Konica Minolta, Inc.

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America

Yasuhito Watanabe

Takeo Kanamori

Mineo Tsushima

Takashi Katayama

Taiji Sasaki

Kazutaka Abe

Kenichi Terai

Yoshiaki Takagi

Isao Kakuhari

Gempo Ito

Kojiro Ono

Junko Yoshida

An ultrasound flaw detector includes: an ultrasound probe that is provided with a plurality of transducers and that is held so that a direction in which the transducers are arrayed is parallel to a surface of the test object in a state where the plurality of transducers is located in the liquid; a hardware processor that, using the plurality of transducers, transmits an ultrasound beam in a first direction with a predetermined angle with respect to a normal direction of the surface of the test object and receives a reflected ultrasound wave reflected by the test object; and an ultrasound signal processor that specifies a flaw of the test object on the basis of a reception signal that has been generated by the hardware processor on the basis of the reflected ultrasound wave.

Ultrasound flaw detector, ultrasound flaw detection method, and program

An ultrasound signal processing device performs transmission events by an ultrasound probe having transducer elements, generates a sub-frame acoustic line signal for each transmission event based on reflected ultrasound, and synthesizes sub-frame acoustic line signals to generate a frame acoustic line signal. A transmitter causes the ultrasound probe to transmit ultrasound beams to an ultrasound main irradiation area. A receiver generates receive signals for the transducer elements. A delay-and-sum calculator sets a target area in the ultrasound main irradiation area, and performs delay-and-sum calculation with respect to the receive signals from measurement points in the target area to generate a sub-frame acoustic line signal. The target area has, in a depth range shallower than a focal point, a width in the transducer element array direction that decreases as the depth decreases. A synthesizer synthesizes sub-frame acoustic line signals.

Ultrasound signal processing device, ultrasound diagnostic device, and ultrasound signal processing method

An ultrasound signal processing device includes a transmitter that causes transducers to transmit an ultrasound beam, a receiver that, based on reflected waves received by reception transducers, generates reception signal sequences corresponding to the reception transducers, and a delay-and-sum section that, for a reference observation point in a region of interest, calculates delay times of reflected wave arrival to each of the reception transducers from the reference observation point as reference delay times and generates acoustic line signals by using the reference delay times corresponding to the reception transducers. For one or more dependent observation points in the region of interest that are contiguous in a depth direction from the reference observation point, the delay-and-sum section generates acoustic line signals by applying the reference delay times corresponding to the reception transducers.

Ultrasound signal processing device and ultrasound signal processing method

An ultrasound diagnostic device detecting shear wave propagation velocity through push pulse transmission. The ultrasound diagnostic device includes: a push pulse transmitter that transmits a push pulse; a detection wave transmitter/receiver that, following the push pulse transmission, transmits plane wave transmission detection waves towards a region of interest (ROI) inside a subject and receives reflection detection waves from the subject, to generate receive signals sequentially; a displacement detector that detects subject tissue displacement occurring inside the ROI due to a shear wave; and a shear wave analyzer that detects a shear wave propagation velocity based on the subject tissue displacement. The transmission detection waves at least include transmission detection waves transmitted by the detection wave transmitter/receiver at a first transmission interval and transmission detection waves transmitted by the detection wave transmitter/receiver at a second transmission interval longer than the first transmission interval.

Ultrasound diagnostic device and ultrasound signal processing method

An ultrasound diagnostic device to which an ultrasound probe having a plurality of transducer elements is connectable. The ultrasound diagnostic device includes ultrasound signal processing circuitry operating as: a delay-and-sum processor; a determiner; and a velocity value calculator. The determiner determines whether adjustment of a velocity value for a partial area in a subject is necessary, based on acoustic line signal intensities for a specific measurement point in the partial area and other measurement points in the partial area. The specific measurement point is selected from among measurement points in the partial area based on acoustic line signals for the measurement points in the partial area. The velocity value calculator, when the determiner determines that velocity value adjustment is necessary, calculates an adjusted velocity value for the partial area by using the acoustic line signal for the specific measurement point.

Ultrasound diagnostic device and control method for the same

A head-mounted display includes a playback processor which plays back a moving image from first time until second time, a box for placing a container containing a perfume inside, a filled section which is temporarily filled with the perfume and emits the temporarily filled perfume according to starting playback of the moving image, and a tubular vent hole which is in contact with a nose of a user when the user wears the head-mounted display.

Head-mounted perfume dispenser apparatus

A wireless ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus () including a wireless ultrasonic probe () and a diagnostic device (). The wireless ultrasonic probe () includes: a wireless transmission unit () which wirelessly transmits echo data (); and an ultrasound transmission unit () which transmits pairing ultrasound () including probe information for identifying the wireless ultrasonic probe (). The diagnostic device () includes: an ultrasound reception unit () which receives the pairing ultrasound (); a probe information detection unit () which detects the probe information () from the pairing ultrasound (); and a wireless reception unit () which determines, using the probe information (), whether or not received data is the echo data () wirelessly transmitted by the wireless ultrasonic probe ().

Wireless ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, wireless ultrasonic probe, and probe authentication method

A beamforming method includes: generating a main beam signal by performing, with a focus on a first region, a delay and sum operation on receiving echo signals; generating a sub beam signal which has a low sensitivity to ultrasound signals reflected off the first region; and generating a narrow beam signal by (i) calculating a coefficient for narrowing an angle of the main beam signal, and (ii) multiplying the main beam signal by the coefficient, wherein in the generating of a sub beam signal, the sub beam signal is generated using a differential signal that is a difference between two beam signals each of which is generated by performing a delay and sum operation on the receiving echo signals, with a focus on a corresponding one of two regions of a subject which are different from the first region and are different from each other.

Beamforming method and ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus

A beamforming method according to the present invention is a method of processing echo signals of a target region which are obtained from a probe including a plurality of receiving elements arrayed on a predetermined line. The beamforming method includes the following steps (Sto S). At S, seed beams are formed from echo signals received by at least two receiving elements from among the plurality of receiving elements. At S, a main beam and sub beams are formed by synthesizing at least one of the seed beams. At S, a narrow beam for the target region is formed by multiplying the sub beams by respective predetermined coefficients and subtracting the multiplied sub beams from the main beam. Here, an signal intensity for the target region regarding the main beam is higher than a signal intensity for the target region regarding each of the sub beams.

Beamforming method, ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, program, and integrated circuit

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes: a first reference beam generating unit generating a first reference beam from DAS signals calculated in an N-th frame; a second reference beam generating unit generating a second reference beam from a DAS signal calculated in an (N&#x2212;1)-th frame, the DAS signal calculated in the N-th frame, and another DAS signal calculated in an (N+1)-th frame; an attenuation coefficient calculating unit calculating, based on the first reference beam and the second reference beam, an attenuation coefficient to be multiplied by the DAS signals calculated in the N-th frame; and a beamforming unit generating and providing a beamformed signal generated for a reference scan line in the N-th frame by multiplying a DAS signal calculated in the N-th frame by the attenuation coefficient.

Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and beamforming method

First, in a state where a pair of earphonesare worn in both ears of a listening person, a measurement signal generated by a measurement signal generating sectionis outputted from the earphone. The signal (wearing-state signal) which is reflected by an eardrum and returns to the earphoneis measured, and stored in an analysis section. Next, in a state where the pair of earphonesare not worn in both ears of the listening person, a signal measured (unwearing-state signal) in the same manner as described above is stored in the analysis section. The analysis sectioncalculates an ear-canal correction filter based on a difference between the wearing-state signal and the unwearing-state signal. An ear-canal correction filter processing sectionconvolves a sound source signal with the calculated ear-canal correction filter.

Sound reproducing apparatus using in-ear earphone

A coding apparatus generates coded data by coding inputted data in a predetermined unit basis, maps one or more units of the coded data onto a packet of fixed length and outputs the packet. The coding apparatus includes a storage unit that stores the coded data and outputs the data size of the stored coded data, and a packetization unit that maps the coded data stored in the storage unit onto the packet and outputs the header size assigned to the one or more units of the coded data and the payload size of the packet. The coding apparatus also includes a control unit that generates the control information based on the data size of the outputted coded data, the header size and the payload size and outputs the control information, and a coding unit that generates the coded data by calculating an outer candidate value that makes the data size of the coded data to be mapped onto the packet an integral multiple of the payload size of the packet based on the outputted control information and coding the predetermined units of inputted data up to the outer candidate value.

Coding method and coding apparatus

A sound image control device filters transfer functions Hand Hindicating transfer characteristics of a sound from an acoustic transducer () to entrances to respective ear canals () and () as well as filtering transfer functions Hand Hfrom an acoustic transducer () to the entrances to the respective ear canals () and () and generates second transfer functions Hand Hindicating transfer characteristics of a sound to the entrances to the respective ear canals () and () from a target sound source () at a location different from the sound sources, the sound image control device being equipped with correction filters () and () that (i) store characteristic functions Eand Efor performing filtering operations on the first transfer functions H, H, H, and Hand (ii) generate the second transfer functions Hand Hfrom the first transfer functions H, H, H, and Husing such characteristic functions Eand E

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Yasuhito Watanabe