The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 21, 1999
Filed:
Mar. 05, 1998
Haruhiko H Asada, Concord, MA (US);
Joseph Spano, Lodi, CA (US);
William H Finger, Huntington Station, NY (US);
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus for positioning a human subject on a surface and for transferring a subject from one surface to another. The subject is situated on the top surface of a fluid enclosure and an actuator mechanism causes local deformations of the top surface in such a manner as to create traveling waves whereby a force tangential to the top surface is exerted on the subject for moving the subject with respect to the surface. The actuator mechanism may be a motor driver and may be a plurality of linear actuators configured so as to cause local deformations of the top surface in a direction having a vertical and/or horizontal component. The linear actuators may be shape memory fibers.