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12 Nov 2002
The pick of this week's hottest patent applications in the world of photonics.
• Title: Illuminated showerhead
Applicant: Interbath, US
International application number: WO 02/087781
Stuck for the ideal present this Christmas? Thanks to patent application WO 02/087781, your problems could be over. The application describes how light can color the water coming out a showerhead. Optical fibers carry light from one or more sources to the individual water nozzles on the showerhead. Light from the illumination source can then be transferred and transmitted through the individual water sprays, say the authors.
• Title: Location sensitive display device, system, and method of providing animation sequences
Applicatant: The Walt Disney Company
International application number: WO 02/088905
The Walt Disney Company is trying to patent a display device for entertainment environments that is based on LEDs. Infrared transmitters emit a code that is detected by receivers around an auditorium. A control circuit deciphers the code and switches on the LEDs to provide a predetermined visual display. According to the patent, either single users or a central system can control the display. An LCD screen can also be incorporated to provide various types of games including trivia questions and answers.
• Title: A semiconductor light source with a high efficiency and a method for its manufacture
Applicant: Optoelectronics Research Centre, Finland
International application number: WO 02/089275
An efficient surface-emitting semiconductor is detailed in patent application WO 02/089275. Grown on a semiconductor substrate, the device comprises one or more active regions embedded in an optical cavity. At least one of the mirrors in the cavity is a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) mirror containing layers of specific material and orientation. In particular the DBR mirror is made up of a low refractive index high-bandgap layer; a high refractive index low-bandgap layer; and a least one layer with an intermediate bandgap. Critically, the authors say the intermediate layer should only be formed on one side of the high-bandgap layer in the direction of transfer of the majority charge carriers.
• Title: Iris pattern recognition and alignment
Applicant: Bausch & Lomb, US
International application number: WO 02/087442
The accuracy of laser eye surgery could be improved thanks to an idea outlined in application WO 02/087442. The system acquires diagnostic images of the iris prior to treatment and therapeutic images during treatment. The images track unique patterns in the iris as it dilates using edge detection and pattern recognition. The authors say that by aligning the two sets of images, the ablation pattern can be rotated accordingly during treatment improving the accuracy of the operation.
Author
Jacqueline Hewett is news reporter on Optics.org and Opto & Laser Europe magazine.
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