USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Dean A Scribner

Jasbinder Singh Sanghera

Ishwar Dayal Aggarwal

Guillermo R Villalobos

Daniel Joseph Gibson

Erin F Fleet

Lee James Johnson

John R Ackerman

Andrey V Kanaev

Joseph Pancrazio

J Grant Howard

Jonathon M Schuler

The present invention is directed to a method for making infrared transmitting graded index optical elements by selecting at least two different infrared-transmitting materials, each with a different refractive index, having similar thermo-viscous behavior; assembling the infrared-transmitting materials into a stack comprising one or more layers of each infrared-transmitting material resulting in the stack having a graded index profile; and forming the stack into a desired shape. Also disclosed is the related optical element made by this method.

Infrared (IR) transmitting graded index (GRIN) optical elements and method for making same

A method and system is provided for performing high-resolution image assembly regardless of observed scene content. An imaging system, including a focal plane array and lenslet array can be calibrated to account for subimage shifts. A calibration module can determine the subimage shifts by calculating an average point source position reference point coordinates for each of the subimages, and then determining the difference between the average point source position and the reference point coordinates for each subimage. The imaging system can then be calibrated utilizing the subimage shifts for each of the plurality of subimages. Finally, an assembly module can perform a high-resolution image assembly with the calibrated imaging system.

Scene independent method for image formation in lenslet array imagers

The electroporation array is comprised of three technologies: microwire glass electrodes, microelectronic multiplexer stimulator chips and microfluidic flow chamber. Various substances, such as genes, gene silencing RNAi, gene inhibition agents or drugs, can be perfused into the microfluidic flow chamber. The entry of the various substances into the cells will be facilitated by electroporation. An applied electric potential causes nanoscale pores to open in the cell membrane allowing substances in the solution to freely diffuse into the cell. The specific cells selected for electroporation are defined using the computer controlled microelectronic stimulator array. An 'image' of which electrodes within the array to apply the electric potential to, and thus electroporate, is de-multiplexed onto the array. All the selected electrodes deliver a current pulse varied by the intensity of the de-multiplexed 'image'. By serially perfusing different substances across the cells or tissue and electroporating different areas of the cell or tissue culture, it will be possible to have different cells within the culture contain different genes, gene silencing RNAi, gene inhibition agents, drugs, chemicals or other substances or sets thereof. It is also possible to re-electroporate subsets of cells on the array to allow for multiple gene combinations. In essence, this invention allows for the creation of cell arrays and would be analogous to gene arrays, which have been so important in recent advances in biotechnology, such as the human genome project.

Microelectronic cell electroporation array

A system for enhancing images from an electro-optic imaging sensor and for reducing the necessary focal length of a sensor while preserving system acuity. This system uniquely reduces the necessary focal length and enhances images by collecting a video sequence, estimating motion associate with this sequence, assembling video frames into composite images, and applying image restoration to restore the composite image from pixel, lens blur, and alias distortion. The invention synthetically increases the pixel density of the focal plane array. Thus it reduces the necessary size of the projected blur circle or equivalently it reduces the minimum focal length requirements.

Algorithmic technique for increasing the spatial acuity of a focal plane array electro-optic imaging system

The retinal prosthesis test device is comprised of a thin wafer of glass made from nanochannel glass (NGC) with very small channels perpendicular to the plane of the wafer filled with an electrical conductor forming microwires. One surface of the glass is ground to a spherical shape consistent with the radius of curvature of the inside of the retina. The NGC is hybridized to a silicon de-multiplexer and a video image is serially input to a narrow, flexible micro-cable and read into a 2-D array of unit cells in a pixel-by-pixel manner which samples the analog video input and stores the value as a charge on a MOS capacitor. After all unit cells have been loaded with the pixel values for the current frame, a biphasic pulse is sent to each unit cell which modulates the pulse in proportion to the pixel value stored therein. Because the biphasic pulses flow in parallel to each unit cell from a global external connection, the adjacent retinal neurons are all stimulated simultaneously, analogous to image photons stimulating photoreceptors in a normal retina. A permanent retinal implant device uses a NGC array hybridized to a silicon chip, the image is simultaneously generated within each cell through a photon-to-electron conversion using a silicon photodiode. The photons propagate directly through into the backside of the device. Electrical power and any control signals are transmitted through an inductively driven coil or antenna on the chip. The device collects the charge in storage capacitors via the photon-to-electron conversion process, stimulates the neural tissue with biphasic pulses in proportion to the stored charges, and resets the storage capacitors to repeat the process.

Microelectronic stimulator array for stimulating nerve tissue

Permanent retinal implant device

Microelectronic stimulator array

Growing community of inventors

Arlington, VA, United States of America

Dean A Scribner