Apparatus for and method of detecting a reflector within a medium
AssigneeThe University of Bristol
InventorRalph Benjamin
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Abstract
An apparatus is provided in which a phased transmitting array (21) is arranged to irradiate a selected voxel within a search volume. Energy reflected from the voxel is received by a further antenna and the signals received from a plurality of voxels are analysed to search for reflectors or discontinuities within the search space.
Claims28
An apparatus for detecting a reflector within a medium, comprising at least one transmission device for sequentially focusing energy towards a selected one of a plurality of volumes of the medium, and a reception device for receiving energy reflected from the selected volume of the medium, and having an adjustable frequency of the energy so as to set the wavelength thereof in the medium to a predetermined wavelength.
An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which the energy is focused at the selected volume by electronic means.
A method of detecting a reflector within a medium, comprising the steps of:
- i) defining a search space within a medium, the search space comprising a plurality of cells;
- ii) adjusting the frequency of the energy to set the wavelength thereof to a predetermined wavelength;
- iii) focusing energy into a selected cell;
- iv) receiving energy reflected from the cell;
- and
- v) repeating steps ii, iii, and iv for each of the cells.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.