US Patent Issued to ViOptix on Dec. 23 for "Melanin correction of oxygen saturation" (California, New Hampshire, Illinois Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,502,140, issued on Dec. 23, was assigned to ViOptix Inc. (Newark, Calif.).

"Melanin correction of oxygen saturation" was invented by Kate Leeann Bechtel (Pleasant Hill, Calif.), Kimberly Merritt Shultz (Mountain View, Calif.), Alex Michael Margiott (Dunbarton, N.H.) and George Edward Kechter (Peoria, Ill.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An oximeter probe that takes into account tissue color (e.g., skin color or melanin content) to improve accuracy when determining oxygen saturation of tissue. Light is transmitted from a light source into tissue having melanin (e.g., eumelanin or pheomelanin). Light reflected from the tissue is received by...