Patents Examined by Jonathan D Armstrong
  • Patent number: 11353615
    Abstract: In acoustic well logging, for each inversion depths of a well at which logging of data occurs, acoustic log signals representative of waveforms received at acoustic receivers are processed in a frequency domain to derive field dispersion curve(s). A neural net is operated to generate formation shear slowness value(s) from the curve(s), and resulting signal(s) indicative of shear slowness values are saved, transmitted, plotted, printed or processed. An apparatus for carrying out the method includes a logging tool having at least one activatable acoustic wave source; spaced and acoustically isolated therefrom in the logging tool an array of acoustic detectors that on the detection of acoustic wave energy generate electrical or electronic log signal(s) characteristic of acoustic energy waves detected by the acoustic detector(s); and at least one processing device associated with or forming part of the logging tool for processing the log signal(s).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: Reeves Wireline Technologies Limited
    Inventors: Said Assous, Peter Adrian Spencer Elkington, Joanne Tudge, James Anthony Whetton
  • Patent number: 11330319
    Abstract: A method of encoding, and decoding, a human-inaudible acoustic signal 240 embedded within audio content, suitable for use within the processor of an encoding and broadcasting system or a decoding and receiving system 200, 202. A binary message is encoded into a sequence 1000, 2000 of symbols selected from a group of four or eight symbols, each symbol encoding two or three binary bits with an associated frequency. The human-inaudible acoustic signal may have a variable length, with the length of the signal encoded in a header 1002-1008, 2002-2009. The encoding uses both forward error correction and cyclic redundancy coding to increase the robustness of the transmission. Furthermore, the binary bits encoded by the symbols are selected such that a Hamming distance of a single bit transformation exists between symbols associated with adjacent frequencies, so that a frequency error creates only a single bit error.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2022
    Assignee: LISNR, Inc.
    Inventor: William Knauer
  • Patent number: 11327188
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method can include the following. Seismic vibratory waves through the Earth along a selected vector path are received. An initial value is selected for a first arrival for each of the seismic vibratory waves. Initial values are determined for travel times and velocities of the seismic vibratory waves. Reversed signs of amplitudes of the seismic vibratory waves are determined and corrected. Time intervals are determined based on the initial values of the travel times. Time windowing and filtering in a frequency domain are performed. Final values are determined for first arrivals and travel times for each of the seismic vibratory waves based on the time windowing and filtering. Final values are determined for velocities of the seismic vibratory waves.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2022
    Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil Company
    Inventor: Hyoungsu Baek
  • Patent number: 11324484
    Abstract: An ultrasound circuit comprising a multi-stage trans-impedance amplifier (TIA) is described. The TIA is coupled to an ultrasonic transducer to amplify an electrical signal generated by the ultrasonic transducer in response to receiving an ultrasound signal. The TIA may include multiple stages, at least two of which operate with different supply voltages. The TIA may be followed by further processing circuitry configured to filter, amplify, and digitize the signal produced by the TIA.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2022
    Assignee: BFLY OPERATIONS, INC.
    Inventors: Amandeep Singh, Kailiang Chen, Tyler S. Ralston
  • Patent number: 11327164
    Abstract: A sensor and a method for detecting a position of the sensor relative to a guide surface, comprising a housing and an electronic analysis device which outputs measurement values for the position of the guide surface on the basis of the measurement signals. The sensor contains an ultrasonic transducer array, each of the two outer ends of which is additionally equipped with a respective reference ultrasonic transducer and a respective reflector surface flush with the reference piezo disc at a distance from the base side, said ultrasonic transducers and reflector surfaces being inclined by 45° relative to the base side and pointing towards one another, thus forming a reference measurement path with a known length between the two reference ultrasonic transducers. In the method for detecting the relative position, the measurement values are corrected with respect to environmental influences by measurements in a reference path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2022
    Assignee: Microsonic GmbH
    Inventor: Johannes Schulte
  • Patent number: 11307326
    Abstract: Techniques are disclosed relating to calibrating sensors configured to measure both pressure and acceleration. In various embodiments, a system detects a first voltage produce by a first piezoelectric material in a hydrophone when the hydrophone is exposed to an acceleration and detects a second voltage produced by a second piezoelectric material in the hydrophone when the hydrophone is exposed to the acceleration. The system, in some embodiments, compares the first voltage and the second voltage. Based on the comparing of the first and second voltages, in some embodiments, the system determines a resistance for a variable resistor coupled to one of the first and second piezoelectric materials.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2022
    Assignee: PGS Geophysical AS
    Inventors: Stig Rune Lennart Tenghamn, Frederick James Barr
  • Patent number: 11307297
    Abstract: Provided are a method and device for ultrasonic imaging by synthetic focusing. The method comprises: exciting a plurality of matrix elements of an ultrasonic probe to transmit plane waves many times, wherein transmitting apodizations at the time of every transmission of the plane waves by the plurality of matrix elements correspond to the respective lines in a measurement matrix in which elements are randomly distributed; after every transmission of the plane waves, exciting all the matrix elements of the ultrasonic probe to receive echo signals, in order to obtain channel data; recovering a synthetic focusing channel data set by use of a compressed sensing reconstruction algorithm according to a channel data set and the measurement matrix; and subjecting the synthetic focusing channel data set to beamforming so as to generate an ultrasonic image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2022
    Assignee: TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Jianwen Luo, Jing Liu, Qiong He
  • Patent number: 11294051
    Abstract: A measuring device is provided, having a housing having a circuit board and processor; a first transducer arranged on a surface of the housing and configured to transmit an ultrasonic pulse towards a target surface; a second transducer adjacent to the first transducer configured to receive a reflection of the ultrasonic pulse off of the target surface; and a thermistor on the surface of the housing adjacent to the first and second transducers and configured to measure air temperature surrounding the device. The processor of the device is configured to measure a time duration between transmitting the ultrasonic pulse by the first transducer and receiving the reflection of the ultrasonic pulse by the second transducer, and to determine a distance between a ground surface upon which the device is resting and the target surface based at least upon the measured time duration and the measured air temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2022
    Assignee: CREATIVE RACING PRODUCTS, LLC
    Inventors: Don Barker, Brett Barker, Elik Dvorkin
  • Patent number: 11287507
    Abstract: A method for testing a structure includes steps of: identifying a three-dimensional position of a surface of the structure relative to a reference frame; transmitting laser light from an output of a transmitter onto the surface of the structure to form ultrasonic waves in the structure and to detect a response to the ultrasonic waves; based on the three-dimensional position of the surface, moving the laser light over the structure along a scan path so that the output of the transmitter is located at a constant offset distance from the surface and that the laser light, transmitted from the output of the transmitter, is directed onto the surface at a constant angle of projection; and based on the response to the ultrasonic waves, determining whether an inconsistency is present in the structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2022
    Assignee: The Boeing Company
    Inventors: William P. Motzer, Gary E. Georgeson, Jill P. Bingham, James C. Kennedy, Jeffry J. Garvey
  • Patent number: 11268937
    Abstract: A capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer 111A includes: a silicon substrate 101; an insulating film 102 formed over the silicon substrate 101; a lower electrode 103; insulating films 104 and 106; a cavity 105 constituted by a void formed in a portion of the insulating film 106; an upper electrode 107; insulating films 108 and 114; and a protective film 109. In addition, the insulating film 106, upper electrode 107, insulating film 108 and insulating film 114 above the cavity 105 configure a vibration film 110, and the protective film 109 above the vibration film 110 is divided into a plurality of isolated patterns regularly arranged with a gap 115 having a constant spacing formed therebetween.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2022
    Assignee: FUJIFILM HEALTHCARE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Taiichi Takezaki, Shuntaro Machida, Daisuke Ryuzaki, Yasuhiro Yoshimura, Tatsuya Nagata, Naoaki Yamashita
  • Patent number: 11262431
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for a co-located Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) device and ultrasonic device includes an RFID reader loop antenna element oriented parallel to a reflector panel. An ultrasonic emitter is disposed through an aperture in the reflector panel with a horn that extends through the loop element. The horn can serve as a mounting structure for the antenna element. A diameter of the aperture is less than one-quarter wavelength of an operating frequency of the RFID reader loop antenna element. The aperture is located in the reflector panel near a minimum E-field area of the RFID reader loop antenna element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2022
    Assignee: Symbol Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: David Bellows, Rehan K. Jaffri, Sean D. Marvel
  • Patent number: 11257472
    Abstract: The invention relates to hydroacoustics and more specifically to hydroacoustic devices comprising, disposed in a single housing, a converter of liquid-medium oscillations and electrical signals, capable of receiving and/or transmitting hydroacoustic signals, the converter being disposed on a board which is connected to a switch cable for providing power and transmitting electrical signals, and may be used as a receiver and/or transmitter of hydroacoustic signals in water. According to the invention, the housing of the to hydroacoustic device is formed by the outer surfaces of the converter and board, and by a protective material which coats all of said surfaces, said material allowing for a transmission of hydroacoustic oscillations and being capable of transitioning from a highly-elastic or viscous-flow state to a solid state. The achieved technical result consists in simplifying the design of the device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2022
    Assignee: UNDERWATER COMMUNICATIONS & NAVIGATION LABORATORY (LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY)
    Inventors: Stanislav Mikhailovich Dmitriev, Alexander Vasilievich Dikarev
  • Patent number: 11253233
    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.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2022
    Assignee: MAUI IMAGING, INC.
    Inventors: Artem Belevich, Josef R. Call, Bruce R. Ritzi, Nathan W. Osborn
  • Patent number: 11221403
    Abstract: A impact detection system is provided which includes a user interface comprising a display, processor, and memory. The memory includes computer program code configured to cause an electronic device to receive impact detection data from at least one impact detection device and generate one or more notifications based on the impact detection data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2022
    Assignee: NAVICO HOLDING AS
    Inventors: Peter Sandretto, Guy Coonts, Barry M. Antao
  • Patent number: 11185306
    Abstract: An ultrasound probe includes a first assembly having a first case, a second assembly coupled with the first assembly, having a second case, and configured to be rotatable between a first position of being unfolded with respect to the first assembly and a second position of being folded on the first assembly, a first acoustic module disposed in the inside of the first case, a second acoustic module disposed in the inside of the second case, and a first space reducing portion disposed in at least one of a portion of the first case toward the second assembly and a portion of the second case toward the first assembly, and configured to reduce a space between the first acoustic module and the second acoustic module when the second assembly is at the first position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignee: SAMSUNG MEDISON CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Soon Ho Kwon
  • Patent number: 11181636
    Abstract: Provided is an electronic apparatus for detecting information about a target object by using an ultrasound wave. The electronic apparatus includes: a transmitter configured to emit an ultrasound wave modulated based on a predetermined code signal; a receiver configured to receive a reflected signal corresponding to the emitted ultrasound wave reflected from a target object; and a controller configured to acquire a reception signal from the received reflected signal and detect information about the target object based on a difference between correlation values corresponding to a plurality of predetermined periods of the reception signal and the predetermined code signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2021
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hiromi Tachibana, Atsuya Yokoi
  • Patent number: 11175392
    Abstract: The present invention concerns a pulse wave image reconstruction method to be used for example in ultrasound imaging. The proposed method is based on an image measurement model and its adjoint operator. The proposed method introduces matrix-free formulations of the measurement model and its adjoint operator. The proposed method has the advantage that the reconstructed image has a very high quality and that it can be reconstructed quickly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)
    Inventors: Adrien Besson, Dimitris Perdios, Marcel Arditi, Jean-Philippe Thiran
  • Patent number: 11143774
    Abstract: Simultaneous sources are separated with a deblending method wherein the fullband data deblended on a source-by-source basis. The fullband data is first decomposed into multiple subbands, and then a non-equispaced subband Radon transform is used to transform the decomposed data into the Radon domain. The deblending process is solved subband by subband by minimising a nonlinear objective function. The solution of the nonlinear objective function is found using a multi-step procedure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2021
    Assignee: SHELL OIL COMPANY
    Inventors: Ying Ji, Zijian Tang, Guido Jozef Maria Baeten
  • Patent number: 11125911
    Abstract: Techniques are disclosed relating to control of seismic sources such as marine vibrators. According to some embodiments, iterative learning control (ILC) systems may be used to control such seismic sources. According to some embodiments, local sensor(s) placed in, on, or near a seismic source and/or remote sensors placed in the far-field region may be used to determine a transfer function for the seismic source for such ILC control. A sensor is configured to measure the acoustic output of the marine vibrator along with signal pulses from at least one impulsive seismic signal source. The ILC is disabled when it is determined that the impulsive seismic is active based on the sensor measurements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: PGS Geophysical AS
    Inventors: Bo Magnus Bernhardsson, Nils Gunnar Olof Kröling, Per Birger Gunnarsson
  • Patent number: 11067688
    Abstract: An obstacle detection apparatus for vehicles includes: a first ultrasonic sensor for detecting a distance to an obstacle; a second ultrasonic sensor at a position of the vehicle for receiving a reflection wave from the obstacle of an ultrasonic wave from the first ultrasonic wave; a notifier that gives a notification of detecting the obstacle present within a preset distance in one or more of predetermined notification areas including a first notification area for the first ultrasonic sensor, and a second notification area for the second ultrasonic sensor detects the obstacle for the vehicle; and a controller that controls contents to be notified by the notifier. Furthermore, the controller determines whether a first indirect wave distance and a second indirect wave distance are used to determine whether to give the notification of detecting the obstacle in the first notification area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2021
    Assignees: DENSO CORPORATION, TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Mitsuyasu Matsuura, Yasutaka Atarashi, Tsuyoshi Ando, Motonari Ohbayashi