A method and downhole tool is provided that uses beamforming to localize acoustic energy at a desired zone-of-interest within a wellbore traversing a subterranean formation. The tool has an array of transmitter elements configured to emit guided mode acoustic signals at variable amplitude and variable time delay, which are individually controlled by an amplitude factor and time delay assigned to respective transmitter elements. A set of amplitude factors and time delays can be assigned to the transmitter elements of the transmitter array such that the transmitter elements produce a focused acoustic beam at the desired zone-of-interest by combination of guided mode acoustic signals transmitted by the transmitter elements.

A signal generator generates an electrical signal that is sent to an amplifier, which increases the power of the signal using power from a power source. The amplified signal is fed to a sender transducer to generate ultrasonic waves that can be focused and sent to a receiver. The receiver transducer converts the ultrasonic waves back into electrical energy and stores it in an energy storage device, such as a battery, or uses the electrical energy to power a device. In this way, a device can be remotely charged or powered without having to be tethered to an electrical outlet.

Estimating the field strength from an ultrasonic phased array can be done by summing the contribution of each transducer to the point of interest. Since this contribution is already calculated when creating a converging spherical wave, it can be reused to add a virtual microphone to the system. By monitoring this microphone and moving it along with new focus points, a robust system of field estimates and regulation may be established.

A beamforming module includes a conversion unit configured to convert an input signal to generate a converted signal using at least one conversion function, a weight calculator configured to calculate a converted signal weight as a weight for the converted signal, and a synthesizer configured to generate a result signal using the converted signal and the converted signal weight.

A signal generator generates an electrical signal that is sent to an amplifier, which increases the power of the signal using power from a power source. The amplified signal is fed to a sender transducer to generate ultrasonic waves that can be focused and sent to a receiver. The receiver transducer converts the ultrasonic waves back into electrical energy and stores it in an energy storage device, such as a battery, or uses the electrical energy to power a device. In this way, a device can be remotely charged or powered without having to be tethered to an electrical outlet.

An ultrasonic probe includes: an ultrasonic element group in which first ultrasonic element lines are arranged along a second direction crossing a first direction, a plurality of ultrasonic elements being arranged along the first direction in each of the first ultrasonic element lines; and a control unit for driving the ultrasonic element group. The control unit moves a focal point, which is a place through which ultrasonic waves emitted from the plurality of ultrasonic elements pass at the same time, along a virtual plane.

A method for specifying desired quantities of the energy flux of the combined waves of acoustic radiation pressure to apply producing a mid-air haptic pushing force, which has the effect of simultaneously reducing the harmonic distortion present is described. Further, a method for communicating only the summaries of acoustic field contributions at the required locations in the form of summed portions of the relatively small matrix whose row and column count depend only on the control point count is described. Further, phased arrays of ultrasonic speakers can produce a relatively large amount of acoustic energy which is usually directed in a specific direction or focused to a particular point depending on the application of the array. Further, to allow the system to be driven more strongly than usual, the complex-valued linear system that governs the drive signal to each control point is solved twice. Further, to achieve mid-air haptics with high precision the radiation pressure generated must be modelled accurately.

A tactile device includes: a substrate provided with a first surface; an organic piezoelectric film arranged on the first surface side; a plurality of electrodes arranged on the first surface; and a plurality of drive circuits arranged between the substrate and the organic piezoelectric film. The plurality of electrodes includes: a common electrode arranged across a plurality of cells; and a plurality of driving electrodes respectively arranged in the plurality of cells. The plurality of drive circuits includes: a first drive circuit capable of supplying a first driving signal; and a second drive circuit capable of supplying a second driving signal. The plurality of driving electrodes includes: a first driving electrode connected to the first drive circuit; and a second driving electrode connected to the second drive circuit. The first driving electrode and the second driving electrode are arranged in each of the plurality of cells.

Provided is a sound image reproduction device, sound image reproduction method, and sound image reproduction program that can support monaural sound sources and is capable of imparting directivity to virtual sound sources in a space. An acoustic signal processing device (sound image reproduction device) 1 that generates virtual sound sources in a space using multiple loudspeakers arranged in a straight line, includes: a focal-point position determination unit 12 that determines the position of each virtual sound source to generate multiple virtual sound sources in a circular arrangement; a filter-coefficient determination unit 13 that calculates an impulse response vector for each loudspeaker by performing an inverse Fourier transform on a driving function for each loudspeaker that is used to generate a virtual sound source at the position of each virtual sound source and in which different weights are given to some of the virtual sound sources; and a convolution calculation unit 14 that calculates the convolution of one inputted acoustic signal with the impulse response vector for each loudspeaker and outputs each acoustic signal to the corresponding the multiple loudspeakers.

Techniques, systems, and devices are disclosed for synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging using a beamformer that incorporates a model of the object. In some aspects, a system includes an array of transducers to transmit and/or receive acoustic signals at an object that forms a synthetic aperture of the system with the object, an object beamformer unit to (i) beamform the object coherently as a function of position, orientation, and/or geometry of the transducers with respect to a model of the object, and (ii) produce a beamformed output signal including spatial information about the object derived from beamforming the acoustic echoes; a data processing unit to process data and produce an image of the object based on a rendition of the position, the orientation, the geometry, and/or the surface properties of the object, relative to the coordinate system of the array, as determined by the data processing unit.