The present invention allows even
soft tissue such as
body tissue having a hierarchic structure of
skin, fat,
muscle and bone, etc., to be estimated and allows
estimation only through a short-time pressing operation to thereby reduce damages to the
soft tissue. The present invention is constructed of an ultrasonic probe for transmitting / receiving an ultrasonic
signal, a target deformation amount calculation section for calculating an amount of deformation of a target shape from a time variation of data received from the ultrasonic probe, a movement mechanism for moving the ultrasonic probe, a probe control section for controlling the probe, a
position sensor for measuring the position of the probe, a
force sensor for measuring a force applied to the probe section, a
viscoelasticity estimation section for estimating
viscoelasticity of the target based on values obtained from the
position sensor,
force sensor, target deformation amount calculation section and a
viscoelasticity display section for presenting the estimated viscoelasticity to the user.