Synaptics (uk) Limited

Scientific Generics Limited

Stryker Corporation

Absolute Sensors Limited

Ross P Jones

David T E Ely

Andrew Nicholas Dames

Robert M Pettigrew

James M C England

Alexander W McKinnon

Andrew R L Howe

Patrick Lafleche

Justin Jon Raymond

James K Galer

Euan Morrison

Peter Georg Laitenberger

Andrew James White

David Alun James

Darran Kreit

David John Stocks

Robin Michael Lee

This disclosure provides a patient support for supporting a patient. The patient support comprises a lattice of cells each having a base, a top disposed opposite the base, and one or more buckling elements having a thickness and extending from the base to the top to form a column.

Patient support having buckling elements for supporting a patient

A position detector is provided for detecting the relative movement of first and second members which are mounted for relative movement along a measuring path. One of the members comprises a magnetic field generator for generating a magnetic field and the other member comprises first and second conductors which are inductively coupled to said magnetic field generator. The arrangement of the first and second conductors and the magnetic field generator is such that output signals are generated in a first and second receive circuits whose position varies with the relative movement between the two members. In addition to carrying information relating to the relative position between the two members, the signals induced in the receive circuits also comprise information defining the relative orientation of the two movable members, and by suitable processing of the received signals the relative orientation of the two members can also be determined. In a preferred form of the invention, the system operates to define the relative position and orientation of the two movable members in first and second directions from which the relative orientation of the two members in a plane containing the two directions can be determined. The signals induced in the receive circuits can also be processed to give an indication of the gap between the two circuits and to provide an indication of the full relative orientation of the two members.

Position detector

A Position Sensor comprises: one or more excitation windings; a signal generator adapted to apply excitation signals to the or each excitation winding; tag means displaceable relative to said excitation windings; one or more sensor windings electromagnetically coupled to said excitation windings such that in response to said excitation signals being applied to said excitation windings, there is generated sensed signal in the or each sensor winding; and a signal processor adapted to process said sensed signals to determine the position of said tag means in any location in the X, Y and Z planes essentially in accordance with phase values or in accordance with phase values and amplitude values.

Position sensor

The present invention provides a position sensor which is suitable for use in a piston and cylinder assembly. The position sensor includes a movable field modifying member which is operable to vary the inductance of a sensor winding, whereby the position of the field modifying member relative to the sensor winding can be determined by monitoring the inductance of the sensor winding. The position sensor also includes a compensation winding which is arranged to have a common coupling with the field modifying member whereby a signal output from the compensation winding can be used to compensate for variations in the signal level output by the sensor winding caused by, for example, temperature variations of the system.

A rotary position detector includes first and second members, the first member generating a magnetic field which spatially varies around the axis of rotation in a cyclic manner and the second member sensing the generated magnetic field. In response to the generated magnetic field, first and second signals are generated by first and second sensors respectively, which signals vary with the relative angular position of the first and second members and the relative angular position of the first and second members is determined from the first and second signals.

Rotary position sensor and transducer for use therein

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Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom

Ross P Jones