PATENTS: HUMAN NECESSITIES
bottom layer is made from a exible
material, e.g. hard rubber or another
material that possesses a spring-back
characteristic. The middle layer is made
from a hard material, e.g. plastics used
in production of slide bearings used in
machines. The middle layer has holes,
hereinafter referred to as cylinders. They
are placed 2.5 mm from one other.
The upper layer is made from the same
material as used in the
middle layer. The bottom part
of the upper layer has rods,
hereinafter referred to as
pistons.
When marching, the shoe
user pushes down on the
upper layer. In so doing, its
pistons move down inside the
middle layer’s cylinders. The
pistons force themselves into
the bottom layer due to the
weight of the user. It is exible
and behaves as a spring that
pushes the pistons upwards
again when the weight is taken
away.
The combination of all of
these activities results in the
pistons being in a continuous
reciprocating motion inside
the cylinders. That causes
continuous friction between
materials used in the pistons
and cylinders, heating the
insoles.
Breathable, heat-refl ecting
textile articles
GB2571264A
Nikhil Kumar Aggarwal; Alexander James
Mackenzie Scott; Richard William Mark
Crane
Heathcoat Fabrics
A breathable, heat-re ecting textile article
comprises a fabric consisting of a network
of bres, laments, yarns or threads of at
least one heat-resistant material, wherein
the surfaces of at least some of the bres
have a coating of deposited metal. In
a preferred embodiment the deposited
metal is selected from aluminium,
silver and gold. The bres are preferably
formed of carbon, aramid polymers
(such as Kevlar (RTM)), polyphenylene
benzobisoxazole (such as Zylon (RTM))
or polybenzimidazole (PBI). Preferably the
bres are also at least partially covered by
a durable water repellent coating such as
a poly uorocarbon. The textile article has
particular usefulness in the construction
of breathable, heat-re ecting, light and
durable garments for re ghters and others
who work in close proximity to res.
System and method for obtaining
thermal image data of a body
part, and thermal imager
GB2571379A
Aaron Whittam and Rob Simpson
NPL Management
People with diabetes are prone to serious
ulcers in their feet, which can become
infected and ultimately require amputation.
Early detection is critical to improve patient
outcomes, enabling doctors to intervene
to protect the foot before skin breakdown
occurs. Medical studies have identi ed
that there is a persistent increase in
skin temperature of >2°C for up to 10
days before skin breakdown takes place.
Typically, before there are any visible signs
of infection or abnormality in the feet, the
skin temperature rises.
If the temperature increase associated
with neuropathy could be accurately
identi ed in a timely manner, it is expected
that it should be straightforward to greatly
reduce ulceration through (for example)
preventative off-loading.
According to an aspect of the present
invention, there is provided a computerimplemented
method for obtaining
thermal image data of a body part
comprising:
•receiving image data of a body part,
the image data including thermal image
data, the thermal image data including
thermal image data of the body part and
background thermal image data;
•applying a classi er to the image
data to detect a pro le of the body part,
the classi er being con gured to use
image data other than the thermal image
data to perform the detection;
•generating a mask from said pro le;
•applying the mask to the thermal
image data to remove the background
thermal image data and obtain thermal
image data of the body part.
Electrosurgical instrument for
ablation and resection
GB2571223A
Christopher Paul Hancock; Malcolm White;
Peter Clegg; Patrick Burn
Creo Medical
The invention relates to a combined
ablation and resection instrument, and an
energy delivery system. Surgical resection
is a means of removing sections of
unwanted tissue associated with
organs within the human or animal
body, such as the liver
or the spleen or the
bowel. When tissue
is cut (divided or
transected) small blood
vessels called arterioles
are damaged or ruptured.
Initial bleeding is followed
by a coagulation cascade
where the blood is turned into
a clot in an attempt to plug
the bleeding point. During
an operation, it is desirable
for a patient to lose as little
blood as possible, so various
devices have been developed
in an attempt to provide blood
free cutting.
At its most general, the
invention (pictured, right)
provides an electrosurgical
instrument which is capable
of simultaneously ablating an
area of tissue with microwave
energy and performing resection with
RF energy. In particular, the invention is
concerned with structure for conveying
both RF and microwave energy to an
instrument tip that is con gured to emit
the microwave energy in a manner suitable
for ablation (e.g. as a substantially
spherical eld) and to emit the RF energy
in a more focussed manner to enable
accurate and controllable resection to be
performed.
Self-heating insole
GB2571102A
Andrzej Rychert
The subject of the patent shall be a
self-heating insole sole. The insole as
invented comprises three layers. The
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