Patent ID: 8447091
Filing Date: 2013-05-21
Classification: A61B,G01S,G16H

Abstract:
1. An ultrasonic observation apparatus that transmits ultrasonic sound waves to a specimen and receives ultrasonic sound waves reflected from the specimen, the ultrasonic observation apparatus comprising: a frequency analyzing unit that calculates frequency spectrums at a plurality of data positions which are set with respect to the ultrasonic sound waves that have been received; a feature data extracting unit that performs approximation with respect to the frequency spectrums calculated by the frequency analyzing unit and extracts a single set or a plurality of sets of feature data of the frequency spectrums; an image processing unit that sequentially generates feature-data image data containing information related to the feature data extracted by the feature data extracting unit; and a display unit that sequentially displays images corresponding to the feature-data image data generated sequentially by the image processing unit, wherein in a feature data space in which it is possible to set a coordinate system having at least some of the single set or the plurality of sets of feature data as coordinate components, when a feature point of a frequency spectrum at a particular data position is present within a predetermined first type area in an i-th frame (where i is a positive integer) in the display unit and moves closer to a second type area, which has a lower priority for image display than the first type area, in subsequent (i+1)-th frame, the image processing unit generates the feature-data image data by setting a virtual feature point at a position that is far off from the second type area as compared to the position of latest feature point and that is within or around the first type area, and by replacing visual information corresponding to the latest feature point in the (i+1)-th frame of the predetermined data position with visual information corresponding to the virtual feature point.