US4052888A
Expired / Lapsed
US
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Apparatus for the ultrasonic examination of bodies having non-planar surfaces
Assignee: Sonicaid Ltd
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Filing: 1976-07-08
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Granted: 1977-10-11
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Expires: 1996-07-08
Abstract
Abstract The invention relates to apparatus for generating electrical signals representing the instantaneous position and attitude of an object with reference to a coordinate system. A pair of wave transmitters are mounted and controlled so that they follow any movement of the object and are arranged to transmit ultrasonic pulses to three planar transducers arranged to convert the received energy into signals representative of the instantaneous position and attitude of the two transmitters relative to the three transducers. The invention is particularly applicable to apparatus for the ultrasonic examination of bodies having non-planar surfaces and in this case the object referred to is the ultrasonic probe designed to transmit wave energy into the body. The probe may be mounted with one or two degrees of rotational freedom on a boom which is itself mounted with at least two degrees of rotational freedom on a vertical column. The echoes received from the body may be used to modulate the beam of a cathode-ray tube display system, while the electrical signals from the three transducers are used to deflect the cathode-ray beam. The signals are passed through a display selection system and possibly through one or more coordinate transformation networks. In the simplest case, the display selection system selects the signals relating to two axes and displays these signals as viewed along the third axis of the coordinate system.
Inventors
- 👤 Thomas Graham Brown
- 👤 Damir Josip Miroslav Skrgatic
- 👤 Graeme William Younger
- 👤 John Cook Fortune
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-25 09:57
CPC Classifications
G; G10; G10K; G10K11/00; G10K11/18; G10K11/26; G10K11/35; G10K11/352; A; A61; A61B; A61B8/00; A61B8/42; A61B8/4209; A61B8/4218; G01; G01S; G01S15/00; G01S15/88; G01S15/89; G01S15/8906; G01S15/8934; G01S15/8936
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 29
Claim 1
Independent Claim
133 words
Apparatus for the ultrasonic examination of bodies having non-planar surfaces, including a longitudinally extending probe which directs a beam of ultrasonic pulses into the body and receives reflected pulses from the body, wherein the probe is mounted on a boom so that it is pivotable about first and second mutually perpendicular axes fixed in the boom, said boom being mounted on a column so that it is pivotable about a third axis perpendicular to the axis of the boom and a fourth axis perpendicular to said third axis, said third and fourth axes being fixed in the column, wherein means are provided to produce electrical signals defining the instantaneous position of a point on the longitudinal axis of the probe and the instantaneous attitude of said axis with reference to a coordinate system.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
133 words
Apparatus for the ultrasonic examination of bodies having non-planar surfaces, including a longitudinally extending probe which directs a beam of ultrasonic pulses into the body and receives reflected pulses from the body, wherein the probe is mounted on a boom so that it is pivotable about first and second mutually perpendicular axes fixed in the boom, said boom being mounted on a column so that it is pivotable about a third axis perpendicular to the axis of the boom and a fourth axis perpendicular to said third axis, said third and fourth axes being fixed in the column, wherein means are provided to produce electrical signals defining the instantaneous position of a point on the longitudinal axis of the probe and the instantaneous attitude of said axis with reference to a coordinate system.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
22 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the boom is mounted so that it has limited rotational freedom about its own axis.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
70 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein three electrical signals are produced, each in the form of a ramp, the initial level of which is indicative of the instantaneous position of said point in the probe relative to one axis of a system of three orthogonal axes and the slope of which is indicative of a component of the velocity of the beam along the longitudinal axis of the probe.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
94 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, including first and second wave transmitters mounted and controlled so that the instantaneous position of the first wave transmitter relative to a plurality of receivers corresponds to the instantaneous position of said point in the probe and so that the line joining the centres of the first and second wave transmitters is oriented to correspond to the attitude of the axis of the probe relative to said coordinate system, said receivers being arranged to receive wave energy from said transmitters and convert said energy into said electrical signals.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
98 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein said wave transmitters are arranged to transmit ultrasonic pulses and said receivers are ultrasonic transducers, wherein there are three transducers, each having a plane receiving surface, said three surfaces being mutually perpendicular and thus defining a system of orthogonal axes, and wherein the electrical signals represent the time taken for ultrasonic pulses to travel from the first wave transmitter to each of the three transducers and also represent the differences in the times taken for the ultrasonic energy to travel from the two wave transmitters to ech of the three transducers.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
41 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein the two wave transmitters are mounted and controlled so that they follow the angular movements of the probe relative to the boom and also follow the movements of the boom relative to the column.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
25 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein said column has limited freedom of translational movement along an axis perpendicular to the axis of the column.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
42 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein the receiving surface of one of the transducers is perpendicular to the axis along which the column is movable, and wherein means are provided to cause this transducer to copy the movement of the column.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
64 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the angular movements of the line joining the two wave transmitters are equal to the angular movements of the probe relative to the boom, but the translational movements of the two transmitters produced by angular movement of the boom relative to the column are proportional to the corresponding translational movements of the probe on a reduced scale.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
141 words
Apparatus for the ultrasonic examination of bodies having non-planar surfaces, including a longitudinally extending probe which directs a beam of ultrasonic pulses into the body and receives reflected pulses from the body, wherein the probe is mounted on a boom so that it is pivotable about at least one axis fixed in the boom, said boom being mounted on a column so that it has limited rotational freedom about its own axis and is also pivotable about a third axis perpendicular to the axis of the boom and a fourth axis perpendicular to said third axis, said third and fourth axes being fixed in the column, wherein means are provided to produce electrical signals defining the instantaneous position of a point on the longitudinal axis of the probe and the instantaneous attitude of said axis with reference to a coordinate system.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
141 words
Apparatus for the ultrasonic examination of bodies having non-planar surfaces, including a longitudinally extending probe which directs a beam of ultrasonic pulses into the body and receives reflected pulses from the body, wherein the probe is mounted on a boom so that it is pivotable about at least one axis fixed in the boom, said boom being mounted on a column so that it has limited rotational freedom about its own axis and is also pivotable about a third axis perpendicular to the axis of the boom and a fourth axis perpendicular to said third axis, said third and fourth axes being fixed in the column, wherein means are provided to produce electrical signals defining the instantaneous position of a point on the longitudinal axis of the probe and the instantaneous attitude of said axis with reference to a coordinate system.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
96 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 10, wherein the two wave transmitters are mounted in a tank containing an acoustically transmissive fluid, said transmitters being in the form of beads designed to produce spherical acoustic wave trains, and wherein each of the transducers, which are also mounted in the tank, consists of a flat plate, the overall dimensions of the plates being such that any perpendicular erected through either bead on to the plane of one of the transducer surfaces always lies within the boundary of the respective plate within the limits of motion of the beads.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
23 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein each of the transducers consists of a co-planar mosaic of flat plates electrically connected in series.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
22 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 10, wherein the wave transmitters are mounted on wands carried on a rearward continuation of the boom.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
70 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein the wands carrying the two beads at their free ends project from a shaft which is rotatable in an angle member, which is itself rotatable about an axis which intersects the axis of the shaft at right angles thereto, and wherein the rotational movements of the probe about the first and second axes are transmitted to the shaft and the rotatable member respectively.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
72 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 10, wherein the electrical signals are applied to three individual time-base units controlled by a logic system, wherein the outputs of the three time-base units are passed through a display selection system to the deflector plates of a display system, which is also controlled by further electrical signals derived from echoes received from the body as the result of reflection of the ultrasonic pulses from the probe.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
28 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 15, wherein the outputs of the three time-base units are passed to the display selection system through at least one coordinate transformation network.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
82 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 15, wherein each of said time-base units includes a digital counter which is stepped up from the instant when each pulse is transmitted by the first of said wave transmitters and stopped when the said pulse is received by a respective one of said receivers, and which is stepped down from the instant when each pulse is transmitted by the second of said wave transmitters and stopped when the said pulse is received by the said receiver.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
109 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 17, wherein the number registered by the said counter after it has been stepped up is stored in a first shift register and the number registered by said counter after it has been stepped down is stored in a second shift register, wherein the numbers stored in said first and second shift registers are converted to analog signals in first and second digital-to-analog converters, wherein the output of said second digital-to-analog converter controls the slope of a ramp signal produced by an integrator, and wherein the output of the first digital-to-analog converter is added to the output of said integrator in a summing amplifier.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
42 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 18, wherein an ultrasonic pulse is transmitted from said probe into said body after each pulse has been transmitted by said first wave transmitter and also after each pulse has been transmitted by said second wave transmitter.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
34 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 19, wherein the ramp signal from said integrator is held at zero by a reset signal from said logic circuit until each ultrasonic pulse is transmitted into said body.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
70 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 10, wherein three electrical signals are produced, each in the form of a ramp, the initial level of which is indicative of the instantaneous position of said point in the probe relative to one axis of a system of three orthogonal axes and the slope of which is indicative of a component of the velocity of the beam along the longitudinal axis of the probe.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
94 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 10 including first and second wave transmitters mounted and controlled so that the instantaneous position of the first wave transmitter relative to a plurality of receivers corresponds to the instantaneous position of said point in the probe and so that the line joining the centers of the first and second wave transmitters is oriented to correspond to the attitude of the axis of the probe relative to said coordinate system, said receivers being arranged to receive wave energy from said transmitters and convert said energy into said electrical signals.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
98 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 22 wherein said wave transmitters are arranged to transmit ultrasonic pulses and said receivers are ultrasonic transducers, wherein there are three transducers, each having a plane receiving surface, said three surfaces being mutually perpendicular and thus defining a system of orthogonal axes, and wherein the electrical signals represent the time taken for ultrasonic pulses to travel from the first wave transmitter to each of the three transducers and also represent the differences in the times taken for the ultrasonic energy to travel from the two wave transmitters to each of the three transducers.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
41 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 23 wherein the two wave transmitters are mounted and controlled so that they follow the angular movements of the probe relative to the boom and also follow the movements of the boom relative to the column.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
25 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 24 wherein said column has limited freedom of translational movement along an axis perpendicular to the axis of the column.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
42 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 25 wherein the receiving surface of one of the transducers is perpendicular to the axis along which the column is movable, and wherein means are provided to cause this transducer to copy the movement of the column.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
64 words
Apparatus as claimed in claim 22 wherein the angular movements of the line joining the two wave transmitters are equal to the angular movements of the probe relative to the boom, but the translational movements of the two transmitters produced by angular movement of the boom relative to the column are proportional to the corresponding translational movements of the probe on a reduced scale.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 1980-10-10 | 1981-04-11 | 1981-10-11 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 1984-10-10 | 1985-04-11 | 1985-10-11 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 1988-10-10 | 1989-04-11 | 1989-10-11 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |