Ultrasonic Measurement beyond Wave Length Limitation and its Application to a Diagnosis of Male Infertility

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K15586
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Urology
• Research Institution: University of Hyogo
• Principal Investigator: Hata Yutaka 兵庫県立大学, シミュレーション学研究科, 教授 (20218473)
• Research Collaborator: ISHIKAWA Tomomoto リプロダクションクリニック大阪, CEO
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 情報工学 / 男性不妊症 / 精細管診断 / フーリエ変換 / ウエブレット変換 / ファジィシステム / 超音波計測限界 / 広帯域超音波アレー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we first published a paper describing an inverse relation between the frequency and the diameter of columnar soft matter and a visualization method that uses the discovered relation by using broadband ultrasonic single-probe in water. This relation enables us to determine these diameters by broadband ultrasonic testing with center frequency of 5.0 MHz, beyond the wavelength limitation. The experimental result clearly demonstrated line width and depth beyond the wavelength limitation. Secondly, we proposed a method that applies continuous wavelet transform instead of short-time Fourier transform, and hence overcomes both issues of spatial resolution and frequency resolution. The proposed method appropriately provided the information associated with diameter and location of the object, and that it can improve the accuracy in time resolution while retaining high accuracy in frequency resolution.

Free Research Field

情報工学