(12) UIllt€d States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 6,842,324 B2 Eyssa (45) Date of Patent: Jan. 11, 2005 (54) APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR (56) References Cited CONTROLLING MOVEMENT OF AN OBJECT THROUGH A MEDIUM USING A U5 PATENT DOCUMENTS MAGNETIC FIELD 3,982,722 A * 9/1976 Bernard ....................... .. 251/4 4,813,390 A * 3/1989 Bennett .................... .. 123/577 (75) Inventor: Yehia M. Eyssa, Tallahassee, FL (US) 4,869,247 A 9/1989 Howard, III et al. 4,922,370 A * 5/1990 Mulshine et al. ........... .. 361/88 (73) Assignee: FSU Research Foundation, Inc., 5,125,888 A 6/1992 Howard et al. Tallahassee, FL (US) 2 inter ei all , , erp et a . ( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this 6>128>174 A 10/2000 Riiier ct al" patent is extended or adjusted under 35 4 Cited by examiner U.S.C. 154(b) by 323 days. Primary Examiner—Dean A. Reichard (21) Appl. NO.Z 10/107,920 ?7Sg'SZ1[';Fi-‘7>¢f¢'"fl"'1@’TA11t%11_iifYSiS , P orney, gen , or irm enniger oWers (22) Filed: Mar. 27, 2002 (57) ABSTRACT (65) Prior Publication Data Apparatus and method for controlling movement of an Us 2002/0186520 A1 De°~ 12> 2002 object through a medium using a magnetic field by com_ _ bining the magnetic field of a primary electromagnetic coil _ _ Related_ Application Data having a central axis With the magnetic fields of a plurality (60) Provisional a lication No 60/281 860 filed on A r 5 2001 pp ' ’ ’ P‘ ’ of secondary electromagnetic coils having axes generally ' parallel to the central axis of the primary coil and positioned (51) Int. CI.7 .............................................. .. H01H 47/00 Within the primary Cgfl [Q pfgduce an Qpefatjgnal magnetic (52) U.S. Cl. ......................... .. 361/141; 361/88; 361/91; field by Which movement of the object in a medium is 361/102; 361/14; 361/117; 335/151; 335/154 controlled outside of the primary coil. (58) Field of Search .......................... .. 361/141, 88, 91,
