Inventors: Turner, William R.;
Assignee: Automation Industries, Inc. (Silver Spring, MD)
Primary Examiner: Farley; Richard A.
Assistant Examiner:
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Jones, Tullar & Cooper
A system for sensing by ultrasonic vibrational energy the shape and character of objects immersed in a visually opaque transmission medium is disclosed. Frequency modulated ultrasonic waves are projected to irradiate an object, with reflected energy from scattering points on the object being imaged on an ultrasonic image camera. The camera converts the received ultrasonic image to an electronic image which is electronically scanned to produce an output video signal having an amplitude and frequency which is a linear representation of the point-by-point interrogation of the image. The video signal is fed in parallel to an amplitude modulation detector, which produces a linear signal representing the video signal envelope, and a frequency modulation detector, which produces a constant amplitude reproduction of the original modulation signal, except for shifts in phase in accordance with the time delays of reflected ultrasonic signals reaching successive image points on the camera. The outputs of the detectors are processed and the resulting modified video signal and phase angle signal are applied to a visual display such as a cathode ray tube to provide a reconstituted presentation of the depth dimension of the object. |
Communications 
