US2015226843A1PendingUtilityA1
Calculation of depth and speed of objects with coded pulses based on speed changes of ultrasound/sound
Est. expiryJul 15, 2031(~5 yrs left)· nominal 20-yr term from priority
G01S 7/523G01S 15/8986G01S 15/02G01S 15/58
50
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Claims
Abstract
During transmission, a speed of ultrasound pulses gradually reduces due to acoustic impedance. A length and a density and a sound speed of the ultrasound pulses decide their average speed in the transmitting medium, frequencies, sound intensity and detecting depth. Time of flight (TOF) and TOF shift can be used to calculate the depth and moving speed of detecting objects. Calculating a speed of moving objects by simultaneously detecting TOFs at one detecting site from two separated piezoelectric (PZT) elements improves the testing results with accuracy, simplification and reproducibility. Coding ultrasound pulses to obtained the TOF and the TOF shift can be used to simultaneously calculate the depth and the moving speed of the objects, which also avoids a problem of an aliasing for highly moving speed of the objects. Coding ultrasound pulses also improves the quality of the imaging.
Claims
exact text as granted — not AI-modifiedWhat is claimed is:
1 . A method for calculating a detecting depth as speed reduction of ultrasound pulses during a transmission, the method comprising:
calculating a speed reducing coefficient of the ultrasound pulses in a transmitting medium, wherein the speed reducing coefficient of the ultrasound pulses is directly proportional to the density of the transmitting medium and the sound speed in the PZT elements, and inversely proportional to a density and a thickness of the PZT elements, which comprising:
Speed
reducing
coefficient
=
medium
density
×
sound
speeding
in
PZT
PZT
density
×
PZT
thickness
obtaining an average speed (V avg ) of the ultrasound pulses in the transmitting medium, wherein the average speed of the ultrasound pulses is a difference between the maximal speed (V m ) of the ultrasound pulses in the transmitting medium with a multiplication result of the speed reducing coefficient and the maximal speed of the ultrasound pulses in the transmitting medium, which comprising:
V avg =V m ×(1 −speed reducing coefficient); and
determining a detecting depth, wherein the detecting depth is a half multiplication value of the average speed and a traveling time of the ultrasound pulses in the transmitting medium.
2 . A method of claim 1 , further comprising increasing a intensity of the ultrasound pulses by increasing one or more of a thickness of the PZT elements and a density of the PZT elements and a sound speed in the PZT elements, wherein the thickness of the PZT elements decides a length of the ultrasound pulses, and the density of the PZT elements decides a density of the ultrasound pulses, and the sound speed in the PZT elements decides the maximal speed of the ultrasound pulses in the transmitting medium, a multiplication value of the length of the ultrasound pulses and the density of the ultrasound pulses and the speed of the sound pulses decides the intensity of the ultrasound pulses, which comprising:
Sound intensity(kg/MS)=sound length(M)×sound density(Kg/M 3 )×sound speed(M/S)
M=meter; Kg=kilogram; S=second.
3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising increasing the intensity of the ultrasound pulses to increase a detecting depth of the ultrasound pulses in the transmitting medium.
4 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising increasing detecting depth for high frequency ultrasound by increasing the density of the PZT elements and the sound speed in the PZT elements wherein increasing the sound speed in the PZT elements and the density of the PZT increases the frequency of the ultrasound pulses as well as their intensity.
5 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising improving axial resolution by decreasing the length of the ultrasound pulses wherein the thickness of the PZT elements decides the length of the ultrasound pulses as well as limits the highest frequency a ultrasound system can reach.
6 . A method of using time of flight (TOF) shift of the ultrasound pulses to calculate a speed of moving objects in a continuous wave, a pulsed wave and a color ultrasound, the method comprising:
setting a baseline wherein the baseline is a span of traveling time of the ultrasound pulses reflected from motionless objects at the same depth as from the moving objects, and a TOF shift equals to zero at the baseline; obtaining a detected TOF wherein the detected TOF is a traveling time that a ultrasound system interprets from the reflected ultrasound pulses, the detected TOF is related to the speed of the moving objects and the angle of the moving objects with a ultrasound beam, and the intensity of the ultrasound pulses; calculating the TOF shift wherein the TOF shift is a time difference between the baseline and the detected TOF; and calculating the speed of the moving objects (V objects ) based on an equation of TOF shift including the angle θ of the ultrasound beam made with the moving objects, an average speed (V avg ) of the ultrasound pulses in the transmitting medium, the transducer frequency (f), wherein the TOF shift is the TOF shift for the continuous wave, the pulsed wave and the color ultrasound, the equation of the TOF shift is:
TOF
shift
=
2
×
V
objects
×
f
×
cos
(
θ
)
V
avg
7 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising calculating the speed of the moving objects by simultaneously detecting TOF shifts at one site from two separated PZT elements, wherein the speed of the moving objects can be calculated based on the values of the TOF shifts, the transducer frequency, the angle μ between two ultrasound beams from the PZT elements and the average speed of the ultrasound pulses in the transmitting medium as the following equation:
V
objects
=
V
avg
×
(
TOF
shiftA
)
2
-
2
×
TOF
shiftA
×
TOF
shiftB
×
cos
(
μ
)
+
(
TOF
shiftB
)
2
2
×
f
×
sin
(
μ
)
8 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising changing the intensity and the angle of the ultrasound pulses to regulate the speed of the reflected ultrasound pulses wherein the changes of the speed of the reflected ultrasound pulses alter the TOF and the TOF shift of the ultrasound pulses.
9 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising a method of calculating the speed of the moving objects for the continuous wave ultrasound comprising:
setting a time of a emitted period as the baseline wherein the time of the emitted period is the time between previously and following emitted pulses; obtaining a time of a reflected period as the detected TOF wherein the time of the reflected period is the time between previously and following reflected ultrasound pulses; calculating a TOF shift wherein the TOF shift is a difference between the time of the emitted period and the time of the reflected period; and using the TOF shift to calculate the speed of the moving objects based on the equation of TOF shift.
10 . The method of claim 6 further comprising a method of calculating the speed of the moving objects for the pulsed wave and the color ultrasound comprising:
setting a time of a calculated TOF as the baseline wherein the calculated TOF is the time that ultrasound system calculates according to a distance between a transducer and a gate and the average speed of the ultrasound pulses in the transmitting medium;
obtaining the detected TOF wherein the detected TOF is the time that ultrasound system interprets from ultrasound pulses traveling between the transducer and the gate, before an aliasing the detected TOF is an actual TOF, and the actual TOF is a truly traveling time of the ultrasound pulses;
calculating a TOF shift wherein the TOF shift is a difference between the value of the calculated TOF and the value of the detected TOF; and
using the TOF shift to calculate the speed of the moving objects based on the equation of TOF shift.
11 . The method of claim 10 further comprising a method to correctly calculate the speed of the moving objects after the aliasing for the pulsed wave and the color ultrasound comprising:
identifying an aliasing TOF, wherein as the actual TOF excesses its aliasing limit, the detected TOF is misinterpreted by ultrasound system to generate the aliasing TOF, the aliasing TOF shift is on opposite site of the baseline and disrupts continuity of a profile of the TOF shift, and a tip of a profile of the aliasing TOF shift is toward the baseline;
obtaining a corrected TOF shift by rectifying the aliasing TOF shift to correct registration of the reflected ultrasound pulses after the actual TOF exceeds the aliasing limit, the tip of the profile of corrected TOF shift is away from the baseline, and the corrected TOF shift reconstructs the continuation of the profile of the TOF shift; and
using the corrected TOF shift to calculate the speed of the moving objects based on an equation of corrected TOF shift:
Corrected
TOF
shift
=
2
×
V
objects
×
f
×
cos
(
θ
)
V
avg
12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein for forward moving objects, the speed of the moving objects is correctly calculated after the aliasing by:
identifying the aliasing for the forward moving objects wherein the aliasing limit for the actual TOF is less than a value of half calculated TOF; after the actual TOF excesses the aliasing limit, the ultrasound system misinterprets the detected TOF by adding a value of one calculated TOF to a value of the actual TOF to form an aliasing TOF, the value of the aliasing TOF is greater than the value of the baseline and its TOF shift is located on an opposite site of the baseline, and the aliasing TOF shift disrupts the continuation of the profile of the TOF shift, and the tip of the profile of the aliasing TOF shift is toward the baseline; obtaining the corrected TOF shift by subtracting a value of the aliasing TOF shift from a value of the calculated TOF to reestablish the continuation of the profile of the TOF shift; and using the corrected TOF shift to calculate the speed of the forward moving objects based on the equation of corrected TOF shift.
13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein for reversely moving objects, the speed of the moving objects is correctly calculated after the aliasing by:
identifying the aliasing for the reversely moving objects wherein the aliasing limit for the actual TOF is greater than the value of one and half calculated TOF; after the actual TOF excesses the aliasing limit, the ultrasound system misinterprets the detected TOF by subtracting a value of one calculated TOF from a value of the actual TOF to form an aliasing TOF; the value of the aliasing TOF is smaller than the value of the baseline and the aliasing TOF shift is located on the opposite site of the baseline, and the aliasing TOF shift disrupts the continuation of the profile of the TOF shift, and the tip of the profile of the aliasing TOF shift is toward the baseline; obtaining the corrected TOF shift by subtracting a value of the calculated TOF shift from a value of the aliasing TOF shift to reestablish the continuation of the profile of the TOF shift; and using the corrected TOF shift to calculate the speed of the reversely moving objects based on the equation of corrected TOF shift.
14 . The method of claim 10 further comprising a method of avoiding the aliasing by modifying the computer program in the ultrasound system to prevent adding or subtracting a value of a calculated TOF from the detected TOF after the actual TOF excesses its aliasing limit.
15 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising a method of differentiating a color of the aliasing from a color of turbulent flows and rectifying the color of the aliasing for the color ultrasound comprising:
identifying the aliasing TOF shift for the color of the aliasing wherein from the color of the aliasing to a edge of another color, the value of the TOF shift is gradually increased until close to the value of half calculated TOF, and the profile of the aliasing TOF shift is more close to the value of half calculated TOF, and the tip of the profile of the aliasing TOF shift is toward the baseline; a color of no-aliasing represents a flow before its actual TOF excesses the aliasing limit, the profile of the no-aliasing TOF shift is more closer to the baseline, and the tip of the no-aliasing TOF shift is away from the baseline; identifying the TOF shift for the color of turbulent flows wherein from one color to a edge of another color, the value of the TOF shift is gradually decreased until close to zero, the tip of the profile of the TOF shift for the color of turbulent flows is away from the baseline; and rectifying the color of the aliasing wherein the aliasing TOF shift is corrected according to the direction of the no-aliasing flow, and the color of the aliasing is corrected based on the value of the corrected TOF shift.
16 . A method of calculation of the detecting depth and the moving speed of objects with coding ultrasound pulses comprising:
a transducer contains one pair or more of emitting PZT elements and receiving PZT elements, assigning different numbers of the ultrasound pulses within each pulse duration to form different pulse characters, a resting period is a time between each adjacent pulse duration; the emitting PZT elements emit specifically coded pulse characters, which endow information of a emitting time for each pulse character, and the resting period for the emitted ultrasound pulses keeps identical; the receiving PZT elements receive reflected ultrasound pulses, and decode received pulse characters to compare with the emitted codes of the pulse characters, TOF is obtained from a time between the emitted pulse character and the same reflected pulse character, and TOF shift is obtained from a time difference between the emitted resting period and the correspondingly received resting period; identifying motionless objects from the reflected ultrasound pulses with identical value of the TOF and zero value of the TOF shift, therein the depth of the motionless objects is calculated from the TOF; and identifying moving objects from the reflected ultrasound pulses with variable values of the TOF and the TOF shift, therein the speed of the moving objects is calculated with the equation of TOF shift, the depth of the moving objects is a half multiplication value of the sum of the TOF and the TOF shift with the average speed of ultrasound in the transmitting medium, for forward moving objects, the TOF shift is positive value, and for reversely moving objects, the TOF shift is negative value, the equation of calculating the depth of the moving objects comprising:
depth of moving objects= V avg .×(TOF+TOF shift)/2
17 . The method of claim 16 further comprising improving noise and artifacts with coding ultrasound pulses wherein by comparing the received codes of the pulse characters with the emitted codes of the pulse characters, the reflections that have the identical received codes of the pulse characters with the emitted codes of the pulse characters will be registered to an area that belongs to the PZT element that emits the codes of the pulse characters.
18 . A method of claim 1 , further comprising applications in detecting a depth or a distance of objects with sound pulses of any frequencies.
19 . A method of claim 6 , further comprising applications in calculating a speed of moving objects with sound pulses of any frequencies.
20 . A method of claim 16 , further comprising applications in detecting depth and distance and moving speed of objects with coded sound pulses with sound pulses of any frequencies.Join the waitlist — get patent alerts
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