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Gorham Lamp provides cool, fully adjustable light for magnification and photography

2013-07 Gorham Lamp moth

Gorham Lamp with specimen

2013-07 Gorham Lamp This multi-purpose studio and microscope light adds flexible functionality far superior to the standard ring light.  The unique design provides  adjustable annular and semi-annular illumination for bright-field, dark-field, transmitted, and other oblique lighting applications.

The combination of lighting options possible with this product is particularly useful for observation of small objects where fine control of light direction, intensity, and distribution directly impacts observable surface features and object translucence.

This technology is available for licensing and a limited production run of commercial units is underway.  Contact us if you are a microscopist, entomologist, archeologist, curator, or photographer interested in participating in testing this new product in your laboratory.

Contact: Joe Staples at [email protected]

US Patent 14/335,730 pending

Wave Rider – a low-maintanence off-shore wind resource assessment buoy

2013-14 Wave RiderThis buoy system has the capability of conducting long-term offshore wind resource assessment campaigns with limited maintenance. Read More…

Analyze Samples in the Classroom, Lab or Field with this Portable Fluorescence Spectrometer

2010-05 Ring Spec

Custom software and the patented curved reflective surface in this spectrometer reduce instrument size and focus light so well that inexpensive LEDs replace expensive light sources.

This portable, durable, inexpensive florescence spectrometer has a variety of potential applications, including the following:

  • Secondary education, where important STEM topics may not be adequately addressed because spectroscopy instruments are too expensive to purchase and maintain.
  • Field research in which technicians are required to transport water or soil samples to a lab for spectroscopy analysis, adding time and complication .
  • Remote sensor applications where data collection may be limited due to spectrometer power and durability limitations.

Read More…

Real-time nanoparticle particle size monitoring device

Performance quality of many industrial materials depends on consistent distribution of particle sizes within the material.  The ability to quantify other parameters such as surface roughness, surface area, and particle shape is also desirable.  Current methods provide a static, batched measurement of limited utility.  This new method and device provides real-time measurements directly from the manufacturing line flow.

This device has demonstrated performance on paper additive products with aspect ratios ranging from 2 to 8 and short axis diameters between 100 and 500 nm.  Applications are in quality control.

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Method for reducing cross-talk within DNA data

Raw DNA data is filtered with a multi-component analysis that is applied to the difference of the signal intensity on each of the raw DNA data signals to remove cross talk between the signals. The analysis is done before any baseline adjustment of the raw DNA data. Instead, the baseline adjustment occurs after the raw DNA data has been filtered. Additionally, an additional processing step is applied to the data to account for the non-linear nature of cross talk filtering. The additional processing step involves combining the signal with its derivative to account for the correlation of each of the data signals with the other three data signals.

InventorsCristian Domnisoru, Mohamad Musavi

US Patent 6,598,013

3D Biplane Microscopy

A microscopy system is configured for creating 3D images from individually localized probe molecules. The microscopy system includes a sample stage, an activation light source, a readout light source, a beam splitting device, at least one camera, and a controller. The activation light source activates probes of at least one probe subset of photo-sensitive luminescent probes, and the readout light source causes luminescence light from the activated probes. The beam splitting device splits the luminescence light into at least two paths to create at least two detection planes that correspond to the same or different number of object planes of the sample. The camera detects simultaneously the at least two detection planes, the number of object planes being represented in the camera by the same number of recorded regions of interest. The controller is programmable to combine a signal from the regions of interest into a 3D data.

UMaine Tech ID  2008-20

US Patent Number  7,772,569 & 7,880,149

Inventors: Joerg Bewersdorf, Manuel F. Juette, Travis Gould, Sam T. Hess

Exclusively licensed to Vutara.

Analyze Samples in the Lab or Field with this New Portable Fluorescence Spectrometer

PROBLEM: 1.) Important science topics are sometimes not addressed in high schools because spectroscopy instruments are too expensive to purchase and maintain  2.) Field technicians have to take water and soil samples to a lab for spectroscopy analysis, adding time and complication  3.) Valuable data is not available from remote sensors due to spectrometer power and durability limitations.

SOLUTION: A portable, durable florescence spectrometer that costs 50% less than comparable instruments in most applications due to its novel design and simple components.

Read More…