In accordance with an embodiment, an ultrasound transmitter device includes a transformer comprising a secondary winding configured to be coupled to a piezoelectric transducer; a plurality of transistors coupled to the primary winding of the transformer and to a ground terminal via a sense resistor; an amplifier having an output coupled to control nodes of the plurality of transistors, a first input coupled to the sense resistor, and second input coupled to a reference resistor; a switching circuit configured to alternately couple control nodes of the plurality of transistors to an output of amplifier and to a reference node via complementary pulse signals, wherein the switching circuit is configured to turn on and turn off the plurality of transistors and operate the plurality of transistors in a push-pull manner; and a digital-to-analog converter having an output coupled to the reference resistor.

Each of a plurality of tracking/proximity devices periodically transmits an acoustic message signal and an electronic/Bluetooth message signal and receives the same from the other devices. Each of the devices determines the proximity/separation/distance to/from/between the others by assuming that the receipt time of an electronic message signal equals its transmission time and that the receipt time of the corresponding acoustic message signal minus the receipt time of the electronic message signal equals the amount of time that the acoustic signal traveled from the transmission device to the receiving device. The receiving device converts the acoustic signal travel time into a distance by multiplying by the speed of sound. Thus, the receiving device determines the distance to the transmitting device and may alert a server, user, or wearer of the determined distance, or merely that the determined distance is less than a configurable predetermined amount.

Ultrasonic ranging systems and methods that emit coded bursts and correlate transduced acoustical echoes of the bursts with a receive template characterizing a burst code to determine time-of-flight information use receive templates of time-variable length to improve short-range object detection. The template length is based on a time index measured from the start of the burst emission. The detection can account for a dead zone of transducer ringing following a burst. A time-variable gain that is also based on the time index can be applied to the correlated signal. The length and gain can be adjusted with reduced temporal frequency to reduce computation cost.

A method and a device examine an environment of a vehicle by analyzing echo signals generated by reflection of transmitted ultrasonic signals at an object. Two different ultrasonic burst signals are transmitted in a same direction and into a same area of the environment. Timely offset echo signals are created at an object by reflection of the two ultrasonic burst signals. The two echo signals are evaluated to determine different parameters of an object. The distance of the object is calculated based on the echo signal of the ultrasonic burst signal with the lower number of ultrasonic pulses. Based on the echo signal of the ultrasonic burst signal with the higher number of ultrasonic pulses, the velocity can be calculated at which the vehicle and the object move relative to each other in the direction of transmission of both ultrasonic burst signals or opposite thereto.

The present subject matter relates to techniques for single transducer harmonic motion imaging. The disclosed system can include a transducer. The transducer can be configured to generate an amplitude-modulated acoustic radiation force (AM-ARF) by sinusoidally modulating a duration of an excitation pulse of an acoustic radiation force, induce a harmonic motion on a target tissue using the AM-ARF, and simultaneously track the harmonic motion by collecting a tracking pulse. The tracking pulse can be interleaved between the excitation pulse.

An object detection device includes a signal generator configured to generate a drive signal including an identification signal for identifying ultrasonic waves, a transmitter configured to transmit an ultrasonic wave as a probe wave in response to the drive signal, a receiver configured to receive the ultrasonic wave to generate a reception signal, and a determiner configured to analyze frequencies of the reception signal to determine whether the received wave is a reflected wave of the probe wave, thereby detecting an object. The drive signal includes a ramp-up signal generated to be followed by the identification signal and is used to ramp up an amplitude of the probe wave. A frequency of the ramp-up signal is set to include a frequency at which a transmission/reception efficiency is higher than a transmission/reception efficiency at each of a maximum frequency of the identification signal and a minimum frequency of the identification signal.

A method for use in acoustic imaging, comprising: transmitting, from a transmitter, a first sound wave pulse at a first frequency determined by a maximum sampling rate of a receiver; transmitting at least one second sound wave pulse at a frequency substantially equal to the first frequency, the first and at least one second sound wave pulses being transmitted substantially within a fraction of a sample interval of the receiver; receiving and sampling, at the receiver, a reflection of at least two of the first and at least one second pulses to generate a set of receiver samples; and expanding the set of receiver samples, based on the first frequency and a total number of the first and at least one second pulses transmitted, to generate an expanded sample set with a larger number of samples than the set of receiver samples.

In an embodiment, the present invention is a method for ranging which includes emitting an acoustic signal at a first frequency, monitoring for a first acoustic response signal at a second frequency, and responsive to receiving the first acoustic response signal within a predetermined amount of time, (1) calculating a first distance between a first device and a second device based on a duration between emitting the first acoustic signal and receiving the first acoustic response signal, and (2) broadcast a first message including the distance and an identifier.

The invention relates to a method for operating ultrasonic sensors) for a motor vehicle, including emitting a plurality of ultrasonic signals by respective ultrasonic sensors. The ultrasonic signals include a sequence of elementary signals. The elementary signals have signal pauses and a plurality of different signal pulses. The ultrasonic signals differ from one another by the sequence of the elementary signals. The method further includes receiving reflected ultrasonic signals, wherein the received ultrasonic signals are associated with the emitted ultrasonic signals on the basis of the sequences of the elementary signals.

The present disclosure provides a target object detection device. The target object detection device includes a first transmission signal generator, a first transmission array, a first switch, and a controller. The first transmission signal generator is configured to generate a first transmission signal. The first transmission array includes a plurality of first transmission elements configured to convert the first transmission signal into a transmission wave. The first switch is configured to supply the first transmission signal to one of the first transmission elements in the first transmission array. The controller is configured to control the first switch to switch the first transmission element to which the first transmission signal is supplied from a first element to a second element at a first timing.