Object information acquiring apparatus and method of controlling the same
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorKoichi Suzuki
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An object information acquiring apparatus includes a light irradiating unit that radiates light to an object to generate a photoacoustic wave, a transducer that receives the photoacoustic wave, outputs a photoacoustic signal, transmits and receives an ultrasound wave beam to and from the object, and outputs an ultrasound echo signal, a determining unit that determines whether there is an object on an optical path from the light irradiating unit, and an image processor that generates internal image data of the object using the photoacoustic signal.
Claims21
An object information acquiring apparatus comprising:
- a light irradiating unit that irradiates an object with light to generate a photoacoustic wave;
- a probe having a transducer that receives the photoacoustic wave and outputs a photoacoustic signal based on the received photoacoustic wave, and wherein said transducer transmits and receives an ultrasound wave beam to and from the object, and outputs an ultrasound echo signal based on the received ultrasound wave beam;
- a determining unit that determines whether the object is disposed on a direction of light irradiation from said light irradiating unit based on the ultrasound echo signal output from said transducer;
- and
- a controller that controls said light irradiating unit,
- wherein said transducer transmits the ultrasound wave beam to a target point on the direction of light irradiation from said light irradiating unit, and
- wherein when said determining unit determines that there is no object on the direction of light irradiation from said light irradiating unit, said controller controls said light irradiating unit not to radiate light.
A method of controlling an object information acquiring apparatus, comprising:
- transmitting and receiving, by a transducer, an ultrasound wave beam to and from an object and outputting an ultrasound echo signal;
- determining, by a determining unit, whether the object is disposed on an direction of light irradiation from a light irradiating unit based on the ultrasound echo signal output from the transducer;
- irradiating, by the light irradiating unit, the object with light such that a photoacoustic wave is generated;
- and
- receiving, by the transducer, the photoacoustic wave and outputting a photoacoustic signal;
- and
- controlling, by a controller, said light irradiating unit,
- wherein, in the transmitting and receiving step, the transducer transmits the ultrasound wave beam to a target point on the direction of light irradiation from the light irradiating unit, and
- wherein, when said determining unit determines that there is no object on the direction of light irradiation from said light irradiating unit, said controller controls said light irradiating unit not to radiate light.
An object information acquiring apparatus comprising:
- a light irradiating unit that irradiates an object with light to generate a photoacoustic wave;
- a probe having a transducer that receives the photoacoustic wave and outputs a photoacoustic signal based on the received photoacoustic wave, and said transducer transmits and receives an ultrasound wave beam to and from the object, and outputs an ultrasound echo signal based on the received ultrasound wave beam;
- a determining unit that determines whether the light from said light irradiating unit is incident on the object based on the ultrasound echo signal output from said transducer;
- and
- a controller that controls said light irradiating unit,
- wherein said transducer transmits the ultrasound wave beam to a target point on a direction of light irradiation from said light irradiating unit, and
- wherein, when said determining unit determines that the light from said light irradiating unit is not incident on the object, said controller controls said light irradiating unit not to radiate light.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.