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Countrue, LLC

Douglas Arthur Pinnow

Arash Sabet

Barbara Lyn Chessa

This invention relates to enhancement of the delivery of laser beams to internal surgical sites by employing, where practical, heavy water rather than normal water as both the irrigation fluid and the laser beam transmission medium that fills some or all of the space between the distal tip of the optical fiber to the surgical site. The use of heavy water is advantageous for surgical procedures employing lasers operating in the wavelength range of 1.0 microns to 2.5 microns where heavy water is substantially more transparent than normal water. This range includes the commercially important semiconductor diode laser operating at 1.47 microns where the optical attenuation coefficient in heavy water is less than one hundredth of that in normal water. Due to the rather high cost of heavy water, methods are described for collecting and re-cycling heavy water used during laser surgery to mitigate this cost.

Laser surgery employing heavy water to enhance laser beam transmission

This invention relates to an advance in the delivery of laser beams to internal surgical sites using optical fibers with a novel distal tip design made using a fusion assembly procedure suitable for directing laser beams out of the side of an optical fiber. This side-fire fiber delivery tip assembly is fabricated by fusing a transparent tube onto the distal ends of a laser beam delivery fiber and an associated coaxial stub fiber that have beveled and parallel end faces that meet inside of the transparent tube. The result is a rugged fiber delivery tip assembly that is almost entirely solid, except for a very narrow gap between the beveled end surfaces of the two fibers. A loose fitting transparent capsule is placed over this fiber tip to contain a transparent perfluorocarbon lubricating oil or a perfluorocarbon heat-transfer agent that serves as a cooling agent for the fiber tip assembly.

Apparatus and methods for side-fire optical fiber assembly suitable for medical applications

Throughout the world, there is growing trend by investors to protect wealth by holding silver and gold coins and bars. Unfortunately, there are also a growing number of counterfeit coins and bars coming into in circulation. This situation cries out for an affordable method that can be used by untrained investors to quickly and reliably discriminate authentic coins and bars from counterfeit ones without causing damage to their coins and bars. The disclosed method fills this need by the use of a combination of conventional and novel designed pieces of equipment for measuring the following three characteristics of a coin; (1) size, (2) weight, and (3) relative terminal velocity on a magnetic slide. The results of these measurements can be used to unambiguously discriminate pure silver and pure gold investment coins and bars from counterfeit ones and can also be helpful in evaluating 22-karat gold coins and pure platinum coins.

Method and apparatus for discriminating gold and silver coins and bars from counterfeit

This invention relates to modifications to the traditional manually operated pill counting tray that is broadly used throughout the world to provide features that permit semi-automatic operation that is faster and more accurate than manual-only operation when counting pharmaceutical pills. The tray modifications are based on electronic weight-based sensing technology including the addition of (1) a weighing load sensor to determine the weight of the pills to be counted, (2) a motion sensor and latch for the trough lid to aid operation and performance, (3) a microprocessor that can convert the measured weight of the pills to a pill count, and (4) an output display to show the number of pills counted. This apparatus includes novel features to improve pill counting speed and accuracy, as well as ease of use, that are only possible when employing electronic counting.

Apparatus and methods for a semi-automatic pill counting tray

This invention relates to an advance in the delivery of laser beams to internal surgical sites using optical fibers with a novel distal tip design made using a fusion assembly procedure suitable for directing laser beams out of the side of an optical fiber. This side-fire fiber delivery tip assembly is fabricated by fusing a transparent tube onto the distal ends of a laser beam delivery fiber and an associated coaxial stub fiber that have beveled and parallel end faces that meet inside of the transparent tube. The result is a rugged fiber delivery tip assembly that is almost entirely solid, except for a very narrow gap between the beveled end surfaces of the two fibers. A loose fitting transparent capsule may be placed over this fiber tip to contain a refractive index matching fluid that may also serve as a cooling agent for the fiber tip assembly.

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Lake Elsinore, CA, United States of America

Douglas Arthur Pinnow