SCANNING DEVICE FOR LIVING OBJECTS

Abstract

A device for providing a non-contact, time-resolved three-dimensional scan of at least one structural element of a living object which uses microwaves, that comprises besides at least one antenna element, at least one transmitter and at least one receiver, at least one comparator for comparing emitted microwaves and microwaves which are reflected off and at least one analyzer for analyzing at least one property of the emitted microwaves and the received microwaves out of the group of time, frequency, phase, polarization and amplitude. Further the device comprises at least one control and/or processing unit designed for repetitively sampling two-dimensional images in which each pixel contains information about the precise distance and/or velocity of said structural elements towards the antenna elements. The invention allows a repeated spatial reconstruction of the structural element in a living object.

Claims

1. A device for providing a non-contact, time-resolved three-dimensional scan of at least one structural element of a living object, using microwaves, comprising at least one antenna or antenna element, at least one transmitter for emitting microwaves, at least one receiver for receiving microwaves, at least one comparator for comparing emitted microwaves and received microwaves, reflected off said at least one structural element, at least one analyzer for analyzing at least one property of the emitted microwaves and the received microwaves out of the group of time, frequency, phase, polarization and amplitude, and at least one control and/or processing unit designed for repetitively sampling from said compared and analyzed microwaves two-dimensional images in which each pixel contains information about the precise distance R and/or velocity v of said structural element towards said at least one antenna or antenna element, wherein for each pixel of said images the functions over the time of distance R(t) and/or velocity v(t) can be calculated, resulting in a repeated spatial reconstruction of said structural element of said object.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein said analyzer and/or processing unit is designed for analyzing the phase of a portion of a microwave signal representative of at least one pixel of the surface of a living object, wherein said phase analysis allows calculation of surface movement of said at least one pixel with a resolution of 50 μm or less, or with a resolution of 10 μm or less, or with a resolution of 1 μm or less.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein the device is configured for analyzing microwave reflections from a body surface and/or from tissue boundaries close to a body surface for estimating surface movement and/or vibration to obtain diagnostic information, said body surface movement being acoustically and mechanically coupled to a movement of at least one inner organ.

4. The device according to claim 1, wherein said control and/or processing unit is designed for providing a repetition rate of image scanning of at least 5 Hz (Hertz), or of at least 50 Hz, or of at least 500 Hz, or of at least 1000 Hz, or of at least 5000 Hz.

5. The device according to claim 1, wherein an aperture is provided to obtain a resolution of 1 cm or less, perpendicular to an orientation of a line of sight between the at least one antenna or antenna element and the object.

6. The device according to claim 1, wherein an aperture is provided by a synthetic aperture obtainable by movement of the at least one antenna or antenna element or by at least one array of multiple antennas or antenna elements.

7. The device according to claim 1, wherein multiple antennas or antenna elements are connected to at least one receiver and/or at least one transmitter, and/or said microwaves are modulated using frequency and/or code patterns.

8. The device according to claim 1, wherein said at least one transmitter and/or said at least one receiver contains at least one MASER (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) and/or said at least one comparator comprises at least one electronic mixer and/or at least one electronic filter.

9. The device according to claim 1, wherein said at least one analyzer and/or said at least one control and/or processing unit is using fast Fourier transformation to analyze information of the transmitted and received microwaves.

10. A. method for providing data from at least one structural element of a living object using microwaves, wherein microwaves are emitted from a transmitter in direction to a remote living object via an antenna or antenna element, microwaves reflected off said object are received by a receiver via an antenna or antenna element, emitted microwaves and received microwaves are compared in a comparator, at least one property of the emitted microwaves and the received microwaves out of the group of time, frequency, phase, polarization and amplitude is analyzed in an analyzer, and in a control and/or processing unit two-dimensional images from said compared and analyzed microwaves are repetitively sampled, wherein each pixel of said images contains information about the precise distance R and/or velocity v of said structural element towards said at least one antenna or antenna element, wherein for each pixel of said images the functions over the time of distance R(t) and/or velocity v(t) can be calculated, resulting in a repeated spatial reconstruction of said structural element of said object.

11. The method according to claim 10, further characterized by being performed using a device, wherein said analyzer and/or processing unit is designed for analyzing the phase of a portion of a microwave signal representative of at least one pixel of the surface of a living object, wherein said phase analysis allows calculation of surface movement of said at least one pixel with a resolution of 50 μm or less, or with a resolution of 10 μm or less, or with a resolution of 1 μm or less.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the device according to any one of claims 1 to 9 is used for performing the method.

13. The method according to claim 10, wherein the reconstruction of a structural element of the living object provided is used for assisting diagnosis of at least one medical condition or disease.

14. The method according to claim 10, wherein patterns of surface movements are obtained from multiple living objects, and where those patterns are used for assisting diagnosis of at least one medical condition or disease.

15. The device of claim 1, wherein the microwaves have frequencies between 0.5 GHz to 1000 GHz.

16. The device of claim 5, wherein the resolution is 1 mm or less.

17. The device of claim 7, wherein the multiple antennas or antenna elements are connected to the at least one receiver and/or the at least one transmitter by switches.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the microwaves have frequencies between 0.5 GHz to 1000 GHz.

Description

[0080] The drawings schematically show:

[0081] FIG. 1: A block diagram of the inventive device;

[0082] FIG. 2a: An embodiment of the inventive method, which can be performed with an inventive device;

[0083] FIG. 2b Another embodiment of the inventive method and related parts of a corresponding inventive device;

[0084] FIG. 3: An alternative embodiment of the inventive method; and

[0085] FIG. 4: A representation which explains how data are provided according to the invention.

[0086] FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of the inventive device. In this representation the main components of the inventive device and their arrangement and connection is schematically shown.

[0087] FIG. 1 shows an antenna array 1, sending and receiving waves to a body 2, scanning the body surface area in a vertical and horizontal resolution indicated by the 2D pixel grid 3. For each 2D pixel then the phase is analyzed to achieve a high range resolution when body surface and tissue areas move or vibrate. For each 2D pixel a range movement information over time 4 is extracted allowing for vibration analysis on anatomic regions. An example is given for two pixels allowing for determination of arterial pulse wave velocity 5. The upper trace represents a precardiac pixel, the lower trace an inguinal pixel. By analysis of the respective pulse waves and their phase shift, including the 2D distance between the pixels, an arterial pulse wave velocity can be calculated. In another example 6, the scan is temporarily restricted to the precardiac area in order to allow for higher scan rates and higher frequency resolution.

[0088] FIG. 2a shows an array (not all elements shown) of highly polarizing vivaldi antennas. In this example the polarization is offset by 90° for vertical versus horizontal scan.

[0089] FIG. 2a shows an antenna array 1, sending and receiving waves to and from a body 2, scanning the body surface area in a vertical and horizontal resolution indicated by the 2D pixel grid 3. For each 2D pixel then the phase is analyzed to achieve a high range resolution when body surface and tissue areas move or vibrate. For each 2D pixel a range movement information over time 4 is extracted allowing for vibration analysis on anatomic regions. Different wave polarization can be utilized to speed up line scans.

[0090] FIG. 2b provides an example for two pixels allowing for determination of arterial pulse wave velocity 5. The upper trace represents a precardiac pixel, the lower trace an inguinal pixel. By analysis of the respective pulse waves and their phase shift, including the 2D distance between the pixels, an arterial pulse wave velocity can be calculated. In another example 6, the scan is temporarily restricted to the precardiac area in order to allow for higher scan rates and higher frequency resolution.

[0091] FIG. 2b shows an array (not all elements shown) of transmitter and receiver antennas. Reflections from different locations on the body surface can be discriminated and isolated by different time of flight. Within the isolated data the phase can then be analyzed to obtain surface vibration information from specific anatomical regions.

[0092] FIG. 3 shows an array (not all elements shown) of highly polarizing vivaldi microwave antennas. In this example the polarization is offset by 90° for vertical versus horizontal scan.

[0093] FIG. 3 shows how the phonogram information is retrieved for each pixel in the 2D scan using subsequent frames at a high frame rate.

[0094] FIG. 4 shows how the acoustic/phonographic information is retrieved for each pixel in the 2D scan using subsequent frames at a high frame rate.

[0095] FIG. 4 explains how the imaging of the corresponding structural element of a living object (repeated spatial reconstruction) is provided according to the invention.