A sonar transducer array assembly comprises a first flexible circuit, a second flexible circuit, and a plurality of transducer elements. The first and second flexible circuits each include a first side, a second side, and a plurality of adhesive areas spaced apart and positioned in a line along one edge of the first side. The transducer elements each include a first surface attached to one of the adhesive areas of the first flexible circuit, an opposing second surface attached to one of the adhesive areas of the second flexible circuit, and a third surface positioned between the first and second surfaces. The transducer elements form a linear array with the third surface of each transducer element in alignment and configured to transmit and receive an acoustic pressure wave.

A marine multibeam sonar device comprises a processing element and a transmitter. The processing element generates a plurality of transmit transducer electronic signals and inverts a polarity of a first portion of the transmit transducer electronic signals. The transmitter is in communication with the processing element and includes a plurality of transmit electronic circuits and a plurality of transmit transducers. Each transmit electronic circuit receives and processes one of the transmit transducer electronic signals, wherein a first portion of the circuits re-inverts the polarity of the first portion of the transmit transducer electronic signals. The transmit transducers receive the processed transmit transducer electronic signals from the transmit electronic circuits and generate a sonar beam.

An underwater information visualization device, which is installed on a moving body such as a ship traveling near a water surface and visualizes and displays information about fish in the water and the seabed using an ultrasonic wave, includes circuitry that generates a pseudo noise sequence signal and a modulation circuit that modulates a carrier signal to form a transmission signal, emits a transmission signal as an ultrasonic wave into the water, receives an echo of an ultrasonic wave, determines an echo corresponding to a transmission signal by subjecting the echo to correlation processing with a pseudo noise sequence signal, displays an output signal. The display simultaneously displays multiple reception signals on a screen, and a period of transmission signals is (2D/Vu) or less when an underwater sonic wave speed is Vu and a distance to the seabed is D.

A fishfinder has: a transducer capable of transmitting an ultrasonic wave underwater and receiving a reflected wave of the ultrasonic wave; a display part that time-sequentially arranges a detection image based on a reception signal, caused by receiving the reflected wave with the transducer; a first depth calculation part that calculates a first depth as a depth of the bottom; a recognition part that performs recognition on an object as a fish school; a second depth calculation part that calculates a second depth as a depth of a position of the object; a distance calculation part that calculates a distance from the bottom to the position of the object; and a distance display part that displays the distance calculated with the distance calculation part, in correspondence with the position of the object in the detection image displayed on the display part, on the display part.

Provided are a sonar system and transducer assembly for producing a 3D image of an underwater environment. The sonar system may include a housing mountable to a watercraft having a transmit transducer that may transmit sonar pulses into the water. The system may include at least one sidescan transducer array in the housing that receives first and second sonar returns with first and second transducer elements and converts the first and second returns into first and second sonar return data. A sonar signal processor may then generate a 3D mesh data using the first and second sonar return data and at least a predetermined distance between the transducer elements. An associated method of using the sonar system is also provided.

A system for controlling a marine vessel has a sonar depth finder which displays a chart, stored in memory, for a body of water. The chart includes an underwater feature contour that defines a boundary of an underwater feature. The sonar depth finder includes a processor to create or update the topographical chart based on sonar data from a sonar transducer assembly. The sonar data includes information on the underwater feature. The processor can display and store the topographical chart. The user may select from the underwater feature contours on the depth finder display. The depth finder can generate a route for the marine vessel that includes a path along the selected underwater feature contours. A vessel control device, in communication with the depth finder, may receive transmissions, from the depth finder, which include the generated route. The vessel control device can automatically direct the marine vessel along the route.

The present invention had disclosed an embedded processor based 3D acoustic imaging real-time signal processing device of modularized design; the system comprises an embedded GPU signal processing subsystem, a signal interaction subsystem and a signal acquisition subsystem. The system takes Tegra K1 embedded GPU processor as the core; Tegra K1 embedded GPU processor is provided with features of OpenGL4.4, OpenGL ES 3.1 and CUDA, which has high parallel image processing capability and abundant high-speed data interconnection interface; it is especially applicable to high-speed data transmission and effective calculation of image algorithm for 3D acoustic imaging real-time signal processing device. Meanwhile, it can realize high-speed data interaction between signal processing subsystem and numerous signal acquisition subsystems; the whole system has powerful data interaction capability and real-time parallel processing capability.

A transducer assembly comprises a housing and a plurality of frequency steered transducer array elements. Each of the transducer array elements includes a plurality of piezoelectric elements. The frequency steered transducer array elements are configured to receive a transmit electronic signal including a plurality of frequency components and to transmit an array of sonar beams into a body of water. Each sonar beam is transmitted in an angular direction that varies according to one of the frequency components of the transmit electronic signal. The frequency steered transducer array elements are positioned within the housing in a fan-shaped configuration where an end section of at least two of the frequency steered transducer array elements are within an intersection range of each other.

A system and method for providing indoor situational awareness and navigational aid for the visually impaired user, is disclosed. The processor may receive input data. The processor may enhance the image based upon the angle and the depth information. The processor may determine “directional saliency”, “saliency at rest” and “saliency in motion” of the enhanced image of the scene to provide situational awareness and generate a virtual graph with a grid of nodes. The processor may probe each node in order to check whether or not the point corresponding to said node is on a floor and determine the shortest path to a destination in the virtual graph by only considering the points on the floor. The processor may convert the description of the shortest path and the scene into one or more of audio or Braille text instruction to the user.

An underwater detection apparatus is provided, which may include a transmission transducer, a reception transducer, and processing circuitry. The transmission transducer may transmit a transmission wave in an underwater transmission space. The reception transducer may include a plurality of reception elements, each reception element generating a reception signal based on a reflection wave comprising a reflection of the transmission wave on an underwater target. The processing circuitry may perform beamforming in each of a plurality of reception spaces based on the reception signals, generate a 3D image data of the target based on the beamforming performed in each reception space, and extract a contour of the target detected in at least one of the reception spaces, and generate a contour image data to be displayed along with the 3D image data on a display unit.