Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 15
Claim 1
Independent Claim
90 words
An apparatus utilizing the profile of a travelled power spectrum of a received signal wave of pulses transmitted through or reflected in an object, corresponding to an originally incident pulse having a predetermined power spectrum, to measure the characteristics of said object, said apparatus comprising: processing means for reducing the scalloping of the travelled power spectrum of said received signal wave; recovery means for deriving the travelled power spectrum with the reduced scalloping; and extracting means for extracting information on the characteristics of said object from the derived power spectrum.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
90 words
An apparatus utilizing the profile of a travelled power spectrum of a received signal wave of pulses transmitted through or reflected in an object, corresponding to an originally incident pulse having a predetermined power spectrum, to measure the characteristics of said object, said apparatus comprising: processing means for reducing the scalloping of the travelled power spectrum of said received signal wave; recovery means for deriving the travelled power spectrum with the reduced scalloping; and extracting means for extracting information on the characteristics of said object from the derived power spectrum.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
51 words
The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said processing means includes: means for deriving a cepstrum of said received signal wave; filtering means for separating line-like rapidly varying components of said cepstrum from slowly varying components of said cepstrum; and inverse transformation means for deriving a power spectrum for said filtered cepstrum.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
37 words
The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said processing means includes means for deriving a cepstrum of said received signal wave, a highpass filter for rejecting slowly varying cepstrum components and for passing line-like rapidly varying cepstrum components.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
22 words
The apparatus of claim 3, wherein said filtering means comprises a non-linear lowpass filter for rejecting the line-like rapidly varying cepstrum components.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
39 words
The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said recovery means comprises means for obtaining distortion indices of said derived power spectrum after liftering and for correcting the respective distortion of said derived power spectrum after liftering based on said indices.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
38 words
An apparatus according to claim 5, said filtering means comprising means for setting a cutoff quefrency τ c within plus and minus 50% of the reciprocal of twice the band-width of the spectrum of said originally incident pulse.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
24 words
An apparatus according to claim 1, comprising means for providing said originally incident pulse with one of a Gaussian and quasi-Gaussian shaped power spectrum.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
66 words
An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: means for transmitting said originally incident pulse with a non-Gaussian power spectrum; means for approximating the received signal corresponding to said non-Gaussian spectrum with a product of a Gaussian distribution and a polynomial of the nth power of frequency; and means for processing said Gaussian distribution as if it were the whole spectrum of said originally incident pulse.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
55 words
An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said derived power spectrum has a distortion, and said recovery means further comprises means for estimating respective distortion indices of said derived power spectrum and for estimating the center frequency of a respective undistorted Gaussian spectrum, from said derived power spectrum with the aid of said distortion indices.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
40 words
An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said recovery means further comprises: means for calculating a plurality of monments of respective orders from said derived power spectrum; and means for calculating distortion indices of said derived spectrum using said moments.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
197 words
An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said moments include the moments M 0 , M 1 , M 2 and M 3 of zeroth, first, second and third order, respectively, said derived power spectrum is distorted, and said recovery means comprises means for correcting the distortion of said derived power spectrum by providing a correction from the following equations ##EQU24## using a table prepared to provide f a -f zo according to the first equation above as a function of M 2 /M 0 and M 3 /M 0 as given by the second and third equations above, respectively, said table being prepared by the calculation of f a -f z0 , M 2 /M 0 , M 3 /M 0 for respective combinations of p, q and associated calculated results, and by performing the subtraction f z0 =f a -(f a -f z .sbsb.0) to obtain f z0 , where f a is the center frequency of the distorted spectrum, f z .sbsb.0 is the downshift of the center frequency of the distorted spectrum, σ is the variance of the Gaussian component of the originally incident power spectrum, and p and q are distortion indices.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
42 words
An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: means for providing said signal wave; imaging means for imaging a characteristic of a biological tissue in said object; and display means for displaying an image of said characteristic with a B mode image.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
21 words
The apparatus of claim 12, said characteristic being selected from an attenuation coefficient, a reflection coefficient and a measure of heterogeneity.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
26 words
The apparatus of claim 10, said distortion indices being selected from the center frequency, the band-width, the skew, and correction factors of said derived power spectrum.