1. A light source comprising:
a reflector having a front side and a back side;
at least one light-emitting element associated with said reflector and positioned on said front side;
a volume between said reflector and said light-emitting element; said volume substantially filled by paths of light rays connecting said light-emitting element with said reflector;
a first heat-conducting body positioned at least partially within said volume; and
said heat-conducting body providing a pathway for heat to flow from said light-emitting element toward said back side of said reflector.
2. The device of claim 1, where said light-emitting element is a light-emitting diode.
3. The device of claim 1, where said reflector comprises a front surface of a second heat-conducting body.
4. The device of claim 3, where said second heat-conducting body is metallic.
5. The device of claim 4, where said second heat-conducting body includes at least one of copper or aluminum.
6. The device of claim 1, including a heat sink associated with said reflector and positioned on said back side, where said first heat-conducting body is thermally coupled to said heat sink.
7. The device of claim 1, wherein the distance from said light-emitting element to the periphery of said reflector is larger than the distance to at least one interior region of said reflector, and said first heat-conducting body provides a pathway for heat to flow from said light-emitting element toward said interior region.
8. The device of claim 1,
said reflector having a central optical axis;
said first heat-conducting body comprising a central hub positioned near said optical axis and thermally coupled to said light-emitting element; and
at least one axial vane thermally coupled to said hub.
9. The device of claim 8, including:
said reflector positioned for redirecting the majority of light rays from said light emitting element to exit said reflector toward said front side with said redirected rays lying in planes substantially parallel to said optical axis;
said axial vane being positioned predominantly in one of said planes containing said optical axis; and
said axial vane having two opposing flat sides predominantly parallel to said plane, and at least one edge perpendicular to said plane and facing said reflector, said edge being much smaller in area than either of said flat sides.
10. The device of claim 9, said edge making an angle with said optical axis between about 30 and 65 degrees.
11. The device of claim 8, said vane having a higher thermal conductivity in a first direction parallel to said plane than in a second direction perpendicular to said plane.
12. The device of claim 8, including between three and six of said axial vanes.
13. The device of claim 1, said first heat-conducting body being formed of a highly thermally conductive material.
14. The device of claim 13, said material including at least one of a metallic material or graphite.
15. A light source comprising:
a reflector having a central optical axis;
a light-emitting element positioned near said central optical axis;
a volume between said reflector and said light-emitting; said volume substantially filled by paths of light rays connecting said light-emitting element with said reflector;
a heat-conducting body comprising a central hub and at least one axial vane positioned at least partially within said volume; and
said axial vane positioned predominantly in a plane containing said central optical axis, and said axial vane having a higher thermal conductivity in at least one direction within said plane than in the direction perpendicular to said plane.
16. The device of claim 15, where said axial vane includes a material having anisotropic thermal conductivity.
17. The device of claim 15, where said axial vane includes a heat pipe.
18. A light source comprising:
a reflector having a front side, a back side, and a central optical axis;
at least one light-emitting element associated with said reflector and positioned on said front side;
a first heat-conducting body comprising a central hub positioned near said optical axis and thermally coupled to said light-emitting element;
at least one axial vane thermally coupled to said hub;
said reflector redirecting the majority of light rays from said light-emitting element to exit said reflector toward said front side with said redirected rays lying in planes substantially parallel to said optical axis;
said axial vane being positioned predominantly in one of said planes containing said optical axis; and
said axial vane having two opposing flat sides predominantly parallel to said plane, and at least one edge perpendicular to said plane and facing said reflector, said edge being much smaller than either of said flat sides.
19. The device of claim 18, where said reflector is a non-imaging reflector.
20. The device of claim 19, where said non-imaging reflector includes at least one conic section having at least one focal point at an edge of said light-emitting surface.
21. The device of claim 20, including a light-emitting diode immersed in an encapsulant dome forming a virtual image of said light-emitting diode, and said light-emitting surface comprising said virtual image.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
What is claimed is:
1. A patient monitoring system for providing patient data to one or more workstations connected to a computer network, said system comprising:
one or more sensors attached to said patient, said sensors configured to measure physiologic data from said patient;
a patient monitoring device attached to said one or more sensors, said patient monitoring device configured to gather said physiologic data and use a communication system to communicate said physiologic data to a central data monitoring device;
one or more data servers connected to said computer network, said data servers configured to supply data to said workstations using a first protocol; and
one or more waveform servers connected to said central data monitoring device, said waveform servers receiving said physiologic information from said central data monitoring device, said waveform servers connected to said computer network, said waveform servers configured to supply said physiologic data to said workstations using a second protocol.
2. The patient monitoring system of claim 1, wherein said communication system comprises a wireless link between said patient monitoring device and said central data monitoring device.
3. The patient monitoring system of claim 1, wherein said first protocol is a low level network protocol.
4. The patient monitoring system of claim 3, wherein said first protocol is TCPIP.
5. The patient monitoring system of claim 1, wherein said second protocol is a high level protocol.
6. The patient monitoring system of claim 5, wherein said high level protocol is an application level protocol.
7. The patient monitoring system of claim 3, wherein said second protocol is a high level protocol.
8. The patient monitoring system of claim 7, wherein said second protocol uses said first protocol.
9. The patient monitoring system of claim 8, wherein said first protocol is TCPIP and said second protocol is HTTP.
10. The patient monitoring system of claim 1, further comprising a first software program stored within a memory in said workstations, said software configured to communicate with said data server using said first protocol.
11. The patient monitoring system of claim 10, wherein said first software program is configured to run a second software program substantially contemporaneously with said first software program.
12. The patient monitoring system of claim 11, wherein said second software program is configured to communicate with at least one of said waveform servers using said first protocol.
13. The patient monitoring system of claim 11, wherein said second software program is configured to obtain said physiologic data from at least one of said waveform servers by communicating with said at least one of said waveform servers using said first protocol.
14. The patient monitoring system of claim 13, wherein said second software program is configured to obtain said physiologic data from said at least one of said waveform servers in data packets with varying latency periods, and wherein said second software program is configured to display said physiologic data on a display device such that it appears to a person observing said display device that physiologic data is being received as a stream of data with uniform latency periods.
15. A method for efficiently using a packet switched computer network to provide quasi-static data and near real-time data to a workstation, where said quasi-static data is related to said near real-time data, said method comprising the steps of:
using a first server software module to supply said quasi-static data, over said network, to said workstation, using a first protocol;
using a second server software module to supply said near real-time data, over said network, to said workstation, using a second protocol;
using a first client software module running on said workstation to receive said quasi-static data, from said network; and
using a second client software module running on said workstation to receive said near real-time data from said network.
16. The method of claim 15, further comprising the steps of:
gathering said near real-time data at a location remote from said second data server; and
using a communication device to communicate said near-real time data from said remote location to said second data server.
17. The method of claim 15, wherein said first protocol is HTTP.
18. The method of claim 15, wherein said second protocol is TCPIP.
19. The method of claim 15, wherein said first server is a Web server.
20. The method of claim 19, wherein said first client is a Web browser.
21. The method of claim 20, wherein said second client software module is an applet loaded by said Web browser.
22. The method of claim 21, wherein said applet is written in the JAVA programming language.
23. The method of claim 20, further comprising the step of displaying said quasi-static data and said near real-time data on a display device.
24. The method of claim 15, wherein said second client software module uses a socket connection to retrieve said near real-time data from said second server.
25. A method for efficiently using a packet switched computer network to provide database data and physiologic data to a workstation, where said database data is related to said physiologic data, said method comprising the steps of:
using a first server software program to supply said database data, over said network, to said workstation, using a first protocol;
using a second server software program to supply said physiologic data, over said network, to said workstation, using a second protocol;
using a first client software program running on said workstation to receive said database data, from said network; and
using a second client software program running on said workstation to receive said physiologic data from said network.