Patent ID: 8619142
Filing Date: 2013-12-31
Classification: A61B,G01S,G16H,H04N

Abstract:
1. An ultrasonic observation apparatus that transmits an ultrasonic wave to a specimen and receives the ultrasonic wave reflected from the specimen, the ultrasonic observation apparatus comprising: a frequency analyzing unit that analyzes frequencies of the ultrasonic wave at a plurality of points which are respectively positioned on a plurality of acoustic rays of the received ultrasonic wave and different from each other to calculate a frequency spectrum of each of the points; a feature amount extracting unit that approximates a portion included in a frequency band between a first frequency and a second frequency larger than the first frequency, by a polynomial, in the frequency spectrum of each of the points calculated by the frequency analyzing unit to extract at least first spectrum intensity which is a value of the polynomial in a third frequency included in a domain of the polynomial and second spectrum intensity which is a value of the polynomial in a fourth frequency different from the first to third frequencies, as a feature amount of the frequency spectrum of each of the points; and a feature amount image data generating unit that associates any one of (a) the first spectrum intensity, (b) the second spectrum intensity, and (c) a function of a difference or a ratio between the first spectrum intensity and the second spectrum intensity, with first visual information to generate a feature amount image which visually indicates a distribution of the feature amount.