Ultrasonic camera system and method

In a system for providing a signal representative of an acoustic image field travelling in a fluid medium;

• ultrasonic wave generating transducer means for producing ultransonic waves to insonify an object under observation coupled to the fluid medium;
• ultrasonic receiving transducer means including a plurality of transducer elements for converting at least a portion of an acoustic image field received from the object to electrical signals;
• a plurality of electrical signal storage means each capable of storing an instantaneous signal value;
• first connecting means for connecting individual receiver transducer elements to individual storage mens for simultaneously storing in said individual storage means an instantaneous signal value related to the amplitude of electrical signals produced by said associated receiving transducer elements;
• and
• second connecting means operable following operation of said first connecting means for sequentially connecting to the individual storage means to provide a composite signal representative of the portion of the acoustic image field impinging upon the receiving transducer at the time the signals from the receiving transducer elements are simultaneously stored.
• said second connecting means comprising a first group of analog gates equal in number to said electrical signal storage means and a second group of a fewer number of analog gates connected to the outputs from said first group of analog gates to reduce adverse capacitance effects in connecting to the signal storage to provide said composite signal.

In a system for providing a signal representative of an acoustic image field traveling in a fluid medium;

• ultrasonic wave generating transducer means for producing ultrasonic waves to insonify an object under observation coupled to the fluid medium;
• ultrasonic receiving transducer means including a plurality of transducer elements arranged in a linear array for converting at least a portion of an acoustic image field received from the object to electrical signals;
• a plurality of electrical signal storage means each capable of storing an instantaneous signal value;
• first connecting means for connecting individual receiver transducer elements to individual storage means for simultaneously storing in said individual storage means an instantaneous signal value related to the amplitude of electrical signals produced by said associated receiving transducer elements;
• second connecting means operable following operation of said first connecting means for sequentially connecting to the individual storage means to provide a composite signal representative of the portion of the acoustic image field impinging upon the receiving transducer at the time the signals from the receiving transducer elements are simultaneously stored;
• means for relatively sweeping at a varying rate the transducer elements and acoustic image field in a direction substantially orthogonal to the longitudinal dimension of the transducer array;
• means for generating timing pulses at a varying rate dependent upon the varying rate of sweep motion of the transducer elements with respect to the acoustic image field;
• and
• means including said timing pulses for controlling said ultrasonic wave generating transducer means for producing pulses of ultrasonic waves at a rate dependent upon the rate of said timing pulses.

In a system or providing a signal representative of an acoustic image field traveling in a fluid medium;

• ultrasonic wave generating transducer means for producing ultrasonic waves to insonify an object under observation coupled to the fluid medium;
• ultrasonic receiving transducer means including a plurality of transducer elements for converting at least a portion of an acoustic image field received from the object to electrical signals;
• means for relatively sweeping at a varying rate the receiving transducer elements and acoustic image field;
• a plurality of electrical signal storage means each capable of storing an instantaneous signal value;
• first connecting means for connecting individual receiver transducer elements to individual storage means for simultaneously storing in said individual storage means an instantaneous signal value related to the amplitude of electrical signals produced by said associated receiving transducer elements;
• and
• second connecting means operable following operation of said first connecting means for sequentially connecting to the individual storage means to provide a composite signal representative of the portion of the acoustic image field impinging upon the receiving transducer at the time the signals from the receiving transducer elements are simultaneously stored,
• said first and second connecting means being sequentially operated at a varying rate dependent upon the varying rate of relative sweep of the receiving transducer elements and acoustic image field.

In a system for providing an electrical signal representative of an acoustic image field traveling in a fluid medium;

• ultrasonic wave generating transducer means for producing recurrent pulses of ultrasonic waves at a continuously varying pulse rate to insonify an object under observation coupled to the fluid medium;
• an ultrasonic receiving transducer including a plurality of transducer elements operated at the same continuously varying rate as said wave generating transducer means for converting at least a portion of an acoustic image field received from the object to electrical signals;
• and
• means for relatively sweeping said receiving transducer means and acoustic image field at a continuously varying rate to expose the receiving transducer elements to a full acoustic image field at a synchronous rate with the operation of the recurrent pulse producing ultrasonic wave generating transducer means.

Apparatus for real time visual imaging of physical characteristics of the interior of a body comprising:

• means including transmitter transducer means for recurrently insonifying said body with recurrent ultrasonic pulses at a continuously varying pulse rate to produce an acoustic image field;
• receiver transducer means;
• means for acoustically coupling said receiver transducer means to said body to develop receiver transducer signals in response to the acoustic image field thereat;
• means including said acoustic coupling means for recurrently sweeping the acoustic image field past said receiver transducer means at a continuously varying rate while said transmitter and receiver transducers and said body remain relatively stationary;
• visual indicating means including a screen and means for producing an indicating spot on said screen;
• first deflection means for effecting scanning movement of said spot in one direction across the screen in synchronism with said acoustic image field sweeping means;
• second deflecting means for effecting scanning movement of said spot in an orthogonal direction across the screen in synchronism with said transmitted pulses;
• and
• means for applying said receiver transducer means signals to said indicating means to control the intensity of said indicating spot,
• there being substantially evenly spaced lines produced across said screen.

In a method of producing a signal representative of an acoustic image field traveling in a fluid medium comprising:

• generating recurrent ultrasonic wave pulses at a continuously varying rate to insonify an object under observation;
• receiving at receiving transducer means at least a portion of an acoustic image field from the object;
• relatively sweeping said receiving transducer means and acoustic image field at a continuously varying rate to expose the receiving transducer to a full acoustic image field;
• and
• synchronizing the rate of pulse generation of the recurrent ultrasonic waves with the sweep rate of pulse generation of the recurrent ultrasonic waves with the sweep rate of said receiving transducer means and acoustic image field.

In a method of producing an electrical signal representative of an acoustic image field traveling in a fluid medium comprising:

• generating ultrasonic waves to insonify an object under observation;
• receiving at a plurality of acoustic transducer elements at least a portion of an acoustic image field from the object and focused at the transducer elements;
• relatively sweeping said acoustic image field and acoustic transducer elements to expose the transducer elements to a full focused acoustic image field;
• substantially simultaneously recurrently gating for short time intervals signals produced by the transducer elements to associated individual storage elements for recurrently simultaneously storing in the storage elements the instantaneous value of signals related to the signals produced by the associated transducer elements;
• sequentially sampling the stored instantaneous value of signals to obtain a composite signal representative of at least a portion of the acoustic image field in a plane normal to the line of propagation of the acoustic image field from the object to the acoustic transducer elements, and
• repeating the generating, receiving, gating, and sampling steps without affecting focusing of the acoustic image field at the transducer elements.

In a method of producing an electrical signal representative of an acoustic image field traveling in a fluid medium, comprising;

• generating ultrasonic waves to insonify an object under observation;
• receiving at a plurality of acoustic transducer elements at least a portion of an acoustic image field from the object;
• substantially simultaneously gating signals produced by the transducer elements to associated individual storage elements for simultaneously storing the instantaneous value of signals related to the signals produced by the transducer elements;
• sequentially sampling the stored instantaneous value of signals to obtain a composite signal representative of at least a portion of the acoustic image field in a plane normal to the line of propagation of the acoustic image field from the object to the acoustic transducer elements, and
• recurrently repeating the generating, receiving, gating and sampling steps at a generally sinusoidally varying rate.

A method of real time visual imaging of physical characteristics of the interior of a body comprising:

• insonifying said body with recurrent ultrasonic pulses at a varying pulse rate from a source thereof to produce recurrent acoustic image fields therewithin;
• developing at a receiver transducer means acoustically coupled to said body signals responsive to the acoustic image fields;
• recurrently relatively sweeping the acoustic image field and receiver transducer means at a varying rate;
• deflecting a spot on the face of a visual display in one direction thereacross in synchronism with the recurrent sweeping of the acoustic image field, and in an orthogonal direction thereacross in synchronism with operation of said source of ultrasonic pulses to produce evenly spaced lines on the face of the visual display;
• and
• controlling the intensity of said spot in accordance with the intensity of the acoustic image field at the receiver transducer.