Patent ID: 9636022
Date: 2017-05-02
CPC Classifications: A61B

Claim:
1. A subject information acquisition device comprising: an elastic wave receiving unit including a plurality of transducers each configured to receive an elastic wave generated by irradiation of light to a subject; a memory; and a signal processing unit, wherein the elastic wave receiving unit is configured to receive an elastic wave at a first position of the plurality of transducers and output a first plurality of reception signals corresponding to the plurality of transducers at the first position with respect to an interest region of the subject, wherein the signal processing unit is configured to acquire a first plurality of corrected reception signals by correcting the first plurality of reception signals with a first plurality of weighting factors, the first plurality of reception signals including reception signals corresponding to transducers at the first position with a directivity angle including the interest region and excluding reception signals corresponding to transducers at the first position with a directivity angle not including the interest region, wherein the signal processing unit is configured to acquire a first sum of the first plurality of corrected reception signals and a second sum of the first plurality of weighting factors, wherein the memory is configured to store the first sum and the second sum, respectively, wherein the elastic wave receiving unit is configured to receive an elastic wave at a second position of the plurality of transducers and output a second plurality of reception signals corresponding to the plurality of transducers at the second position with respect to the interest region of the subject, the second position is different from the first position, wherein the signal processing unit is configured to acquire a second plurality of corrected reception signals by correcting the second plurality of reception signals with a second plurality of weighting factors, the second plurality of reception signals including reception signals corresponding to transducers at the second position with a directivity angle including the interest region and excluding reception signals corresponding to transducers at the second position with a directivity angle not including the interest region, wherein the signal processing unit is configured to acquire a third sum of the second plurality of corrected reception signals and the first sum which is read out from the memory, wherein the signal processing unit is configured to acquire a fourth sum of the second plurality of weighting factors and the second sum which is read out from the memory, wherein the memory is configured to store the third sum and the fourth sum, respectively, and wherein the signal processing unit is configured to acquire subject information in the interest region, by using the third sum and the fourth sum which are read out from the memory.