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:
Aug. 15, 2006
Filed:
May. 14, 2004
Carleton S. Hayek, Ellicott City, MD (US);
Carleton S. Hayek, Ellicott City, MD (US);
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (US);
Abstract
A method for determining a threat substance encountered by a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF-MS) using a pre-computed threat library is described. The method comprising the steps of acquiring a spectrum of a test substance, wherein the acquired spectrum is an average of individual spectra acquired from a plurality of laser shots on the analyte; identifying mass/charge (m/z) values corresponding to each of a plurality of spectral peaks of the acquired spectrum; assigning a corresponding ranking code to the acquired spectrum based on the plurality of its spectral peaks and troughs, wherein a peak presence is indicated by a numeral 1, while peak absence is indicated by a numeral 0, relative to each of a set of substances in a threat library; comparing the assigned rankings of the acquired spectrum over all threat substances stored in the threat library; and identifying the threat substance as that which produced the highest ranking.