A suturing assistance system that can be used for prosthetic heart valve manufacturing or suturing procedures. The assistance system includes an automated fixture that includes an articulating arm and a target device holder. The system also includes a vision assist system that projects a visual indicator on the surface of the target device to indicate the location of the next suture to be formed or inspected. The assistance system can include a visualization system configured to display operating procedures to an operator. The visual indicator can guide the operator in performing a sequence of steps to manufacture or inspect a target device. Properties of the visual indicator, such as color and/or shape, can be adjusted or tailored to convey information to the operator during the procedure.

Disclosed are example embodiments of methods and systems for identifying and quantifying manufacturing defects of a manufactured dental prosthesis. Certain embodiments of the system for performing quality control on manufactured dental prostheses includes: an analysis module to best fit a scanned 3D data model of a manufactured dental prosthesis with a computer-aided design (CAD) model of the same manufactured dental prosthesis and to generate a differences model; and a quality controller to determine whether the manufactured dental prosthesis is a good or a defective product based on a statistical characteristic of the differences model.

A dental milling machine is provided with a tool which is guided in a chuck. A workpiece arm is mounted opposite the tool to be able to be moved at least in the direction of the spindle axis. With a control device it can be moved in relation to the workpiece, especially by means of a drive motor at the workpiece arm. The workpiece arm has an abutment element, whereby the control device moves the tool and the abutment element towards each other until they abut each other. The control device can be used to detect abutment of the abutment element with respect to the tool, in particular with respect to its tip, in particular by decelerating the (relative) movement of the tool and the abutment element towards each another, upon contact of the tool and the abutment element. This position may be signaled as a reference position and, especially may be stored.

A wax model of a required coping is produced using CNC machining techniques based on a virtual model of the coping created from digital data obtained from the intraoral cavity. The dental coping is then fabricated from the wax model.

A wax model of a required coping is produced using CNC machining techniques based on a virtual model of the coping created from digital data obtained from the intraoral cavity. The dental coping is then fabricated from the wax model.

A dental milling machine is provided with a tool which is guided in a chuck. A workpiece arm is mounted opposite the tool to be able to be moved at least in the direction of the spindle axis. With a control device it can be moved in relation to the workpiece, especially by means of a drive motor of the workpiece arm.

The workpiece arm has an abutment element, whereby the control device moves the tool and the abutment element towards each other until they abut each other. The control device can be used to detect abutment of the abutment element with respect to the tool, in particular with respect to its tip, in particular by decelerating the (relative) movement of the tool and the abutment element towards each another, upon contact of the tool and the abutment element. This position may be signaled as a reference position and, especially may be stored.

An optical method for determining collagen bundle orientation in bovine pericardium includes the use of a system having a light source which transmits light through a first polarizer, a tissue for making a prosthetic valve leaflet, and a second polarizer, where the light then illuminates a detector plate. The light that illuminates the detector plate is used to determine the orientation of collagen fiber bundles. The orientation of the collagen fiber bundles is used to determine where to cut the leaflet edges.

Disclosed are a body channel communication method and an apparatus performing the same. An operating method of a transmitter includes obtaining an input signal including biometric information, generating an encoded signal and a control signal by encoding the input signal, generating a return-to-zero (RZ) signal of a biphasic waveform based on the encoded signal, and transmitting the RZ signal through a body channel.

A system and method for multi-modality fusion for 3D printing of a patient-specific organ model is disclosed. A plurality of medical images of a target organ of a patient from different medical imaging modalities are fused. A holistic mesh model of the target organ is generated by segmenting the target organ in the fused medical images from the different medical imaging modalities. One or more spatially varying physiological parameter is estimated from the fused medical images and the estimated one or more spatially varying physiological parameter is mapped to the holistic mesh model of the target organ. The holistic mesh model of the target organ is 3D printed including a representation of the estimated one or more spatially varying physiological parameter mapped to the holistic mesh model. The estimated one or more spatially varying physiological parameter can be represented in the 3D printed model using a spatially material property (e.g., stiffness), spatially varying material colors, and/or spatially varying material texture.

A system for providing a replica masturbation device is disclosed. Users upload images of their body parts to a central database, and other users use data sets generated based on these images from the central database to produce replica masturbation devices of the user's body parts.