© An ultrasonic transmitter/receiver of the type wherein an ultrasonic pulse beam is transmitted into and received from a subject under examination at a fixed pulse-repetition frequency, the signal received during each transmission/reception cycle is compared with the signal received during the previous transmission/reception cycle to obtain a comparison signal and the movement of a moving member in the subject is detected and measured on the basis of the comparison signal is provided with means for causing an ultrasonic beam to reciprocally scan the subject, memory means for storing comparison signals ataddres- ses corresponding to the scanning positions of the ultrasonic beam, the memory means being responsive to address data representing the scanning position ot the ultrasonic beam to output the comparison signal stored at the corresponding address one scan earlier and simultaneously store at the same address the comparison signal for the same scanning position of the current scan, and adder means for adding the comparison signal for said position of the current scan and the comparison signal for said position one scan earlier output by said memory means, whereby scanning noise contained in the comparison signals is eliminated.

Ultrasonic transmitter/receiver

The purpose of the device (1, 4, 5) is to show a cross-section of a medium (2) by representing the speed of movement in the medium of every element in the cross-section. The problem that is solved is how to introduce a filter (6) to eliminate the parasitic components of the signal due to the stationary parts of the medium. This filter includes delay circuits (7, 8) whose delay is equal to the repetition period (1/Fr) of the acoustic signal (frequency f0) from units (3, 16) used to excite the medium. The device also includes comparison circuits (9, 10) used to subtract the signals received from exactly the same points in the medium but within different periods of the ultrasonic vibration. Stationary echoes are eliminated since their contribution to the signal from one period to another is the same and subtraction therefore removes them. Application to medical diagnosis of the heart.

Ultrasonic imaging device

L'appareil comprend au moins un transducteur ultrasonore (10) associe a un etage d'emission (20) et a un etage (30) de reception et de traitement des signaux echographiques renvoyes vers ledit transducteur. The apparatus comprises at least one ultrasonic transducer (10) associated with a transmission stage (20) and a stage (30) for receiving and processing echographic signals returned to said transducer. Ce dernier etage (30) comprend une premiere voie de traitement classique (60) composee essentiellement d'un circuit d'amplification (61), d'un circuit de detection d'enveloppe (62), d'un convertisseur de balayage (64), et d'un dispositif de visualisation (65), ainsi qu'une deuxieme voie de traitement (100) comprenant : This last stage (30) comprises a first channel vector processing (60) essentially composed of an amplification circuit (61), an envelope detection circuit (62), a scan converter (64 ), and a display device (65) and a second processing channel (100) comprising: (A) un convertisseur analogique-numerique (63) et une premiere memoire d'image (64) pour le stockage de l'image en cours d'acquisition ; (A) an analog to digital converter (63) and a first image memory (64) for storing the image being acquired; (B) un circuit de detection de mouvement (130) commandant ou non, pour chaque point d'image, la mise a jour d'un coefficient de filtrage α ; (B) a motion detection circuit (130) controlling or not, for each image point, the update of a filter coefficient α; (C) un circuit de filtrage temporel recursif conditionnel (150) delivrant en sortie de ladite deuxieme voie de traitement (100) une image traitee R(t,x,y) qui est une somme de l'image nouvellement acquise I(t,x,y) et de l'image precedemment traitee R(t-1,x,y) ponderees par des valeurs liees a celle dudit coefficient de filtrage α. (C) a conditional recursive temporal filtering circuit (150) outputting said second processing channel (100) a processed image R (t, x, y) which is a sum of the newly acquired image I (t, x, y) and the previously processed image R (t-1, x, y) weighted by values ​​related to that of said filter coefficient α. Application : Echographes medicaux Application: Medical Ultrasound

Ultrasonic echographic apparatus for the investigation of media in motion

L'appareil comprend au moins un transducteur ul­trasonore (10) associe a un etage d'emission (20) et a un etage (30) de reception et de traitement des signaux echogra­phiques renvoyes vers ledit transducteur. Ce dernier etage (30) comprend une premiere voie de traitement classique (60) composee essentiellement d'un circuit d'amplification (61), d'un circuit de detection d'enveloppe (62), d'un convertisseur de balayage (64), et d'un dispositif de visualisation (65), ainsi qu'une deuxieme voie de traitement (100) comprenant :
 (A) un convertisseur analogique-numerique (63) et une premiere memoire d'image (64) pour le stockage de l'image en cours d'acquisition ; (B) un circuit de detection de mouvement (130) commandant ou non, pour chaque point d'image, la mise a jour d'un coefficient de filtrage α ; (C) un circuit de filtrage temporel recursif con­ditionnel (150) delivrant en sortie de ladite deuxieme voie de traitement (100) une image traitee R(t,x,y) qui est une somme de l'image nouvellement acquise I(t,x,y) et de l'image prece­demment traitee R(t-1,x,y) ponderees par des valeurs liees a celle dudit coefficient de filtrage α. Application : Echographes medicaux

Appareil d'examen de milieux en mouvement par échographie ultrasonore

Ahstrocst-An on-line digital moving target indicator OMTI) system has been developed to isolate dynamic physiological target echoes from other relatively stationary anatomical structure echoes. Digital techniques were employed for data acquisition, storage, and subsequent subtraction. Results demonstrate the efficacy of the system in isolating tricuspid value echoes in the heart from rib and chest wall echoes, and intracranial artery echoes from surrounding tissue. Maximum arterial activity can also be detected. 4 0 -

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/10326/32828/01539040.pdf

R.W. Barnes

Papers

An Ultrasound Digital Moving Target Indicator System for Diagnostic Use