Patent ID: 8905931
Filing Date: 2014-12-09
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
1. A subject information processing apparatus, comprising: an ultrasonic wave transmitter; a light source; a plurality of receiving elements that receive an ultrasonic wave that is transmitted from said ultrasonic wave transmitter and reflected from inside a subject, and a photoacoustic wave generated from the subject in reaction to irradiation of the subject by said light source; a plurality of analog-to-digital converters that convert signals output from said receiving elements to digital signals respectively; a plurality of memories that store the digital signals in time series output from said analog-digital converters; a controller that reads out, with respect to each target in the subject, the digital signal corresponding to the position of the target from said plurality of memories; a plurality of first adders that are electrically connected to said plurality of analog-to-digital converters through said plurality of memories and add digital signals read out from said plurality of memories; a second adder that add signals output from said plurality of first adders; and a processor that generates image data of the subject, wherein said memories are grouped into a plurality of groups, each group includes memories corresponding to a predetermined number of contiguous elements, from among said plurality of memories, and memories in the same group are electrically connected to different ones of said first adders respectively, and wherein said processor generates image data of the subject by using an output from said second adder in a case of processing signals derived from ultrasonic waves, and generates image data of the subject by using an output from each of said plurality of first adders in a case of processing signals derived from photoacoustic waves.