Author: claimsbot

1. An optical method of mapping three-dimensional properties of objects comprising the steps of:
providing an interferometer with a source emitting a low-coherence white light, a reference arm producing a reference beam, an object arm producing an object beam, and means for combining said reference and object beams to produce a combined interference beam; and
modulating the low-coherence white light in a frequency domain to yield a spectral distribution with simultaneous frequencies adapted to produce fringes with a modulation peak at a non-zero optical path length difference between the reference beam and the object beam along an optical path of the combined interference beam, wherein said non-zero optical path length difference is predetermined by the modulating step.
2. The optical coherence tomography method of claim 1, wherein said spectral distribution is a sinusoidal distribution.
3. The optical coherence tomography method of claim 1, wherein said interferometer is a Fizeau interferometer.
4. The optical coherence tomography method of claim 3, wherein said non-zero optical path length difference between the reference beam and the object beam along the optical path of the combined interference beam is half an optical path length difference between said reference arm and object arm of the interferometer.
5. The optical coherence tomography method of claim 1, wherein said fringes with a modulation peak at a non-zero optical path length difference between the reference and object beams are visible over an optical path length smaller than a distance between a surface feature in said object being measured by the interferometer and an optical interface positioned along an optical path of said object beam.
6. The optical coherence tomography method of claim 1, wherein said low-coherence white light is modulated in the frequency domain by sequentially changing a period of modulation over time so as to produce a succession of predetermined spatial patterns of interference fringes produced by said reference and object beams.
7. The optical coherence tomography method of claim 1, further including the step of modifying said spectral distribution to sequentially produce changes in a phase of interference fringes produced by said reference and object beams.
8. The optical coherence tomography method of claim 1, wherein said low-coherence white light is modulated independently for different pixels of an object surface.
9. An interferometric method for optical coherence tomography, comprising the steps of:
illuminating a tissue with a low-coherence light source;
illuminating a reference surface with the light source so as to cause light received back from the tissue and from the reference surface to be combined into an interference beam and produce interference fringes along an optical path of the interference beam; and
modulating the low-coherence light source in a frequency domain to yield a spectral distribution with simultaneous frequencies adapted to produce said interference fringes with a modulation peak at a selected location along said optical path of the combined interference beam;
wherein said location corresponds to a non-zero optical path length difference between said light reflected from the tissue and from the reference surface, said non-zero optical path length difference being predetermined by said modulating step.
10. The method of claim 9, further comprising determining the position of one or more points of a structure in the tissue based on the modulation required to localize interference fringes produced thereby at selected locations.

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. Apparatus for minimally invasive access to the epicardial surface of the human heart, the apparatus comprising:
an elongated flexible body including a proximal end portion and a distal end portion,
at least one lumen extending between a proximal inlet and a distal outlet for carrying out a procedure in association with the epicardial surface of the heart,
the elongated body being of sufficient length for insertion of at least the distal end portion through a transcutaneous access to a location between the pericardium and the epicardial surface of the heart, and
at least a portion of the body adapted for insertion between the pericardium and epicardial surface having a non-circular shape.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 in which a portion of the non-circular shape has a width greater than its thickness.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 in which a portion of the non-circular shape has a convex surface.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 in which a portion of the non-circular shape has a concave surface.
5. The apparatus of claim 2 in which a portion of the non-circular shape has a width in the range of 2 mm to 20 mm and a thickness in the range of 1 mm to 10 mm.
6. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising a plurality of lumen extending between a proximal inlet and a distal end of each such lumen.
7. The apparatus of claim 1 having a length in the range of 10 cm to 40 cm.
8. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the distal end of the body is thinner than a more proximal portion of the body.
9. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the non-circular portion has an upper surface and a lower surface and the distal outlet of the lumen is located in the upper surface.
10. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the non-circular portion has an upper surface and a lower surface, the upper surface being convex in a transverse direction and the lower surface being concave in a transverse direction.

What is claimed is:

1. A disc holding apparatus provided within a main body and provided for holding an information recording disc, comprising:
a holding body protruded from said main body by a supporting line having an elasticity, provided so as to move close to and apart from said main body and engaging with a center hole of said disc in such a manner as to put in and take out with respect to an inner portion of the center hole,
wherein a disc receiving portion for receiving said disc is provided so as to protrude from said main body at a time when said holding body moves close to a side of said main body, in an outer side of said holding body.
2. A disc holding apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said supporting line is provided at a plurality of portions, and at least one of said supporting lines has a strength lower than a strength of the other supporting lines.
3. A disc holding apparatus provided with a main body and provided for holding an information recording disc, comprising:
a holding body protruded from said main body by a supporting line having an elasticity, provided so as to move close to and apart from said main body and engaging with a center hole of said disc in such a manner as to put in and take out with respect to an inner portion of the center hole,
wherein said supporting line is provided at a plurality of portions, and at least one of said supporting lines has a strength lower than a strength of the other supporting lines.
4. A disc holding apparatus as claimed in claim 2 or 3, wherein said supporting line is provided at three portions, three supporting lines extend radially around said holding body in three directions at a substantially uniform interval, and at least one of said supporting lines has a strength lower than a strength of the other two supporting lines.
5. A disc holding apparatus as claimed in claim 2, 3 or 4, wherein said supporting line having the lower strength is structured such that a width or a thickness thereof is smaller than that of the other supporting lines.
6. A disc holding apparatus as claimed in claim 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, wherein said holding body has a disc holding line protruding outward and having an elasticity, said disc holding line is engaged with an edge portion of the center hole in a side opposite to said main body in a state that said holding body is inserted into the center hole of said disc in such a manner as to freely engage and disengage, and is deformed in such a manner as to be compressed inward when said holding body is pressed so as to move close to said main body, thereby allowing said holding body to pass through said center hole.

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 method comprising:
issuing a request hint prior to or while identifying whether requested data andor one or more instructions are in a first memory;
accessing a second memory to fetch data andor one or more instructions in response to the request hint;
storing the data andor instruction(s) accessed from the second memory in a buffer; and
if the requested data andor instruction(s) are not in the first memory, returning the data andor instruction(s) from the buffer.
2. The method of claim 1, comprising identifying whether the requested data andor instruction(s) are stored in a write buffer in response to the request hint.
3. The method of claim 1, comprising identifying, prior to issuing the request hint, whether the requested data andor instruction(s) are in a third memory,
wherein the issuing comprises issuing the request hint if the requested data andor instruction(s) are not in the third memory.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the returning comprises issuing a memory fetch request for the requested data andor instruction(s).
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the returning comprises identifying whether the requested data and instruction(s) are in a write buffer in response to the memory fetch request.
6. An apparatus comprising:
a first memory;
logic coupled to the first memory to issue a request hint prior to or while identifying whether requested data andor one or more instructions are in the first memory, the logic to issue a memory fetch request if the requested data andor instruction(s) are not in the first memory; and
a memory controller coupled to the logic and comprising a buffer, the memory controller to receive the request hint and to access a second memory to fetch data andor one or more instructions in response to the request hint and store the accessed data andor instruction(s) in the buffer, the memory controller to return to the logic the accessed data andor instruction(s) from the buffer in response to the memory fetch request.
7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the first memory comprises a primary cache memory.
8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the first memory comprises a secondary cache memory.
9. The apparatus of claim 6, comprising a third memory coupled to the logic, the logic to identify whether the requested data andor instruction(s) are in the third memory and to issue the request hint if the requested data andor instruction(s) are not in the third memory.
10. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the memory controller comprises a write buffer to store data andor instruction(s) to be written to the second memory, the memory controller to identify whether the requested data andor instruction(s) are stored in the write buffer in response to the request hint.
11. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the memory controller comprises a write buffer to store data andor instruction(s) to be written to the second memory, the memory controller to identify whether the requested data and instruction(s) are stored in the write buffer in response to the memory fetch request.
12. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the logic comprises instruction processing logic to issue the request hint.
13. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the logic comprises primary cache control logic to issue the request hint.
14. A system comprising:
main memory;
cache memory;
logic coupled to the cache memory to request data andor one or more instructions and to issue a request hint prior to or while identifying whether the requested data andor instruction(s) are in the cache memory, the logic to issue a memory fetch request if the requested data andor instruction(s) are not in the cache memory; and
a memory controller coupled to the logic and to the main memory and comprising a buffer, the memory controller to receive the request hint and to access the main memory to fetch data andor one or more instructions in response to the request hint and store the accessed data andor instruction(s) in the buffer, the memory controller to return to the logic the accessed data andor instruction(s) from the buffer in response to the memory fetch request.
15. The system of claim 14, wherein the cache memory comprises a primary cache memory.
16. The system of claim 14, wherein the cache memory comprises a secondary cache memory.
17. The system of claim 14, wherein the cache memory comprises primary and secondary cache memory, the logic to identify whether the requested data andor instruction(s) are in the primary cache memory and to issue the request hint if the requested data andor instruction(s) are not in the primary cache memory.
18. The system of claim 14, wherein the memory controller comprises a write buffer to store data andor instruction(s) to be written to the main memory, the memory controller to identify whether the requested data andor instruction(s) are stored in the write buffer in response to the request hint.
19. The system of claim 14, wherein the memory controller comprises a write buffer to store data andor instruction(s) to be written to the main memory, the memory controller to identify whether the requested data and instruction(s) are stored in the write buffer in response to the memory fetch request.
20. The system of claim 14, wherein the logic comprises instruction processing logic to issue the request hint.
21. The system of claim 14, wherein the logic comprises primary cache control logic to issue the request hint.
22. The system of claim 14, wherein the cache memory, the logic, and the memory controller are integrated.