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Patent highlights

01 Apr 2004

The pick of this week’s patent applications including a laser technique for analysing bubbles in beer.

•  Title: Hybrid optical disc utilizing a DVD and a CD layer
Applicant: Dieter Dierks, Germany
International application number: WO 2004/017306
A way to combine a CD disc and a DVD disc within a single hybrid design is the subject of patent application WO 2004/017306. The CD and DVD discs have different thickness and are glued together so that their data recording surfaces are facing each other. The data from either of the DVD or CD layers is retrieved by a scanning laser.

•  Title: Vehicle mounted night vision system imaging system and method
Applicant: Elbit Systems, Israel
International application number: WO 2004/013654
The ability to see objects in front of a car in conditions of poor visibility is the intention of a vehicle-mounted imaging system designed by Elbit Systems of Israel. The firm says that the system comprises a light source that generates non-visible light pulses and a camera fitted with an image intensifier. Varying the width of the light pulses and the gate time of the image intensifier controls the depth of field of the imaging.

•  Title: Method and instrument for measuring size of bubbles of malt alcohol beverage.
Applicant: Sapporo Holdings Ltd, Japan
International application number: WO 2004/025220
Sapporo, the maker of Japanese beer, has designed a laser-based instrument to “objectively judge the quality of bubbles of a malt alcohol beverage”. A stripe of laser light illuminates the surface of the bubble layer in the beer and is observed by an imaging device. Analysis of the shape of the laser beam in the image, in particular its edge information, reveals the size of the bubbles.

•  Title: Method of making stress-resistant anti-reflection multilayer coatings containing cerium oxide.
Applicant: Denglas Technologies, US
International application number: WO 2004/005975
Denglas Technologies is patenting a way to make sol-derived thin-film optical coatings that are antireflective and stress-resistant. The coatings consist of a substrate and a layer of a sol-gel containing cerium oxide, and layers of an oxide of silicon, nickel and a transition metal with a refractive index of around 1.90. The coatings are compatible with heat treatments such as tempering and are crack resistant.

LaCroix Precision OpticsHÜBNER PhotonicsOmicron-Laserage Laserprodukte GmbHAlluxaOptikos Corporation LASEROPTIK GmbHCHROMA TECHNOLOGY CORP.
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