Subject information obtaining apparatus, method for obtaining subject information, and program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10426440-B2
Application number	US-201214342342-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 29, 2012
Priority date	Sep 2, 2011
Publication date	Oct 1, 2019
Grant date	Oct 1, 2019

Abstract

A subject information obtaining apparatus includes: a plurality of conversion elements configured to receive an elastic wave and convert the elastic wave into a plurality of received signals, a storage unit configured to store a plurality of reference signals corresponding to shapes of the object inside a subject, and an FDI adaptive processing unit configured to execute the FDI method and the adaptive signal processing using the plurality of received signals and two or more reference signals among the plurality of reference signals, in order to obtain two or more power intensity distributions for the two or more reference signals.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A subject information obtaining apparatus that obtains information regarding a subject, the subject information obtaining apparatus comprising:
a probe having a plurality of conversion elements;
the plurality of conversion elements being configured to transmit an elastic wave to the subject and receive a reflected elastic wave and convert the received elastic wave into a plurality of received signals;
a computing unit having a storage unit and a frequency-domain interferometry adaptive processing unit,
the storage unit being configured to store a plurality of predetermined reference signals each representing a received signal of a wave from a known interface of an object with mutually different incident angles, radii of curvature, or sizes; and
the frequency-domain interferometry adaptive processing unit being configured to execute a frequency-domain interferometry method and adaptive signal processing which adaptively applies weight on the plurality of received signals and two or more reference signals among the plurality of reference signals, to obtain a power intensity distribution for each of the two or more reference signals,
wherein the obtained two or more power intensity distributions are indicative of a spatial resolution of the information regarding the subject.

2. The subject information obtaining apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a delay and sum unit configured to execute a delay and sum process using the plurality of received signals,
wherein the frequency-domain interferometry adaptive processing unit executes the frequency-domain interferometry method and the adaptive signal processing using a plurality of signals after the delay and sum process output from the delay and sum unit and the two or more reference signals.

3. The subject information obtaining apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an output unit configured to output a power intensity distribution to be used to obtain the information regarding the subject using the two or more power intensity distributions,
wherein the output unit outputs a combined power intensity distribution by executing a combining process using the two or more power intensity distributions or outputs a single power intensity distribution by selecting the power intensity distribution from among the two or more power intensity distributions with the highest spatial resolution.

4. The subject information obtaining apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the output unit outputs the combined power intensity distribution by averaging the two or more power intensity distributions.

5. The subject information obtaining apparatus according to claim 3 ,
wherein the output unit divides a region in which the two or more power intensity distributions are obtained into a plurality of partial regions, and
wherein, in the plurality of partial regions, the output unit outputs the combined power intensity distributions by, in a first partial region, in which there is a power intensity distribution having highest power intensity and an extremum among the two or more power intensity distributions, selecting the power intensity distribution having highest power intensity and an extremum as a partial power intensity distribution in the first partial region, and by, in a second partial region, in which there is no power intensity distribution having highest power intensity and an extremum among the two or more power intensity distributions, determining a power intensity distribution obtained by weighting and summing the two or more power intensity distributions to be the partial power intensity distribution in the first partial region.

6. The subject information obtaining apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the adaptive signal processing includes a Capon method, a MUSIC method, or a ESPRIT method.

7. A method for obtaining subject information by the subject information obtaining apparatus according to claim 1 , the method comprising:
transmitting, using the plurality of conversion elements, the elastic wave to the subject;
receiving, using the plurality of conversion elements, the elastic wave reflected from an interface inside the subject;
executing, using the frequency-domain interferometry adaptive processing unit, a frequency-domain interferometry method and adaptive signal processing which adaptively applies weight on a plurality of received signals output from the plurality of conversion elements that have received the elastic wave and the two or more reference signals among the plurality of reference signals each representing a received signal of a wave from a known interface of an object with mutually different incident angles, radii of curvature, or sizes, to obtain a power intensity distribution for each of the two or more reference signals,
wherein the obtained two or more power intensity distributions are indicative of a spatial resolution of the information regarding the subject.

8. The method for obtaining subject information according to claim 7 , further comprising:
executing, using the frequency-domain interferometry adaptive processing unit, a delay and sum process using the plurality of received signals,
wherein, in the step of obtaining the two or more power intensity distributions, the frequency-domain interferometry method and the adaptive signal processing are executed using a plurality of signals after the delay and sum process that have been subjected to the delay and sum process and the two or more reference signals.

9. The method for obtaining subject information according to claim 7 , further comprising:
outputting, using an output unit, a power intensity distribution to be used to obtain the information regarding the subject using the two or more power intensity distributions,
wherein, in the step of outputting the power intensity distribution, a combined power intensity distribution is output by executing a combining process using the two or more power intensity distributions or by selecting a single power intensity distribution from among the two or more power intensity distributions with the highest spatial resolution.

10. The method for obtaining subject information according to claim 9 , wherein, in the step of outputting the power intensity distribution, the combined power intensity distribution is output by averaging the two or more power intensity distributions.

11. The method for obtaining subject information according to claim 9 ,
wherein, in the step of outputting the power intensity distribution, a region in which the two or more power intensity distributions are obtained is divided into a plurality of partial regions,
wherein, in the plurality of partial regions, the combined power intensity distribution is output by, in a first partial region, in which there is a power intensity distribution having highest power intensity and an extremum among the two or more power intensity distributions, selecting the power intensity distribution having highest power intensity and an extremum as a partial power intensity distribution in the first partial region, and by, in a second partial region, in which there is no power intensity distribution having highest power intensity and an extremum among the two or more power intensity distributions, determining a power intensity distribution obtained by weighting and summing the two or more power intensity distributions to be the partial power intensity distribution in the first partial region.

12. The subject information obtaining method according to claim 7 , wherein the adaptive signal processing includes a Capon method, a MUSIC method, or a ESPRIT method.

13. A non-trans

Assignees

• Nagae Kenichi
• Taki Hirofumi
• Sakamoto Takuya
• Sato Toru
• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Nagae Kenichi
• Taki Hirofumi
• Sakamoto Takuya
• Sato Toru

Classifications

• G01S7/52047

  for elimination of side lobes or of grating lobes; for increasing resolving power · CPC title

• G01S15/8977 Primary

  using special techniques for image reconstruction, e.g. FFT, geometrical transformations, spatial deconvolution, time deconvolution · CPC title

• A61B8/485 Primary

  involving measuring strain or elastic properties · CPC title

• G01S7/52028

  using digital techniques · CPC title

• A61B8/5223

  for extracting a diagnostic or physiological parameter from medical diagnostic data (for algorithms to analyse biomedical images G06T7/0012) · CPC title