Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi Medical Corporation

Fujifilm Healthcare Corporation

Hiroshi Masuzawa

Kageyoshi Katakura

Yuichi Miwa

Teiichiro Ikeda

Ryuichi Shinomura

Yutaka Sato

Mayumi Suzuki

Shinta Takano

Chizue Ishihara

Shinichiro Umemura

Hiroshi Takeuchi

Satoshi Tamano

Kunio Hashiba

Kenichi Kawabata

Takashi Azuma

Hiroki Tanaka

Hiroshi Kanda

Masao Kamahori

Tatsuo Nakagawa

Miyuki Kono

Shinya Kajiyama

Hideki Yoshikawa

Toshio Kondo

Jun Kubota

Chitose Nakaya

Hitoshi Matsuo

Shinji Kishimoto

Hideyuki Ban

Shizuo Ishikawa

Kazuo Takei

Shuzo Sano

Rei Asami

Ryuuichi Shinomura

Masahiro Kurihara

Marie Tabaru

Takaya Osawa

In performing aperture synthesis according to an ultrasound imaging apparatus, the amount of spatial change of amplification factors of phasing signals at respective receive phasing points are reduced, and a high-quality image is obtained. In a receive beamformer that generates an inter-transmission weight in accordance with a phasing range, and performs aperture synthesis processing, the inter-transmission weight being generated is applied to the receive phasing points within the phasing range obtained through transmission and reception, and the inter-transmission synthesis is performed. The inter-transmission weight is generated in such a manner that a variation form of the amplification factor between adjacent receive phasing points is smoothed and a difference of the amplification factor is reduced, as to each receive phasing point after the inter-transmission synthesis is performed.

Ultrasonic imaging device, method for adjusting inter-transmission weight, and ultrasonic imaging method

Reception beamforming that does not generate discontinuity in the vicinity of the depth of a transmit focus is executed even if reception scanning lines are disposed outside of the irradiation area of a focusing-type transmission beam. The degree of discontinuity showing the discontinuity of reception signals detected by plural ultrasound elementsor the degree of discontinuity regarding the discontinuity of the wave fronts of phased signals is detected by a discontinuity extracting unit. If there is an area where the degree of discontinuity is larger than a predefined value, a delay time generating unitfor discontinuity elimination changes the delay times in the area where the discontinuity is generated.

Ultrasound imaging pickup apparatus

Reception beamforming is executed using delay times that complexly vary in accordance with differences between transmission conditions. An irradiation areaof a transmission beam is calculated, and the lengths of segments, using which delay times are calculated, are set in accordance with the positional relationships between the calculated irradiation areaand reception scanning lines. For example, the reception scanning linesare divided into areas A to C, and the lengths of segmentsb in the outer area B located outside of the irradiation areaare set shorter than the lengths of segmentsa andc in the inner areas A and C.

A compact delay circuit that can dynamically change delay time is configured. A probe includes an analog memory unit that accumulates electric charges corresponding to a reflected wave of an ultrasonic wave produced by a difference between the acoustic impedances on a plurality of capacitorsand in turn outputs the electric charges accumulated on the capacitorsto an analog memory unit. In accumulating electric charges, when a control signal Ctls_l that increases delay time of the reflected wave is inputted, the analog memory unitaccumulates the same electric charges on two or more of the capacitorsfor a preset period, or in outputting electric charges, when a control signal Ctlo_l is inputted, the analog memory unitoutputs the electric charges accumulated on one of the capacitorsfor a preset period.

Ultrasound probe and ultrasound imaging apparatus using the same

There is provided an ultrasound imaging apparatus that can reduce vertical stripes even though a transmission interval is widened for high speed imaging. When a receiving unitreceives an instruction to perform a high speed imaging mode, an aperture synthesizing unitadds a predetermined number (N) of phase outputs obtained from the reflected ultrasonic waves of individual transmission beams at the same received focal points to reduce the occurrence of stripes on an image. In order to generate N phase outputs at each of the received focal points, a control unitfinds a necessary number (M) of the reception scanning lines to be set by the reception beam former, and notifies the reception beam formerof the number.

Ultrasound imaging apparatus

There is provided an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of measuring hardness information of a subject with high time resolution and spatial resolution. The apparatus is provided with a ultrasonic probeand a displacement generation unitconfigured to displace an inside of a subject and is configured to transmit an ultrasonic beam for displacement detection to a plurality of detection positions of the subject from the ultrasonic probe, and to detect a shear wave velocity based on the displacement at the plurality of detection positions in a control unitby using a reflection signal detected in a detection unit, thereby outputting hardness information of the subject. The ultrasonic beam for displacement detection is transmitted to one of the plurality of detection positions. A waveform analysis unitof the control unitis configured to perform a change control of analyzing a shear wave resulting from the displacement to thus transmit the ultrasonic beam for displacement detection to another position of the plurality of detection positions. Thereby, it is possible to measure the shear wave velocity with high time resolution and spatial resolution, so that it is possible to obtain the hardness information of the subject with high precision.

Ultrasonic diagnosis device and transmission/reception method

A weight value used for a beamforming process performed on received signals in an ultrasound imaging apparatus is obtained with a small amount of computations and with a high degree of precision, even when a method of adaptive signal processing is employed. Multiple elementsreceive ultrasound signals from a test subject, and the similarity operatorobtains the similarity between the received signals x(n). By using the similarity C(n) between the received signals obtained by the similarity operator, the adaptive weight operatorcomputes the adaptive weight w(n) in association with the similarity. The beamforming operatoruses the adaptive weight w(n) and the received signal x(n) to generate a beamforming output. The imaging processoruses the beamforming output to generate image data. By way of example, the similarity operatorperforms computations of the similarity in the time direction.

Ultrasound imaging apparatus including a two-dimensional array of plural transducer elements distributed two-dimensionally and transmits and receives ultrasonic waves while scanning an area to be imaged to create an ultrasound three-dimensional image. Transducer elements are divided into plural element blocks including a first element block of which a size in a second direction of an arrangement surface of the two-dimensional array is larger than a size in a first direction of the surface, and a second element block of which a size in the first direction is larger than a size in the second direction. Each of the element blocks is divided into a predetermined number of groups to form a transmit beam and plural receive beams in the area to be imaged. Further included is a selecting means for making transmit/receive channels of the transducer elements grouped to be one channel in each of the groups.

A transmission/reception beamformer output provided with point spread functions having different wave number vector directions is used to obtain a compound image that is highly isochronous and sufficiently blurring-resistant.

Ultrasound imaging device

In a place where the personal authentication is requested, if there occurs an emergency, e.g., an authenticatee is forced to unlock a key under threat against the authenticatee's will, there is provided an urgency report system that has lowered both a danger of an authentication apparatus's false operation and a risk of being detected from those around the authenticatee. In the personal authentication technology based on a finger-vein authentication, the employment of the following methods makes it possible to enter a rescue mode and to issue an urgency report: Actively deforming the finger-vein pattern in captured image, pushing a switch, which becomes a trigger for starting the authentication, longer than a predetermined time, or using a rotational motion of the finger.

Personal authentication system

An ultrasonic probe in which two-dimensional array transducer elements are arrayed convexly both in one direction of the two-dimensional array and in the direction perpendicular to the former direction relative to the direction where an ultrasonic wave is transmitted. By switching a transducer element selecting switch circuit provided near the transducer elements, the shape of the diameter of the probe for transmitting and receiving of ultrasound and the position of the diameter are arbitrarily determined. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus in which a fresnel ring is formed as an diameter by a control signal to a transducer element selecting switch circuit, the number of cables for connection between the probe and the main body is decreased by bundling the transducer elements in one ring and effecting the connection, the fresnel ring is moved every ultrasonic transmission/reception cycle by the control signal to the transducer element selection switching circuit, and an object is three-dimensionally scanned with an ultrasonic beam.

Ultrasonic probe and ultrasonic diagnostic device comprising the same

A method and apparatus for sterilizing water containing pathogen protozoa having shells in a simple manner without negative influencing the environment is disclosed. Ultrasonic waves are applied to drinking water to form fine cavitation bubbles which are used to destroy the shells of pathogenic protozoa. The residual chlorine in the drinking water along with an oxidizing action and effect of the ultrasonic wave, permit not only sterilization but also deodorization and decolorization.

Sterilizing method and apparatus

In an ultrasound signal processor, respective received signals received at received signal processing units are sampled by a sampling clock of a frequency which is sufficiently higher than a Nyquist sampling frequency of an upper limit of a frequency band width for each of the received signals received at the received signal processing units so as to be digitized. Each of the digitized received signals is multiplied by a reference signal of a predetermined frequency to produce converted received signals in which the frequency of the digital received signal waveform is shifted, and converted signals are cumulated for a time which is longer than the sampling period. Each of the cumulated signals is processed by a clock frequency lower than the sampling clock in connection with an ultrasound beam in one direction, so that after one transmission operation of ultrasound, a plurality of ultrasound received beams are formed from the received signals received at the respective transducers.

Ultrasound signal processor

An ultrasound signal processor for receiving an ultrasound signal from a testing body by a plurality of electro-magnetic transducer elements and processing a plurality of received signals to obtain information of the interior of the testing body is provided with analog-digital converters for sampling at least two of received analog signals, multipliers for multiplying the outputs of the analog-digital converters by first complex digital reference signals, first low-pass filters for limiting the signal bands of the outputs of the multipliers, first complex multipliers for multiplying the outputs of the first low-pass filters by second complex digital reference signals, adders for performing the addition of the outputs of the first complex multipliers for real signals and the addition thereof for imaginary signals, memory devices for storing the outputs of the adders, second complex multipliers for multiplying signals read from the memory devices by third complex digital reference signals, and second low-pass filters for limiting the signal bands of the outputs of the second complex multipliers.

An ultrasound signal processor has a receiving signal digitizing circuit, waveform conversion circuit for mixing a produced digital signal by a reference signal, a cumulation circuit for performing a cumulation processing of a series of converted signals, a delay circuit subject to the cumulation processing, and a circuit for adding delayed signals, whereby the frequency of the receiving signal is shifted to a lower frequency and thereafter subjected to a cumulation processing which perform over-sampling technique so that the accuracy of an analog to digital conversion can be improved drastically. The ultrasound signal processor further has a circuit for converting a receiving signal into a low frequency signal by analog-mixing and a circuit for passing a low frequency component of the analog-converted signal, whereby a higher frequency receiving signal can be digitized even if the digitizing circuit has a insufficient sampling rate.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Hiroshi Masuzawa