Furuno Electric Company Limited

Dorian Cretin

Atsushi Uodome

Ryoichi Suetoshi

A thickness measuring device using ultrasonic waves is provided. A cortical bone thickness measuring device includes a plurality of oscillators, a reception waveform storage, an echo waveform synthesizing module, an inner-surface focusing waveform acquiring module, and a thickness calculating module. The plurality of oscillators are arrayed and each of the oscillators is transmittable and receivable of an ultrasonic wave. The echo waveform synthesizing module obtains an echo waveform corresponding to the ultrasonic beams by synthesizing reception waveforms of the respective oscillators stored in the reception waveform storage in advance, while scanning a focusing position of the ultrasonic beams. Concerning the obtained echo waveform, when it is determined that the beams suitably focus on an inner surface of a cortical bone as a result of an evaluation by the inner-surface focusing waveform acquiring module, the thickness calculating module calculates the thickness of the cortical bone based on the echo waveform.

Thickness measuring device and thickness measuring method

A sonic speed measurement device in which reliability is enhanced while the amount of calculation is minimized is provided. A propagation path postulation component postulates the sonic speed through bone, and calculates propagation paths up until ultrasonic waves transmitted from a wave transmitter are received by oscillators. A postulated propagation time calculator calculates the propagation time it takes for the ultrasonic waves transmitted from the wave transmitter to be received by the oscillators, based on the propagation paths. A Fourier transform component subjects I signals and Q signals of signals outputted by the oscillators to Fourier transform to generate Fourier transform data. A phase shifter shifts the phase of the Fourier transform data for the oscillators in a frequency region according to the propagation time. A sonic speed derivation component determines the validity of the postulated sonic speed based on the Fourier transform data shifted by the phase shifter.

Propagation rate measurement device, propagation rate measurement program, and propagation rate measurement method

A shape detection method and device for detecting a shape of an object are disclosed. The device includes an ultrasonic wave transmission module, a reception module, an incoming direction detecting module, a propagation time detecting module, a front-surface reflection point detecting module, and a shape deriving module. The shape deriving module derives a shape of a front surface of the object using a plurality of the reflection points on the front surface of the object detected by the front-surface reflection point detecting module for a plurality of transducer groups.

Method and device of detecting shape and bone strength diagnostic device using the device

A speed-of-sound measurement apparatus includes a wave transmission module for transmitting an ultrasonic wave to a front surface of a subject's body, a plurality of wave reception modules which each receives the ultrasonic wave from the subject's body and outputs a waveform signal corresponding to the received ultrasonic wave, a presumed propagation time calculating module for calculating a propagation time from when the ultrasonic wave is transmitted by the wave transmission module to when the ultrasonic wave arrives at each of the wave reception modules after propagating along the front surface of the subject's body or inside the subject's body, based on a presumed value of speed-of -sound in the subject's body and a front surface shape of the subject's body, a validity index value calculating module for finding a validity index value to be an index of validity of the propagation time based on the waveform signals outputted by at least two of the plurality of wave reception modules, and a speed-of-sound deriving module for finding the speed-of-sound in the subject's body based on the validity index value.

Method and apparatus for measuring speed-of-sound

A bone strength diagnostic device includes a wave-transmission module that transmits an ultrasonic wave obliquely to a bone covered with soft tissues; a wave-reception module that receives the ultrasonic wave that exits from the bone to the side of the soft tissues; a shape detection module for detecting the shape of the front surface of the bone; and a speed-of-sound deriving module for deriving the speed of sound of the ultrasonic wave that propagates along the front surface of the bone, based on the received wave signals, and the shape of the front surface of the bone detected using the shape detection module.

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Nishinomiya, Japan

Dorian Cretin