Object information acquiring apparatus and control method for same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9757093-B2
Application number	US-201414156554-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 16, 2014
Priority date	Jan 23, 2013
Publication date	Sep 12, 2017
Grant date	Sep 12, 2017

Abstract

Provided is an object information acquiring apparatus including elements with which an acoustic wave is transmitted to and received from an object and converted into a plurality of received signals, a processor that acquires a power intensity signal of the inside of the object, and a corrector that corrects the power intensity signal, the processor being configured to calculate correlation values of frequency components, perform frequency average processing on a correlation matrix that is a set of the plurality of calculated correlation values to acquire a first power intensity signal, and reduce variance of elements in the diagonal direction of the correlation matrix to acquire a second power intensity signal, and the corrector being configured to output a power intensity signal subjected to correction processing.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An object information acquiring apparatus comprising:
a plurality of conversion elements configured to receive an acoustic wave reflected within the object and to output a plurality of received signals;
a first processor that acquires, using the plurality of received signals, a power intensity signal showing a distribution of power intensity in a plurality of positions within the object through processing using frequency domain interferometry to which adaptive signal processing is applied;
a corrector that performs correction processing on the power intensity signal to output a corrected power intensity signal; and
an image processor that outputs image display data based on the corrected power intensity signal,
wherein the first processor is configured to
calculate a plurality of correlation values of frequency components using the plurality of received signals,
perform frequency average processing on a correlation matrix that is a set of the plurality of calculated correlation values to acquire a first power intensity signal using a plurality of values obtained by the frequency average processing, and
perform processing of reducing variance of elements in a diagonal direction of the correlation matrix by averaging at least one of super-diagonal and sub-diagonal elements using the plurality of calculated correlation values to acquire a second power intensity signal using the plurality of values subjected to this processing, and

wherein the corrector outputs the corrected power intensity signal using the first power intensity signal and the second power intensity signal.

2. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first processor assumes a position in the first power intensity signal where power intensity is greater than a predetermined value as a position of a reflector within the object, and the corrector corrects a power intensity signal of the position of the reflector with the second power intensity signal.

3. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first processor applies a Capon method as the adaptive signal processing.

4. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first processor performs average processing of elements as the processing of reducing variance in elements when acquiring the second power intensity signal.

5. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first processor is configured to perform processing of reducing the variance of elements in the diagonal direction of the correlation matrix using the plurality of calculated correlation values to acquire the second power intensity signal using the plurality of values subjected to this processing and the plurality of values obtained by the frequency average processing.

6. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the first processor assumes a position in the first power intensity signal where power intensity is greater than a predetermined value as a position of a reflector within the object, and the corrector corrects a power intensity signal of the position of the reflector with the second power intensity signal.

7. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the first processor applies a Capon method as the adaptive signal processing.

8. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the first processor performs average processing of elements as the processing of reducing variance in elements when acquiring the second power intensity signal.

9. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the averaging includes forming a weighted average.

10. An object information acquiring apparatus comprising:
a plurality of conversion elements configured to receive an acoustic wave reflected within the object and to output a plurality of received signals;
a first processor that acquires, using the plurality of received signals, a power intensity signal showing a distribution of power intensity in a plurality of positions within the object through processing using frequency domain interferometry to which adaptive signal processing is applied;
a corrector that performs correction processing on the power intensity signal to output a corrected power intensity signal; and
an image processor that outputs image display data based on the corrected power intensity signal,
the first processor being configured
to calculate a plurality of correlation values of frequency components using the plurality of received signals,
to perform frequency average processing on a correlation matrix that is a set of the plurality of calculated correlation values to acquire a first power intensity signal using a plurality of values obtained by the frequency average processing, and
to perform processing of reducing variance of at least elements in a diagonal direction out of the plurality of values obtained by the frequency average processing by averaging at least one of super-diagonal and sub-diagonal elements to acquire a second power intensity signal using the plurality of values subjected to this processing, and

the corrector being configured to output the corrected power intensity signal using the first power intensity signal and the second power intensity signal.

11. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the first processor assumes a position in the first power intensity signal where power intensity is greater than a predetermined value as a position of a reflector within the object, and the corrector corrects a power intensity signal of the position of the reflector with the second power intensity signal.

12. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the first processor applies a Capon method as the adaptive signal processing.

13. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the first processor performs average processing of elements as the processing of reducing variance in elements when acquiring the second power intensity signal.

14. The object information acquiring apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the averaging includes forming a weighted average.

15. A control method for an object information acquiring apparatus including a plurality of conversion elements configured to receive an acoustic wave reflected within the object and to output a plurality of received signals, a first processor that acquires, using a plurality of received signals obtained by receiving an acoustic wave reflected within the object using a plurality of conversion elements, a power intensity signal showing a distribution of power intensity in a plurality of positions within the object through processing using frequency domain interferometry to which adaptive signal processing is applied, a corrector that performs correction processing on the power intensity signal to output a corrected power intensity signal, and an image processor that outputs image display data based on the corrected power intensity signal, the control method comprising the steps of:
receiving, by the plurality of conversion elements, an acoustic wave reflected within the object and to output a plurality of received signals;
acquiring, by the first processor, using the plurality of received signals, a power intensity signal showing a distribution of power intensity in a plurality of positions within the object through processing using frequency domain interferometry to which adaptive signal processing is applied;
performing, by the correcto

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Taki Hirofumi
• Nagae Kenichi
• Sato Toru

Classifications

• G01S7/52047

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

• A61B8/54 Primary

  Control of the diagnostic device · CPC title

• G01S15/8915

  using a transducer array · CPC title

• A61B8/0891

  for diagnosis of blood vessels · CPC title

• A61B8/5207 Primary

  involving processing of raw data to produce diagnostic data, e.g. for generating an image · CPC title