Patent ID: 7755974

Claim:
A method of providing enhanced underwater images with a boat mounted sonar system, the method comprising: transmitting left and right side scan sonar beams of pulses with left and right side scan sonar transducers, respectively, wherein the left and right side scan sonar transducers are positioned within a housing mounted to a boat, each transducer having a rectangular shape with a total length of up to about seven inches and a width of up to about 0.5 inches, wherein the left and right side scan sonar pulses are directed downward and laterally outward to the left and right sides of the boat, respectively, and wherein the left and right side scan sonar beams each have a narrow horizontal width and a wide vertical width; receiving left and right side scan sonar return signals with the left and right side scan sonar transducers, respectively; generating side scan image data from the left and right side scan sonar return signals; receiving a user command from a user interface; applying an image enhancement algorithm to the side scan image data in response to the user command to produce enhanced side scan image data; and displaying an enhanced underwater image based upon the enhanced side scan image data, wherein the enhanced underwater image provides details of underwater articles and contains shadows.