Patent ID: 8203909

Claim:
An apparatus for a forward-looking sonar system for ships and boats comprising: a pulsed wide-angle sonar projector that generates echoes from submerged obstacles; a half-space vector sound-intensity probe that receives said echoes from submerged obstacles; said half-space acoustic vector sound-intensity probe being in front of and in proximity of a surface that has sound insulating properties to limit sound measurement to only space in front of and bounded by said surface in a forward direction from said apparatus away from said surface; said surface being concave and axisymmetric with respect to said half-space acoustic vector sound-intensity probe; a digital signal processor controlling said pulsed wide-angle sonar projector; a digital acquisition system that conveys echo data from said half-space vector sound-intensity probe to said digital signal processor; said digital signal processor computing vector sound-intensity from said echo data; an output device for said digital signal processor.