Patents by Inventor Mineo Tsushima

Mineo Tsushima has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11360199
    Abstract: An ultrasound signal processing device: performing events involving transmitting ultrasound towards a subject; receiving ultrasound reflection from the subject in response to each event; and generating a frame signal from sub-frame signals generated based on the ultrasound reflection. The device, in each event, causes a transmission aperture to transmit ultrasound focusing in the subject. A transmission aperture for one event differs in position, in a transducer element array direction, from a transmission aperture for a previous event by a shift amount of at least twice a transducer element width. The device, for each event, sets a target area which includes a position where transmitted ultrasound focuses and whose width in the transducer element array direction, at a depth where the transmitted ultrasound focuses, is equal to or greater than the shift amount. The device generates a sub-frame signal covering measurement points included in the target area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA, INC.
    Inventor: Mineo Tsushima
  • Patent number: 11006931
    Abstract: An ultrasound signal processing device: performing transmission events each involving selecting a group among transducer elements arranged in line in an ultrasound probe, and causing the group to transmit ultrasound towards a subject; for each transmission event, receiving ultrasound reflection from the subject; and generating a frame acoustic line signal based on sub-frame acoustic line signals that are generated based on the ultrasound reflection. The ultrasound signal processing device includes: a calculator that calculates, based on reflected ultrasound, a motion amount indicating movement between image signals for the subject; and a synthesizer generating the frame acoustic line signal based on the sub-frame acoustic line signals. The number of sub-frame acoustic line signals that the synthesizer uses to generate a frame acoustic line signal decreases when the motion amount is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2021
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA, INC.
    Inventor: Mineo Tsushima
  • Patent number: 10845473
    Abstract: Ultrasound signal processing device including: transmitter performing transmission events while varying a focal point; receiver generating, for each transmission event, receive signal sequences for transducer elements; delay-and-sum calculator generating, for each transmission event, a sub-frame acoustic line signal including an acoustic line signal for each measurement point located on target lines passing through the focal point and composing a target line group; and synthesizer combining sub-frame acoustic line signals to generate a frame acoustic line signal. The target lines are straight lines, and any measurement point, on any target line, that is spaced away from the focal point by a predetermined distance or more satisfies a condition that distance between the measurement point and a most nearby measurement point on the same target line is smaller than distance between the measurement point and a most nearby one among measurement points on an adjacent target line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2020
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA, INC.
    Inventor: Mineo Tsushima
  • Patent number: 10743842
    Abstract: An ultrasound signal processor that selectively drives a plurality of transducer elements arrayed in an ultrasound probe and executes ultrasound transmission and reception to a subject to perform velocity analysis by a color flow mapping method includes: a transmitter configured to select a transmission transducer element array from the plurality of transducer elements and perform transmission from the transmission transducer element array; a receiver configured to generate a received signal sequence for a transducer element of a reception transducer element array; a phasing adder configured to generate an acoustic line signal; and a velocity calculator configured to generate a complex acoustic line signal and calculate an average velocity, wherein the phasing adder performs delay processing for changing a method for calculating a transmission time in which the ultrasound transmitted reaches each of the observation points in at least one of the main target area and the sub-target area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2020
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA, INC.
    Inventor: Mineo Tsushima
  • Patent number: 10702246
    Abstract: An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus that transmits an ultrasound beam using an ultrasound probe including transducers and generates acoustic line signal subframe data, includes: a transmitter that causes transmission transducer arrays to transmit the ultrasound beam; a receiver that generates a reception signal sequence; and a delay-and-sum part that performs delay-and-sum operation, wherein the receiver includes part receivers, the delay-and-sum part includes: part delay-and-sum parts that perform delay-and-sum to generate an acoustic line signal so as to generate acoustic line signal partial subframe data; part folding parts that extract an acoustic line signal sequence and arrange the acoustic line signals to generate acoustic line signal partial subframe folded data; a main summing part that sums the acoustic line signal partial subframe folded data to generate acoustic line signal subframe folded data; and a re-sequence part that re-sequences the acoustic line signals to generate the acoustic line signal
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: Konica Minolta, Inc.
    Inventor: Mineo Tsushima
  • Publication number: 20200077977
    Abstract: An ultrasound signal processing device including a transmitter, a receiver, an observation point setter, and a frame generator. The transmitter repeatedly performs a transmission event, changing a position of a transducer array for each transmission event, the transmission event including selecting the transducer array from transducers on an ultrasound probe and outputting a drive signal driving the transducer array to transmit focused transmitted ultrasound. The receiver receives signals from the ultrasound probe to generate signal sequences, the signals being based on reflected ultrasound acquired by the ultrasound probe. The observation point setter sets observation points corresponding to positions in the subject. The frame generator generates a frame acoustic line signal based on the signal sequences corresponding to each of the observation points. The observation points are set such that observation points in a region shallower than a focal region each correspond to only one transmission event.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 22, 2019
    Publication date: March 12, 2020
    Inventor: Mineo TSUSHIMA
  • Publication number: 20200037996
    Abstract: An ultrasound signal processing device: performing events involving transmitting ultrasound towards a subject; receiving ultrasound reflection from the subject in response to each event; and generating a frame signal from sub-frame signals generated based on the ultrasound reflection. The device, in each event, causes a transmission aperture to transmit ultrasound focusing in the subject. A transmission aperture for one event differs in position, in a transducer element array direction, from a transmission aperture for a previous event by a shift amount of at least twice a transducer element width. The device, for each event, sets a target area which includes a position where transmitted ultrasound focuses and whose width in the transducer element array direction, at a depth where the transmitted ultrasound focuses, is equal to or greater than the shift amount. The device generates a sub-frame signal covering measurement points included in the target area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 11, 2019
    Publication date: February 6, 2020
    Inventor: Mineo TSUSHIMA
  • Publication number: 20200015788
    Abstract: Ultrasound signal processing device including: transmitter causing transmission array composed of all or some transducer elements of ultrasound probe to transmit ultrasound; reception aperture setter designating reception array having center position corresponding to center position of transmission array; transmission time calculator calculating, for each of measurement points arranged within area of reach of ultrasound, transmission time from transmission of ultrasound until arrival of ultrasound at measurement point; reception time calculator calculating reception time from reflection of ultrasound at measurement point until arrival of ultrasound at reception transducer element; delay amount calculator calculating total propagation time being sum of transmission time and reception time, and calculating delay amount for reception transducer element based on total propagation time; delay processor specifying reception signal value corresponding to delay amount, from reception signal sequence corresponding to
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 23, 2019
    Publication date: January 16, 2020
    Inventor: Mineo TSUSHIMA
  • Patent number: 10470745
    Abstract: An ultrasound signal processing device: performing events involving transmitting ultrasound towards a subject; receiving ultrasound reflection from the subject in response to each event; and generating a frame signal from sub-frame signals generated based on the ultrasound reflection. The device, in each event, causes a transmission aperture to transmit ultrasound focusing in the subject. A transmission aperture for one event differs in position, in a transducer element array direction, from a transmission aperture for a previous event by a shift amount of at least twice a transducer element width. The device, for each event, sets a target area which includes a position where transmitted ultrasound focuses and whose width in the transducer element array direction, at a depth where the transmitted ultrasound focuses, is equal to or greater than the shift amount. The device generates a sub-frame signal covering measurement points included in the target area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA, INC.
    Inventor: Mineo Tsushima
  • Patent number: 10463345
    Abstract: Ultrasound signal processing device including: transmitter causing transmission array composed of all or some transducer elements of ultrasound probe to transmit ultrasound; reception aperture setter designating reception array having center position corresponding to center position of transmission array; transmission time calculator calculating, for each of measurement points arranged within area of reach of ultrasound, transmission time from transmission of ultrasound until arrival of ultrasound at measurement point; reception time calculator calculating reception time from reflection of ultrasound at measurement point until arrival of ultrasound at reception transducer element; delay amount calculator calculating total propagation time being sum of transmission time and reception time, and calculating delay amount for reception transducer element based on total propagation time; delay processor specifying reception signal value corresponding to delay amount, from reception signal sequence corresponding to
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA, INC.
    Inventor: Mineo Tsushima
  • Publication number: 20190046162
    Abstract: An ultrasonic signal processor transmitting/receiving an ultrasonic wave to/from a subject by joining an ultrasonic probe including transducers and an acoustic lens to the subject and generating an acoustic line signal based on a reflected ultrasonic wave, the ultrasonic signal processor includes: a transmitter transmitting a transmission ultrasonic wave into the subject; a receiver generating a reception signal sequence corresponding to each transducer based on the reflected ultrasonic wave from the subject; and a phasing adder phasing and adding the reception signal sequences to generate an acoustic line signal, wherein the phasing adder includes a reception time calculator calculating a reception time to when the reflected ultrasonic wave reaches the transducer from an observation point in the subject, an ultrasonic velocity in the acoustic lens is slower than that in a region in contact with the acoustic lens of the subject, and the reception time calculator calculates the reception time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 30, 2018
    Publication date: February 14, 2019
    Applicant: Konica Minolta, Inc.
    Inventor: Mineo TSUSHIMA
  • Publication number: 20180303461
    Abstract: An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus that transmits an ultrasound beam using an ultrasound probe including transducers and generates acoustic line signal subframe data, includes: a transmitter that causes transmission transducer arrays to transmit the ultrasound beam; a receiver that generates a reception signal sequence; and a delay-and-sum part that performs delay-and-sum operation, wherein the receiver includes part receivers, the delay-and-sum part includes: part delay-and-sum parts that perform delay-and-sum to generate an acoustic line signal so as to generate acoustic line signal partial subframe data; part folding parts that extract an acoustic line signal sequence and arrange the acoustic line signals to generate acoustic line signal partial subframe folded data; a main summing part that sums the acoustic line signal partial subframe folded data to generate acoustic line signal subframe folded data; and a re-sequence part that re-sequences the acoustic line signals to generate the acoustic line signal
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 2, 2018
    Publication date: October 25, 2018
    Applicant: Konica Minolta, Inc.
    Inventor: Mineo TSUSHIMA
  • Publication number: 20180199918
    Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes an ultrasonic signal processing circuit including: a transmitter that selects a transmission transducer column from a plurality of transducers and transmits an ultrasonic beam to a target region; a receiver that generates a sequence of reception signals; a first phasing adder that generates a first acoustic beam signal by performing phasing addition on the sequence of reception signals; a parameter calculator that calculates a parameter for generating a subframe acoustic beam signal; a second phasing adder that generates a subframe acoustic beam signal; a synthesizer that generates a frame acoustic beam signal; a controller that determines whether to generate an ultrasonic image based on any one of the first acoustic beam signal and the frame acoustic beam signal; and an ultrasonic image generator that generates the ultrasonic image from any one of the first acoustic beam signal and the frame acoustic beam signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 4, 2018
    Publication date: July 19, 2018
    Applicant: Konica Minolta, Inc.
    Inventor: Mineo Tsushima
  • Publication number: 20180140280
    Abstract: An ultrasound signal processing device performs a transmission event, receives reflected ultrasonic waves, generates a received signal sequence, and synthesizes sub-frame acoustic line signals to obtain an acoustic line signal. The device includes: a transmitter that selects a transmitting/receiving oscillator array and directs the transmitting/receiving oscillator array to transmit an ultrasound beam to a target region; a receiver that generates a received signal sequence; a phasing adder that generates a line-region acoustic line signal; an acoustic line signal developer that allocates the line-region acoustic line signal as the acoustic line signal to generate the sub-frame acoustic line signal; and a weighting synthesizer that weights sub-frame acoustic line signals and synthesizes the sub-frame acoustic line signals into a frame acoustic line signal, where, in one of a first weighting profile and a second weighting profile, a first weight sequence has a larger turbulence than a second weight sequence.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 21, 2017
    Publication date: May 24, 2018
    Applicant: Konica Minolta, Inc.
    Inventor: Mineo Tsushima
  • Patent number: RE47814
    Abstract: An encoding device (200) includes an MDCT unit (202) that transforms an input signal in a time domain into a frequency spectrum including a lower frequency spectrum, a BWE encoding unit (204) that generates extension data which specifies a higher frequency spectrum at a higher frequency than the lower frequency spectrum, and an encoded data stream generating unit (205) that encodes to output the lower frequency spectrum obtained by the MDCT unit (202) and the extension data obtained by the BWE encoding unit (204). The BWE encoding unit (204) generates as the extension data (i) a first parameter which specifies a lower subband which is to be copied as the higher frequency spectrum from among a plurality of the lower subbands which form the lower frequency spectrum obtained by the MDCT unit (202) and (ii) a second parameter which specifies a gain of the lower subband after being copied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2020
    Assignee: DOLBY INTERNATIONAL AB
    Inventors: Mineo Tsushima, Takeshi Norimatsu, Kosuke Nishio, Naoya Tanaka
  • Patent number: RE47935
    Abstract: An encoding device (200) includes an MDCT unit (202) that transforms an input signal in a time domain into a frequency spectrum including a lower frequency spectrum, a BWE encoding unit (204) that generates extension data which specifies a higher frequency spectrum at a higher frequency than the lower frequency spectrum, and an encoded data stream generating unit (205) that encodes to output the lower frequency spectrum obtained by the MDCT unit (202) and the extension data obtained by the BWE encoding unit (204). The BWE encoding unit (204) generates as the extension data (i) a first parameter which specifies a lower subband which is to be copied as the higher frequency spectrum from among a plurality of the lower subbands which form the lower frequency spectrum obtained by the MDCT unit (202) and (ii) a second parameter which specifies a gain of the lower subband after being copied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2020
    Assignee: DOLBY INTERNATIONAL AB
    Inventors: Mineo Tsushima, Takeshi Norimatsu, Kosuke Nishio, Naoya Tanaka
  • Patent number: RE47949
    Abstract: An encoding device (200) includes an MDCT unit (202) that transforms an input signal in a time domain into a frequency spectrum including a lower frequency spectrum, a BWE encoding unit (204) that generates extension data which specifies a higher frequency spectrum at a higher frequency than the lower frequency spectrum, and an encoded data stream generating unit (205) that encodes to output the lower frequency spectrum obtained by the MDCT unit (202) and the extension data obtained by the BWE encoding unit (204). The BWE encoding unit (204) generates as the extension data (i) a first parameter which specifies a lower subband which is to be copied as the higher frequency spectrum from among a plurality of the lower subbands which form the lower frequency spectrum obtained by the MDCT unit (202) and (ii) a second parameter which specifies a gain of the lower subband after being copied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2020
    Assignee: DOLBY INTERNATIONAL AB
    Inventors: Mineo Tsushima, Takeshi Norimatsu, Kosuke Nishio, Naoya Tanaka
  • Patent number: RE47956
    Abstract: An encoding device (200) includes an MDCT unit (202) that transforms an input signal in a time domain into a frequency spectrum including a lower frequency spectrum, a BWE encoding unit (204) that generates extension data which specifies a higher frequency spectrum at a higher frequency than the lower frequency spectrum, and an encoded data stream generating unit (205) that encodes to output the lower frequency spectrum obtained by the MDCT unit (202) and the extension data obtained by the BWE encoding unit (204). The BWE encoding unit (204) generates as the extension data (i) a first parameter which specifies a lower subband which is to be copied as the higher frequency spectrum from among a plurality of the lower subbands which form the lower frequency spectrum obtained by the MDCT unit (202) and (ii) a second parameter which specifies a gain of the lower subband after being copied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2020
    Assignee: DOLBY INTERNATIONAL AB
    Inventors: Mineo Tsushima, Takeshi Norimatsu, Kosuke Nishio, Naoya Tanaka
  • Patent number: RE48045
    Abstract: An encoding device (200) includes an MDCT unit (202) that transforms an input signal in a time domain into a frequency spectrum including a lower frequency spectrum, a BWE encoding unit (204) that generates extension data which specifies a higher frequency spectrum at a higher frequency than the lower frequency spectrum, and an encoded data stream generating unit (205) that encodes to output the lower frequency spectrum obtained by the MDCT unit (202) and the extension data obtained by the BWE encoding unit (204). The BWE encoding unit (204) generates as the extension data (i) a first parameter which specifies a lower subband which is to be copied as the higher frequency spectrum from among a plurality of the lower subbands which form the lower frequency spectrum obtained by the MDCT unit (202) and (ii) a second parameter which specifies a gain of the lower subband after being copied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2020
    Assignee: DOLBY INTERNATIONAL AB
    Inventors: Mineo Tsushima, Takeshi Norimatsu, Kosuke Nishio, Naoya Tanaka
  • Patent number: RE48145
    Abstract: An encoding device (200) includes an MDCT unit (202) that transforms an input signal in a time domain into a frequency spectrum including a lower frequency spectrum, a BWE encoding unit (204) that generates extension data which specifies a higher frequency spectrum at a higher frequency than the lower frequency spectrum, and an encoded data stream generating unit (205) that encodes to output the lower frequency spectrum obtained by the MDCT unit (202) and the extension data obtained by the BWE encoding unit (204). The BWE encoding unit (204) generates as the extension data (i) a first parameter which specifies a lower subband which is to be copied as the higher frequency spectrum from among a plurality of the lower subbands which form the lower frequency spectrum obtained by the MDCT unit (202) and (ii) a second parameter which specifies a gain of the lower subband after being copied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2020
    Assignee: DOLBY INTERNATIONAL AB
    Inventors: Mineo Tsushima, Takeshi Norimatsu, Kosuke Nishio, Naoya Tanaka