Reflective Optical Member Patents (Class 356/132)
  • Patent number: 8239144
    Abstract: A portable liquid design system includes a portable information handling system (IHS) that employs a liquid design application capable of operating in different modes to design different liquids such as corn syrup, espresso, coffee, soda pop and others. The portable liquid design system may include a refractometer to measure the refractive index and temperature of a liquid under test. The liquid design application may apply the measured refractive index and temperature to a 3 dimensional representation of the correlation of refractive index, temperature and concentration (% total dissolved solids) to determine a particular concentration corresponding to the measured refractive index and temperature. A single 3 dimensional scale may apply to virtually all values of interest of refractive index, temperature and concentration for a particular liquid under test.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2012
    Assignee: Voice Systems Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Vincent Fedele
  • Patent number: 8231833
    Abstract: A whispering gallery mode resonator based optical sensor assembly comprises a flow channel permeable to optical energy and first and second optical waveguides adjacent to a section of the flow channel and adapted to be in first and second evanescent field couplings respectively with the section such that the section forms a whispering gallery mode resonator. The resonator is responsive to an optical signal conveyed in the first optical waveguide and communicates a second optical signal to the second optical waveguide indicative of a resonance wavelength of the whispering gallery mode resonator. A detector optically coupled to the second optical waveguide detects the output signal. A signal processor detects a shift in the output signal responsive to an analyte fluid flowing through the flow channel. The shift is indicative of the identity of at least one constituent of the analyte fluid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2012
    Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation
    Inventors: Scott Maurer, Stephanie Groves, Kee Koo
  • Patent number: 7879619
    Abstract: An apparatus for detecting one or more substances includes a radiation source emitting a beam of radiation and also includes a material capable of reflecting the beam of radiation with a first characteristic and capable of reflecting the beam of radiation with a second characteristic when the material interacts with the one or more substances. The apparatus also includes two or more radiation detectors to detect the first and second characteristics of the beam of radiation. A first one of the two or more radiation detectors is adjustably aligned to detect the first and second characteristics of the beam of radiation reflected from a first region of the material. A second one of the two or more radiation detectors is adjustably aligned to detect the first and second characteristics of the beam of radiation reflected from a second region of the material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2011
    Inventors: Tianwei Jing, Feimeng Zhou, Nongjian Tao
  • Patent number: 7719738
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for reducing speckle of a laser beam is disclosed. The apparatus includes a light guide, a highly reflective mirror at the input face of the light guide and a partially-transmissive display after the exit face of the light guide. A coherent laser beam is introduced into the light guide through a clear aperture in the highly reflective mirror. Within the light guide, the laser beam gets separated into plural, successive beamlets having different phase shifts, different polarization states and/or path length differences equal to or greater than the coherence length of the laser beam. The beamlets exit through the partially-transmissive display to provide output laser light with reduced speckle. The light guide can be either a solid light pipe of transmissive material or a hollow tunnel with reflective interior sidewalls.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2010
    Inventor: Nayef M. Abu-Ageel
  • Patent number: 7655421
    Abstract: An assay technique for label-free, highly parallel, qualitative and quantitative detection of specific cell populations in a sample and for assessing cell functional status, cell-cell interactions and cellular responses to drugs, environmental toxins, bacteria, viruses and other factors that may affect cell function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2010
    Assignee: Ciencia, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael A. Lynes, Salvador M. Fernández
  • Patent number: 7475997
    Abstract: A reflective display includes a retroreflective layer and a modulation layer, which is provided closer to a viewer than the retroreflective layer is and which is switchable between first and second states with mutually different optical characteristics. The retroreflective layer includes a two-dimensional arrangement of unit elements, which are arranged at a pitch of at most 250 ?m. The retroreflective layer has a retro-reflectivity Rr of at least 45%. The retroreflectivity is defined as a ratio of the intensity of light, which has been reflected from the retroreflective layer and then received at a cone angle of 7.5 degrees by a retroreflectivity measuring system, to that of light, which has been reflected from a dielectric mirror and then received by the same retroreflectivity measuring system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 13, 2009
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Sayuri Fujiwara, Kiyoshi Minoura
  • Patent number: 6525808
    Abstract: A method and system for determining a spatially local index of refraction in optical materials is provided. Light, including a near-field intensity, is collected above a surface of the material. A probe is oscillated at a plurality of frequencies and in a substantially perpendicular manner relative to the surface of the material to detect the near-field intensity of the light. A distance of the probe from the surface of the material is modulated. Based on a ratio of the near-field intensity of the light detected at the plurality of frequencies, the local index of refraction is determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 1999
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2003
    Assignee: University of Cincinnati
    Inventors: Howard E. Jackson, Din Ping Tsai
  • Patent number: 6356675
    Abstract: A sensor for measuring the change in refractive index of a liquid uses the lowest critical angle of a normal fiber optic to achieve sensitivity when the index of the liquid is significantly less than the index of the fiber core. Another embodiment uses a liquid filled core to ensure that its index is approximately the same as the liquid being measured.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 1995
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2002
    Assignee: Sandia Corporation
    Inventor: Jonathan David Weiss
  • Patent number: 5347358
    Abstract: The invention relates to a transmitted-light refractometer wherein a slit diaphragm is imaged on a diode array through a cuvette holding the sample. The cuvette itself is arranged in the telecentric beam path. The exit window of the cuvette has several regions in which the inner surfaces of the exit window are inclined differently to the inner surface of the entry window. In this way, several slit images are generated on the diode array and the relative spacings of these images are independent of a possible disadjustment of the condenser and the objective. An embodiment of the invention permits the simultaneous measurement of the refractive index and the absorption of the sample.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 1993
    Date of Patent: September 13, 1994
    Assignee: Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH
    Inventors: Wolfgang Nebe, Rolf Godat
  • Patent number: RE38590
    Abstract: An operation apparatus for ablating the cornea by laser beam and correcting ametropia of the eye comprising a diaphragm with variable aperture, which is disposed on the optical path along which the laser beam is irradiated on the cornea, a shading member for shading the aperture of the diaphragm in the meridian diameter direction of the aperture, which is capable of varying the shading area to the aperture of the diaphragm by changing the turning angle to the optical path, in which aperture diameter of the diaphragm and variation in scope of the shading area by the shading member being controlled, and a beam rotator disposed in the eye side to the diaphragm rotates the laser beam passed through the aperture of the diaphragm about the optical path, whereby the cornea is ablated thicker at the periphery than at the center so as to correct hypermetropia.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2004
    Assignee: Nidek Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Toshifumi Sumiya