Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Agency of Industrial Science and Technology

Ministry of International Trade & Industry

Shinichiro Ueno

Hiroshi Fukukita

Tsutomu Yano

Masahiko Hashimoto

Akihisa Adachi

Suguru Fujita

Kenichi Maeda

Shinkichi Ikeda

Ushio Sangawa

Nobuaki Furuya

Haruo Ohmori

Masayuki Tone

In a mobile body discrimination apparatus having an interrogator apparatus and a plurality of transponders each capable of transmitting information to the interrogator apparatus by modulation of radio waves that are reflected from a transponder antenna, which can be attached to respective articles, store data concerning the articles, and transmit the data to the interrogator apparatus in response to a command signal transmitted while the transponder traverses a communication region of an antenna of the interrogator apparatus, each transponder is configured to begin sending such response data after a randomly determined time interval following reception of the command signal, thereby reducing the probability of data conflict when plural transponders are within the communication region. In addition, radio waves from a second antenna of the interrogator apparatus are directed into that communication region in the intervals between transmissions of the command signal, thereby increasing the power level of radio waves that are reflected by a transponder antenna or used by a rectifier circuit to supply power for operating the transponder circuits.

MOBILE BODY DISCRIMINATION APPARATUS FOR RAPIDLY ACQUIRING RESPECTIVE DATA SETS TRANSMITTED THROUGH MODULATION OF REFLECTED RADIO WAVES BY TRANSPONDERS WHICH ARE WITHIN A COMMUNICATION REGION OF AN INTERROGATOR APPARATUS

An ultrasonic probe to be used for an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for obtaining an ultrasonic image. The ultrasonic probe comprises a catheter having a hollow tubing structure, a joint having a tubing structure and arranged to be at its one end portion connected to a tip portion of said catheter, a bearing connected to the other end portion of the joint, a rotating shaft inserted into the bearing to be rotatable and arranged so that a portion of the rotating shaft contacts with one end portion of the bearing, and a rotator connected to the rotating shaft and arranged so that one end portion of the rotator contacts with the other end portion of the bearing so that the bearing is interposed and supported between the portion of the rotating shaft and the rotator. An ultrasonic transducer is inserted into the rotator for transmitting and receiving an ultrasonic wave, a torque transmission shaft having a hollow structure is at its one end portion connected to the rotating shaft, and a guide wire is inserted into the hollow of the torque transmission shaft. A rotating force generated by a drive section is applied through the torque transmission shaft to the ultrasonic transducer whereby the ultrasonic transducer rotationally driven to perform a radial scanning operation. This arrangement allows a free movement of the guidewire within the catheter so that the catheter can easily be lead along the guidewire up to a target portion within a blood vessel.

Ultrasonic probe for transmission and reception of ultrasonic wave and

A catheter type laser illuminating apparatus for thermally removing an atheroma generated in a blood vessel. The illuminating apparatus comprises a catheter arranged to be inserted into a blood vessel, the catheter being equipped with an ultrasonic transducer for transmitting and receiving an ultrasonic wave to generate an electric signal corresponding to the reception ultrasonic wave. The catheter is further equipped with a laser transmission fiber for emitting the laser light. Also included in the illumination apparatus is a M-mode image producing section for producing an image representative of the dimension of the atheroma on the basis of the electric signal from the ultrasonic transducer. The image is displayed on a CRT in a corresponding relation to an illumination condition of the laser light to the atheroma which is at least one of an illumination time and an illumination power.

Catheter type laser illuminating apparatus

An ultrasonic probe has an elongated form with an end. A transducer element array is disposed in the probe for emitting ultrasonic wave frontward with respect to the end of the probe and receiving echo ultrasonic waves. The transducer element array converts the received echo ultrasonic waves into corresponding electric echo signals. The electric echo signals are processed according to a predetermined aperture synthesis technique, and thereby an image signal is generated on the basis of the electric echo signals. An image of a region in front of the end of the probe is reproduced in response to the image signal.

Ultrasonic diagnostic system

An acoustic characteristic measurement method comprising transmitting into a specimen an ultrasonic probe pulse and a pulse formed by the superposition of the probe pulse centroid on a pump pulse of a lower frequency than that of the probe pulse at a portion where the particle acceleration of the pump pulse is at a peak, receiving reflections of the transmitted signal from two or more reflecting points that are at different depths in the specimen, frequency-analyzing the received signals and obtaining a spectral ratio, and using the spectral ratio to measure the distribution in the specimen of the degree of spectral separation and the crossover frequency.

Method and apparatus for measuring acoustic characteristics and

The present invention relates to an ultrasonic examination apparatus which transmits ultrasonic waves into a body to be examined and receives the echo signals therefrom for examination of the inside of the body. The ultrasonic examination apparatus measures acoustic characteristics such as nonlinear parameter within the body using the fact that the characteristic of the reception ultrasonic wave from the inside of the body is varied in accordance with variation of the characteristics within the body. The ultrasonic examination apparatus has first and second ultrasonic transducers for transmitting first ultrasonic pulse and second ultrasonic pulse, respectively. The frequency of the second ultrasonic pulse from the second ultrasonic transducer is higher than that of the first ultrasonic transducer. The first and second ultrasonic pulses are superimposed and transmitted into the body. The phase relation of the first and second ultrasonic pulses is controlled so that the modulation characteristic of the reception signal based on the non-linear effect assumes the maximum.

Ultrasonic examination apparatus

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus detects variations of an acoustic characteristic to obtain the fluctuation of temperature within a body to be examined. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes an ultrasonic transducer for transmitting an ultrasonic wave and receiving the reflected ultrasonic wave which is in turn converted into an electric signal. The signal is phase-detected in accordance with a plurality of gate intervals or a plurality of window interval to detect a phase difference therebetween. The relative variation of velocity dispersion before and after heating of the body is obtained on the basis of the phase variation resulting from the variation of the ultrasonic drive frequency.

Ultrasonic temperature measurement apparatus

An ultrasonic tomographic diagnosis apparatus suitable for skin disease displays a first ultrasonic tomographic image (12) of an object of a fairly broad area, wherein sizes in depthwise direction (X in FIG. 1) displayed in an enlarged scale in relation to sizes in a direction (Y in FIG. 1) on the skin surface, and further a second ultrasonic tomographic image (13) of an object wherein sizes in depthwise direction and sizes in the direction on the skin surface are displayed in substantially proportional to actual size relations, for a selected part marked by a marker (14) on the first tomographic image (12). While specific embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described herein, it is realized that modifications and changes will occur to those skilled in the art. It is therefore to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.

Growing community of inventors

Sagamihara, Japan

Shinichiro Ueno