Patent Document ID: 4137775
Application ID: 05727128
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An apparatus, for examining a body by means of ultrasonic energy, including: ultrasonic transducer means, comprising at least one transmitting transducer, arranged to direct ultrasonic energy through a region of the body along a plurality of beam paths at different orientations therein; at least one receiving transducer, which may also be the transmitting transducer, arranged to receive ultrasonic energy reflected from locations within the body to provide, for each of said beam paths, a set of output signals representing line integrals of reflection of said energy towards said receiving transducer for respective lines of reflecting locations transverse to the direction of propagation of the energy; and processing means for providing a representation of the distribution of reflection coefficients in said region, the processing means including a data store representing said region and having a matrix of addresses, one for each of a plurality of elements of the body in said region, and means for distributing to the addresses, corresponding to elements intersected by each line of reflecting locations, a value related to the output signal for the respective line together with contributions derived from other output signals of the same set.