Luna Innovations Inc.

David J Colatosti

John Edward Lynch

David Mark Blaker

Richard Burton Mack, Jr

An ultrasonic pulse echo apparatus detects an object that is moving with respect to stationary objects. An ultrasonic transducer transmits a series of ultrasound pulses in a direction that intersects a path of the moving object. An ultrasound receiver receives a series of lines of echoes from objects in the field of view of the ultrasonic signal. Each echo line corresponds to one of the ultrasonic pulses. A signal processor processes the echo lines from the moving object. The echo lines are time shifted by different amounts and combined at different time shifts to produce different composite lines. The composite line having an optimal signal-to-noise ratio is selected. Other signal processing enhancements are performed.

Method and apparatus for enhancing the detecting and tracking of moving objects using ultrasound

A digital pulsed phase locked loop (DPPLL) provides exact measurements of echo phase, time, and/or position delay as well as echo amplitude. These exact measurements provide better and more reliable results that directly benefit the many real world applications for the DPPLL. The DPPLL permits simultaneous tracking of multiple echo pulses and considerably improved echo selection and sampling.

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Blacksburg, VA, United States of America

David J Colatosti