Abstract: A modular biometric station system is used to form one or more modular biometric stations with cohesive form factors. Such biometric stations include a core unit, one or more end caps, and one or more modules. The modules may be configured to communicably and electrically couple to one or more of the end caps. The end caps may be configured to communicably and electrically couple to the core unit and/or one or more of the modules and may communicably and electrically couple one or more of the modules to the core unit. The core unit, end caps, and/or the modules may be able to communicably interact when coupled together. The core unit, end caps, and modules may all share a form factor. The core unit may include hardware and/or software that satisfies common requirements, and the modules may include peripherals and/or other components that can be coupled to the core unit to adapt the modular biometric station to a variety of different needs of different applications.

Abstract: An edible educational aid comprised of a body of edible material configured into the form of a recognizable object, and containing within its interior mass, an inner core of material designated to identify the object in which the body is configured to resemble. With the employment of the embodiments, the benefits of learning object recognition, spelling, reading, and mathematics are enjoyed thru the consumption of an edible article by a person, especially a child.

Abstract: A plasma torch circuit includes a control for initially setting the torch at a desired height above a workpiece during the time the non-transferred arc exists between the torch cathode and the torch tip. Measurement is made of the voltage between the cathode and the workpiece, and that voltage is compared to an input for controlling torch height. During transferred arc operation, a reference is initially created by storing the cathode-to-workpiece voltage occurring immediately after the transferred arc is turned on, and using the latter stored voltage as a reference for torch height maintenance.