Patent ID: 8490488
Filing Date: 2013-07-23
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
1. A sensor for measuring a parameter of the muscular-skeletal system where the parameter being measured affects a medium, where the medium is coupled to or part of the muscular-skeletal system, where the sensor is configured to measure at least one of transit time, phase, or frequency of pulsed energy waves traversing the medium from a first point of the medium to a second point of the medium, where a change in the parameter being measured affects at least one of the transit time, phase, or frequency of the pulsed energy waves and where at least one of transit time, phase, or frequency is converted to the parameter being measured, the sensor comprising: a transducer coupled to the medium configured to detect a pulsed energy wave; and an edge-detect receiver coupled to the transducer where the edge-detect receiver is configured to detect an energy wave at the second point of the medium, where the edge-detect receiver detects a wave front of pulsed energy waves and is configured to generate a blanking period where trailing signals of pulsed energy waves are ignored, where the edge-detect receiver is coupled in a positive closed-loop feedback path with the medium and configured to initiate continued generation and propagation of pulsed energy waves through the medium.