1. A dryer for drying a printed media comprising:
an outer plenum enclosure including at least one air intake opening through an outer wall thereof;
at least one fan attached to the outer plenum adjacent to the at least one air intake opening for drawing ambient air directly through the at least one air intake vent into the outer plenum enclosure;
an inner heating enclosure located substantially within the outer plenum enclosure;
a flow restriction formed between the outer plenum and the heating enclosure which is positioned and sized to limit air flow from the outer plenum enclosure into the heating enclosure;
at least one heating element positioned within the inner heating enclosure; and
at least one vent for allowing air flow out of the inner heating enclosure and onto printed media external to the dryer, the at least one air intake opening being spaced away from the at least one vent thereby reducing potential recirculation of air through the dryer.
2. The dryer of claim 1, wherein the flow restriction comprises one or more openings.
3. The dryer of claim 2, wherein the one or more openings are arranged in a horizontal configuration.
4. The dryer of claim 2, wherein at least one of the one or more openings comprise two or more segments.
5. The dryer of claim 1, additionally comprising at least one fan mounted to the plenum enclosure.
6. The dryer of claim 5, wherein the fan is located substantially within the plenum enclosure.
7. The dryer of claim 5, wherein the fan is located substantially outside the plenum enclosure.
8. The dryer of claim 1, wherein the heating enclosure is located adjacent to a surface of the plenum enclosure.
9. The dryer of claim 8, wherein the heating enclosure is formed as an open sided channel, wherein the open side of the channel is in contact with a surface of the plenum enclosure containing said vents.
10. The dryer of claim 1, wherein the at least one heating element is located at a sufficient distance from the vents to promote mixing of air within the heating enclosure.
11. The dryer of claim 1, wherein the vents comprise one or more slots.
12. The dryer of claim 11, wherein the one or more slots comprise a plurality of slots located at an oblique angle to the path of the media.
13. The dryer of claim 11, wherein a perimeter surface located around one of the one or more slots is chamfered.
14. The dryer of claim 11, wherein the vents overlap.
15. An ink jet printer comprising:
a printing device configured to controllably deposit wet ink onto a media;
a printer dryer enclosure coupled to the printer and comprising an internal heating enclosure configured to intake air from inside the printer dryer enclosure and to exhaust the air through at least one vent onto the wet media, the printer dryer enclosure including at least one air intake opening through an outer wall thereof;
at least one fan attached to the printer dryer enclosure adjacent to the at least one air intake opening for drawing ambient air directly through the at least one air intake vent into the printer dryer enclosure, the at least one air intake opening being spaced away from the at least one vent thereby reducing potential recalculation of air through the dryer; and
a gas flow restrictor passage located between the internal heating enclosure and the printer dryer enclosure and configured to limit the gas flow into the internal heating enclosure, whereby the air in the internal heating enclosure is at a lower pressure than the air in the remainder of the printer dryer enclosure.
16. A dryer for drying a media that is printed upon by a printer, the dryer comprising:
a plenum enclosure forming a plenum area within, the plenum area having a higher gas pressure than outside the printer, the plenum enclosure including at least one air intake opening through an outer wall thereof;
at least one fan attached to the outer plenum enclosure adjacent to the at least one air intake opening for drawing ambient air directly through the at least one air intake vent into the outer plenum enclosure;
a heating enclosure located substantially within the plenum enclosure, wherein the heating enclosure is at a lower gas pressure than in the plenum area; and
at least one vent located to provide a passageway between the heating enclosure and outside the dryer for directing heated air at the media, the at least one air intake opening being spaced away from the at least one vent thereby reducing potential recalculation of air through the dryer.
17. The dryer of claim 16, comprising a gas flow restrictor located in a surface of the heating enclosure and sized to limit gas flow from the plenum area and into the heating enclosure.
18. The dryer of claim 16, wherein the vents comprise one or more angled slots.
19. The dryer of claim 18, wherein the angled slots are overlapping.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. An apparatus for monitoring sleep apnea in a patient comprising:
a flow sensor adapted to sense the flow of air breathed by the patient and to generate a flow signal indicative of said gas flow; and
an obstruction detector coupled to said flow sensor, said obstruction detector including a weight assigning member arranged to assign several weighting factors to portions of said flow signal and to generate an obstruction signal.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said flow signal includes a section corresponding to a single breathing cycle and wherein said portions are selected from said section.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said flow sensor includes a sampler that generates flow samples and wherein said weight assigning member is adapted to assign a weighting factor for each sample.
4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said samples have amplitudes and said weight assigning member assigns said weighting factors to said samples in accordance with said amplitudes.
5. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said samples have time positions and said weight assigning member assigns said weighting factors based on said time positions.
6. (CANCELLED).
7. An apparatus for monitoring a patient having sleep disorder, said apparatus comprising:
a flow sensor to generate a flow signal indicative of the patient’s respiration; and
an obstruction detector coupled to said flow sensor and adapted to determine a weighted average signal, said weighted average signal being dependent on a weighted average of said flow signal in accordance with an amplitude of portions of said flow signal.
8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein said obstruction detector includes a comparator adapted to compare said weighted average signal to a threshold, said comparator generating said obstruction signal.
9. (CANCELLED).
10. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein each portion has an amplitude and wherein said weight assigning member assigns said weighting factor based on said amplitude.
11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said weight assigning member assigns said weighting factor based on whether said amplitude is above or below a predetermined value.
12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein said weight assigning member assigns a first weighting factor to portions having amplitudes lower than said predetermined value and second weighting factors to having amplitudes higher than said predetermined level.
13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein said first weighting factor is smaller than said second weighting factor.
14. (CANCELLED).
15. (CANCELLED).
16. (CANCELLED).
17. (CANCELLED).
18. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein said flow signal includes a section corresponding to a single breathing cycle, and wherein said apparatus further includes a sampler sampling a portion of said section.
19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein said section corresponds to an inspiration period.
20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein said sampler samples a midportion of said inspiration period.
21-30. (CANCELLED).
31. A method of monitoring a person with sleep apnea comprising the steps of:
determining an air flow signal indicative of the air flow of the patient;
sampling a section of said air flow during successive breathing cycles to obtain a set of samples for a breathing cycle;
assigning a weight to each sample; and
generating an obstruction signal based on said weights and said samples from said set of samples.
32. The method of claim 31 wherein said set of samples comprises samples from a midportion of inspiration.
33. The method of claim 32 further comprising the step of generating an average of said midportion samples.
34. The method of claim 33, wherein each sample has an amplitude, further comprising the step of selecting a first weighting factor for samples having an amplitude below a predetermined threshold value and a second weighting factor for samples having an amplitude above said predetermined threshold value.
35. The method of claim 34 wherein said first weighting factor is smaller than said second weighting factor.
36. The method of claim 34 wherein said predetermined threshold value is a mean of said flow signal.
37. The method of claim 33, wherein each sample has a time position, further comprising the step of selecting a first weighting factor for samples having time positions prior to a predetermined time position and selecting a second weighting factor for samples having time positions after said predetermined time position.
38. The method of claim 37 wherein said first weighting factor is smaller than said second weighting factor.
39. The method of claim 37 wherein said predetermined time position is a central point of said midportion.
40. The method of claim 32 wherein said obstruction signal represents the sum of the weighted absolute difference of the said samples from a midportion of inspiration divided by the product of a mean of the set of samples and the duration of said midportion.