Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090193893 | ANGULAR VELOCITY SENSOR - Provided is an angular velocity sensor including: a reference vibrator supported so as to generate reciprocating rotational vibration about a first rotation axis as a center; a detection vibrator supported by the reference vibrator so as to generate reciprocating rotational vibration about a second rotation axis, which is different from the first rotation axis, as a center; a reference vibration generating unit for allowing the reference vibrator to generate reciprocating rotational vibration; and a detection unit for detecting a displacement amount of the detection vibrator with respect to the reference vibrator, which is in association with the reciprocating rotational vibration of the detection vibrator. | 08-06-2009 |
20090299185 | DIAGNOSTIC ULTRASOUND APPARATUS - A novel diagnostic ultrasound apparatus has a plurality of ultrasound probes | 12-03-2009 |
20100043546 | SENSOR AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE SAME - Provided is a sensor including a movably supported movable element and an opposing member. The sensor detects a relative positional relationship between the movable element and the opposing member which are provided with a spacing therebetween The opposing member has an impurity-doped portion which is provided to one of an opposing portion which is opposed to the movable element and an adjoining portion which adjoins the opposing portion. At least a part of the impurity-doped portion is formed on an opposite surface opposite to a surface which is opposed to the movable element, from which opposite surface an electrical wiring is led out. | 02-25-2010 |
20110083511 | SIGNAL PROCESSING APPARATUS, ULTRASONIC APPARATUS, CONTROL METHOD FOR SIGNAL PROCESSING APPARATUS, AND CONTROL METHOD FOR ULTRASONIC APPARATUS - A signal processing apparatus scans a beam of elastic waves into an object to be examined, acquires received waveform data of a plurality of scan lines, and performs signal processing to form a tomographic image of said object to be examined from the received waveform data of the plurality of scan lines. The signal processing apparatus includes a scan line correlation calculation part ( | 04-14-2011 |
20110098568 | IMAGE FORMING METHOD USING ULTRASOUND AND ABERRATION CORRECTION METHOD - An ultrasound image forming method comprises a first step of receiving a first signal reflected from the object, a second step of obtaining an aberration correction value based on the first signal thus received, a third step of receiving a second signal reflected from the object when a second ultrasound corrected based on the aberration correction value is transmitted to the object, and a fourth step of forming an image from the aberration correction value and the second signal. The center frequency of the second ultrasound is between 0.5 MHz and 20 MHz, the center frequency of the first ultrasound is between 3/16 and 9/20 of the center frequency of the second ultrasound. By this method, an accurate aberration correction value can be obtained and an ultrasound imaging with high resolution can be achieved even if aberrations are large and difficult to correct. | 04-28-2011 |
20110187868 | ACOUSTIC-WAVE SENSOR, ACOUSTIC-WAVE SENSOR ARRAY, AND ULTRASONIC IMAGING APPARATUS - An acoustic-wave sensor ( | 08-04-2011 |
20110208035 | SUBJECT INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS - Generally, a photoacoustic signal has a wavelength longer than a general ultrasonic signal. That is, it does not matter even if at the time of acquisition of the photoacoustic signal, an element pitch of a probe is several times as large as at the time of acquisition of the ultrasonic signal. Thus, at the time of acquisition of the photoacoustic signal, a plurality of neighboring elements in a receiving element array are collectively considered as one element, and a phasing process is performed. As a result, the same effect as a plurality of phasing addition circuits are disposed in parallel is obtained, and not only a phasing addition process of the photoacoustic signal but also image reconstruction can be performed in real time at a high speed. | 08-25-2011 |
20110307181 | ULTRASONIC APPARATUS - An ultrasonic apparatus is provided with an adaptive signal processing block ( | 12-15-2011 |
20120044785 | MEASURING APPARATUS - Provided is a measuring apparatus, including: a moving mechanism for moving a probe in an elevation direction; a first delay and sum circuit for performing delay and sum of reception signals at individual positions along the elevation direction to output a first add signal; a signal extraction circuit for letting an output of the first delay and sum circuit to pass through delay circuits to output in parallel first add signals obtained at different positions; a second delay and sum circuit for performing delay and sum of the first add signals output from the signal extraction circuit to output a second add signal; and an image processing circuit for generating image data by using the second add signal. Accordingly, image resolution in the elevation direction may be improved with a simple structure without deteriorating an image obtaining speed in the measuring apparatus for obtaining an ultrasonic image. | 02-23-2012 |
20120194107 | CONTROL APPARATUS FOR CAPACITIVE ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCER, AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE CAPACITIVE ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCER - Provided is a control apparatus and control method for a capacitive electromechanical transducer with small decrease in transmission/reception efficiency, and with sets of transmission/reception characteristics with different frequency ranges. The apparatus has cells each including first and second electrodes facing each other via a gap; includes a driving/detecting unit and an external stress applying unit. The driving/detecting unit performs at least one of causing the second electrode to vibrate and transmit elastic waves by generating an AC electrostatic attractive force between the electrodes, and detecting a change of capacity between the electrodes, the change being caused by the second electrode vibrating upon receipt of elastic waves. The external stress applying unit changes the external stress applied to the second electrode. The driving/detecting unit adjusts frequency characteristics by changing a parameter defining the frequency domain used in a transmitting/receiving operation, corresponding to the change of the external stress. | 08-02-2012 |
20120259198 | SUBJECT INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS - There is provided a subject information processing apparatus including a first acoustic conversion element that receives an acoustic wave having a first frequency reflected inside a subject and converts the acoustic wave into an analog signal, a second acoustic conversion element that receives an acoustic wave having a second frequency generated when light is irradiated to a subject and converts the acoustic wave into an analog signal, an A/D converter that converts the analog signal into a digital signal, a data memory that retains the digital signal, and a controller that instructs the data memory to output the digital signal at a predetermined sampling frequency for each receiving axis. | 10-11-2012 |
20120259218 | SUBJECT INFORMATION OBTAINING APPARATUS, METHOD FOR OBTAINING SUBJECT INFORMATION, AND COMPUTER-READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM - A subject information obtaining apparatus includes a plurality of conversion elements configured to receive an elastic wave that has propagated from a subject and convert the elastic wave into a plurality of electrical signals, a frequency-domain interferometry adaptive processing unit configured to execute a frequency-domain interferometry method and adaptive signal processing using the plurality of electrical signals and obtain power intensity distribution by calculating power intensity at each position on a plurality of scan lines, and a correction unit configured to execute a correction process by which variation in power intensity between adjacent scan lines in a direction that intersects with the scan lines is reduced. | 10-11-2012 |
20120314534 | ACOUSTIC WAVE IMAGING APPARATUS AND ACOUSTIC WAVE IMAGING METHOD - An acoustic wave imaging apparatus having: a phase aligning unit which aligns phases of received signals obtained by a plurality of acoustic wave receiving elements; a complex signal acquiring unit which generates complex signals out of the phase aligned received signals; a correlation matrix calculating unit which calculates a correlation matrix of the complex signals; and an electric power calculating unit which calculates constrained minimum power of the received signals, using the correlation matrix and a predetermined constraint vector, wherein the correlation matrix calculating unit calculates the correlation matrix at a predetermined cycle, and sequentially outputs the calculated correlation matrix to the electric power calculating unit at a predetermined cycle, and the electric power calculating unit calculates a plurality of constrained minimum powers in parallel using the calculated correlation matrices, the plurality of constrained minimum powers are corresponding to the correlation matrices respectively. | 12-13-2012 |
20130165791 | SUBJECT INFORMATION ACQUIRING APPARATUS AND SUBJECT INFORMATION ACQUIRING METHOD - A subject information acquiring apparatus of the present invention includes a probe which has a plurality of elements arranged in an array which receive elastic waves propagating within a subject and converts the received elastic waves to a received signals, a first signal processing unit which uses the received signals output by the elements to calculate a first output signal corresponding to the elastic waves from a target position, a second signal processing unit which uses the first output signal for the target position to calculate a second output signal corresponding to elastic waves from the target position, and an image processing unit which uses the second output signal to generate image data for display. In this case, at least one of the first signal processing unit and the second signal processing unit uses adaptive signal processing to calculate the first output signal or the second output signal. | 06-27-2013 |
20130338944 | SIGNAL PROCESSING APPARATUS - Provided is a signal processing apparatus including: an transducer that performs scanning over the interior of an object and acquires received waveform data of a plurality of scanlines; an intensity screening unit that outputs a high intensity position at which signal intensity calculated from the received waveform data is higher than a first predetermined value; a correlation calculation unit that calculates a correlation value in a constant-width division for received waveform data of a first scanline and of a second scanline having a predetermined correlation with the first scanline; a position extraction unit that extracts, as a candidate position of a singular region, a position which corresponds to a high intensity position and for which the correlation value is lower than a second predetermined value; and an image processor that performs signal processing of generating image data of the object on the basis of the received waveform data. | 12-19-2013 |
20140051970 | OBJECT INFORMATION ACQUIRING APPARATUS - The present invention employs an object information acquiring apparatus comprising a probe including a plurality of conversion elements which receive acoustic waves emitted from an object and convert the acoustic waves into received signals, a delay unit which matches phases of the plurality of received signals output from the plurality of conversion elements, a signal adder which adds the plurality of received signals output from the delay unit, for each group to obtain latter input signals, and an adaptive signal processor which generates internal image data of the object by performing adaptive signal processing on the plurality of latter input signals output from a plurality of the signal adders. | 02-20-2014 |
20140056105 | OBJECT INFORMATION ACQUIRING APPARATUS AND OBJECT INFORMATION ACQUIRING METHOD - The present invention employs an object information acquiring apparatus comprising a plurality of conversion elements which receive acoustic waves emitted from an object and convert the acoustic waves into electrical signals, a correlation calculator which calculates correlation data by using the plurality of electrical signals output from the plurality of conversion elements, an average correlation calculator which calculates an average correlation matrix by extracting a plurality of submatrices from the correlation data and averaging the submatrices, and an adaptive signal processor which generates power distribution by performing adaptive signal processing by using the average correlation matrix and calculating the power of each target position, wherein the correlation calculator calculates the correlation data by obtaining the correlation of input signals that are separated by at least one input signal among the input signals. | 02-27-2014 |
20140063002 | OBJECT INFORMATION ACQUISITION APPARATUS, DISPLAY METHOD, AND COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM STORING PROGRAM - A display control unit included in an object information acquisition apparatus receives information about a depth range, subjected to display of a distribution related to acoustic characteristics, input by a user, and outputs, when the depth range is narrower than a predetermined range, image information for displaying an image of second distribution information subjected to adaptive signal processing in an area corresponding to the depth range or a combined image obtained by combining first distribution information subjected to addition processing with a predetermined weight and the second distribution information. | 03-06-2014 |
20140064021 | OBJECT INFORMATION ACQUISITION APPARATUS, DISPLAY METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM - An object information acquisition apparatus according to the present invention includes a plurality of conversion elements configured to receive waves reflected at each position inside an object, and convert the reflected waves into a plurality of received signals, a fixed signal processing unit configured to apply addition with a predetermined weight to the plurality of received signals to acquire first distribution information, an adaptive signal processing unit configured to apply adaptive signal processing to the plurality of received signals to acquire second distribution information, and a display control unit configured to input the first distribution information and the second distribution information, and output image information to a display unit, wherein the display control unit outputs image information for displaying in parallel in the same screen an image of the first distribution information, an image of the second distribution information or a combined image of the first and second distribution information. | 03-06-2014 |
20140064022 | OBJECT INFORMATION OBTAINING APPARATUS, DISPLAY METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM - An object information obtaining apparatus according to the present invention includes a fixed signal processing unit configured to perform addition processing with a predetermined weight by using a plurality of receiving signals to obtain first distribution information, and an adaptive signal processing unit configured to perform adaptive signal processing with a weight adaptively changing according to the receiving signals by using the plurality of receiving signals to obtain second distribution information, wherein the display control unit, upon reception of information about a specified area in the image of the first distribution information input by the user in a state where the image of the first distribution information is displayed, is configured to output image information for displaying on the display unit an image of the second distribution information or the combined image for the first and second distribution information, corresponding to the specified area. | 03-06-2014 |
20140064023 | OBJECT INFORMATION ACQUISITION APPARATUS, DISPLAY METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM - An object information acquisition apparatus according to the present invention includes a fixed signal processing unit configured to perform addition processing with a predetermined weight on a plurality of receiving signals to acquire first distribution information, and an adaptive signal processing unit configured to perform on the plurality of receiving signals adaptive signal processing with a weight adaptively changing according to the receiving signals to acquire second distribution information, wherein the display control unit receives enlargement instruction information for the image of the first distribution information input by the user in a state where the image of the first distribution information is displayed, and outputs image information for displaying on the display unit an enlarged image of the image of the second distribution information or an enlarged image of the combined image of the first and second distribution information. | 03-06-2014 |
20140206960 | OBJECT INFORMATION ACQUIRING APPARATUS - An object information acquiring apparatus is used. This apparatus comprises: a light source configured to emit pulsed light of a plurality of wavelengths; a wavelength controller configured to switch the wavelength; a probe configured to receive an acoustic wave generated and propagated in an object subjected to the pulsed light emitted onto the object; a scan controller configured to move the probe within a predetermined scanning range; and an information processor configured to acquire information about the object by using a plurality of electric signals corresponding to the wavelengths of the pulsed light output from the probe at each reception position in the scanning area. The wavelength controller switches the wavelength of the pulsed light before the probe scans the entire scanning area while receiving at each reception position an acoustic wave corresponding to at least one of the wavelengths of the pulsed light. | 07-24-2014 |
20140206998 | OBJECT INFORMATION ACQUIRING APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD FOR SAME - Provided is an object information acquiring apparatus including elements with which an acoustic wave is transmitted to and received from an object and converted into a plurality of received signals, a processor that acquires a power intensity signal of the inside of the object, and a corrector that corrects the power intensity signal, the processor being configured to calculate correlation values of frequency components, perform frequency average processing on a correlation matrix that is a set of the plurality of calculated correlation values to acquire a first power intensity signal, and reduce variance of elements in the diagonal direction of the correlation matrix to acquire a second power intensity signal, and the corrector being configured to output a power intensity signal subjected to correction processing. | 07-24-2014 |
20140213902 | SUBJECT INFORMATION OBTAINING APPARATUS, METHOD FOR OBTAINING SUBJECT INFORMATION, AND PROGRAM - A subject information obtaining apparatus includes: a plurality of conversion elements configured to receive an elastic wave and convert the elastic wave into a plurality of received signals, a storage unit configured to store a plurality of reference signals corresponding to shapes of the object inside a subject, and an FDI adaptive processing unit configured to execute the FDI method and the adaptive signal processing using the plurality of received signals and two or more reference signals among the plurality of reference signals, in order to obtain two or more power intensity distributions for the two or more reference signals. | 07-31-2014 |
20140219060 | SUBJECT INFORMATION OBTAINING APPARATUS, SUBJECT INFORMATION OBTAINING METHOD, AND PROGRAM - A subject information obtaining apparatus according includes: plurality of conversion elements configured to convert an elastic wave from a subject into a plurality of reception signals, a delay and sum unit configured to perform a delay and sum process by using the plurality of reception signals and output a plurality of scanning line signals, a scanning line synthesis unit configured to add the plurality of scanning line signals between adjacent scanning lines and output a plurality of synthesis scanning line signals, and an FDI adaptive processing unit configured to perform a frequency domain interferometry and an adaptive signal processing by using the plurality of synthesis scanning line signals and obtain a power intensity distribution. | 08-07-2014 |
20140221833 | SUBJECT INFORMATION ACQUISITION APPARATUS - Viscoelastic characteristics in a subject are imaged by a simple method. | 08-07-2014 |
20140245836 | OBJECT INFORMATION ACQUIRING APPARATUS - Disclosed is an apparatus that transmits an elastic wave to an object and receives a reflected wave, this apparatus including: a transmitting and receiving unit having elements for converting an elastic wave to an electric signal, and being arranged at least in one direction; an element controlling unit that inputs an electric signal to the element and causes the element to transmit an elastic wave; and a detecting unit that detects a reflected wave to be received by the element, wherein the electric signal to be inputted to the element is an encoded pulse signal encoded among the elements, and the detecting unit decodes the reflected wave and executes at different time points aperture synthesis processing of synthesizing the decoded reflected wave with respect to the intersections of two axes at different time points. | 09-04-2014 |
20140269190 | OBJECT INFORMATION ACQUIRING APPARATUS - An object information acquiring apparatus including: a plurality of receiving elements receiving an acoustic wave propagating from an object and converting the acoustic wave into an electrical signal; a delaying unit aligning phases of electrical signals of M number of channels outputted from the plurality of receiving elements; an eliminator reducing the electrical signals of M number of channels to electrical signals of L number of channels; a calculator calculating Nb number of output signals corresponding to low-frequency components of a complex signal based on the electrical signals outputted from the eliminator; and a signal processor performing beam formation according to adaptive signal processing using output signals outputted from the calculator, wherein positive integers M, L, and Nb satisfy M>L>=2(Nb−1). | 09-18-2014 |
20140288431 | SUBJECT INFORMATION ACQUISITION APPARATUS, SUBJECT INFORMATION ACQUISITION METHOD, AND PROGRAM - A subject information acquisition apparatus of the present invention includes a transmission/reception unit including a plurality conversion elements which transmit an elastic wave to the subject and receive a reflected wave that is reflected at each position in the subject, a scan line signal acquisition unit which acquires a plurality of signals corresponding to the reflected waves from each position in the subject as scan line signals by using a plurality of reception signals outputted from the conversion elements, and a processing unit which acquires moving information of the object by using the plurality of scan line signals. The processing unit acquires the moving information of the object on the basis of a distribution of cross-correlation values on a plane represented by two axes including an axis of time difference and an axis of distance difference by using a plurality of cross-correlation values between scan line signals at different positions. | 09-25-2014 |
20140313856 | OBJECT INFORMATION ACQUISITION APPARATUS, OBJECT INFORMATION ACQUISITION METHOD, AND NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM - An object information acquisition apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of transducer elements each configured to transmit an acoustic wave to an object, to receive reflected waves reflected from inside the object, and to convert the reflected waves into a time-series reception signal; and a processor configured to perform frequency domain interferometry combined with adaptive signal processing by using the reception signals output from the plurality of transducer elements and a reference signal so as to obtain acoustic characteristics at a plurality of positions located inside the object. The processor is configured to switch the reference signal to another reference signal at least once in accordance with a target position located inside the object while performing the frequency domain interferometry so as to obtain the acoustic characteristics at the plurality of positions located inside the object. | 10-23-2014 |
20140318253 | OBJECT INFORMATION ACQUIRING APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF - Adopted is an object information acquiring apparatus that includes: a probe including multiple conversion elements that transmit acoustic waves to an object, and convert the reflected waves into time-series received signals; and a processor that performs frequency domain interferometry, through application of adaptive signal processing, by using the multiple received signals output from the multiple conversion elements and a reference signal, and obtains acoustic properties of multiple positions. The probe is configured such that, when a direction in which the multiple conversion elements are arranged is a first direction and a second direction, end portions in the second direction have a lower transmission sound pressure of the acoustic waves than a midportion in the second direction. | 10-30-2014 |
20140318254 | CAPACITIVE TRANSDUCER AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING SAME - A side lobe in a capacitive transducer is reduced. Provided is a capacitive transducer including an element including a plurality of cells supported such that a vibrating membrane including one of a pair of electrodes formed with an gap inbetween is capable of vibration, wherein a distance between cells in an end portion of the element is greater than a distance between cells in a middle portion of the element. | 10-30-2014 |
20140318255 | CAPACITIVE TRANSDUCER AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING SAME - Provided is a capacitive transducer including an element including a plurality of cells supported such that a vibrating membrane including one of a pair of electrodes formed with an gap inbetween is capable of vibration, wherein a distance between a pair of electrodes of a cell in an end portion of the element is greater than a distance between a pair of electrodes of a cell in a middle portion of the element. | 10-30-2014 |