Patent ID: 8105240

Claim:
An ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprising: an acoustic coupler, including a low attenuation medium, on which a prescribed pattern that is readable and whose shape is maintained is internally or superficially formed, the prescribed pattern having different arrangements corresponding to a position in the prescribed pattern; an ultrasonic probe arranged on the acoustic coupler and configured to transmit an ultrasound wave to a subject via the acoustic coupler; a storage part configured to preliminarily store a stored pattern constituting the prescribed pattern formed on the acoustic coupler; a detecting part mounted on said ultrasonic probe operable to detect a part of the prescribed pattern formed on the ultrasonic low attenuation medium of the acoustic coupler; a position analyzing part configured to specify a position of said ultrasonic probe on the acoustic coupler, by pattern matching on the detection results of said detecting part with reference to said stored pattern that has been preliminarily stored in the storage part to specify a stored pattern corresponding to the detection result; and a display control part configured to control a display part to display the positional relation between said ultrasonic probe and said subject to be examined, wherein the position of said ultrasonic probe on the acoustic coupler is specified from the specified stored pattern.