Method and system for examining the interior material of an object, such as a pipeline or a human body, from a surface of the object using ultrasound

A method for examining the interior material of an object from a surface of an object using ultrasound having a frequency of at least 100 kHz, wherein the method comprises:

• transmitting at least a first ultrasound signal by a first ultrasound transmitter of a first number of ultrasound transmitters to the interior material of the object, for forming a first image, in order to determine where reflections and/or diffractions occur in the interior material of the object;
• receiving reflections and/or diffractions of the first ultrasound signal from the interior material of the object using a second number of ultrasound receivers that are acoustically coupled to the surface of the object at positions that are distributed in at least one dimension of the surface of the object;
• generating, by each of the second number of ultrasound receivers, a respective receiving signal from the received reflections and/or diffractions of the first ultrasound signal from the interior material of the object;
• separately processing each respective receiving signal of a plurality of receiving signals generated by the second number of ultrasound receivers during the generating to render a plurality of respective separate datasets;
• and
• forming the first image by combining the plurality of respective separate datasets,
• wherein the separately processing each respective receiving signal of the plurality of receiving signals comprises:
• converting, for each one of the plurality of separately processed receiving signals, the respective receiving signal into a respective separate dataset in a data format to render a plurality of respective separate datasets;
• and
• wherein the separately processing and forming the first image comprises:
• a) processing one of the plurality of receiving signals generated by one of the ultrasound receivers into a separate dataset, and storing said separate dataset at least temporarily in a memory,
• b) processing another one of the plurality of receiving signals generated by another one of the ultrasound receivers, different from said one of the ultrasound receivers, separately into a another separate dataset, combining said another separate dataset with the stored separate dataset into a combined dataset, and replacing said stored separate dataset in said memory by said combined dataset,
• c) processing a further one of the plurality of receiving signals generated by a further one of the ultrasound receivers, different from the ultrasound receivers of which the receiving signals have already been processed, separately into a further separate dataset, combining said further separate dataset with the stored combined dataset into a further combined dataset, and replacing said stored combined dataset in said memory by said further combined dataset,
• d) repeating step c) until all receiving signals of the plurality of receiving signals generated by said plurality of the second number of ultrasound receivers are processed, and
• e) storing at least temporarily, upon completing repeating step c) until all receiving signals are processed, the combined dataset of said plurality of receiving signals that is the first image,
• wherein the receiving signals generated by two or more of ultrasound receivers are separately processed in parallel using parallel processing hardware,
• wherein the separately processing the respective receiving signals of the plurality of receiving signals is performed in real time, and
• wherein a dataset, of the plurality of respective separate datasets, is in the form of a pixel.