OBJECT INFORMATION ACQUIRING APPARATUS, INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS AND OBJECT INFORMATION ACQUIRING METHOD

• US 20140058262A1
• Filed: 08/02/2013
• Published: 02/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Ayutthaya Limited (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Ayutthaya Limited (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Yoda, Haruo
• Granted Patent: US 10,426,352 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/443
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0095 by applying light and detecting acoustic waves, i.e. photoacoustic measurements
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/44 Constructional features of the ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic diagnostic device
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/483 involving the acquisition of a 3D volume of data
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8915 using a transducer array
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8945 using transducers mounted for linear mechanical movement
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52047 for elimination of side lobes or of grating lobes; for increasing resolving power
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/346 using phase variation

Abstract

An object information acquiring apparatus is provided that includes: a plurality of receiving elements which receive an acoustic wave that propagates from an object, and which convert the acoustic wave to a reception signal; an adaptive beamformer that performs adaptive beamforming of adjusting reception directionality in accordance with the reception signal in use of the reception signal; a delay-and-sum beamformer that performs delay-and-sum beamforming having preset directionality in use of the reception signal; an amplitude modulator that uses one output signal of one of the adaptive beamformer and the delay-and-sum beamformer, to perform amplitude modulation on an output signal of the other one of the beamformers; and a generator that, on the basis of a signal outputted by the amplitude modulator, generates image data on the interior of the object.

Claims

1. An object information acquiring apparatus, comprising:

a plurality of receiving elements configured to receive an acoustic wave that propagates from an object, and configured to convert the acoustic wave to a reception signal that is an electric signal;

an adaptive beamformer configured to perform adaptive beamforming of adjusting reception directionality in accordance with the reception signal in use of the reception signal;

a delay-and-sum beamformer configured to perform delay-and-sum beamforming having preset directionality in use of the reception signal;

an amplitude modulator configured to use an output signal of one of the adaptive beamformer and the delay-and-sum beamformer, to perform amplitude modulation on an output signal of the other one of the beamformers; and

a generator configured to, on the basis of a signal outputted by the amplitude modulator, generate image data on the interior of the object.

2. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the amplitude modulator performs amplitude modulation on an output signal from the delay-and-sum beamformer using an output signal from the adaptive beamformer.

3. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

a calculation circuit configured to calculate a modulation ratio on the basis of an output signal from the adaptive beamformer and signal intensity worked out using a constraint vector,

wherein the amplitude modulator performs amplitude modulation on an output signal from the delay-and-sum beamformer by using the modulation ratio.

4. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the amplitude modulator performs the amplitude modulation using the modulation ratio corrected by a function that changes over time.

5. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the amplitude modulator corrects the modulation ratio by using a monotonically increasing function.

6. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the amplitude modulator corrects the modulation ratio according to a linear interpolation formula that includes a parameter that changes over time.

7. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the amplitude modulator performs amplitude modulation on an output signal from the adaptive beamformer by using an output signal from the delay-and-sum beamformer.

8. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the plurality of receiving elements is arrayed in one dimension, and generates the reception signal at respective positions where the elements have reached due to mechanical displacement thereof in a direction that intersects the direction of the arraying;

the adaptive beamformer and the delay-and-sum beamformer generate an output signal by performing beamforming on a reception signal at each of the positions, and the amplitude modulator performs amplitude modulation at each of the positions; and

beamforming in a direction that intersects the direction of the arraying is performed at a plurality of positions by using a signal generated and outputted by the amplitude modulator.

9. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the adaptive beamforming is a DCMP method.

10. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acoustic wave that propagates from the object is an echo wave of an ultrasound wave that is transmitted to the object.

11. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acoustic wave that propagates from the object is a photoacoustic wave that is generated upon irradiation of an electromagnetic wave onto the object.

12. An information processing apparatus that generates image data on the interior of an object on the basis of a reception signal that is outputted by a plurality of receiving elements that receive an acoustic wave that propagates from the object, the information processing apparatus comprising:

an adaptive beamformer configured to perform adaptive beamforming of adjusting reception directionality in accordance with the reception signal in use of the reception signal;

a delay-and-sum beamformer configured to perform delay-and-sum beamforming having preset directionality in use of the reception signal; and

an amplitude modulator configured to use an output signal of one of the adaptive beamformer and the delay-and-sum beamformer, in order to perform amplitude modulation on an output signal of the other one of the beamformers.

13. An object information acquiring method, comprising:

a step of receiving, by a plurality of receiving elements, an acoustic wave that propagates from an object, and converting the acoustic wave to a reception signal that is an electric signal;

an adaptive beamforming step of performing adaptive beamforming of adjusting reception directionality in accordance with the reception signal in use of the reception signal;

a delay-and-sum beamforming step of performing delay-and-sum beamforming having preset directionality in use of the reception signal;

an amplitude modulation step of performing amplitude modulation in use of an output signal in one of the adaptive beamforming step and the delay-and-sum beamforming step, in order to perform amplitude modulation on an output signal of the other; and

a generation step of, on the basis the amplitude-modulated signal, generating image data on the interior of the object.