Patent ID: 8875582

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a plurality of acoustic wave detecting devices configured to receive an acoustic wave generated in a specimen irradiated with light and convert the acoustic wave into a received signal, respectively; and a signal processor configured to obtain image data using a plurality of received signals obtained by each of the acoustic wave detecting devices, wherein the signal processor includes: an adding unit configured to obtain a summed signal by adding amplitude values in the plurality of received signals obtained by the plurality of acoustic wave detecting devices; a normalizing unit configured to obtain a normalized signal by normalizing the summed signal by using a maximum amplitude value in the summed signal and an amplitude value in the plurality of received signals at the time when the maximum amplitude value in the summed signal is obtained; a reducing unit configured to obtain a plurality of reduced received signals by reducing amplitude values of the plurality of received signals by using the normalized signal; and an imaging unit configured to obtain image data using the plurality of reduced received signals.