Ultrasonic imaging system incorporating computer-aided coherent processing

Abstract

An ultrasonic imaging system incorporating two-dimensional coherent data processing and computer image processing has been built and tested. The system consists of two parts: data acquisition, and computer processing and display. The data acquisition portion coherently detects both the amplitude and phase of an ultrasonic diffraction pattern emitted by or reflected from an object. This diffraction pattern is then quantized and entered into the computer memory. The computer portion of the system processes the data and displays the resulting image on a high-resolution computer-controlled graphics terminal. The presence of both amplitude and phase information as the input to the processing portion of the system offers advantages in that coherent processing techniques can be used to process the data as well as incoherent techniques. This processing capability allows one to perform such operations as matched filtering, removal of the receiving transducer directivity pattern, edge enhancement, etc. Application of the system to ultrasonic imaging, acoustic transducer calibration, and studies of scalar wave propagation and phenomena will be given.