• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.113-120
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• 1990

In this paper, the deconvolution method utilizing a modified Wiener filter is applied for the enhancement of lateral resolution of ultrasonic B-scan Images. For this purpose, a phantom composed of wires which are 0.6mm of diameter and apart in the range between 3 to 9mm is constructed. The modified Wiener filter with optimal parameter is applied to the phantom for the analysis of ultrasonic image. The results obtained are as follows'When all parameters of the modified Wiener filter are optimal, the resolution of B-scan images is enhanced by 50 percent : Othenrise, the images are blurred, spilt at peak points, or noises are strengthened severely. When the point-spread function representing the characteristic function of the system is determined, the selection ranges of op- timum parameters may be narrowed. It is expected that the proposed method may be able to apply to clinic situations for more accurate image analysis by means of reducing the loss of important information.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.667-681
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• 2015

The scour induced by strong currents and wave action decreases the embedded length of monopiles and leads to a decrease of their structural stability. The objective of this study is the development and consideration of scour-monitoring techniques for offshore monopile foundations. Tests on physical models are carried out with a model monopile and geo-materials prepared in a cylindrical tank. A strain gauge, two coupled ultrasonic transducers, and ten electrodes are used for monitoring the scour. The natural frequency, ultrasonic reflection images, and electrical resistivity profiles are obtained at various scour depths. The experimental results show that the natural frequency of the model monopile decreases with an increase in the scour depth and that the ultrasonic reflection images clearly detect the scour shape and scour depth. In addition, the electrical resistivity decreases with an increase in scour depth. This study suggests that natural frequency measurement, ultrasonic reflection imaging, and electrical resistivity profiling may be used as effective tools to monitor the scour around an offshore monopile foundation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.475-480
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• 2015

Ultrasonic atomic force microscopy (Ultrasonic-AFM) has been used to investigate the elastic property of the ultra-thin coating layer in a thin-film system. The modified Hertzian theory was applied to predict the contact resonance frequency through accurate theoretical analysis of the dynamic characteristics of the cantilever. We coat 200 nm thick Aluminum and Titanium thin films on the substrate using the DC Magnetron sputtering method. The amplitude and phase of the contact resonance frequency of a vibrating cantilever varies in response to the local stiffness constant. Ultrasonic-AFM images were obtained using the variations in the elastic property of the materials. The morphology of the surface was clearly observed in the Ultrasonic-AFM images, but was barely visible in the topography. This research demonstrates that Ultrasonic-AFM is a promising technique for visualizing the distribution of local stiffness in the nano-scale thin coatings.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.299-306
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• 2015

A conventional phased array system can control an ultrasonic beam electronically by adjusting the excitation time delay of individual elements in a multi-element probe and produce an ultrasonic image. In Contrast, full matrix capture (FMC) is a data acquisition process that allows receiving ultrasonic signals from one single shot of the phased array transducer element through all the other elements and captures the complete dataset from every possible transmit-receive combination. This FMC data can be used to create the ultrasonic image in post processing. It is possible to produce not only images equivalent to conventional phased array image but also total focusing method (TFM) images with improved resolution and sharpness, which is virtually focused at any point in a region of interest. In this paper, the system that can perform FMC by using a conventional phased array instrument is developed, and a study was conducted on the imaging algorithms to reconstruct sector B-scan and TFM images from FMC dataset.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics B
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• v.33B no.4
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• pp.72-80
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• 1996

In this paper, variable windowing mean filter to remove speckle noise and a measure to detect thin edge in ultrasonic images are proposed. Because ultrasonic images are corrupted by speckle noise showing a granular appearance, good edge detection is difficult. As a result, noise removing filter is needed in preprocessing stage. The speckle noise removing filter is based on mean filter whose window size is changed by the ratio of standard deviation to mean for image signal and noise signal in local area. And the measure expressed the difference of means between tow windows is used for detecting thin edge in filtered image. Results show that variable windowing mean filter removes speckle noise effectively, and proposed measure is useful in detecting thin edge.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.277-283
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• 2009

It is important to get clinical ultrasonic images of good quality for accurate diagnosis. In this study, it observed the change of ultrasonic images against setting frequency, dynamic range(DR) and type of probes on ultrasonic scanner. In the experiment it evaluated image of LCS (Low Contrast Sensitivity) targets(-15, -6, -3, +3, +6, +15 dB) of a standard ultrasonic test phantoms(539,551, ATS, USA) similar to solid and cystic lesions. Its imaged from convex (C3-7IM) and linear probe (L5-12IM) on SA-9900 (Medison Ltd, Korea) scanner. The images obtained altering the setting parameters which are frequency(gen, pen, res, harmonic) mode and DR($40{\sim}100\;dB$). The quality of images evaluated compare with the nominal LCS value of target and measured LCS value. The results show that there was no significant changing of quality images altering DR 40, 60, 80, 100 dB against frequency in Convex probe but the image being the highest in LCS target at DR 60 dB, harmonic of frequency mode in the -15 dB target close to cystic lesion. In Linear probe, DR 40 dB, harmonic mode at -15 dB LCS target close to nominal value. It discussed necessity of evaluation about ROC(Receiver Operating Characteristic) from the psychological viewpoint and limit of evaluation from quantified images.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.109.4-109
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• 2001

We have developed a laser ultrasonic system for visualization of elastic waves propagating on a solid surface, in order to visualize ultrasonic waves propagating on opaque media. This system can produce a series of successive images as an animation of wave propagation, because of scanning an optical heterodyne probe to measure surface transient displacements. Using this visualization technique, we observed the scattering and diffraction of ultrasonic waves around various shapes of artificial defects, and examined its application to nondestructive inspection. This imaging system provides various kinds of visualization images such as propagation image, amplitude image, arrival time image and velocity image. We have been confident that this technique is available for nondestructive inspection and materials ...

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1995 no.05
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• pp.45-48
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• 1995

Visualization of three dimensional medical images has been studied in many ways. For CT and MRI data, 3D rendering schemes are commercially available and widly used. However visualization of ultrasonic 3D data is not popular yet, even though its potentional in medical diagnosis seems very high. In this paper we try to visualize 3D ultrasonic data. The basic method is adopted from the volume rendering technique. Based on the characteristics of the ultrasonic images, 3D visualization algorithm is developed and applied for the 3D image set of a dog heart.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.385-390
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• 2009

Purpose: In this study we evaluated the morphologic aspects of defects created by a piezoelectric ultrasonic scaler with scaler tip on casting gold alloy using scanning electron microscope (SEM) images and defect surface profiles. Methods: 54 blocks of type III casting gold alloy (Firmilay, Jellenko Inc, CA, USA) were scaled by a piezoelectric ultrasonic scaler (P-MAX, Satelec, France) with scaler tip (No. 1 tip) on a sledge device. 2-dimensional profiles of defects on all samples were investigated by a surface profilometer (a-Step 500, KLA-Tencor, CA, USA). The selected working parameters were lateral force (0.5 N, 1.0 N, 2.0 N), mode (P mode, S mode), and power setting (2, 4, 8). SEM images were obtained. Defect surface profiles were made on Microsoft Excel program using data obtained by a surface profilometer. Results: Among P mode samples, there were similarities on defect surface profiles and SEM images regardless of lateral force. The defects created in P mode were narrow and shallow although the depth and the width increased as power setting changed low (2) to high (8). In P mode samples, the defect depth was the greatest when lateral force of 0.5 N was applied. However all the depths were smaller than 1 m. SEM images of Lateral force of 0.5 N, S mode, power setting 2 and 4 were similar to that of P mode, but the other SEM images of S mode showed discernible changes. Defect depth of S mode samples was the greatest when lateral force of 1.0 N was applied. Conclusions: Within the limitations of this study, it can be concoluded that removing capability of piezoelectric scaler with scaler tip becomes maximized as power level becomes higher but the capability is restricted when excessive lateral force is applied on scaler tip.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.13-20
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• 2017

A conventional phased array ultrasonic system offers the ability to steer an ultrasonic beam by applying independent time delays of individual elements in the array and produce an ultrasonic image. In contrast, full matrix capture (FMC) is a data acquisition process that collects a complete matrix of A-scans from every possible independent transmit-receive combination in a phased array transducer and makes it possible to reconstruct various images that cannot be produced by conventional phased array with the post processing as well as images equivalent to a conventional phased array image. In this paper, a basic algorithm based on the LLL mode total focusing method (TFM) that can image crack type flaws is described. And this technique was applied to reconstruct flaw images from the FMC dataset obtained from the experiments and ultrasonic simulation.