Biological optical measuring instrument

• US 7,460,894 B2
• Filed: 07/19/2002
• Issued: 12/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Medical Corporation (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Kawaguchi, Tsuneaki, Kaga, Mikihiro, Furuzono, Eiji, Onozuka, Satoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Winakur; Eric F
• Assistant Examiner(s): Berhanu; Etsub D
• Application Number:
  US10/484,004
• Publication Number:
  US 20040236195A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,328 Days
• Field of Search: 600/309, 600/310, 600/473, 600/476
• US Class Current: 600/310
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0059 using light, e.g. diagnosis by transillumination, diascopy, fluorescence A61B5/0093, A61B5/1455, A61B5/02416 and A61B5/0261 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/4795 spatially resolved investigating of object in scattering medium in vivo A61B

Abstract

A biomedical optical measurement apparatus comprising a light source unit for generating an inspection light containing multiple lights modulated at different frequencies, a light-receiving unit for receiving the light generated at said light source unit and passing through an object to be examined and for outputting the electric signals with the intensity corresponding to the received inspection light, and a detection means for detecting a signal with the same frequency of the reference signal in the output from said light-receiving unit. The detection means comprises an analog-digital conversion means for outputting digitized data by converting an input signal to a digital signal, a storage means for storing digitized data of multiple reference signals, a digital multiplication means for multiplying digitized data of input signals outputted from the analog-digital converting means by the digitized data of the reference signals read out from the storage means and for outputting the product of multiplication, and a digital band-limitation means for taking out DC data from the output from the digital multiplication means. Reference signal generating circuits of a number equal to that of frequencies of detected signals, which has been necessary for the conventional instrument, can be replaced by a single memory means and the configuration of the instrument can be simplified. Changes in frequency can be easily coped with by only re-writing the data of the storing means.

Claims

1. A biomedical optical measurement apparatus comprising:

a light source means for generating an inspection light containing multiple lights modulated at a given number of different frequencies,

a light-receiving means for receiving the light generated at said light source means and passed through an object to be examined and for outputting synthesized signals made of a given number of electric signals each having a different frequency and an intensity corresponding to the received light, and

a detection means for detecting a signal with the same frequency as a frequency of a reference signal having a frequency corresponding to frequencies of modulated multiple lights in the synthesized signals, wherein

said detection means comprises;

an analog-digital conversion means for outputting digitized synthesized signal data by converting said synthesized signals having different frequencies to a digital signal,

a storage means for storing digitized data of a number of reference signals, where the number of reference signals is equal to the number of the synthesized signals output from the light-receiving means,

a delaying means for delaying said reference signals data read out from the storage means based on phase differences between said synthesized signals data output from said analog-digital conversion means and said reference signals data read out from the storage means,

a digital multiplication means for multiplying said synthesized signals data output from said analog-digital conversion means by said reference signals data delayed by the delaying means and for outputting the product of multiplication, and

a digital band-limitation means for taking out DC data from the output from said digital multiplication means.

2. The biomedical optical measurement apparatus of claim 1, wherein said digital multiplication means and said digital band limitation means are composed by a digital signal processor.

3. The biomedical optical measurement apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a function generating means for inputting the digitized data of said reference signals and for generating a function that becomes “

0 ”

or “

close to 0 ”

near a level changing point of the digitized data.

4. The biomedical optical measurement apparatus of claim 1, wherein a digital signal processor including said digital multiplying means and said digital band-limitation means is provided for each modulation frequency.

5. The biomedical optical measurement apparatus of claim 4, wherein the digital multiplying means further comprises:

a first digital multiplication means for multiplying digitized data of input signals outputted from said analog-digital conversion means by the digitized data of the reference signals read out from said storage means and for outputting the product of multiplication, and

a second digital multiplication means for multiplying the output from said first digital multiplication means by a low-pass filter coefficient and for outputting the product of multiplication.

6. The biomedical optical measurement apparatus of claim 1, wherein said digital band-limitation means has an attenuation-band frequency fa satisfying fp≧

2fa when a frequency interval (pitch) of signals to be detected is fp.

7. The biomedical optical measurement apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a control means for controlling said light source means, said light-receiving means and said detection means, wherein said control means generates timing signals with a predetermined interval and controls irradiation of the inspection light from the light source means and signal detection by the detection means in a time-sharing manner according to the timing signal.

8. The biomedical optical measurement apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an amplifier for outputting multiple signals sequentially outputted from said light-receiving means as a continuous signal, and a control means for controlling the detection means, wherein a sampling time at the analog-digital conversion means is controlled by a timing signal outputted from said control means.

9. The biomedical optical measurement apparatus of claim 1, wherein the detection means further comprises:

a clock means for generating timing signals for said analog-digital conversion means to perform analog-digital conversion at a specified sampling timing,

a function generating means for generating a function which becomes “

0 ”

or “

close to 0 ”

near the sampling time of said input signals, and

a digital multiplying means for multiplying the digitized data output from said analog-digital conversion means by the function from said function generating means, and outputting the product of the multiplication.

10. The biomedical optical measurement apparatus of claim 9, further comprising an integrating means for adding the output from said digital multiplying means posterior the digital multiplying means.

11. A biomedical optical measurement apparatus comprising:

a light source means for generating multiple inspection lights modulated at different frequencies in a time-sharing manner,

a light-receiving means for sequentially receiving the inspection light generated at said light source means and passed through an object to be examined and for outputting synthesized signals made of electric signals having different frequencies with an intensity corresponding to the received inspection light, and

a detection means for detecting signals with the same frequency corresponding to frequencies of modulated multiple lights in the synthesized signals;

wherein

said detection means further comprises;

an analog-digital conversion means for outputting digitized synthesized signals data by converting said synthesized signals having different frequencies to a digital signal,

a clock means for generating a timing signal so that said analog-digital converting means can begin analog-digital conversion at a specified sampling timing,

a function generating means for generating functions which become “

0 ”

or “

close to 0 ”

near the sampling time of said synthesized signals,

a delaying means for delaying said functions based on phase differences between said synthesized signals data output from said analog-digital conversion means and said timing signal of said clock means, and

a digital multiplying means for multiplying digitized synthesized signals outputted from said analog-digital converting means by the function of said function generating means and for outputting the product of multiplication.

12. The biomedical optical measurement apparatus of claim 11, further comprising an integrating means for adding the output from said digital multiplication means posterior the digital multiplication means.

13. A detection circuit for a biomedical optical measurement apparatus comprising;

an analog-digital converting means for performing analog-digital conversion of input signals and for outputting digitized data of the input signal,

a function generator for generating one or more functions to be selected from trigonometric function, Gaussian function, Hamming and Hanning window functions,

a delaying means for delaying said functions based on phase differences between said digitized data output from said analog-digital conversion means and said functions generated from said function generator, and

a multiplying means for multiplying output from said analog-digital converting means by the function generated from said function generator.

14. The detection circuit of claim 13, further comprising, posterior said multiplying means, adding means for feeding back the sum (results of addition) from itself and adding to the output from said multiplying means.