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:
Dec. 10, 1996
Filed:
Aug. 15, 1995
Peter Swerling, Pacific Palisades, CA (US);
Jon Dovala, Playa del Rey, CA (US);
Nick Okasinski, Cupertino, CA (US);
Andras Boross, Belmont, CA (US);
MedaSonics, Fremont, CA (US);
Abstract
Doppler Ultrasound techniques have been used for many years to measure the flow rate of fluids. One of the challenges in using these techniques is to separate fluid flow signal from background noise. The present invention is directed to methods and apparatus for automatically distinguishing fluid flow signal from noise. It is found that noise in Doppler ultrasound techniques has characteristic of a white Gaussian spectral distribution and the mean noise can be characterized as a constant. The present invention involves measuring ultrasonic signals, generating sets of discrete spectral components from these signals, and statistically determining a maximum likelihood estimation from the spectral components. This estimation is used to calculate the fluid velocity.