307 results about "Acoustic array" patented technology

Frequency-steered acoustic arrays transmitting and / or receiving multiple, angularly dispersed acoustic beams are used to generate 2D and 3D images. Input pulses to the arrays are generally non-linear, frequency-modulated pulses. Frequency-steered acoustic arrays may be provided in one-dimensional linear and two dimensional planar and curvilinear configurations, may be operated as single order or multiple order arrays, may employ periodic or non-periodic transducer element spacing, and may be mechanically scanned to generate 2D and 3D volumetric data. Multiple imaging fields of view may generated in different directions by switching the polarity of phase-shifted array transducer elements. Multiple frequency-steered arrays arranged in an X-configuration provide a wide, contiguous field of view and multiple frequency steered arrays arranged in a T-configuration provide orthogonally oriented fields of view. Methods and systems for operating acoustic arrays in a frequency-steered mode in combination a mechanical beam steering mode, electronic time-delay and phase shift beam forming modes, and phase comparison angle estimation modes are also provided.

An acoustic array platform comprising multiple spaced microphones and associated processing electronics / algorithms projects distinct beams in a chosen look direction across which moving objects such as vehicles pass. These moving objects are accurately detected, classified and counted at extended ranges. The acoustic microphone array employs optimized beamforming to create specially focused listening directions that function as a “motion detector” and “trip line counter”. Algorithms detect and confirm the appropriate presence of objects moving through the beams and perform other algorithmic tests to verify that the object is a valid object to be counted. The proposed approach is realized with modest sized acoustic arrays and a reasonable number of microphones by employing an adaptive beamforming algorithm that achieves enhanced directivity in a principal look direction and which significantly reduces the effects of interferers outside the precise steering direction of the “trip line”.

A low profile acoustic array (10) is configured to selectively respond to shear waves while rejecting compression wave energy in the frequency range of interest. One sensor array is configured as a linear strip with a frame segment having at least one longitudinally extending rail and a plurality of sensor elements (20) extending therefrom. These sensor elements have a resilient core and opposing PDVF outer layers configured with opposing polarities onto the core. The linear strip array also includes a pair of separate electrical signal transmission paths. The transmission lines can include a series of undulations formed thereon to help minimize undesired mechanical crossover between sensors. A carrier member can be configured to be detachably releasable carries the discrete sensors to maintain the positional alignment until they are secured to a patient.

An acoustic transducer array and method of baffle construction is presented to provide an improved array for use in underwater installations. The array is presented wherein a significant majority of the acoustic energy receiving surface is formed by lightweight acoustic baffling material while still maintaining a fully functional, fully populated array. The acoustic baffle constructed is incompressible and suitable for deep water operation while demonstrating both improved acoustic performance and positive buoyancy when necessary. In addition, the invention eliminates the non-uniform element to element spacing that occurs between sub-panels in similar arrays.

Frequency-steered acoustic arrays transmitting and / or receiving multiple, angularly dispersed acoustic beams are used to generate 2D and 3D images. Input pulses to the arrays are generally non-linear, frequency-modulated pulses. Frequency-steered acoustic arrays may be provided in one-dimensional linear and two dimensional planar and curvilinear configurations, may be operated as single order or multiple order arrays, may employ periodic or non-periodic transducer element spacing, and may be mechanically scanned to generate 2D and 3D volumetric data. Multiple imaging fields of view may generated in different directions by switching the polarity of phase-shifted array transducer elements. Multiple frequency-steered arrays arranged in an X-configuration provide a wide, contiguous field of view and multiple frequency steered arrays arranged in a T-configuration provide orthogonally oriented fields of view. Methods and systems for operating acoustic arrays in a frequency-steered mode in combination a mechanical beam steering mode, electronic time-delay and phase shift beam forming modes, and phase comparison angle estimation modes are also provided.

Systems and methods for determining ICP based on parameters that can be measured using non-invasive or minimally invasive techniques are provided. Systems for acquiring acoustic data from a desired target site in a subject's body using various types of acoustic source and detector elements are also provided, including single use acoustic source / detector combinations are also provided. Acoustic arrays for use with these systems may include multiple capacitive micro-machined ultrasound transducer (cMUT) elements, and may include a combination of different types of acoustic arrays. Methods of targeting localized sites within a broad target area based on acoustic data having various properties are also disclosed.

The invention provides a method for accurately positioning the absolute position of a deep-sea beacon based on an ultra short base line, which comprises the following steps that: (1) respectively receiving beacon signals at a measurement point by ultra short base line acoustic arrays to measure the bearing of the beacon; (2) using a GPS to measure the absolute position of the measurement point; (3) changing the position of the measurement point based on the last obtained bearing and the received signals to obtain a measurement point having a larger bearing difference; (4) repeating step (2) and step (3) to obtain enough measurement point data; (5) carrying out the field measurement on the sound velocity distribution in a sea area near the position of the beacon; (6) calculating the horizontal coordinate of the beacon based on the position of the measurement point and the horizontal bearing; and (7) calculating the depth of the beacon based on the calculated horizontal coordinate of the beacon, the sound velocity profile and the elevation bearing of acoustic signals at each measurement point. The method has extensive application prospects in the aspects of black box rescue and underwater beacon navigation in deep sea.

The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for acquiring seismic data. In one exemplary embodiment, a method for acquiring seismic data is described in which recorder instruments are deployed to the seafloor and utilized for recording pressure wave and shear wave data. An acoustic array, displaced from the seafloor, is also provided for sending acoustic signals to the instruments on the seafloor. The orientation of the instruments on the seafloor is determined via acoustic communication between the acoustic array and the instruments. Related systems and methods for acquiring seismic data are also described.

A waterway shield system comprises a plurality of autonomous underwater nodes wherein each underwater node comprises acoustic detectors which may comprise horizontal and / or vertical acoustic arrays which may be directly mounted thereto or extend outwardly therefrom. Each underwater node comprises an acoustic modem for transmitting high resolution acoustic data to a gateway node that provides a connection to a surface system and a network of other underwater nodes in other waterways. The data from the underwater nodes may be utilized to produce acoustic attribute data for hulls of ships in the waterways. An acoustic database is provided that compiles the predetermined acoustic attribute data for a variety of ships and other entities thereby providing previously stored identifying means. The acoustic database is utilized in conjunction with one or more databases of other physical attributes of ships or other objects to thereby provide an automated identification process.

The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for acquiring seismic data. In one exemplary embodiment, a method for acquiring seismic data is described in which recorder instruments are deployed to the seafloor and utilized for recording pressure wave and shear wave data. An acoustic array, displaced from the seafloor, is also provided for sending acoustic signals to the instruments on the seafloor. The orientation of the instruments on the seafloor is determined via acoustic communication between the acoustic array and the instruments. Related systems and methods for acquiring seismic data are also described.

The invention relates to the technical field of ultrasonic probes, in particular to an ultrasonic array probe signal acquisition component and a preparation method thereof, and a probe. The acquisition component provided by the invention comprises two or more probe array elements, each probe array element comprises a backing and a piezoelectric layer composed of two or more piezoelectric crystal plates; flangings of positive electrodes and negative electrodes of the two piezoelectric crystal plates are butted; the piezoelectric layer is divided into a lead region, a heat conduction region and a signal region; a backing is connected to the signal region, and the bottom of the backing is connected with the bottom of the backing of an adjacent probe array element; a heat dissipating piece is connected to the heat conduction region, and the heat dissipating piece is connected with the ground electrode of an outer cable; and a flexible circuit board is connected with the lead region, and the flexible circuit board is connected with the outer cable through the probe circuit board. According to the ultrasonic array probe signal acquisition component and the probe provided by invention, the problem of probe temperature rising is effectively solved, the send-receive capacity of signals is improved, probe functions of testing image resolution ratio and sharpness are improved, and the impact of the probe array element signal crosstalk to imaging sharpness is decreased.

A method of communicating with an ingestible capsule includes detecting the location of the ingestible capsule, focusing a multi-sensor acoustic array on the ingestible capsule, and communicating an acoustic information exchange with the ingestible capsule via the multi-sensor acoustic array. The ingestible capsule includes a sensor that receives a stimulus inside the gastrointestinal tract of an animal, a bidirectional acoustic information communications module that transmits an acoustic information signal containing information from the sensor, and an acoustically transmissive encapsulation that substantially encloses the sensor and communications module, wherein the acoustically transmissive encapsulation is of ingestible size. The multi-sensor array includes a plurality of acoustic transducers that receive an acoustic signal from a movable device, and a plurality of delays, wherein each delay is coupled to a corresponding acoustic transducer. Each delay may be adjusted according to a phase of a signal received by the corresponding acoustic transducer.

An ultrasound acoustic assembly includes a number of ultrasound acoustic arrays, each array comprising an acoustic stack comprising a piezoelectric layer assembled with at least one acoustic impedance dematching layer and with a support layer. The acoustic stack defines a number of dicing kerfs and a number of acoustic elements, such that the dicing kerfs are formed between neighboring ones of the acoustic elements. The dicing kerfs extend through the piezoelectric layer and through the acoustic impedance dematching layer(s) but extend only partially through the support layer. The ultrasound acoustic assembly further includes a number of application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) die. Each ultrasound acoustic array is coupled to a respective ASIC die to form a respective acoustic-electric transducer module. Methods of manufacture are also provided.

An acoustic array comprising a plurality of nodes attached to two or more lines. Some or all of the nodes include an emitting transducer and a receiving hydrophone, and the balance include only a receiving hydrophone. Each emitting transducer has associated electronics comprising a high fidelity amplifier and a stored waveform input to the operational amplifier to drive the amplifier, the output of the amplifier exciting the transducer to emit a chirp having a hyperbolic frequency modulated (HMM) waveform. The frequency spectrum of the HEM chirp lies well below the resonant frequency of the transducer. The chirp emitted by a transducer in the node is received and processed by hydrophones in other nodes with a high fidelity representation of the chirp in a cross-correlation operation. Detected chirps are used to determine a range between the emitting and receiving nodes and a shape measurement of the array.

The invention relates to a subaqueous multi-cable positioning system and a method thereof. The system comprises a data collection card, a main control machine and a plurality of dragging cables, wherein the data collection card and the main control machine are positioned on a water surface cable dragging ship, and the dragging cables are dragged by the cable dragging ship. Array elements comprising an acoustic energy transducer, a bathometer and a compass and a data transmission system comprising a data transmission packet are arranged in the dragging cables. The main control machine transmitsa positioning command to each array element, the array elements measure the required positioning information, and the main control machine resolves each section of concrete position of the dragging cables. The invention adopts the hydroacoustic positioning of an optimized acoustic array and combines a GPS drogue, the compass and the bathometer to position a plurality of cables. The method comprises the following steps: firstly, determining the geodetic coordinates of the front end and the back end of each dragging cable by a GPS; measuring the depth information of each section of the draggingcables by the bathometer, resolving the transverse and longitudinal coordinates of each section on the dragging cables relative to the navigation direction of the dragging ship by acoustic positioning primarily and retaining the value of the transverse coordinates; and recalculating the longitudinal coordinates of each section on the dragging cables by the value of the transverse coordinates obtained by compass data and acoustic positioning.

The invention relates to a method for using a regular acoustic array and a single camera to obtain images of a static sound source sound field, which belongs to the noise analysis and control technical field. At first, a microphone array and a camera are arranged; the microphone array obtains a sound pressure signal of a measured sound source, and the camera obtains an image of the measured sound source; the sound pressure signal is subject to the beam forming treatment to obtain a sound field feature function distribution map of the measured sound source, and the sound field feature function distribution map and the image of the measured sound source are superimposed in a space coordinate. The method makes the position analysis of the static sound source simpler and more intuitive, and provides a more accurate evidence for further noise-reducing work.

An improvement to the feederhouse on an agricultural combine. The invention includes a stone detection and ejection system on the feederhouse of an agricultural combine and an acoustic array positioned beneath the front drum and having an acoustic sensor and sounding plate. The sounding plate is generally parallel to the feederhouse floor and includes interruptions configured upon its surface to ensure that a stone or other hard object, sliding over its surface, or a flow of crop material carrying a stone, excites the plate to a sufficient magnitude detectable by an acoustic sensor.

A method for detecting the presence of particles, such as sand, flowing within a fluid in a conduit is disclosed. At least two optical sensors measure pressure variations propagating through the fluid. These pressure variations are caused by acoustic noise generated by typical background noises of the well production environment and from sand particles flowing within the fluid. If the acoustics are sufficiently energetic with respect to other disturbances, the signals provided by the sensors will form an acoustic ridge on a kω plot, where each data point represents the power of the acoustic wave corresponding to that particular wave number and temporal frequency. A sand metric then compares the average power of the data points forming the acoustic ridge to the average power of the data points falling outside of the acoustic ridge. The result of this comparison allows one to determine whether particles are present within the fluid. Furthermore, the present invention can also determine whether the generated acoustic noise is occurring upstream or downstream of the sensors, thus giving an indication of the location of the particles in the fluid relative to the sensors.

A telemetry system includes a plurality of acoustic sensors for receiving acoustic information and generating analog signals based on the received acoustic information. A first plurality of subsystems is coupled to at least a subset of the plurality of acoustic sensors. The first plurality of subsystems is configured to receive the analog signals from the acoustic sensors and generate digital values based on the received analog signals. The system includes a first optical splitter. A first optical transmitter transmits a first set of optical pulses to the first optical splitter. The first optical splitter is configured to transmit the first set of optical pulses to each subsystem in the first plurality of subsystems. Each subsystem in the first plurality of subsystems is configured to modulate the first set of optical pulses based on the generated digital values and thereby generate a modulated optical pulse stream. A first optical combiner receives and combines the modulated optical pulse stream from each subsystem in the first plurality of subsystems, thereby generating a combined modulated optical pulse stream. A first optical receiver receives the combined modulated optical pulse stream from the first optical combiner. The first optical receiver is configured to generate electrical signals based on the received combined modulated optical pulse stream.

A matched-field based sonar system and method of use that supports real-time, three-dimensional acoustic source localization using a mobile, horizontal array. The system receives and processes acoustic array, non-acoustic array, and own-ship navigational data in the matched-field process (MFP). Driven by own-ship and array status, a global bathymetry database and an acoustic environmental model are used to generate replicas for the MFP. If a three-dimensional tracker is assigned, then the tracker will steer the search region to maintain contact on the target of interest. Displays are provided to the user including tracker displays (which provide tracker information), MFP ambiguity surface displays (which support contact localization), and non-acoustic and navigational displays. A control interface allows a user to control the search region in bearing, range, depth, and frequency; assign the three-dimensional tracker function; and control display processing.

A multi-channel acoustic measurement device, which includes a plurality of acoustic detectors (3) and dual temperature control (1, 2). The device employs piezoelectric crystal (21) as the sensing material in the detectors and has an appropriate driving device (40) connected to the detectors for oscillating the piezoelectric crystals. The device may also include a user interface. Also disclosed is a method of measuring in label-free mode at least one property of a plurality of samples in parallel using a plurality of acoustic detectors (3) and dual temperature control (1, 2).

The invention discloses a sound identification method based on a cross acoustic array broadband wave beam formation. The sound identification method comprises steps of using a cross acoustic array to align with a needed direction to collect acoustic signals, 2, performing pre-processing on collected sound, 3, performing DFT (discrete Fourier transform) on processed data of each frame, performing frequency band extraction according to a needed frequency band, 4, performing LSMI-MVDR wave beam formation on the needed direction by the extracted frequency band, 5, performing inverse DFT on a frequency domain signal after the wave beam is formed, 6, performing frame overlapping synthesis according to the framing principle to output a signal, and 7, performing characteristic extraction and classification study and identification. The sound identification method based on cross acoustic array broadband wave beam formation can improve a signal-to-noise ratio of the signal received in an expected direction, inhibits interference signals of other directions, can be applied to a signal processing process of an acoustic identification system and can effectively improve an identification rate and reliability of the identification system on the identification object.

The invention provides a combined acoustic array for a multi-beam synthetic aperture sonar. The combined acoustic array mainly comprises a long linear transmitting transducer, an azimuth direction receiving linear array and a distance direction receiving linear array, wherein the receiving linear arrays consist of a group of uniformly spaced sensors; the azimuth direction receiving linear array and the distance direction receiving linear array are vertical to each other; the long linear transmitting transducer is vertical to the distance direction receiving linear array; and the distance direction receiving linear array is used for forming multi-beams, forming beams at a plurality of angles by processing beam forming of echo signals thereof, and removing azimuth ambiguity caused by space undersampling by performing synthetic aperture treatment on the echo signal of each array element of the azimuth direction receiving array under the conditions of definite pulse transmitting frequency and the increasing navigation speed of a mother ship. The azimuth ambiguity caused by the space undersampling is removed by the azimuth direction receiving linear array so as to increase the surveying and mapping speed of the multi-beam synthetic aperture sonar; and the combined acoustic array has a simple process and low cost.

A method waveform processing technique utilizing signal coherence of the array data for processing signals having poor signal-to-noise ratio. Raw waveform data is first transformed into f-k (frequency-wavenumber) domain. A coherence function is then calculated and convolved with the data in the f-k domain, which effectively suppresses non-coherent signals in the data. For the remaining coherent data, the unwanted part is muted and the wanted part is retained and inverse-transformed to yield the coherence-filtered array waveform data. After this processing, small signals that are hidden in the original data are extracted with much enhanced coherence. Subsequent processing of the data yields reliable information about formation acoustic property.

A method of fabricating a plurality of ultrasound transducer assemblies is provided. The method includes applying one or more layers of patternable material to at least a portion of a surface of a wafer comprising a number of die. The method further includes patterning the patternable material to define a plurality of openings, where each of the openings is aligned with a respective one of the die, disposing ultrasound acoustic arrays in respective ones of the openings, coupling the ultrasound acoustic arrays to the respective die to form the respective ultrasound transducer assemblies, and separating the ultrasound transducer assemblies to form individual ultrasound transducer assemblies.