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| 20080306335 | Endoscopic vessel harvesting system components - Components for an endoscopic vessel harvesting system suitable for harvesting target vessels such as the saphenous vein or radial artery for cardiac artery bypass graft surgery. The main components of such systems include a vessel dissector and a vessel harvester, both of which work in conjunction with a separately provided endoscope. The vessel dissector is an elongated cannula having a blunt tip for separating layers of facial around vessels. The tip may be movable, and is typically transparent to permit viewing forward of the tip using the endoscope. Internal features of the tip may reduce glare back to the endoscope. Several devices improve visibility through the tip by reducing interference from tissue or fluid on the tip. The vessel harvester also has an elongated cannula for receiving the endoscope. Several tools within the harvester permit manipulation, severing, and sealing of vessels forward of the distal end. The tool for manipulating vessels may have a low-profile for increased visibility of operation, and may be coupled to the cannula with a damping mechanism to reduce the possibility of avulsion of the vessels. Various vessel cutting and sealing devices are provided that may accommodate various sizes of vessels and improve cutting and sealing efficacy. | 12-11-2008 |
| 20100121349 | TERMINATION DEVICES AND RELATED METHODS - Devices and methods for locking and/or cutting tethers during a tissue modification procedure are described. In some variations, a tether may be used to tighten tissue by bringing two pieces or sections of the tissue together. The tether, which may be under tension, may be locked to maintain the tension, and excess tether may be severed, using one or more of the devices and/or methods. The devices and/or methods may be used, for example, in minimally invasive procedures. | 05-13-2010 |
| 20100198208 | DIAGNOSTIC CATHETERS, GUIDE CATHETERS, VISUALIZATION DEVICES AND CHORD MANIPULATION DEVICES, AND RELATED KITS AND METHODS - Described herein are devices, methods and kits for assessing and/or enhancing the accessibility of a subvalvular space of a heart, accessing the subvalvular space of the heart (e.g., to provide access for one or more other devices), and/or positioning one or more devices in the subvalvular space of the heart. The devices described herein may, for example, comprise catheters that may be used to manipulate one or more chordae tendineae, diagnostic catheters having different sizes and/or shapes (e.g., different curvatures), guide catheters having different sizes and/or shapes (e.g., different curvatures), and visualization catheters. In some variations, the devices, methods, and/or kits may be used to visualize a target site, such as a subannular groove of a heart valve. In certain variations, the devices, methods, and/or kits may be used to manipulate chordae tendineae to provide additional space in a ventricle of a heart (e.g., enhancing the accessibility of the ventricle). | 08-05-2010 |
| 20100234843 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR INTEGRATED VESSEL LIGATOR AND TRANSECTOR - Surgical treatment of tissue includes electrocauterization of blood vessels interposed between spaced sets of electrodes of opposite polarity, and includes transection of such tissue by a cutter that is mounted between the spaced sets of electrodes for translational and lateral movement relative to the sets of electrodes. Orientations of the sets of electrodes within a range of angles about an elongated axis of a supporting body are controlled by manual movement of an actuator mounted near a proximal end of the body for movement through a smaller range of angles via linkage connecting the actuator to the electrodes. Tissue dissection with gas insufflation to form an anatomical space in tissue is facilitated by a fluid outlet port located near the tissue-dissecting tip at the distal end of the elongated body that delivers through the tissue-dissecting tip to the dissected tissue a fluid under pressure that is supplied along a lumen within the elongated body. | 09-16-2010 |
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| 20110038512 | Facial Recognition with Social Network Aiding - A facial recognition search system identifies one or more likely names (or other personal identifiers) corresponding to the facial image(s) in a query as follows. After receiving the visual query with one or more facial images, the system identifies images that potentially match the respective facial image in accordance with visual similarity criteria. Then one or more persons associated with the potential images are identified. For each identified person, person-specific data comprising metrics of social connectivity to the requester are retrieved from a plurality of applications such as communications applications, social networking applications, calendar applications, and collaborative applications. An ordered list of persons is then generated by ranking the identified persons in accordance with at least metrics of visual similarity between the respective facial image and the potential image matches and with the social connection metrics. Finally, at least one person identifier from the list is sent to the requester. | 02-17-2011 |
| 20110116690 | Automatically Mining Person Models of Celebrities for Visual Search Applications - Methods and systems for automated identification of celebrity face images are provided that generate a name list of prominent celebrities, obtain a set of images and corresponding feature vectors for each name, detect faces within the set of images, and remove non-face images. An analysis of the images is performed using an intra-model analysis, an inter-model analysis, and a spectral analysis to return highly accurate biometric models for each of the individuals present in the name list. Recognition is then performed based on precision and recall to identify the face images as belonging to a celebrity or indicate that the face is unknown. | 05-19-2011 |
| 20110135207 | Matching An Approximately Located Query Image Against A Reference Image Set - Aspects of the invention pertain to matching a selected image/photograph against a database of reference images having location information. The image of interest may include some location information itself, such as latitude/longitude coordinates and orientation. However, the location information provided by a user's device may be inaccurate or incomplete. The image of interest is provided to a front end server, which selects one or more cells to match the image against. Each cell may have multiple images and an index. One or more cell match servers compare the image against specific cells based on information provided by the front end server. An index storage server maintains index data for the cells and provides them to the cell match servers. If a match is found, the front end server identifies the correct location and orientation of the received image, and may correct errors in an estimated location of the user device. | 06-09-2011 |
| 20110137895 | Hybrid Use of Location Sensor Data and Visual Query to Return Local Listings for Visual Query - A visual query is received from a client system, along with location information for the client system, and processed by a server system. The server system sends the visual query and the location information to a visual query search system, and receives from the visual query search system enhanced location information based on the visual query and the location information. The server system then sends a search query, including the enhanced location information, to a location-based search system. The search system receives and provides to the client one or more search results to the client system. | 06-09-2011 |
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| 20090252383 | Method and Apparatus to Incorporate Automatic Face Recognition in Digital Image Collections - A method and apparatus for creating and updating a facial image database from a collection of digital images is disclosed. A set of detected faces from a digital image collection is stored in a facial image database, along with data pertaining to them. At least one facial recognition template for each face in the first set is computed, and the images in the set are grouped according to the facial recognition template into similarity groups. Another embodiment is a naming tool for assigning names to a plurality of faces detected in a digital image collection. A facial image database stores data pertaining to facial images detected in images of a digital image collection. In addition, the naming tool may include a graphical user interface, a face detection module that detects faces in images of the digital image collection and stores data pertaining to the detected faces in the facial image database, a face recognition module that computes at least one facial recognition template for each facial image in the facial image database, and a similarity grouping module that groups facial images in the facial image database according to the respective templates such that similar facial images belong to one similarity group. | 10-08-2009 |
| 20090279794 | Automatic Discovery of Popular Landmarks - In one embodiment the present invention is a method for populating and updating a database of images of landmarks including geo-clustering geo-tagged images according to geographic proximity to generate one or more geo-clusters, and visual-clustering the one or more geo-clusters according to image similarity to generate one or more visual clusters. In another embodiment, the present invention is a system for identifying landmarks from digital images, including the following components: a database of geo-tagged images; a landmark database; a geo-clustering module; and a visual clustering module. In other embodiments the present invention may be a method of enhancing user queries to retrieve images of landmarks, or a method of automatically tagging a new digital image with text labels. | 11-12-2009 |
| 20100290699 | Landmarks from Digital Photo Collections - Methods and systems for automatic detection of landmarks in digital images and annotation of those images are disclosed. A method for detecting and annotating landmarks in digital images includes the steps of automatically assigning a tag descriptive of a landmark to one or more images in a plurality of text-associated digital images to generate a set of landmark-tagged images,learning an appearance model for the landmark from the set of landmark-tagged images, and detecting the landmark in a new digital image using the appearance model. The method can also include a step of annotating the new image with the tag descriptive of the landmark. | 11-18-2010 |
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| 20090151015 | DISEASE-INDUCIBLE PROMOTERS - Disease-inducible promoter sequences have been identified that may be used to produce transgenic plants that are both more resistant to disease than control plants, and are wild-type or nearly wild type in appearance. Any of these disease-inducible promoters may be incorporated into expression vectors that each comprise a defense response protein operably linked to the promoter. The expression vectors can be introduced into plants and the defense response protein then ectopically expressed. Transgenic plants transformed with many of these expression vectors have been shown to be more resistant to disease, in some cases, to more than one type of pathogen, and yet are similar to wild type plants in their morphology and development. | 06-11-2009 |
| 20090265813 | STRESS TOLERANCE IN PLANTS - Transcription factor polynucleotides and polypeptides incorporated into expression vectors have been introduced into plants and were ectopically expressed. Transgenic plants transformed with many of these expression vectors have been shown to be more resistant to disease (in some cases, to more than one pathogen), or more tolerant to an abiotic stress (in some cases, to more than one abiotic stress). The abiotic stress may include salt, hyperosmotic stress, heat, cold, drought, or low nitrogen conditions. | 10-22-2009 |
| 20100083395 | STRESS-RELATED POLYNUCLEOTIDES AND POLYPEPTIDES IN PLANTS - The invention relates to plant transcription factor polypeptides, polynucleotides that encode them, homologs from a variety of plant species, and methods of using the polynucleotides and polypeptides to produce transgenic plants having advantageous properties compared to a reference plant. Sequence information related to these polynucleotides and polypeptides can also be used in bioinformatic search methods and is also disclosed. | 04-01-2010 |
| 20100107279 | YIELD-RELATED POLYNUCLEOTIDES AND POLYPEPTIDES IN PLANTS - The invention relates to plant transcription factor polypeptides, polynucleotides that encode them, homologs from a variety of plant species, and methods of using the polynucleotides and polypeptides to produce transgenic plants having advantageous properties compared to a reference plant. Sequence information related to these polynucleotides and polypeptides can also be used in bioinformatic search methods and is also disclosed. | 04-29-2010 |
| 20100175145 | PLANT TRANSCRIPTIONAL REGULATORS - The invention relates to plant transcription factor polypeptides, polynucleotides that encode them, homologs from a variety of plant species, and methods of using the polynucleotides and polypeptides to produce transgenic plants having improved tolerance to drought, shade, and low nitrogen conditions, as compared to wild-type or reference plants. | 07-08-2010 |
| 20110078806 | POLYNUCLEOTIDES AND POLYPEPTIDES IN PLANTS - The invention relates to plant transcription factor polypeptides, polynucleotides that encode them, homologs from a variety of plant species, and methods of using the polynucleotides and polypeptides to produce transgenic plants having advantageous properties compared to a reference plant. Sequence information related to these polynucleotides and polypeptides can also be used in bioinformatic search methods and is also disclosed. | 03-31-2011 |
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| 20100172246 | METHODS, SYSTEMS, AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIA FOR AUTOMATICALLY CATEGORIZING VOICE OVER INTERNET PROTOCOL (VoIP) SUBSCRIBER DEVICES IN ACCORDANCE WITH VoIP TEST AND CALL QUALITY DATA - Methods, systems, and computer readable media for categorizing voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) subscriber device numbers in accordance to test call results are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes creating a plurality of VoIP test call lists within a test call system and assigning VoIP subscriber device numbers to the plurality of VoIP test call lists. Each of VoIP subscriber device numbers is tested based on the test call list to which each of the VoIP subscriber device numbers is assigned, wherein each test call list corresponds to at least one of a test call type and a test call frequency associated with the test call list. The method also includes obtaining call quality data for at least one of the VoIP subscriber device numbers and automatically reassigning one or more of the VoIP subscriber device numbers to a different test call list based on at least one of results of the testing and the call quality data. | 07-08-2010 |
| 20100266106 | METHODS, SYSTEMS, AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIA FOR REMOTELY EVALUATING AND CONTROLLING VOICE OVER IP (VoIP) SUBSCRIBER TERMINAL EQUIPMENT - Methods, systems, and computer readable media for remotely evaluating and controlling VoIP subscriber terminal equipment using test calls, status queries, and usage statistics are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes initiating test calls with VoIP subscriber terminal equipment and obtaining test call results. The method further includes analyzing usage information regarding the VoIP subscriber terminal equipment and determining subscriber terminal device usage results. The method also includes remotely querying the VoIP subscriber terminal device and determining subscriber terminal equipment state information. The method further includes determining, based on the subscriber terminal equipment test call results, the subscriber terminal equipment usage results, and the subscriber terminal equipment state information, whether to initiate a remote control action for the VoIP subscriber terminal equipment and in response to determining to initiate a remote control action, initiating the remote control action to effect a change in state of the VoIP subscriber terminal equipment. | 10-21-2010 |
