Abstract: An interlaced data acquisition scheme is employed in an ultrasound imaging device to reduce the amount of electrical power consumed by the device's transmit firings when collecting video data. Reducing electrical consumption according to the present disclosure reduces battery size, weight and cost; reduces heat generation; reduces need for heat-dissipating materials in the probe and prolongs probe uptime. A reconstruction algorithm is employed to produce images from the interlaced data that are comparable in quality to videos that would be obtained by a conventional (non-interlaced) image acquisition.

Abstract: An apparatus, a method, and computer-implemented media. The apparatus is to receive, simultaneously, electrical signals based on respective reflected frequencies of a reflected ultrasonic waveform reflected from a target object as a result of a transmitted ultrasonic waveform; compound information from the electrical signals to generate compounded electrical signals; and cause generation of an output image on a display based on the compounded electrical signals.

Abstract: The invention discloses a method for acoustic indoor positioning based on CDMA, which comprises: generating a BPSK signal; The BPSK signal was detected, the collected signal was de-carrierized and low-pass filtered, and then the data was down-sampled to the design code rate, and then the coarse position of the identification code was determined by the prefix code. Finally, the data with the same length as the identification code was intercepted from the data for matching filtering through the coarse position. Four base stations were designed in each area to obtain three TDOA observations generated by four TOA information, and the terminal position could be obtained through the three TDOA observations. Different areas are distinguished by different identification codes to achieve wide area coverage. The invention provides an effective means for accurate positioning in an indoor environment.

Abstract: An acoustic, preferably ultrasonic, wave emission and/or reception device, including a wave emitter configured to transmit waves at an emission frequency, and a receiver of preferably ultrasonic waves, separate from the emitter, having a resonance frequency, and configured to receive waves generated by the emitter and including direct waves and reflected waves, wherein the device includes a resonance frequency modulator of the receiver and a control unit configured to control the resonance frequency modulator during a predetermined time period, so as to reduce the sensitivity of the receiver during the predetermined time period by moving the resonance frequency of the receiver away from the emission frequency of the emitter. The acoustic device relates to the field of ultrasonic sensors, particularly PMUTs or CMUTs, having a high quality factor.

Abstract: Method for non-invasively characterizing a heterogeneous medium using ultrasound, comprising a step of generating a series of incident ultrasonic waves, a step of recording an experimental reflection matrix Rui(t) defined between the input emission basis (i) and an output reception basis (u), a step of determining a response REP(r,?r) of the medium between an input virtual transducer (TVin) calculated based on an input focusing of the experimental reflection matrix that creates an input focal spot around a first point (P1), and an output virtual transducer (TVout) calculated based on an output focusing of the experimental reflection matrix that creates an output focal spot around a second point (P2), said response being expressed as a function of a central point (PC) of spatial position (r) in the medium located midway between the first and second points (P1, P2).

Abstract: An ultrasound system has a set of CMUT transducer devices and drive electronics for operating a selected device of the set. The drive electronics is shared between all devices of the set. Selection is made by using a set of switches (178), with a respective switch between a DC bias output (166) of the drive electronics and an associated input (160) of each device. This provides a simple way to provide a selection function between the drive electronics and multiple ultrasound devices. In this way, the number of devices may be scale up, to cover a larger area, but without scaling the cost of the system by the same degree.

Abstract: An ultrasound device is described. The ultrasound device comprises a capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT). The CMUT comprises a membrane, a substrate, a cavity disposed between the membrane and the substrate, wherein the cavity comprises a bottom surface adjacent to the substrate, and non-uniform pedestals protruding from the bottom surface of the cavity into the cavity and towards the membrane.

Abstract: A ladder-type filter includes a support substrate, a piezoelectric layer provided on the support substrate, a parallel resonator including first electrode fingers provided on the piezoelectric layer and having a first average pitch and a first average duty ratio, a largest first average pitch being equal to or greater than two times a thickness of the piezoelectric layer, a first end of the parallel resonator being coupled to a path between input and output terminals, a second end of the parallel resonator being coupled to a ground, and a series resonator connected in series between the input and output terminals, the series resonator including second electrode fingers provided on the piezoelectric layer and having a second average pitch and a second average duty ratio, a second average duty ratio in at least one series resonator being less than a smallest first average duty ratio.

Abstract: Provided is a capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) including a substrate, a top electrode provided on the substrate to be spaced apart from the substrate, a supporter made of an insulating material and coupled between the substrate and an edge of the top electrode to support and fix the edge of the top electrode and to define a gap between the substrate and the edge of the top electrode, and a plurality of nanoposts having both ends coupled and fixed to the substrate and the top electrode in the gap, and being compressible and stretchable in a longitudinal direction to at least vertically move the top electrode when power is applied to the top electrode.

Abstract: Provided is a distance measurement system, including: at least one sound source configured to generate an acoustic signal; an acoustic sensor including a plurality of directional acoustic sensors arranged to have directionalities different from one another; and at least one processor configured to: obtain a directionality of the acoustic signal in a particular direction based on at least one of a sum of output signals of the plurality of directional acoustic sensors or a difference between the output signals of the plurality of directional acoustic sensors, the at least one of the sum or the difference being based on applying a weight to at least one of the output signals; and determine a distance between the acoustic sensor and a reflection surface based on a time for the acoustic signal to arrive at the acoustic sensor in the particular direction after being generated and then reflected from the reflection surface.

Abstract: The quality of ping-based ultrasound imaging is dependent on the accuracy of information describing the precise acoustic position of transmitting and receiving transducer elements. Improving the quality of transducer element position data can substantially improve the quality of ping-based ultrasound images, particularly those obtained using a multiple aperture ultrasound imaging probe, i.e., a probe with a total aperture greater than any anticipated maximum coherent aperture width. Various systems and methods for calibrating element position data for a probe are described.

Abstract: An ultrasonic transducer is described. The ultrasonic transducer comprises a membrane and a substrate disposed opposite the membrane such that a cavity is formed therebetween. The substrate comprises an electrode region and pedestals protruding from a surface of the substrate and having a height greater than a height of the electrode region, the pedestals being electrically isolated from the electrode region.

Abstract: Provided are an ultrasonic imaging method and device, and a storage medium. The ultrasonic imaging method includes: acquiring an ultrasonic echo signal; segmenting the ultrasonic echo signal into a first predetermined number of sub-echo signals according to scan depths; performing amplitude apodization on each sub-echo signal with a predetermined window function to obtain processed sub-echo signals; completing ultrasonic imaging according to the processed sub-echo signals.

Abstract: Ultrasound devices are described. The ultrasound devices may be flexibly configured to output a certain number of multilines per channel of ultrasound data and to process certain channels of ultrasound data per processing cycle. The ultrasound device may then be configured to either output more multilines per channel and process fewer channels per processing cycle, or output fewer multilines per channel and process more channels per processing cycle. In other words, the circuitry may be configured to change to a configuration with increased resolution and increased processing time or to a configuration with decreased resolution and decreased processing time.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with acoustic fingerprint identification of devices are described. In one embodiment, a method includes generating a target acoustic fingerprint from acoustic output of a target device. A similarity metric is generated that quantifies similarity of the target acoustic fingerprint to a reference acoustic fingerprint of a reference device. The similarity metric is compared to a threshold. In response to a first comparison result of the comparing of the similarity metric to the threshold, the target device is indicated to match the reference device. In response to a second comparison result of the comparing of the similarity metric to the threshold, it is indicated that the target device does not match the reference device.

Abstract: Methods and devices for imaging wells using ultrasound is described. The devices include a modular imaging device having a telemetry module and a radial imaging module and/or forward imaging module. The radial imaging module includes a ring shaped phased array ultrasonic transducer array for generating images on the length of a wellbore. Various lens and housing configurations for the radial imaging module are described. The forward imaging module includes an ultrasonic transducer comprising one or more elements and having an adjustable viewpoint for generating images of obstructions found in a wellbore. Advanced imaging modes for a radial imaging module include multiple aperture and spiral wave imaging mode.

Abstract: An ultrasonic transducer includes first and second acoustic transducers and a housing with a bottomed tubular shape. The second acoustic transducer includes an annular section supporting a second membrane section and contacting an entire periphery of the second membrane section, and an acoustic matching plate facing the second membrane section and spaced apart from the second membrane section. The acoustic matching plate is connected to a surrounding wall portion defining a sealed space with the housing. An ultrasonic transmission path sandwiched between the first membrane section and the second membrane section is provided in the sealed space. A maximum inner width of the ultrasonic transmission path is smaller than a maximum inner width of the surrounding wall portion.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for compressing and decompressing data in an ultrasound beamformer. The systems and methods include an encoder for compressing delay data based at least in part on a smoothness of a delay profile, and for compressing apodization data based at least in part on a smoothness of an apodization profile.

Abstract: Provided are a two-dimensional array ultrasonic probe and an addition circuit that switch an addition unit of a reception signal according to a reception channel of a main unit while preventing an increase in a chip area. The addition circuit includes, between addition output terminals that output an addition signal and transducer channels, wirings provided for each transducer channel row including the transducer channels arranged in a vertical direction on a subarray basis and coupled to the transducer channels of the corresponding transducer channel row, output switches provided for each of the wirings and coupled to the corresponding transducer channel row wiring, and an inter-output switch that couples wirings corresponding to transducer channel rows adjacent in the horizontal direction via the output switches.

Abstract: A routing protocol method for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (UASNs) based on layering and source location privacy (SLP) is provided. (1) A proxy area is selected randomly by a source node. (2) A packet is delivered from the source node to the proxy area through a forwarding probability-based multipath routing algorithm, and a layer-based priority is given to candidate neighbor nodes to alleviate a long detour problem. (3) A proxy node in the proxy area is selected randomly. (4) The packet is delivered from the proxy node to a sink node through the forwarding probability-based multipath routing algorithm. (5) Steps (1) to (4) are repeated until the source node is changed or an adversary finds a position of the source node.