The Boeing Company

Thomas E Riechers

James C Kennedy

Barry Allen Fetzer

Michael J Duncan

Mark A Lee

Michael C Hutchinson

William D Meade

Michael D Horky

Jeffrey G Thompson

Fred D Young

David S Nansen

Ronald V Bulthuis

A method for determining an actual shear angle between an interior wall and a facesheet of a cellular panel using an imaging system is disclosed. The imaging system may include a radiation source and a detector diametrically opposed to the radiation source. The method may include positioning the cellular panel at a tilt angle relative to a line extending between the radiation source and the detector, transmitting radiation from the radiation source to the detector through the cellular panel at the tilt angle to obtain an image, measuring a projected shear angle in the obtained image, and determining the actual shear angle between the interior wall and the facesheet using the tilt angle and the projected shear angle.

Methods and system for determining shear angle

A method comprises positioning an ultrasonic probe against a surface of an item. The probe includes a chamber formed in part by a flexible membrane, which is opposite the surface. The method further comprises moving the probe along the surface while varying chamber pressure to flex the membrane to accommodate the surface.

Thin-film ultrasonic probe having a flexible membrane

An ultrasonic probe for examining an item. The probe includes a body having a contact surface adapted for contacting the item when being examined and an ultrasonic transducer attached to the body and spaced from the contact surface. The probe further includes a spacer positioned in the body between the transducer and the contact surface for spacing the transducer from the item when being examined. The spacer includes a coupling surface facing the item when being examined and a transducer surface facing the transducer. The probe also includes a fluid outlet positioned adjacent the coupling surface of the spacer for delivering coupling fluid to the coupling surface as a film so that the coupling fluid tends to maintain contact with the spacer due to surface tension after the fluid is delivered through the outlet.

An ultrasonic probe includes a probe body having a contact surface and a cavity that is open at the contact surface, an ultrasonic transducer carried by the body, and a spacer within the cavity. The spacer has a first surface acoustically coupled to the transducer, and a second (coupling) surface within the cavity. The spacer propagates an acoustic signal between the transducer and the coupling surface. The coupling surface is spaced apart from the contact surface to form a recess within the body. The body further has at least one port for circulating a coupling fluid into the recess. Depth of the recess is selected to balance gravitational force on the coupling fluid versus surface tension of the coupling fluid so a bead of the fluid forms over an edge of a structure under inspection as the probe is moved over the edge.

Ultrasonic probe

Systems and methods of automatically adjusting brightness of a digital image are provided. A particular method includes accessing data including a first digital image and identifying text and background in the first digital image. The method also includes calculating an average pixel value exclusive of the text and the background for the first digital image. The method further includes adjusting a brightness setting associated with the first digital image based on the calculated average pixel value.

System and method for comparing images with different contrast levels

Methodologies and systems to compare images with different levels of contrast are provided. Contrast is normalized between the images with different contrast levels and brightness is set. When normalizing contrast a derivative of gray level is determined for a first digital image having a first contrast level, and a derivative of gray level is determined for a second digital image having a second contrast level that is greater than the first contrast level. A ratio of the derivative of gray level for the first digital image to the derivative of gray level for the second digital image is determined, and the derivative of gray level for the first digital image is equalized with the derivative of gray level for the second digital image. Brightness of at least one image may be set automatically, such as by calculating an average pixel value excluding background and text, or manually.

Growing community of inventors

Bonney Lake, WA, United States of America

Thomas E Riechers