1. A bone conduction communication apparatus, comprising:
a housing having a shape which is conformable to at least a portion of at least one tooth of a user;
a sensor configured to detect medical information of the user;
an actuatable transducer disposed within or upon the housing and in vibratory communication with a surface of the at least one tooth; and
a wireless satellite transceiver coupled to the sensor to communicate to the transducer to provide received sound to the user and to support global communication for the user.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the sensor is further configured to detect a heart rate, EKG, or respiration rate of the user.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a motion sensor in communication with the transceiver.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising one or more additional sensors in communication with the transceiver.
5. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a controller which is configured to disable the communication apparatus when worn by an unauthorized user.
6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the housing comprises an oral appliance having a shape which conforms to the at least one tooth.
7. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising an electronic assembly disposed within or upon the housing and which is in communication with the transducer.
8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the electronic assembly further comprises a power supply in electrical communication with transducer.
9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the electronic assembly further comprises a processor in electrical communication with the transducer.
10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the electronic assembly further comprises a microphone for receiving auditory signals and which is in electrical communication with the processor.
11. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the electronic assembly further comprises a receiver in wireless communication with an externally located transmitter assembly.
12. The apparatus of claim 1 Wherein the housing is configured as a mouthguard or retainer.
13. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the housing is adapted to conform to at least the portion of the at least one tooth via an interference fit.
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 optical scanning device comprising:
a light source;
a pre-deflector optical system that is arranged in an optical path of a light flux emitted from the light source and includes at least one diffractive optical element;
a deflector that deflects the light flux passing through the pre-deflector optical system; and
a scanning optical system that focuses the light flux deflected by the deflector on a surface to be scanned, wherein
the diffractive optical element is obtained by joining a resin layer to a glass-lens base material,
a diffractive surface of the diffractive optical element has a multi-step structure including a plurality of zonal surfaces substantially perpendicular to an optical axis and a plurality of step surfaces, and
the diffractive surface is formed in the resin layer,
wherein a junction between the glass-lens base material and the resin layer is formed into a flat shape, and wherein the diffractive surface has no power at room temperature.
2. The optical scanning device according to claim 1, wherein a refractive surface is provided in the glass-lens base material, and the refractive surface has an aspheric form.
3. The optical scanning device according to claim 1, wherein an angle between an arbitrary one of the zonal surfaces and a step surface adjacent to the zonal surface in a cross sectional shape including the optical axis of the diffractive surface is an obtuse angle.
4. The optical scanning device according to claim 1, wherein the diffractive surface is provided in an entrance surface or in an exit surface, wherever a divergence of the light flux reflected is higher.
5. The optical scanning device according to claim 1, wherein the diffractive surface is a surface in which a first surface having a diffraction effect and a second surface having a refraction effect which are joined, and power of the first surface and power of the second surface are mutually cancelled out.
6. The optical scanning device according to claim 1, wherein the diffractive optical element is used for a coupling lens that collects light beams emitted from the light source.
7. The optical scanning device according to claim 1, wherein the zonal surfaces are elliptical or circular.
8. The optical scanning device according to claim 1, wherein the light source includes a plurality of light emitting portions, and a surface to be scanned is simultaneously scanned with light beams that are emitted from the light emitting portions and deflected by one deflective facet of the deflector.
9. The optical scanning device according to claim 1, wherein the light source includes a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser array having a plurality of light emitting portions.
10. An image forming apparatus comprising:
at least one image carrier; and
at least one optical scanning device to scan the image carrier with a light flux to form an image on the image carrier, the optical scanning device including
a light source;
a pre-deflector optical system that is arranged in an optical path of a light flux emitted from the light source and includes at least one diffractive optical element;
a deflector that deflects the light flux passing through the pre-deflector optical system; and
a scanning optical system that focuses the light flux deflected by the deflector on a surface to be scanned, wherein
the diffractive optical element is obtained by joining a resin layer to a glass-lens base material,
a diffractive surface of the diffractive optical element has a multi-step structure including a plurality of zonal surfaces substantially perpendicular to an optical axis and a plurality of step surfaces, and
the diffractive surface is formed in the resin layer, wherein a junction between the glass-lens base material and the resin layer is formed into a flat shape, and wherein the diffractive surface has no power at room temperature.
11. The image forming apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the image information is color image information.