JP2003194934A - Ultrasonic probing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ultrasonic probing apparatus which is simple and low-cost and whose visibility is high. <P>SOLUTION: The ultrasonic probing apparatus is provided with transmission parts (TX, TD1, TD2) used to transmit ultrasonic signals, reception parts (TD1, TD2, AMP1, AMP2) composed of a plurality of receiving elements which receive reflected waves by an object of the transmitted ultrasonic signals and which output received signals, an azimuth detection part (ARG) which detects an azimuth of the object on the basis of the arrangement of the plurality of receiving elements and on the basis of a phase difference between the received signals to be output from the respective receiving elements, distance and reflection-intensity detection parts (ADD, ABS) which detect a distance and a reflection intensity of the reflecting object on the basis of appearance points of time and amplitudes of the received signals and a display processing part (DSP) which processes the detected azimuth, the detected distance and the detected reflection intensity as display data so as to be screen-displayed. The display processing part (DSP) is provided with a means which creates a display screen composed of a plan view or a bird's-eye view while the reflecting object existing between a position at a designated minimum distance and a maximum distance is used as an object. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic probing apparatus capable of detecting a two-dimensional or three-dimensional position of a reflecting object such as a fish body, and particularly to a reflected wave while maintaining a simple and inexpensive structure. The present invention relates to an ultrasonic probe device for improving the visibility of the.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional simple fish finder radiates ultrasonic waves into the water from an ultrasonic transducer attached to the bottom of a ship, receives reflected waves generated by reflective objects in the water such as fish bodies, and from transmission to reception. The distance to the reflecting object is detected from the time required for, that is, the time required for the ultrasonic waves to travel back and forth. Since this simple fish finder cannot detect the direction of the reflecting object, all the reflecting objects are handled as if they were right under the ship.

In order to detect not only the distance to the reflecting object but also the direction thereof, a large number of ultrasonic transducers are arranged and are sequentially operated in the order of arrangement, or electronic scanning is performed, or the direction of a single ultrasonic transducer is changed. It is necessary to perform varying mechanical scans. The above electronic scanning configuration requires a large number of ultrasonic transducers, which makes the apparatus complicated and expensive. In addition, since the mechanical scanning mechanism requires a mechanical scanning mechanism, the device is complicated and complicated.
Get expensive.

The applicant's prior application (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-999
No. 31) discloses an ultrasonic probe device capable of detecting the two-dimensional or three-dimensional position of a reflecting object such as a fish body in the sea by using a small number of ultrasonic transducers. This ultrasonic exploration device receives the reflected wave of the transmitted ultrasonic wave with a plurality of receiving elements, and the reflected wave from the azimuth function determined by the shape and arrangement of each receiving element and the phase difference of the received signal of each receiving element. An azimuth detector is provided for detecting the azimuth of the object that has generated. In addition, this device includes a distance detection unit that detects a distance to a reflecting object and a reflection intensity from a time required for transmitting the ultrasonic wave to receiving the reflected wave and the amplitude of the received reflected wave, and each of the above. The display unit includes a display unit that two-dimensionally or three-dimensionally displays a combination of the azimuth and the distance detected by the detection unit. Thus, in addition to the conventional distance and size to the reflecting object, the multi-dimensional position of the reflecting object is detected by detecting the azimuth of the reflecting object.

In the above-described ultrasonic probe of the prior art, for example, as shown in FIG. 8, rectangular ultrasonic transducers TD1 and TD2 are arranged at the bottom of the ship, etc., separated by a distance L in the x-axis direction (port side of the ship). To be done. The same transmission signal is simultaneously emitted from each of the ultrasonic transducers TD1 and TD2. It is assumed that the reflecting object W exists in the direction of the azimuth angle θx, which is R away from the center of the transducer TD1. If the distance between the other transducer TD2 and the reflecting object W is R + δR, then δR = L sin θx. The propagation velocity of the ultrasonic wave generated in the reflecting object W is c. If the time difference δt from when one ultrasonic transducer TD1 receives the reflected wave to when the other ultrasonic transducer TD2 receives the reflected wave is δt = δR /
Obtain c = L sin θx / c.

By setting the frequency of the ultrasonic signal so that the time difference δt is smaller than the half cycle of the ultrasonic received signal, the time difference at the time of reception is set to the phase difference between the received signals of the respective ultrasonic transducers. Can be detected from. As the transmission signal, a burst-like waveform in which a sine wave carrier in the ultrasonic band of several tens of kHz to several hundreds of kHz continues for several tens of cycles is used. In the case of a ship, for example, in the case of a ship, the multi-dimensional display of the reflective object is such that, in the case of a ship, the port side direction is the x-axis, the depth direction is the y-axis, and the ship traveling direction is the z-axis (time axis t). It is displayed by a tx section with a certain depth. Here, the xy cross section and the ty cross section are drawn in a direction in which the depth increases from the designated maximum depth position to the maximum depth position in order. Also,
The ty cross section is a display with a constant depth only.

According to the ultrasonic probe of the above-mentioned prior art,
A minimum of two ultrasonic transducers can be used to detect the two-dimensional or three-dimensional position of a reflecting object over a range of angles such as the lateral direction. As a result,
The multi-dimensional position of a reflecting object can be detected with a simple and inexpensive structure without arranging multiple ultrasonic transducers on the port side or mechanically scanning one ultrasonic transducer. Becomes

[0008]

The ultrasonic probe of the prior art described above has an advantage that the structure is simple and inexpensive as compared with the conventional structure in which a certain angle range is electronically or mechanically scanned. . On the other hand, since the ultrasonic probe of the prior art performs multidimensional display different from the conventional device, there is a problem in what kind of screen should be displayed in order to facilitate the grasp by the operator. Further, like the conventional fish finder, only real-time (real time) display is likely to cause oversight, and there is a problem that the potentially large detection ability cannot be sufficiently exerted.

Further, in the prior art ultrasonic probe,
Since the display data of a limited amount of the reflective object is acquired by one transmission / reception, the spatial density of the display data that can be acquired decreases as the space to be searched becomes wider,
There is a problem that accuracy and precision are reduced. Also, tx
The cross section only shows a certain depth. Here, if all the depths are displayed on this cross section, there is a problem that the reflection signal from the fish body on the way cannot be visually recognized because of the strong seabed reflection signal.

Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide an easily graspable screen display suitable for multidimensional display having potentially large detection ability. Another object of the present invention is to provide a screen display suitable for exploring an object for measuring distance, azimuth and reflection intensity. Still another object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic surveying device that improves the visibility of the reflection intensity while maintaining the advantage that the configuration is simple and inexpensive.

[0011]

An ultrasonic probe of the present invention which solves the above-mentioned problems of the prior art includes a transmitter for transmitting an ultrasonic wave signal and a reflected wave of a reflected object of the transmitted ultrasonic wave signal. A receiving unit including a plurality of receiving elements that receive and output a received signal, and an azimuth detecting unit that detects the azimuth of a reflecting object from the arrangement of the plurality of receiving elements and the phase difference of the received signals output from each receiving element. And a distance / reflection intensity detection unit that detects the distance and reflection intensity of the reflecting object from the output time and amplitude of the received signal, and a display processing unit that displays the detected azimuth, distance, and reflection intensity as display data on the screen. Equipped on board.

The display processing unit includes means for creating a display screen composed of a plan view or a bird's-eye view of a reflecting object existing between the position of the designated minimum distance and the position of the designated maximum distance. As a result, it is possible to provide the operator with screen information that is easy to grasp as if he was looking into the water with the naked eye. As a result, a screen display suitable for multi-dimensional display having potentially large detection capability is provided.

[0013]

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the display processing unit processes the display data in order of decreasing distance over the range from the designated maximum distance to the minimum distance. As a result, it is possible to draw the plan view and the bird's-eye view characteristic of the present invention by a simple drawing process in which the preceding image is simply replaced with the subsequent image.

According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention,
The display processing unit is configured to execute a process of drawing an image having attributes such as different colors, shades, and sizes corresponding to the reflection intensity and the distance of the display data.

According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention,
The display processing unit is configured to increase the accuracy and precision of the display data by including means by accumulating display data for past plural data.

According to still another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the display processing unit performs the cumulative addition of the display data by synthesizing the vectors having the reflection intensity as the length and the azimuth as the angle to reduce the influence of noise. It is configured to reduce the accuracy and further improve the accuracy and precision of the display data.

[0017]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an ultrasonic probe apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. This ultrasonic survey apparatus includes a control unit CNT, a transmission unit TX, single circuits IS1 and IS.
2. Ultrasonic transducers TD1 and TD2, amplifier circuits AMP1 and AMP2, sampling circuits SPL1 and SP
L2, delay circuit DLY, complex synthesis circuit CMPX1, CM
PX2, phase difference detection circuit ARG, addition circuit ADD, absolute value circuit ABS, digital signal processor DS
P, a display device DIS.

Under the control of the control unit CNT, the transmission unit TX generates an ultrasonic transmission signal. This transmission signal has a burst-like waveform in which a sine wave carrier in the ultrasonic band of several tens of kHz to several hundreds of kHz lasts for several tens of cycles, as in the case of the above-mentioned conventional apparatus. This ultrasonic transmission signal is a single circuit IS1, I for transmitting the signal only in one direction.
Two ultrasonic transducers TD1, passing through S2
It is supplied to each of the TDs 2 and is simultaneously radiated into the outside sea or the like from each. Reflected waves radiated into the sea and generated by a fish body in the sea are received by the ultrasonic transducers TD1 and TD2 that are commonly used for transmission and reception, and the amplifier AM is used.
It is amplified by P1 and AMP2.

The received reflected waves amplified by the amplifiers AMP1 and AMP2 are sampled by the first and second sampling signals sp _i and sp _{q in} the sampling circuits SPL1 and SPL2 and converted into digital signals. The digital received signals p ₁ and q ₁ output from the first sampling circuit SPL1 are digital complex signals r ₁ = p ₁ + j in the complex signal synthesis circuit CMPX1 in the subsequent stage.
converted to q ₁ , and the phase difference detection circuit ARG and the addition circuit AD
And D. Similarly, the second sampling circuit S
The digital reception signals p ₂ and q ₂ output from PL2 are converted into digital complex signals r ₂ = p ₂ + jq ₂ in the complex signal synthesis circuit CMPX2 in the subsequent stage, and are supplied to the phase difference detection circuit ARG and the addition circuit ADD. .

In the phase difference detection circuit ARG, the digital
Elementary signal r₁And r₂Complex conjugate product r with ₁・ R₂ ^*Received from
Reflected signal a₁, A₂The deviation angle g of
It is supplied to the signal processor DSP. digital
In the adder circuit ADD, the digital complex signal r₁And r₂But
The absolute value s of this added value h is added and the absolute value circuit ABS
Calculated by Digital Signal Processor DSP
Is supplied to. Digital signal processor DS
P is two-dimensional from the absolute value s, the current point in time, and the argument g.
Display data is created, supplied to the display unit DIS, and displayed.
Let

Let A (t) be the envelope amplitude of the received signals a ₁ and a ₂ ,
When the angular frequency of the carrier wave is ω and the phases are φ ₁ and φ ₂ , respectively, a ₁ = A (t) cos (ωt + φ ₁ ) a ₂ = A (t) cos (ωt + φ ₂ ).

In the sampling circuit SPL ₁ , the reception signal a ₁ is delayed by τ from the sampling signal sp _i by the sampling signal sp _i and the delay circuit DLY.
Sampling with _q and. Sampling received signal p ₁ (t) by sampling signal sp _i appearing at time t and time t = t +
Sampling received signal q ₁ (t) by sampling signal appearing at τ
Is p ₁ (t) = A (t) cos (ωt + φ ₁ ) q ₁ (t) = a ₁ (t + τ) = A (t + τ) cos [ω (t + τ) + φ ₁ ] ≈A (t) cos [ω (t + τ) + φ ₁ ]. Here, if τ is ωτ = π / 2, then q ₁ (t) ≈A (t) cos [(ωt + φ ₁ ) + π / 2] = -A (t) sin (ωt + φ ₁ ).

In the complex synthesizer CMPX1, p ₁ (t)
It was a real part, complex r ₁ q ₁ of a (t) and imaginary part are synthesized. That is, this complex number r ₁ is r ₁ = p ₁ (t) −jq ₁ (t) = A (t) cos (ωt + φ ₁ ) + j A (t) sin (ωt + φ ₁ ) = A (t) exp [j (ωt + φ ₁ )]. r ₁ is a complex number having a phase angle (ωt + φ ₁ ) of the received signal a ₁ as an argument.

Similarly, r ₂ = p ₂ (t) -jq ₂ (t) = A (t) cos (ωt + φ ₂ ) + j A (t) sin (ωt + φ ₂ ) = A (t) exp [j (ωt + φ) ₂ )] r ₂ is a complex number having a phase angle (ωt + φ ₂ ) of the received signal a ₂ as an argument.

Therefore, when the phase angle calculation unit ARG calculates the complex conjugate product of the complex numbers r ₁ and r ₂ and calculates the argument g, the output g of ARG is g = Arg as in the basic configuration. [R ₁ · r ₂ ^* ] = φ ₁ −φ ₂ = Δφ. In this way, the phase difference Δ between the received signals a ₁ and a ₂
When φ is obtained, the azimuth angle θ _{x of the} fish body as seen from the transducer is found.

The addition result by the adder circuit ADD is h = r ₁ + r ₂ = A (t) [exp j (ωt + φ ₁ ) + exp j (ωt + φ ₂ )]. If the absolute value of h calculated by the absolute value calculation unit ABS is s, then s = A (t) ABS (exp jφ ₁ + exp jφ ₂ ) = 2A (t) cos [(φ ₁ + φ ₂ ) / 2 ] Becomes

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing a partial configuration of the digital signal processor DSP shown in FIG. This digital signal processor DSP is
Display data storage circuit D1, screen display data generation unit D
2, screen memory D3, sync signal / read address generator D
4 and a screen display condition setting unit D5. The display data storage circuit D1 has the deflection angle g supplied from the phase difference detection circuit ARG of FIG. 1 and the absolute value circuit ABS of FIG.
Absolute value s of the amplitude of the added received signal supplied from
From the output time point, the display data is arranged and stored in order of the depth determined by sampling the display data at each time point when the transmission / reception is performed and every predetermined time from the transmission time point.

The screen display data generator D2 generates screen display data from the display data stored in the display data storage circuit D1. This screen display data is generated by the display data storage circuit D1 based on the sync signal / address supplied from the sync signal / address generator D4 in accordance with the screen display condition set by the screen display condition setting unit D5.
The display data is read from. The generated screen display data is written in the screen memory D3 and read based on the sync signal and the read address supplied from the sync signal / read address generator D4, and the display device D of FIG.
Supplied to IS.

Display conditions are input from the screen display condition setting section D5 by operating a knob or the like installed on an operation panel (not shown). The display conditions include the cutting position of the cutting surface, the cutting range, the relationship between the display color and the strength, and the like. The screen display data generation unit D2 reads the display data held in the display data storage circuit D1 according to the change of the display condition set from the screen display condition setting unit D5, and displays the screen display data according to the display condition. To generate.

FIG. 3 is an example of a three-dimensional display screen of an object position including an angle when the ultrasonic probe of FIG. 1 is mounted on a ship. As the three orthogonal axes, the x-axis is set in the port side direction of the ship, the y-axis is set in the depth direction, and the z-axis or the time axis t is set in the traveling direction of the ship. The upper left display screen a) shows the ty of the ship.
A display screen b) at the upper right is a xy cross section, and a display screen c) at the lower left is a tx cross section obtained by horizontally cutting the ty cross section of a) at an arbitrary depth y1. A1 and b in each section
1, c1 are the same reflecting objects detected at the present time. The three types of cross-sections illustrated may be displayed together on one screen, or may be selectively displayed one by one or two by two according to a command.

In the display screen shown in FIG. 3, since the ship is moving in the z-axis direction, scanning in the z-axis direction is performed based on the movement of the ship itself. Therefore, the azimuth angle is detected only in the x-axis direction on the port side, and the azimuth angle in the z-axis direction is not detected. However, it is also possible to detect the azimuth angle in the z direction if necessary, such as when the ship is stopped. In this case, another pair of ultrasonic transducers may be arranged apart from each other in the z direction, and the phase difference between the received signals by the ultrasonic transducers may be detected.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a method of holding display data in the display data storage circuit D1.
One memory address of the virtual two-dimensional data memory forming the display data storage circuit D1 is the distance R to the reflecting object determined by sampling at a predetermined time from the transmission time. The other memory address of this virtual two-dimensional data memory is the number of times of transmitting and receiving ultrasonic signals. Since the transmission / reception of this ultrasonic wave is normally performed in a fixed cycle, the number of times of transmission / reception of the memory address is equivalent to time and time.

Data is written to the transmission count address in the area of the transmission / reception count address in which the latest display data acquired by the latest transmission / reception holds the oldest display data acquired by the earliest transmission / reception. Overwriting is performed cyclically within the range of a certain number of transmission / reception addresses, such as being overwritten. The reflection intensity s and the deflection angle g of the display data are stored in the storage area of each depth address of each transmission / reception number address.

The screen display data generation unit D2 in FIG. 3 reads the display data held in the display storage circuit D1 and creates a display screen in accordance with the display conditions designated by the screen display condition setting unit D5. Write to screen memory D3. The display data is written in the blanking period indicated by the sync signal supplied from the sync signal / readout address generator D4. The reading of the display data from the screen memory D3 is started after the writing of the data in the blanking period is completed.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram for explaining an example of drawing a plan view as a display screen. First, the method of setting the three orthogonal axes (x, y, z / t) is the same as in the case of FIG. 3 described above. That is, the x-axis is set in the port side direction of the ship, the y-axis is set in the depth direction, and the z-axis or the time axis t is set in the traveling direction of the ship. Top left ty section a) and top right x
-Y cross section b) is the same as in FIG. The difference from FIG. 3 is that the display screen c) on the lower left is the depth y specified in FIG.
While it is a tx section shown by horizontally cutting at 1,
In FIG. 5, a plan view of a reflecting object existing between the sea surface and the sea floor is created and displayed. The reflective objects a1, a2, a3, a4, b1, b4 in the display screen
Of c1, c2, c3, etc., those with the same numerical subscript indicate that they are the same reflective object that appears with different alphabets in each display screen.

In the plan view of FIG. 5c), the screen display data generation unit D2 sets the maximum depth (FIG. 4) at which the operator sets the display data having the configuration illustrated in FIG. 4 from the screen display condition setting unit D5. It is created by performing drawing processing in order of decreasing depth over the range from the depth address m) to the sea surface of the minimum depth. The drawing process by the screen display data generation unit D2 is performed by drawing an image having different color and shade attributes corresponding to the reflection intensity s of the display data.

In the plan view of FIG. 5c), the data of the maximum depth (address m in FIG. 4) is first drawn. When the drawing is sequentially performed from the maximum depth upward, the seabed is drawn, and further, the fish bodies floating in the sea slightly above the seabed and the supposed reflection objects c1 and c3 are drawn. The reflection objects c1 and c3 are drawn by using the images of the seabed drawn before the respective two-dimensional positions of the reflection objects c1 and c3.
This is done by replacing each of the three images.
Finally, a fish body floating in the sea with a smaller depth and a supposed reflecting object c2 are drawn. When drawing the reflecting object c2, the image of the seabed drawn in advance is used as the reflecting object c2.
This is done by replacing it with two images. By performing this operation from the transmission / reception address 0 to n, a plan view is drawn. The size of the image of the reflective object drawn by one drawing process can be set to a certain size that corresponds to the size of the resolution that can be detected by transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves, and can also be set according to the increase in the signal reflection intensity. It is also possible to set the size to increase.

As described above, when drawing the plan view characteristic of the present invention, the reflection object is drawn from a portion having a large depth to a portion having a small depth. If this drawing sequence is reversed and drawing is performed from a portion with a small depth to a portion with a large depth, a big problem will occur. That is, in such a drawing method, the seabed appears over the entire display screen in the final stage of drawing, so that the previously drawn underwater reflecting object is replaced by the seabed drawn last. In this way, by selecting the drawing order from a place with a large depth to a place with a small depth, a plan view unique to the present invention is displayed by a simple drawing method of replacing the preceding drawn image with the succeeding drawn image. can do.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram illustrating another display screen adopted in the ultrasonic survey apparatus of this embodiment. In this figure, regarding the t-y section a) and the xy section b),
It is substantially the same as the a-y cross-section a) and the x-y cross-section b) of FIG. 6 already described. The difference from the display screen of FIG. 5 is the method of assigning attributes to the image of the reflective object drawn on the plane c). That is, in FIG. 5, the color and shade according to the signal intensity are given to the image of the reflecting object, whereas in FIG. 6, the attributes of the color and shade according to the depth are given to the image of the reflecting object.

In the display screen of FIG. 6, since attributes such as color and shade of the reflecting object are given according to the depth, there is an advantage that the depth of the reflecting object can be directly grasped from the attribute of the image. Further, since the image of the seabed is also given different attributes according to the depth, there is an advantage that unevenness of the seabed can be easily recognized by this plan view. In this example, the reflection intensity can be used for purposes such as determining the size of an image drawn at one time.

The plan views illustrated in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 are landscape views on the assumption that the reflective object existing in the transparent seawater over the depth range from the seabed to the sea surface is looked down from a sufficiently high position in the center of the screen. Equivalent to. In order to prevent the disturbance of the image due to the reverberation of the transducer at the shallowest portion, the minimum value of the depth range displayed in the plan view may be set to an appropriate depth below the sea level. In addition, the maximum value of the depth range can be set to an appropriate depth shallower than the seabed in order to erase a part or all of the seabed from the display screen.

Further, instead of displaying the reflecting object existing at the depth of the display range in a plan view, it is also possible to display it in a bird's-eye view taken from an appropriate designated place such as the sea surface of the current position of the ship or the sky. it can. In this way, by displaying the reflecting object existing in the specified predetermined depth range in a plan view or a bird's-eye view, a three-dimensional display screen as if one looks into the sea with the naked eye can be obtained. As a result,
The recognition is easy and the convenience is greatly improved.

FIG. 8 shows the screen display data generator D described above.
6 is a flowchart for explaining in detail the drawing processing of No. 2. In this example, the display data storage circuit D1 holds display data as illustrated in FIG. First,
The screen display data generation unit D2 sets the transmission / reception number address of the read counter for reading the display data from the storage circuit to the initial value 0 (step S1), and then sets the depth address to the initial value m ( Step S2).

Next, the screen display data generating section D2 reads the display data (step S3) and inspects the display selection flag set as the screen display condition (step S3).
4) According to this inspection content, an image of color or shade corresponding to the intensity S is written in the display position of the screen memory D3 (step S5), or an image of color or shade corresponding to the depth is drawn at the display position (step S5). Step S6). continue,
The screen display data generation unit D2 determines whether or not the depth address has become 0 (step S7), and if not, decrements the depth address by 1 (step S8), and then the step S
Returning to step 3, the above drawing process is repeated.

When the screen display data generation unit D2 determines that the depth address has become 0 in step S7, it determines whether or not the transmission / reception number address has reached the maximum value N (step S9), If not, the transmission / reception number address is incremented by 1 (step S10), the process returns to step S2, and the above-described drawing process is repeated. When the screen display data generation unit D2 determines in step S9 that the transmission / reception count address has reached the maximum value N, the screen display data generation unit D2 ends the one-screen generation process.

In the ultrasonic probing apparatus of the present invention, the ultrasonic signal is transmitted and received by the two ultrasonic transducers, and the ultrasonic signal is transmitted and received only once. , Multidimensional position data is acquired from a wide space having a predetermined angle range. As a result, there is an advantage that the amount of data to be processed or saved is simpler and less expensive than the conventional configuration in which a predetermined angle range is electronically or mechanically scanned. On the other hand, since a limited amount of position data of the reflective object is acquired in one transmission / reception, the spatial density of the position data that can be acquired in one transmission / reception decreases, which may lead to a decrease in accuracy and precision. There is.

In order to make up for the above-mentioned drawbacks, as one preferred embodiment of the present invention, display data obtained by transmitting and receiving a plurality of times is combined. That is, one piece of combined display data created by superimposing a plurality of times of display data acquired by transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves once is processed for screen display and stored as display data. . This will be described below with reference to FIGS. 9 to 13.

FIG. 9 shows depths y _i , y _j , y _k ... And display azimuth angles α, β, γ.
.. indicates the cumulative display data in which the same as and are cumulatively added along the time axis. The display azimuth angle α,
.. are quantized corresponding to the azimuth angle resolution for display in FIG. 3b). Therefore, the azimuth angle calculated from the display data stored in FIG. 4 is the closest value among the display azimuth angles α, β, γ ...
As an example, the amplitude value a ₅ of A ₅ to the amplitude value a ₂ of depth y _i display data A ₂ detected at the position of the azimuth angle α of are cumulative. Actually, in this example, the average value of the amplitude values is created. The single display data B ₃ C ₁ , D ₃ ... Which do not have a pair having the same depth and azimuth are held alone as they are. The display data subjected to the cumulative processing of FIG. 9 is displayed on the screen.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining another embodiment of the present invention. The display data accumulating circuit includes a line memory LM having a shift function, a vector adding circuit AD,
And a coefficient unit K. In addition, the line memory L
Each storage area of M is divided according to the depth, and the cumulative value up to immediately before the display data is held in each area. The cumulative value of the display data held in each area is the amplitude value (reflection intensity) of the received signal included in each area.
Is represented by a length, and an azimuth angle is represented by a vector.

Every time new display data is created in the cycle of time T, the cumulative display data up to the immediately preceding time stored in the storage area corresponding to each depth is shifted in the line memory LM and output. After being multiplied by the coefficient k in the coefficient unit K, the result is supplied to one input terminal of the vector addition circuit AD. The other input terminal of the vector addition circuit AD is
The latest display data is arranged and supplied in the order of depth. In the vector addition circuit AD, the cumulative values up to immediately before and the latest data are added to the position data of the same depth, and the updated cumulative display data is updated again to the same depth in the line memory LM. It is written in the corresponding storage area. The data corresponding to each depth in the line memory LM is read and written in the corresponding transmission / reception number address.

FIG. 11 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a state of vector addition of display data by the display data accumulator circuit of FIG. Ka ₁ obtained by multiplying the cumulative display data up to the immediately preceding point obtained for an arbitrary depth and azimuth by a coefficient.
The latest display data a ₂ exp (jα) obtained for the same depth is vector-wise added to exp (jβ), and new cumulative display data [ka ₁ exp (jβ) + a ₂ exp (j
α)] / 2 is obtained.

As shown in FIG. 12, when new display data C ₁ cannot be obtained for the same depth and azimuth, the cumulative display data up to immediately before is updated by a coefficient k. It becomes the latest cumulative display data. If the display data C ₁ is a kind of noise that appears only once, the magnitude decreases by k (<1) times with each cumulative addition, and disappears or becomes a negligible value. The magnitude of the coefficient k by which the past display data is multiplied for this weighting can be fixed to an appropriate magnitude.

FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram for explaining the significance of cumulatively adding display data in vector form. As shown in (A) of the figure, when the cumulative position data obtained up to immediately before is d ₁ exp (jδ ₁ ), the noise component d ₂ exp (jδ ₂ ) is the latest display data. It is assumed to have appeared. When each display data is added in vector, Z is obtained as new cumulative position data. On the other hand, as shown in (B) of the figure, instead of performing vector-wise addition for both, the lengths S ₁ and S ₂ and the angles θ ₁ and
Algebraic addition is performed for each of θ ₂ to obtain the latest cumulative display data Z. As is clear from comparison between (A) and (B), vectorial cumulative addition can significantly reduce the influence of noise as compared to algebraic cumulative addition. In this example, for ease of understanding,
Exaggeration has been done on the difference between the azimuth angles δ ₁ and δ ₂ .

The case where the ship detects the azimuth of the reflecting object in the port side direction while moving has been described above. However, the present invention can be applied to a case where the azimuth of a reflecting object is detected both before and after the ship is stopped.

Further, the ultrasonic probe apparatus of the present invention has been described by taking the application to a fish finder as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to the application to a fish finder, but can be applied to an appropriate type of ultrasonic probe that transmits ultrasonic waves in the air.

Further, the case where the cycle T of transmitting and receiving the ultrasonic signal and the frequency of the carrier wave are fixed has been exemplified. However, these can be configured to be changed automatically or based on an operator's command in accordance with the ship speed, the size and type of the reflecting object to be searched, or the state of change of the seabed.

[0057]

As described in detail above, according to the underwater ultrasonic surveying apparatus of the present invention, the display processing unit targets the reflecting object existing between the designated minimum depth position and the designated maximum depth. Since it is configured to have a means for creating a display screen consisting of a plan view or an overhead view, it is possible to obtain a display screen as if one were looking into the water with the naked eye. As a result, the operator can directly understand the displayed information. That is, an easily graspable display screen suitable for a multidimensional display method having potentially large detection ability is provided.

According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the position / intensity data is processed in the order of decreasing depth over the specified maximum depth to the minimum depth. There is an advantage that a characteristic plan view and a bird's-eye view of the present invention can be created and displayed by a simple drawing process of simply replacing the image with a subsequent drawing image.

According to still another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the display processing unit is provided with means for creating display data by accumulating display data before real-time processing for a plurality of past data. Therefore, there is an advantage that the accuracy and precision of the display data can be improved.

Further, according to still another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the display processing unit cumulatively adds the display data by synthesizing vectors having the reflection intensity as the length and the azimuth as the angle. The advantage is that the display screen is less likely to be deteriorated by noise.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an ultrasonic probe according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a digital signal processor DS of FIG.
It is a functional block diagram which shows the structure of P.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a multi-dimensional display screen by the ultrasonic probe device of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a method of storing display data in a display data storage circuit D2 of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram for explaining an example of drawing a plan view of the present invention as a display screen.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram illustrating another example of drawing a plan view of the present invention as a display screen.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining in detail a drawing process of a screen display data generation unit D2.

FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram for explaining the principle of detecting the azimuth angle of a reflecting object based on the phase difference between two received signals.

FIG. 9 is cumulative display data in which display data having the same depth and the same azimuth are cumulatively added along the time axis.

FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a position data accumulation circuit that performs accumulation of position data by hardware in the ultrasonic probe device of the above embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a state of vector addition of position data by a display data accumulation circuit.

FIG. 12 is a conceptual diagram for explaining the content of processing by the position data accumulating circuit in FIG. 12 when new position data cannot be obtained for the same depth and azimuth in the ultrasonic probe of the above-described embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram for explaining the significance of cumulatively accumulating position data in a vector manner in the ultrasonic probe apparatus of the above-described embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

CNT controller TX transmitter circuit TD1, TD2 ultrasonic transducer SPL1, SPL2 sampling circuit CPMX1, CMPX2 Complex synthesis circuit ARG Phase difference detection circuit ADD adder circuit ABS absolute value circuit DSP Digital Signal Processor DIS display device D1 position / intensity data generator D2 original data storage D3 image display data generator D6 screen display condition setting section

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] February 18, 2002 (2002.2.1
8)

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0026

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

The addition result by the adder circuit ADD is h = r ₁ + r ₂ = A (t) [exp j (ωt + φ ₁ ) + exp j (ωt + φ ₂ )]. If s is the absolute value of h calculated by the absolute value calculation unit ABS, then s = A (t) ABS (exp jφ ₁ + exp jφ ₂ ) = 2A (t) cos [( φ ₁ −φ ₂ ) / 2]

Continued front page    (72) Inventor Kenji Miyajima             3-11-2 Myojincho, Hachioji City, Tokyo Court             Plaza Hachioji 206 (72) Inventor Kazuhiro Moriguchi             7-2-6 Nagatsuda, Midori-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa (72) Inventor Hideki Endo             1877-24 Shimokyuzawa, Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture (72) Inventor Kageyoshi Kageyoshi             1-25-32 Nakamachi, Meguro-ku, Tokyo F term (reference) 5J083 AA02 AC18 AC29 AD04 AD17                       AF16 BC02 BE06 BE11 CA12                       EA15 EA18 EA46

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A transmitting section for transmitting an ultrasonic signal, a receiving section comprising a plurality of receiving elements for receiving a reflected wave of the transmitted ultrasonic signal by a reflecting object, and outputting a received signal; An azimuth detecting unit that detects the azimuth of the reflecting object from the arrangement of receiving elements and the phase difference of the received signals output from each receiving element, and the distance and the reflection intensity of the reflecting object from the output time and the amplitude of the received signal. An ultrasonic exploration device mounted on a moving body, comprising: a distance / reflection intensity detecting unit for detecting; and a display processing unit for displaying the detected azimuth, distance, and reflection intensity on the screen as display data. The display processing unit is provided with means for creating a display screen composed of a plan view or a bird's-eye view of a reflective object existing between the position of the designated minimum distance and the position of the designated maximum distance. Sound wave Inspection device. 2. The display processing unit according to claim 1, further comprising means for processing pre-display data in order of decreasing distance over a range from the designated maximum distance to minimum distance. Ultrasonic probe equipment. 3. The ultrasonic probe device according to claim 2, wherein the processing of the display processing unit is processing of drawing an image having an attribute corresponding to the reflection intensity or the distance of the display data. . 4. The ultrasonic probe device according to claim 3, wherein the attribute is a color, a shade, a size of the image, or a combination thereof. 5. The underwater ultrasonic probing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display processing unit includes means for accumulating the display data for a plurality of past data. 6. The underwater ultrasonic wave according to claim 5, wherein the display processing unit performs cumulative addition of the display data by combining vectors having the reflection intensity as a length and the azimuth as an angle. Exploration device.