Patent ID: 7785259

Claim:
A vibro-acoustic system which comprises: a) a force generator for imparting harmonic motion to a subject at a prescribed frequency, the harmonic motion propagating over a given distance; b) an ultrasonic system including: an ultrasonic transducer; a transmitter connected to the ultrasonic transducer and being operable therewith to produce an ultrasonic beam which repeatedly applies ultrasonic energy to each of a plurality of spaced apart prescribed points on the subject through which the imparted harmonic motion propagates; a receiver connected to the ultrasonic transducer and being operable therewith to receive from each of the spaced apart prescribed points a corresponding plurality of ultrasonic echoes; and c) a processor connected to receive the ultrasonic echoes and including a Kalman filter which for each of the spaced apart prescribed points extracts from the corresponding plurality of ultrasonic echoes an amplitude and a phase of the harmonic motion at that prescribed point, and wherein the processor is operable to calculate a mechanical property using the extracted information.