The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 05, 2023
Filed:
Sep. 29, 2017
Koninklijke Philips N.v., Eindhoven, NL;
Thomas Heiko Stehle, Hamburg, DE;
Frank Michael Weber, Hamburg, DE;
Christian Buerger, Hamburg, DE;
Irina Waechter-Stehle, Hamburg, DE;
Jörg Sabczynski, Norderstedt, DE;
Michael Grass, Hamburg, DE;
KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V., Eindhoven, NL;
Abstract
An ultrasound system is disclosed comprising an ultrasound transducer array () comprising a plurality of ultrasound transducer cells (), each of said cell having an independently adjustable position and/or orientation such as to conform an ultrasound transmitting surface of the cell to a region of a body and a controller (). The controller is configured to register the respective ultrasound transducer cells by simultaneously operating at least two ultrasound transducer cells in a transmit mode in which the cells transmit distinguishable ultrasound signals and operating the remaining ultrasound transducer cells in a receive mode. The controller extracts time-of-flight information of the respective ultrasound signals between transmitter and receiver and by systematically selecting different ultrasound transducer cells as transmitters, the controller collects sufficient time-of-flight information from which the respective position and/or relative orientation of the ultrasound transducer cells within the ultrasound transducer array may be derived. A method for operating the ultrasound system in this manner as well as a computer program product is also disclosed.