JPH02232039A - Device for observing audible tone of reflected wave reception - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To hear a tone by generating the sound of a prescribed acoustic wave in an audible frequency area converted corresponding to a reflected wave, and converting the fine change of the reflected wave from an observed area into the tone. CONSTITUTION:When an ultrasonic wave is transmitted from a probe 10 to a reagent 5, the reflected wave from the specified area in the diseased part of the reagent is received by the probe 10. The received reflected wave is inputted to a logarithm characteristic amplifying detector 12, amplified to a prescribed level and further converted into a digital signal at real time by the sampling frequency of several MHz, for example, in an A/D converter 14. Thus, the reflected wave is stored in a storage circuit 16 as a reflected wave digital signal 16a. In a low-speed reading circuit 18, reading is executed by several kHz to the several MHz at the time of writing at a low speed in the measure of the 1/1000 speed at the time of storing. Thus, the reflected wave digital signal 16a can be converted into the audible frequency area, for example, the sound frequency band of several tens Hz - several kHz. A sound frequency signal 20a is amplified to a low frequency by a sound amplifier 22 and the sound is generated by a speaker 24 of a headphone, etc.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a reflected wave receiving hearing observation device, particularly an ultrasonic diagnostic device that transmits and receives ultrasound waves to and from a subject to obtain a diagnostic image of an affected area, or a device that moves electromagnetic waves. The present invention relates to a reflected wave receiving, listening and observing device that observes a subject or a moving body using a radar observation device that transmits and receives waves to and from an object to determine the position, velocity, etc. of the object.

[Prior Art J] In the medical field, ultrasonic diagnostic devices that transmit and receive ultrasonic waves to and from a subject and display reflected waves from the subject as images to observe affected areas are widely used.

That is, this type of ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus converts the received reflected wave into a digital signal, then scans the digital signal at a speed necessary for image display, and displays the signal on a television monitor as a diagnostic image.

Therefore, the diagnostician visually observes the affected area of the subject by looking at the diagnostic image, and makes an appropriate diagnosis for the patient.

In addition to this, stethoscopes are widely used as a device for making diagnoses by listening to sounds, as is well known. Diagnosis using a stethoscope is performed by a diagnostician listening to sounds generated within the subject, such as the heartbeat.

In such a diagnosis using a stethoscope, hearing has a special ability to selectively distinguish sounds, unlike vision.

Therefore, a diagnostician using a stethoscope was able to distinguish subtle changes and differences in sound by hearing, and this enabled him to make appropriate judgments about the situation and make diagnoses.

On the other hand, in the communications field, radar observation equipment can detect targets using electromagnetic waves, and can acquire information about objects.
It is intended for processing and display. In other words, this device transmits and receives electromagnetic waves to receive the reflected waves that hit the target and measure the distance and direction to the target (such as a moving object) based on the round trip time or the speed of the target based on the Doppler effect. It is widely used for weather observation, monitoring of ships and aircraft, and navigation.

This type of radar observation device mainly performs observation by displaying images on a CRT display device. That is, for example, when navigating a ship, a pilot monitors the route and current position by radar observation as necessary, and operates while visually checking the route and current position. Some models have a guard range that indicates the distance or angle range, and an alarm is generated when a target enters the range. There were no examples of this being reproduced in sound.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, according to the above-mentioned conventional ultrasonic diagnostic equipment or radar observation equipment, the reflected waves of sound waves and electromagnetic waves are displayed as observation images, which allows the observer to perform visual confirmation, that is, only visually. diagnosis or observation.

Therefore, in this type of device, observation has not been performed using the auditory sense, which has the ability to selectively distinguish sounds. This means that, for example, the auditory sense can instantaneously distinguish between two musical tones with a semitone difference in one second, but in order to visually distinguish them, Fourier It is necessary to perform analysis, and with the current FFT analysis, it is impossible even if Fourier analysis is performed.

In other words, even if it is impossible to display images of reflected waves from an object and visually analyze subtle changes, the above-mentioned audible sound can be achieved by emitting reflected waves from the same object and listening to them. In some cases, it was possible to analyze and observe subtle changes in abilities.

In addition, with regard to hearing, which is a highly analytical ability possessed by humans, conventional stethoscopes were used to diagnose sounds by listening to the sounds generated by the subject, as mentioned above. It was impossible to diagnose the area to be examined where the generated sound could not be heard.

On the other hand, in radar observation devices, all observations have conventionally been performed by displaying images, and the observer has not been able to make sounds and listen to the sounds.

Purpose of the Invention The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems,
Its purpose is to enable hearing in ultrasonic diagnostic equipment and radar observation equipment by converting subtle changes in the reflected waves from the observation area into sound, and to use the reflected wave receiver listening instrument N1 to observe and analyze objects. It is about providing.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the reflected wave receiving listening observation device of the present invention uses a transducer that transmits and receives sound waves or electromagnetic waves to and from an observation object, so that a specific area of the object is It has a storage means for receiving a reflected wave and storing the reflected wave, and a low-speed reading means for reading out the stored reflected wave at a low speed and converting it into a predetermined sound wave in the audio frequency range. The low-speed reading means is characterized in that a predetermined sound wave in the audio frequency range converted according to the reflected wave is generated.

[Function] With the above configuration, according to the present invention, when a reflected wave of a sound wave or an electromagnetic wave is received from a specific region of an object through wave transmission and reception, the reflected wave is stored in the storage means.

Then, the stored reflected wave is read out at low speed by the low-speed reading means, thereby generating a predetermined sound wave in the audio frequency range converted according to the reflected wave.

Therefore, by listening to this pronunciation, an observer can discern subtle changes in the reflected waves of sound waves or electromagnetic waves.
The observer will be able to analyze changes and properties of objects in that specific observation area.

[Embodiment] Fig. 1 shows a preferred first embodiment of the reflected wave reception hearing observation device according to the present invention, and this Fig. 1 shows the case where it is used in an ultrasonic diagnostic device. It is a block diagram.

The characteristic feature of the present invention is that the reflected waves received from the object are stored and read out at low speed.
The purpose is to generate a predetermined sound wave in the audio frequency range that is converted according to changes in reflected waves.

Next, the configuration of the first embodiment according to the present invention will be described below.

In FIG. 1, a subject 5 represents an organ, such as a heart or a blood vessel. The probe 10 as a transducer is an ultrasonic probe for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves, and the logarithmic characteristic amplification detector 12 logarithmically transforms the reflected wave input and amplifies it to a predetermined level. This is an amplifier that outputs The A/D converter 14 is a converter that converts an analog input signal into a digital output signal, and the storage circuit 16 is a converter that converts an analog input signal into a digital output signal.
It is a memory, such as a RAM, that stores the digital output signal.

The low-speed readout circuit 18 is a circuit for reading out the stored digital output signal at a predetermined low speed,
For example, during reading, the digital signal is read out at a slower speed than the writing speed during storage, and a predetermined sound wave in the audio frequency range corresponding to the reflected wave is obtained. Furthermore, the stored signal is repeatedly played back in order to extend the listening time for several seconds.

Moreover, the bandpass filter 20 is a filter for cutting harmonic components corresponding to the sampling frequency and the Nyquist frequency or higher when the low-speed reading is performed, and low frequency components corresponding to the repetition period or lower. The amplifier 22 amplifies frequencies in the audio frequency range to a predetermined level.

Thereby, the speaker 24 is a headphone for producing sound so that the observer can hear the sound faithfully.

Next, its operation will be explained.

As shown in FIG. 1, when ultrasonic waves are transmitted from the probe 10 to the subject 5, the reflected waves reflected by a specific area of the affected area of the subject are received by the probe 1o.

Therefore, the reflected wave that hits the affected area and is received is input to the logarithmic characteristic amplification detector 12, where it is amplified to a predetermined level, and further processed by the A/D converter 14, for example, at ζ-number MHz.
is converted into a digital signal in real time at a sampling frequency of

Thereby, the reflected wave is changed into a digital signal and stored in the storage circuit 16 as a reflected wave digital signal 16a. Here, the speed at which the reflected wave digital signal 16a is written into the storage circuit 16 is the same speed as the speed at which the reflected wave is received.
6a is read out at a predetermined low speed that is slower than that speed. That is, in the low-speed read circuit 18, for example, at a slow speed of about 1/1 0 0 0 during storage, the speed is several KH compared to several MHz during writing.
Reading is performed at z.

Therefore, the reflected wave digital signal 16a can be converted into an audible frequency range, for example, an audio frequency band from several tens of Hz to several KHz.

Of course, the low-speed readout reflected wave signal 18a output from the low-speed readout circuit 18 has been converted into an analog output signal, and the bandpass filter 20 inputs the low-speed readout reflected wave signal 18a and calculates the signal related to the sampling frequency. The audio frequency signal 20a is obtained by obtaining only the signal component in the reflected wave region from which the harmonic component and the low frequency of the repetition frequency during repeated reproduction are removed.
It is output as .

The audio frequency signal 20a is low-frequency amplified by an audio amplifier 22, and can be generated by a speaker 24 such as headphones.

As a result, the reflected wave reflected by the affected area of the subject is faithfully converted into a predetermined sound wave in the audible frequency range, so that the observer can hear the audible sound corresponding to the reflected wave at an appropriate volume.

According to the low-speed readout circuit 18 of this embodiment, since the readout time is extended due to low-speed readout, the audible sound becomes a signal at the time of reception for one of the transmitted pulses. When adding circuitry, the signal is thinned out during some pulse repetition periods during reception.

Next, FIG. 2 shows a second embodiment of the present invention, and this FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the case where it is used in a radar observation device.

Next, the second embodiment shown in FIG. 2 will be explained.
The same members as those in the first embodiment shown in the drawings are given the same reference numerals, and the basic configuration and operation are the same, so the explanation will be omitted below. Note that in the second embodiment, the transmission system not related to the present invention is omitted.

As shown in FIG. 2, the differences from the first embodiment (FIG. 1) are in the moving body 5 as an observation object and the antenna 11 as a transducer since it relates to a radar observation device. , is different from the subject 5 and probe 10 shown in FIG. 1 in the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus described above.

That is, in FIG. 2, the moving object 6 is, for example, a moving observation object, such as a ship or an aircraft. Of course, it can also be applied to surrounding weather phenomena such as typhoons and storms.

Further, the antenna 11 is a transducer for transmitting and receiving electromagnetic waves, as is well known.

From the above, in the case of the radar viewing i111 device, the reflected wave reception signal by the antenna 1l is transmitted to the logarithmic characteristic receiving circuit 32.
to generate an image signal.

Here, the bandwidth and repetition period (frequency) of this image signal
is usually almost the same as an ultrasound diagnostic device, so the second
The explanation of the operation after the A/D converter shown in the figure is the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 described above, and will therefore be omitted.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, the reflected wave reception hearing instrument iD according to the present invention
According to the J device, instead of visually checking and observing the reflected waves reflected from the observation object as in the past, it responds to the reflected waves by faithfully converting the reflected waves into predetermined sound waves in the audio frequency range. A predetermined sound wave can be generated. Therefore, the observer can detect subtle changes in the reflected sound by listening.

For this reason, there is an effect that the properties and changes of an object, which could not be observed visually using conventional image display, can be known by making sounds and listening to the sounds.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the reflected wave receiving listening observation device D1 according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the reflected wave receiving listening observation device according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example. 5... Subject 6... Moving object 10... Probe 11... Antenna 16... Memory circuit 16a... Reflected wave digital signal 18...
Low-speed readout circuit 22...Audio amplifier 24...Speaker.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A transducer that transmits sound waves or electromagnetic waves to an observation object and receives reflected waves reflected by a specific area of the object, and a storage means that stores the reflected waves received by the transducer. and low-speed reading means for reading out the reflected waves stored in the storage means at a low speed and converting the reflected waves into predetermined sound waves in the audible frequency range, the audible waves being converted according to the reflected waves by the low-speed reading means. A reflected wave receiving listening observation device characterized by emitting predetermined sound waves in a frequency range.