• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.28 no.B
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• pp.129-133
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• 2008

A method to reduce seam line artifact in spatial compounding of ultrasonic images is presented. Spatial compounding is a speckle reducing imaging technique in which a number of ultrasound images of a given target that have been obtained from multiple view angles are combined into a single compounded image by combining the data received from each data point in the compounded image. Since different view angle results in different view area, and the images of different view arms are combined into an image, the compounded image consists of regions with different signal to noise ratio, and the boundary lines between these regions are visible as seam lines in the compounded images. In this paper, we present an algorithm that reduces the visibility of this seam line in the spatially compounded images. Design procedure for a FIH filter is described and the results of applying the filter to in-vivo ultrasonic images are analyzed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.377-385
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• 2002

Ultrasonic tests employing non-ionizing radiation are preferred in nondestructive examinations since they are safe and simple in use. The same principles of the techniques have been taken as valuable tools in medical area for the diagnoses of diseases, in other words, defects of the human body. The paper overviews the principles of the medical diagnosis based on nondestructive ultrasonic tests, and then evaluates experimentally the clinical potential of C scan images not popular in medicine, for detecting the micro fractures of the cortical bone. In the experiment the micro bone fractures were created on the femurs of porks by loading three point bending forces (2-4kN) with the speed of 1 mm/min. As the extent of the fracture was altered, not only X ray images but also ultrasonic C scan images using a focused ultrasonic probe resonated at 25 MHz were obtained. The results showed that ultrasonic C scan images were capable of detecting the micro bone fractures which were not possible to identify by conventional X ray images.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.1418-1425
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• 2014

In ultrasonic medical imaging, spatial compounding of images is a technique where ultrasonic beam is steered to examine patient tissues in multiple angles. In the conventional ultrasonic diagnostic imaging, the steering of the ultrasonic beam is achieved electronically using the phased array transducer elements. In this paper, a spatial compounding approach is presented where the ultrasonic probe element is rotated mechanically and the beam steering is achieved mechanically. In the spatial compounding, target position is computed using the value of the rotation axis and the transducer array angular position. However, in the process of the rotation mechanism construction and the control system there arises the inevitable uncertainties in these values. These geometric parameter errors result in the target position error, and the consequence is a blurry compounded image. In order to reduce these target position errors, we present a spatial compounding scheme where error correcting transformation matrices are computed and applied to the raw images before spatial compounding to reduce the blurriness in the compounded image. The proposed scheme is illustrated using phantom and live scan images of human knee, and it is shown that the blurriness is effectively reduced.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.564-572
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• 2012

Harmonic imaging is introduced in the present article and its principle and physical characteristics is described in contrast to conventional ultrasonic imaging. The principle of the conventional image which uses ultrasonic echoes reflected at the interfaces between tissues is presented, and the nonlinear ultrasonic propagation which results in harmonic components is conceptually described. The pulse inversion technique which effectively extracts the harmonic components from the ultrasonic echo signals is introduced, and the advantages of the constructed harmonic images are summarized comparing with those of conventional ultrasonic images. The harmonic images are classified according to the mechanism of harmonic production, and the typical harmonic images obtained from patients are presented in contrast to the corresponding sonograms. Clinical significance and prospects of harmonic imaging and the future research areas are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.651-657
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• 2003

Ultrasonic microscope has been used to detect the defects on surface or inner solid. Conventionally, it has used at a single operating frequency. The resolution and quality of the measured images are determined by a characteristic of the transducer of the ultrasonic microscope. The conventional ultrasonic microscope has been used envelope detector to detect the amplitude of reflected signal, but the changes in amplitude is not sensitive enough for specimen with microstructure that in phase. In this paper, we have studied multi-frequency depth resolution enhancement with ultrasonic reflection microscope for the reflectors of a stainless steel reference specimen and a reference calibration block to be used as the material in nuclear power plants for ISI, PSI. Increased depth resolution can be obtained by taking two, three-dimensional images at more that one frequency and numerically combining the results. As results of the experiment, we could get enhanced images with the rate of contrast in proportion and high quality signal distribution for the image to the changing rate of depth for the reflectors of the two kinds of specimens.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.25 no.A
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• pp.87-93
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• 2005

Three-dimensional ultrasonic probes being applied to the medical imaging can be grouped into three depending on the scanning methods, which are a mechanical type system, a free-hand system, and 2D phased arrays system. A mechanical type scanner uses a mechanically driven transducer to acquire series of 2D plane images. By integrating these images, a 3-D medical image can be constructed. A motor driving mechanism is a conventional choice for mechanically driving a transducer assembly which picks the raw ultrasonic images up. In this paper we attempt to design a 3D ultrasonic probe which has a operating mechanism of s tilting 3-D scanning. The motion of a transducer assembly of the ultrasonic probe is analytically modelled. We propose a selection procedure for the diameter of a wire rope driving the transducer assembly and the size of torsional spring which gives an initial tension to wire ropes.

• Biomedical Engineering Letters
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.355-364
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• 2018

When focusing using an ultrasonic transducer array, a main lobe is formed in the focal region of an ultrasound field, but side lobes also arise around the focal region due to the leakage. Since the side lobes cannot be completely eliminated in the focusing process, they are responsible for subsequent ultrasound image quality degradation. To improve ultrasound image quality, a signal processing strategy to reduce side lobes is definitely in demand. To this end, quantitative determination of main and side lobes is necessary. We propose a theoretically and actually error-free method of exactly discriminating and separately computing the main lobe and side lobe parts in ultrasound image by computer simulation. We refer to images constructed using the main and side lobe signals as the main and side lobe images, respectively. Since the main and side lobe images exactly represent their main and side lobe components, respectively, they can be used to evaluate ultrasound image quality. Defining the average brightness of the main and side lobe images, the conventional to side lobe image ratio, and the main to side lobe image ratio as image quality metrics, we can evaluate image characteristics in speckle images. The proposed method is also applied in assessing the performance of side lobe suppression filtering. We show that the proposed method may greatly aid in the evaluation of medical ultrasonic images using computer simulations, albeit lacking the use of actual experimental data.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.148-154
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• 2009

This research examined the applicability of using an ultrasonic test to reconstruct CT images of an ancient wooden building. Most of the columns in the building are severely deteriorated due to termite attacks or the effect of weathering. Ultrasonic CT images of the columns were used to create highly accurate digital reconstructions, despite a lack of the data caused by parts of the building walls being buried. Another semi-NDE technique, a drilling test based on resistography, was applied in order to verify the ultrasonic test results. The discrepancy in detection between two methods is believed to be due to the fundamental differences between two methods. The performance of the ultrasonic test was hindered by poor surface conditions and this technique tended to over-estimate the size of cavities produced by termites or other insects. Nevertheless, the deterioration detected was in many ways congruent with the drilling test results

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.57-65
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• 2008

Setting parameters of Ultrasonic scanners influence the quality of ultrasonic images. In order to obtain optimized images sonographers need to understand the effects of the setting parameters on ultrasonic images. The present study considered typical four parameters including TGC (Time Gain Control), Gain, Frequency, DR (Dynamic Range). LCS (low contrast sensitivity) was chosen to quantitatively compare the quality of the images. In the present experiment LCS targets of a standard ultrasonic test phantom (539, ATS, USA) were imaged using a clinical ultrasonic scanner (SA-9000 PRIME, Medison, Korea). Altering the settings in the parameters of the ultrasonic scanner, 6 LCS target images (+15 dB, +6 dB, +3 dB, -3 dB, -6 dB, -15 dB) to each setting were obtained, and their LCS values were calculated. The results show that the mean pixel value (LCS) is the highest at the max setting in TGC, mid to max in gain and pen mode in frequency and 40-66 dB in DR. Among all images, the image being the highest in LCS was obtained at the setting of DR 40 dB. It is expected that the results will be of use in setting the parameters when ultrasonically examining masses often clinically found In either solid lesions (similar to +15, +6, +3 dB targets) or cystic lesions (similar to -15, -6, -3 dB targets).

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.7-15
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• 2015

A ultrasonic probe is very important in medical ultrasonic image, but the frequency of probe defects are often. Therefore practical tools for probe based ultrasonic QA should be developed. Advanced research on the effects of the probe defects on the quality of ultrasonic images is required. This study has investigated the effects of the defects in the probe elements influence Doppler images in the medical ultrasonic scanners. Especially the defects in a set of adjacent elements(SAE) electrically disconnected influence Doppler images were tested. The results show Doppler brightness and velocity became rapidly reduced as the defected elements is located centrally, as the defected elements is activated. The more the defected elements increased, the more Doppler brightness and velocity increased. As a set of the element disconnected moved, it appeared Doppler velocity starting to decrease and then was followed by brightness. The strength is not consistent with the velocity in the number and location of the defected elements. The defects in the probe elements influence Doppler velocity when the defected elements got out of the elements activated at Doppler mode.