Blakely, Sokoloff, Taylor & Zafman
Ultrasonic method and apparatus for imaging and characterization of bodies using amplitude and polarity detection
 As disclosed herein, a new and improved method and apparatus provides for the ensonification of at least a portion of a body part with acoustic energy pulses; detects the polarity and amplitude of the resultant echo pulse; and displays the detected data in a color television format to result in an improvement in resolution in indicia of tissue character. This improvement is accomplished by a process which simultaneously detects both the amplitude or strength of the echo pulse and the polarity sense of the echo pulse at the peak amplitude for each echo pulse. The improvement utilizes a general property of acoustical pulses to detect polarity and amplitude of the echo pulse. The amplitude and polarity measures of the echo pulse are used to produce intensity (luminance) and color (chrominance) throughout the body part for each individual picture element (pixel) forming the picture. Since multiple echoes and their corresponding polarities might correspond to a single pixel picture element, averaging of the polarity and amplitude information prior to display is required. Suitable averaging of the luminance and chrominance is provided to obtain the best measure of color within the picture element. Multiple lines of echo pulse trains are then stored as image information and displayed as a final image in a standard color television format. 
Chromasonics, Inc.
G G
G01S G01S
inventional inventional
David E. Bruno Irwin
Arnold Pellegrini Beretsky