Actuate Patent Grants

Assistive technology for the visually impaired

Granted: February 24, 2015
Patent Number: 8964201
Disclosed are methods and apparatus for generating accessible documents. In one embodiment, an initial document in a print format is obtained. The print format of the initial document is identified as one of a plurality of print formats. A parser corresponding to the one of the plurality of print formats is applied such that the initial document is parsed according to the print format of the initial document. An intermediate document that conforms to an intermediate format is generated…

Devices for clearing blockages in in-situ artificial lumens

Granted: December 9, 2014
Patent Number: 8906169
Devices and methods for the effective clearing of artificial tubes, especially in-situ clearing of artificial tubes in a living being are covered in this disclosure. An elongated clearing member includes either a fixed or an adjustable element that selectively defines the portion of the elongated clearing member that is insertable within the artificial tube. The proximal end of the clearing member is releasably secured to the driving mechanism and the driving mechanisms may comprise a…

Medical tool for reduced penetration force with feedback means

Granted: October 28, 2014
Patent Number: 8870865
A medical device for reducing the force necessary to penetrate living being tissue using a variety of reciprocating motion actuators, including piezoelectric, voice coil, solenoids, pneumatics or fluidics. The reciprocating actuator drives a penetrating member, such as a needle, through the tissue at a reduced force while the device detects the passage of the penetrating member through the tissue. Upon passage of the penetrating member through the tissue, electrical power to the…

Medical tool for reduced penetration force with feedback means

Granted: July 15, 2014
Patent Number: 8777944
A medical device for reducing the force necessary to penetrate living being tissue using a variety of reciprocating motion actuators, including piezoelectric, voice coil, solenoids, pneumatics or fluidics. The reciprocating actuator drives a penetrating member, such as a needle, through the tissue at a reduced force while the device detects the passage of the penetrating member through the tissue. Upon passage of the penetrating member through the tissue, electrical power to the…

Medical tool for reduced penetration force with feedback means

Granted: July 15, 2014
Patent Number: 8777871
A medical device for reducing the force necessary to penetrate living being tissue using a variety of reciprocating motion actuators, including piezoelectric, voice coil, solenoids, pneumatics or fluidics. The reciprocating actuator drives a penetrating member, such as a needle, through the tissue at a reduced force while the device detects the passage of the penetrating member through the tissue. Upon passage of the penetrating member through the tissue, electrical power to the…

Devices for clearing blockages in in-situ artificial lumens

Granted: April 8, 2014
Patent Number: 8690861
A device for the in situ clearing of blockages in a tube includes a controller and a clearing member. The controller can have a housing and an actuator for generating repetitive motion. The clearing member can be releasably coupled to the controller and suitable for insertion in the tube. The tube can be at least partially disposed within a living being. The controller can be located external to the living being. The clearing member can have a first end releasably coupled to the…

Document data access

Granted: April 1, 2014
Patent Number: 8687210
Disclosed are methods and apparatus for accessing data from electronic documents stored as print streams are disclosed. In one embodiment, an electronic document conforming to one of a plurality of print formats is obtained. The electronic document is parsed according to the one of the plurality of print formats to generate an intermediate data structure conforming to an intermediate format such that the electronic document is converted to the intermediate format, wherein the…

Automated assistive technology for the visually impaired

Granted: December 31, 2013
Patent Number: 8619272
Disclosed are methods and apparatus for generating accessible documents. In one embodiment, an initial document in a print format is obtained. The print format of the initial document is identified as one of a plurality of print formats. A parser corresponding to the one of the plurality of print formats is applied such that the initial document is parsed according to the print format of the initial document. An intermediate document that conforms to an intermediate format is generated…

Methods for clearing blockages in in-situ artificial lumens

Granted: December 10, 2013
Patent Number: 8603254
A method for the in situ clearing of blockages in artificial tubes completely or partially disposed within a living being is described. The method includes coupling a first end of a releasably-securable flexible clearing member to a controller, inserting a second working end of the flexible clearing member into an opening in the artificial tube, energizing the controller such that said flexible clearing member experiences repetitive motion, and positioning the flexible clearing member…

Devices for clearing blockages in in-situ artificial lumens

Granted: November 5, 2013
Patent Number: 8574377
A device for the breaking-apart of occlusions includes a stationary fitting, a hollow tube and a second fitting configured to reciprocate so as to cause the hollow tube to be compressed and expanded. The hollow tube is coupled on one side to the stationary fitting, and the stationary fitting provides access to a hollow portion of the hollow tube.

Method and apparatus for using biopotentials for simultaneous multiple control functions in computer systems

Granted: February 19, 2013
Patent Number: 8376965
A biosignal-computer-interface apparatus and method. The apparatus includes one or more devices for generating biosignals based on at least one physiological parameter of an individual, and a computer-interface device capable of performing multiple tasks, including converting the biosignals into at least one input signal, establishing a scale encompassing different levels of the input signal, multiplying the input signal into parallel control channels, dividing the scale into multiple…

Medical tool for reduced penetration force with feedback means

Granted: December 11, 2012
Patent Number: 8328738
A medical device for reducing the force necessary to penetrate living being tissue using a variety of reciprocating motion actuators, including piezoelectric, voice coil, solenoids, pneumatics or fluidics. The reciprocating actuator drives a penetrating member, such as a needle, through the tissue at a reduced force while the device detects the passage of the penetrating member through the tissue. Upon passage of the penetrating member through the tissue, electrical power to the…

Expression builder

Granted: October 30, 2012
Patent Number: 8301668
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, methods and apparatus for providing information for use in generating or modifying an expression are disclosed. Input from a user is received within an expression. A list of one or more suggestions is provided in response to the input. A selection of one of the suggestions in the list is received. The expression is then built to include the selection.

Devices for clearing blockages in in-situ artificial lumens

Granted: September 11, 2012
Patent Number: 8262645
Devices and methods for the effective clearing of artificial tubes, especially in-situ clearing of artificial tubes in a living being are covered in this disclosure. The devices and methods provide an elongated clearing member having a first end that is coupled to a driving mechanism and having a second working end that is subjected to repetitive motion for clearing blockages within the artificial tube. The elongated clearing member includes either a fixed or an adjustable element that…

Medical tool for reduced penetration force

Granted: October 25, 2011
Patent Number: 8043229
A medical device is provided having reduced penetration force. The device includes a body having a central hollow channel and a piezoelectric transducer received within and secured to the body. The piezoelectric transducer has a hollow portion concentric with the central hollow channel. A tubular member is associated with and in communication with the piezoelectric transducer. The tubular member has at least one open end formed concentric with the central hollow channel and the hollow…

Methods and apparatus for processing a query joining tables stored at different data sources

Granted: May 17, 2011
Patent Number: 7945561
Methods and apparatus for joining two or more tables are disclosed. A query including a join query is received, where the join query requests that a new table be generated from data obtained from two or more tables, where the two or more tables are stored at two or more data sources. One or more columns for each of the tables for which data is to be obtained are identified from the query. A query plan to execute the query to obtain data for the identified columns from the two or more…

Methods and apparatus for mapping a hierarchical data structure to a flat data structure for use in generating a report

Granted: April 12, 2011
Patent Number: 7925658
Methods and apparatus for generating a report from hierarchically formatted data are disclosed. First, a data source including one or more files having a hierarchical file format is identified, where each of the files includes one or more data elements. A relational database model is obtained, where the relational database model includes one or more virtual tables, each of the virtual tables including one or more virtual columns. The relational database model is then mapped to the…

Methods and apparatus for storing and retrieving annotations accessible by a plurality of reports

Granted: January 11, 2011
Patent Number: 7870480
Methods and apparatus for storing and retrieving annotations accessible by a plurality of reports are disclosed. When an annotation including comments entered by an author is received in association with a data element or field of one of the plurality of reports, the annotation is stored such that it is retrievable using a key. Specifically, the key is composed of both a scope of the annotation and a period end date of the annotation. The scope indicates a subject matter with which the…

Methods and apparatus for implementing a custom driver for accessing a data source

Granted: November 9, 2010
Patent Number: 7831633
Methods and apparatus for supporting an additional data source in a system adapted for processing data from one or more data sources are disclosed. A design-time driver for the additional data source is obtained, where the design-time driver supports the definition of data including one or more fields of the additional data source to retrieve from the additional data source. In addition, a run-time driver for the additional data source is obtained, where the run-time driver supports…

Nested conditional relations (NCR) model and algebra

Granted: July 13, 2010
Patent Number: 7756904
A method and system for providing data integration of multiple data stores with diverse formats. The data integration engine accepts queries using a standard query language such as XML-QL, executes those queries against the multiple data stores, and returns the results. The data stores may include relational databases, hierarchical databases, file systems, application data available via APIs, and so on. A query may reference data that resides in different data stores. The data…