A photoacoustic apparatus comprises a light source; an acoustic wave receiver receives an acoustic wave and converts into an electric signal; a first acquisition unit acquires a first absorption coefficient distribution inside the object using a first method; a second acquisition unit acquires a second absorption coefficient distribution inside the object using a second method; a third acquisition unit calculates the distribution of functional information on the interior of the object; and an image generation unit generates an image by masking the distribution of the functional information based on the second absorption coefficient distribution, wherein the second method is a method that can implement higher visibility than the first method when the absorption coefficient distribution is imaged.

According to one embodiment, a control method includes setting a transmission angle of an ultrasonic wave to a standard angle. The control method further includes transmitting an ultrasonic wave at the set transmission angle and detecting an intensity of a reflected wave from an object. The control method further includes calculating a tilt angle based on a gradient of the intensity. The tilt angle indicates a tilt of the object. The control method further includes resetting the transmission angle based on the tilt angle.

An additive manufacturing method supporting layer by layer testing includes a layer test including generating a hammer beam using laser light having a first wavelength, generating a read-out beam using laser light having a second wavelength, directing the generated hammer beam toward a first layer on a part to provide an acoustic hammer pulse that induces surface movement of the part, and reading the surface movement of the part using the read-out beam directed to a second position on the part. Layers can be added and the layer test repeated.

A part defect testing system includes a hammer beam system that provides laser light having a first wavelength. A read-out beam system provides laser light having a second wavelength. A control system is used to direct the generated hammer beam laser light toward a first position on a part to provide an acoustic hammer pulse that induces surface movement of the part. An areal camera is arranged to produce an interferogram derived from reading surface movement of the part using the read-out beam directed to a second position on the part.

Systems and methods are provided for performing OCT vibrography based on the synchronization of components of the OCT vibrography system. An A-scan trigger is employed to synchronize the operation of the scanning subsystem that scans the sample beam and an acoustic stimulus source that generates an acoustic stimulus for vibrographic measurements. The acoustic stimulus source is controlled such that when the scanning subsystem dwells on an imaging line selected for vibrography measurements, the acoustic stimulus is generated over a plurality of A-scans and the phase of the acoustic stimulus is locked to the A-scan trigger, such that the phase of the acoustic stimulus is incrementally modified with each A-scan. The accumulation of the acoustic phase is therefore synchronized to the A-scan trigger. The synchronization, providing synchronized acoustic phase evolution during each acoustic phase waveform cycle, permits the use of the OCT vibrography system for simultaneous anatomical and functional imaging.

The present disclosure enables apparatus and methods for tracking medications and/or product units via smart-packaging concepts. Embodiments include sensors that monitor the state of a blister-card package having an unpatterned lidding film by measuring the impedance of each dispensing region of the lidding film that defines a portion of a blister. In some embodiments, the impedance is measured via a plurality of contact points arranged on opposite sides of each dispensing region, where the contact points are resistively or capacitively coupled with the lidding film. In some embodiments, the impedance map of a measurement region on the blister card is derived via electrical impedance tomography or electrical resistance tomography, where the measurement region includes a plurality of dispensing regions.

A photoacoustic measurement probe and a probe unit capable of preventing generation of artifacts in a photoacoustic measurement apparatus are obtained. In a photoacoustic measurement probe having a light emitting unit that emits measurement light toward a subject, an acoustic wave detection element that detects an acoustic wave emitted from a portion of the subject that has received the measurement light, and a housing which has a surface facing the subject at the time of use and in which the light emitting unit and the acoustic wave detection element are housed, at least one slit that is opened to the housing surface and that extends from the housing surface toward the inside of the housing is provided between the light emitting unit and the acoustic wave detection element.

In a first aspect, the present description relates to a system for non-invasively characterizing a heterogeneous medium using ultrasound, comprising at least one first array (10) of transducers configured to generate a series of incident ultrasound waves in a region of said heterogeneous medium and record the ultrasound waves which are backscattered by said region as a function of time, as well as a computing unit (42) which is coupled to said at least one first array of transducers and configured to: record an experimental reflection matrix defined between an emission basis at the input and the basis of the transducers at the output; determine, from said experimental reflection matrix, at least one first wideband reflection matrix defined in a focused base at the input and output; determine a first distortion matrix defined between said focused basis and an observation basis, said first distortion matrix resulting, directly or after a change of basis, from the term-by-term matrix product of said first wideband reflection matrix defined between said focused basis and an aberration correction basis, with the phase-conjugated matrix of a reference reflection matrix defined for a model medium, between the same bases; determine, from said first distortion matrix, at least one mapping of a physical parameter of said heterogeneous medium.

An embodiment of the present invention provides an ultrasonic wave amplifying unit which can improve ultrasonic power in air, wherein the ultrasonic wave amplifying unit includes multiple rings having a concentric axis and each having a first width, and a slit having a second width is formed between the rings and an air layer is formed between the multiple rings and an ultrasonic wave generator generating ultrasonic waves or a transfer medium transferring the ultrasonic waves.

Methods and systems for analyzing an industrial structure are provided. With a plurality of sensors (e.g. FBGs and/or piezoelectric transducers and/or electromagnetic acoustic transducers) deployed in, on or in proximity to the structure, sensors are interrogated and a function representative of the impulse response of the structure is determined by passive inverse filter. Subsequently, a map of the propagation of the elastic waves through the structure is determined via various modalities, and in particular by tomography (of bulk or guided waves, by analysis of time of flight or of the complete signal). Embodiments especially relate to the management of the number and position of the sensors, to the use of artificial noise sources, and to automatically controlling the sensors and/or noise sources to monitor the health of the structure, or even to view the dynamic behavior of the structure.