Abstract: An apparatus to acoustically monitor a container includes a first acoustic transducer mountable to an exterior of the container to send a first acoustic signal into an interior of the container and a second acoustic transducer mountable to the exterior of the container to send a second acoustic signal into the interior of the container. The apparatus further includes a data processing unit to process a first acoustic response signal related to the first acoustic signal and a second acoustic response signal related to the second acoustic signal to determine contents within the interior of the container at locations of the first acoustic transducer and the second acoustic transducer.

Abstract: A system for assessing organ function couples light emitters into an optical fiber delivery assembly of which the tip extends to or into an internal organ and illuminates tissue; the device senses temperature at the tip, and a collection fiber collects light scattered, reflected or emitted by the surrounding tissue. Control and processing modules drive the laser diodes and process return spectral signals, e.g., to assess metabolic activity and detect onset of shock. A prototype uses four laser diodes with peaks at 735, 760, 805 and 890 nm, with a front end splitter providing a reference beam to a photo detector for normalizing detection output and correcting the signal samples. The device may include a plurality of laser diodes and may select subsets of the sources to tailor spectral illumination to different target enzymes, metabolites or other compounds.

Abstract: A system for assessing organ function has a plurality of light emitters of distinct spectral characteristics are coupled into a percutaneous fiber delivery assembly with a tip extending to or into an internal organ to illuminate organ tissue. The assembly includes a delivery optical fiber, and a collection fiber that collects and returns light scattered, reflected or emitted by the surrounding tissue to a detector at the proximal end. The device also senses temperature at the tip. Control and processing modules drive the laser diodes and process the return signals. The instrument may assess general metabolic activity by detecting light absorption of a linked substance, for example at a peak attributed to deoxygenated hemoglobin and/or at one or more peaks attributed to oxygenated hemoglobin. Preferably, change of a parameter such as pulse oxygen saturation together with one or more other parameters such as temperature are detected to provide an indication of organ function, e.g., the onset of shock.