific types of diagnostic exams. After an exam type has been selected and the exam commenced, a user manipulates imaging and workflow controls to better visualize the target anatomy. The user has the choice of setting up the system so that imaging and workflow settings are maintained when the tissue specific presets are changed, or to reset the imaging and workflow settings to default values upon a change of the tissue specific presets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: KONINKLIIKE PHILIPS N.V.
    Inventors: Anne Holmes, Martin Stumpf
  • Patent number: 11744545
    Abstract: A current cross section searching unit identifies a current cross section corresponding to a scan plane by setting a group of provisional cross sections with respect to a tissue model corresponding to a target tissue, and calculating a degree of similarity between data of each provisional cross section and tomographic image data. An operation support information generating unit generates operation support information from difference information indicating a spatial relationship between the current cross section and a target cross section (corresponding to an observation cross section). The group of provisional cross sections set with respect to the tissue model is narrowed down based on a camera image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Healthcare Corporation
    Inventor: Eiji Kasahara
  • Patent number: 11737724
    Abstract: The invention provides a system and a method for calculating a pulse wave velocity based on a plurality of intravascular ultrasonic pulses directed along a vessel. For each ultrasonic pulse, a plurality of echoes is received from a plurality of distances along the vessel. A first ultrasound Doppler signal is received from a first distance from the pulse origin and a second ultrasound Doppler signal from a second distance from the pulse origin. A first and second flow velocity metric is obtained based on the first and second ultrasound Doppler signal, respectively. The pulse wave velocity is calculated based on the time delay, which is based on the first flow velocity metric and the second flow velocity metric.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.
    Inventors: Maarten Petrus Joseph Kuenen, Arjen Van Der Horst
  • Patent number: 11737736
    Abstract: An ultrasound imaging device or probe includes a tip having a heat conducting exterior housing within which an imaging element is positioned. The imaging element is engaged with a heat sink formed of an electrically insulating material that also has high thermal conductivity. The heat sink contacts and extends through and electrically insulating enclosure within which the imaging element is disposed. As a result, the heat generated by the imaging element can be readily conducted to the ambient environment via the heat sink and heat conductive exterior housing while also enabling the imaging element and other electrical components to be electrically insulated from the housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: GE Precision Healthcare LLC
    Inventors: Birger Løype, Warren Lee, Stephen D. Edwardsen
  • Patent number: 11737829
    Abstract: This disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for localizing a device relative to an instrument. A sensor of the instrument can be monitored for a change in signaling during a first transition of the device relative to the instrument. The sensor can further be monitored for another change in signaling provided by the sensor of the instrument in response to a second transition of the device relative to the instrument. A transition distance difference can be determined between the first transition and the second transition. A location of the device relative to the instrument can be determined based on a location of the instrument and the transition difference distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: THE CLEVELAND CLINIC FOUNDATION
    Inventors: Jeffrey H. Yanof, Karl West
  • Patent number: 11737725
    Abstract: The present disclosure describes systems and methods configured to determine shear wave velocity and tissue stiffness levels of thin tissue of finite size, also referred to as bounded tissue, via shear wave elastography. Systems can include an ultrasound transducer configured to acquire echoes responsive to pulses transmitted toward a tissue. Systems can also transmit a push pulse into the tissue for generating shear waves, and tracking pulses intersecting the shear waves. The system can also apply a directional filter to received echo data and generate directionally filtered shear wave data based on a dimension and angular orientation of the bounded target relative to the ultrasound transducer. The system can estimate velocities of the shear waves at different shear wave frequencies based on the filtered shear wave data and angular orientation relative to the transducer, and determine a tissue stiffness value independent of the shape or form of the tissue.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.
    Inventors: Carolina Amador Carrascal, Francois Guy Gerard Marie Vignon, Seungsoo Kim
  • Patent number: 11730548
    Abstract: An OCT scanning probe includes a tubular housing, at least one electrode, an optical fiber scanner and an auxiliary localization component. The electrode is disposed on an outer surface of the tubular housing. The optical fiber scanner is disposed in the tubular housing and includes an optical fiber and an optical element. The optical element is disposed on an emitting end of the optical fiber and at corresponding position to a light transmittable portion of the tubular housing. The auxiliary localization component is disposed on the tubular housing, and overlaps part of the light transmittable portion. A light beam emitted from the optical fiber scanner passes through the light transmittable portion to obtain a tomographic image. An interaction of the light beam with the auxiliary localization component causes a characteristic in the tomographic image, with the characteristic corresponding to the auxiliary localization component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2023
    Assignee: INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE
    Inventors: De Yi Chiou, Kai-Hsiang Chen, Chi Shen Chang
  • Patent number: 11730445
    Abstract: Disclosed is an intraluminal ultrasound imaging system, including a processor circuit in communication with an intraluminal ultrasound imaging catheter, and configured to receive a plurality of intraluminal ultrasound images from the imaging catheter during movement of the imaging catheter within a body lumen of a patient, the body lumen comprising a plurality of segments. The processor circuit is further configured to generate a marker to be applied to an intraluminal ultrasound image of the plurality of intraluminal ultrasound images, wherein the marker is generated based on the movement of the intraluminal ultrasound imaging catheter, and wherein the marker is representative of a segment of the plurality of segments, and output to a display the marker and the plurality of intraluminal ultrasound images shown successively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2023
    Assignee: PHILIPS IMAGE GUIDED THERAPY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Rebecca Ann Jenkins, Pei-Yin Chao, Nikhil Sreedhar Rajguru, Tracy LeFever, Carl Rowe
  • Patent number: 11733337
    Abstract: A computing device: compares an anatomical magnetic resonance (MR) image of a patient region and reference anatomical data associated with the region to determine a first transform of a bore anatomical coordinate space of the anatomical MR image to a patient anatomical coordinate space associated with the patient; determines, from the first transform, a second transform of a bore DWMR coordinate space of a DWMR image to a patient DWMR coordinate space associated with the patient, the anatomical and the DWMR images being in respective bore coordinate spaces associated with a bore of an MR device which acquired the anatomical and the DWMR images; transforms, using the second transform, the DWMR image to the patient DWMR coordinate space; and controls a display screen to render the DWMR image, as transformed, according to visual attributes associated with the patient DWMR coordinate space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2023
    Assignee: SYNAPTIVE MEDICAL INC.
    Inventors: Neil Jeffrey Witcomb, Simon Kenley Alexander
  • Patent number: 11723526
    Abstract: A device that can be used for in vivo fluorescence measurements by endoscopy or laparoscopy, including: an excitation light source illuminating an object, for example biological tissue, and inducing emission of emission light by the examined object, the emission light is, for example, a fluorescence light; a telemetry sensor emitting a telemetry light beam towards the object; a projector element to project the excitation beam and the telemetry beam directly on the object. The telemetry sensor can estimate a distance between the projector element and the object, which distance makes it possible to modulate intensity of the excitation light emitted by the object. When the object is biological tissue, this makes it possible to comply with illumination thresholds of biological tissue and to maintain an illumination of constant intensity. The projector element can be included at the end of a laparoscope or of an endoscope.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2023
    Assignees: COMMISSARIAT A L'ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES, FLUOPTICS
    Inventor: Philippe Rizo
  • Patent number: 11724131
    Abstract: A wearable ultrasonic therapeutic device controlled by a mobile electronic device is provided, which includes a mobile device, at least one ultrasonic probe module and a strap. The mobile device has a mobile device control interface for setting ultrasonic parameters and displaying an echo wave through a specific software interface of the mobile device. The ultrasonic probe module includes at least one ultrasonic transducer and a control circuit corresponding thereto. The ultrasonic transducer generates and receives an ultrasonic wave. The control circuit has the functions of generating/receiving signals, phase regulation, power amplification and matching. One end of the ultrasonic probe module is electrically connected to the mobile device and the other end of the ultrasonic probe module is connected to the strap.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2023
    Assignees: NATIONAL HEALTH RESEARCH INSTITUTES, NATIONAL YANG MING CHIAO TUNG UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Gin-Shin Chen, Chia-Hsuan Chang, Jung-Chih Chen
  • Patent number: 11717235
    Abstract: A system and method for evaluating cardiovascular-related health of a user including an RF sensor device configured to transmit incident pulse signals towards the user, and to receive reflected pulse signals for generating a reflected pulse signal dataset, a pulse signal modification module configured to modify the reflected pulse signal dataset, and a processing system communicably coupled to the RF sensor device and the pulse signal modification module, the processing system configured to generate a cardiovascular parameter for the user based on the modified reflected pulse signal dataset.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2023
    Assignee: ATCOR MEDICAL PTY. LTD.
    Inventors: Oliver Hao-Yuan Shay, Lillian Lei Dai
  • Patent number: 11717184
    Abstract: Systems and methods for tracking head motion during medical imaging. In accordance to one aspect, a head holder for a medical scanner is provided. The head holder includes at least one movable component that moves with patient's head while the head is placed on the movable component during brain imaging. The head holder further includes one or more inertial measurement units (IMUs) attached to the movable component that measure motion data, wherein any change in orientation of the movable component indicated by the motion data represents movement of the head. The one or more IMUs may communicate with a computer system during brain imaging in substantially real time to record motion parameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2023
    Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.
    Inventor: Ahmadreza Ghahremani
  • Patent number: 11717233
    Abstract: Systems and methods for assessing a disease are provided. An input medical image in a first modality is received. Lungs are segmented from the input medical image using a trained lung segmentation network and abnormality patterns associated with the disease are segmented from the input medical image using a trained abnormality pattern segmentation network. The trained lung segmentation network and the trained abnormality pattern segmentation network are trained based on 1) synthesized images in the first modality generated from training images in a second modality and 2) target segmentation masks for the synthesized images generated from training segmentation masks for the training images. An assessment of the disease is determined based on the segmented lungs and the segmented abnormality patterns.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2023
    Assignee: Siemens Healthcare GmbH
    Inventors: Florin-Cristian Ghesu, Siqi Liu, Awais Mansoor, Sasa Grbic, Sebastian Vogt, Dorin Comaniciu, Ruhan Sa, Zhoubing Xu
  • Patent number: 11712192
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a method for providing biomarker for early detection of Alzheimer's Disease (AD), and particularly to a method that is able to enhance the accuracy of predicting AD from Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) patients using the Hippocampus magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) data. The providing MRI images containing the anatomical structure of Hippocampus biomarker and MMSE data as a training data set; training a processor using the training data set, and the training comprising acts of receiving MRI images and MMSE data as a testing data set from a target; and classifying the test data by the trained processor to include aggregating predictions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2023
    Assignee: NATIONAL CHENG KUNG UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Gwo Giun Lee, Te-Han Kung, Tzu-Cheng Chao, Yu-Min Kuo, Meng-Ru Tsai
  • Patent number: 11712206
    Abstract: An apparatus for estimating bio-information, includes a sensor including a cover having a transmitting area provided at a center of the cover, and non-transmitting areas provided at both edges of the cover, a light source configured to emit light onto an object that is in contact with the cover, and a detector configured to detect a first optical signal of the emitted light that is scattered or reflected from the object after passing through the transmitting area, and a second optical signal of the emitted light that is reflected from the non-transmitting areas. The apparatus further includes a processor configured to estimate bio-information, based on the detected first optical signal and the detected second optical signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2023
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Byung Hoon Ko, Seung Woo Noh, Jong Wook Lee, Jeong Eun Hwang, Youn Ho Kim
  • Patent number: 11707261
    Abstract: A two-dimensional array ultrasound probe, which is enabled for ultrasonic reception operation of a continuous wave Doppler mode (C mode) and an imaging mode (B mode). The probe includes a reception circuit provided for each transducer and a first multiplexer; a plurality of first wires connected to the first multiplexer; a second wire connected to a plurality of first wires outside the array; switches that are provided to the second wire and that can be turned off to adapt to phasing addition units; a plurality of second multiplexers connected to the second wire and a plurality of first output ports for the first mode; and a plurality of second output ports that are connected to each region between the switches on the second wire and that are used in the second mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2023
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Healthcare Corporation
    Inventors: Shinya Kajiyama, Yoshihiro Hayashi, Shinta Takano
  • Patent number: 11707328
    Abstract: A method and system for determining a target location for a medical device having complex geometry relative to an anatomical feature, and for navigating and positioning the medical device at the target location. The system may include a medical device including a treatment element having a centroid, one or more navigation electrodes, and a longitudinal axis and a navigation system in communication with the one or more navigation electrodes, the navigation system including a processing unit. The processing unit may be programmed to define a plane that approximates a surface of the anatomical feature, define a centroid of the anatomical feature, define a vector that is normal to the plane and extends away from the centroid of the anatomical feature, and determine a target location for the treatment element of the medical device based on the vector to assist the user in placing the device for treatment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2023
    Assignee: Medtronic, Inc.
    Inventor: Scott A. Hareland