USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Orincon Corp.

John T Rickard

James R Zeidler

Robert R Kolesar

F Kenneth Gott, Jr

Stephen F Connelly

A periodontal probe system for measurement, storage, and display of periodontal pocket depth, gingival level and periodontal attachment level of the teeth. In the system, a periodontal probe instrument includes an elongate tip with a measurement arrangement that simultaneously measures periodontal pocket depth, gingival level, and periodontal attachment level at each of a plurality of probe sites around a tooth. The measurement arrangement provides depth signals indicative of the pocket depth and attachment level measured. Gingival level is computed as the arithmetic difference between the attachment level and the pocket depth. A pressure sensor in the probe provides a pressure signal indicative of the pressure acting on the tip of the probe. A signal processing apparatus is connected to receive the pressure signal and the depth signals. A periodontal measurement is made by inserting the tip of the probe into the gum pocket and gradually increasing the pressure on the probe tip after insertion. At a predetermined pressure level, the signal processing apparatus samples the depth signals and converts them into measurement signals corresponding to pocket depth and attachment level.

Periodontal probe system

An apparatus and technique reduces the data transmission rate required to ansmit acoustic signals from undersea sensors to remote monitoring locations without degrading the surveillance information content of the signals. The signals are digitized and fed to an adaptive line enhancer (Wiener filter) which processes them so that a fast Fourier transform (Karhunen-Loeve approximation) coefficient generator can feed representative signals to a programmable quantizer and a signal averager. When significant shifts are detected in the fast Fourier transform coefficient variances, responsive signals are generated by the programmable quantizer for adaptive bit allocation. An interconnected multiplexer transmits multiplexed signals to the remote monitoring station where the inverse of the foregoing allows an analysis of the acoustic signals being monitored.

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San Diego, CA, United States of America

John T Rickard