宽带扩展性目标时反算子分解成像

在时反算子分解技术的基础上,提出了宽带全信号子空间加权成像方法。虽然扩展性目标与时反算子的特征向量不再是一一对应关系,传统的时反选择性聚焦仍然选择某一特定的信号子空间成像,而时反MUSIC只利用某一频点成像,导致定位结果背景起伏较高。为克服这些缺陷,利用时反算子的特征值判断信号子空间的个数,以广义散射系数为加权系数,实现全宽带和全信号子空间成像。结果表明,此方法的旁瓣水平明显下降。      

强混响背景下悬浮目标的时反成像

提出了一种加权宽带全信号子空间时反成像方法,将扩展性目标建模为有限数量个、相互独立的点散射体构成,实现了时反成像在可疑目标区域的全信号子空间和整个宽带的累加。在实验室波导水池中,底部放置圆柱筒制造混响背景,共进行了两个实验,一是扩展性的悬浮目标位于圆柱筒附近,其回波与圆柱筒反射的混响不在同一个时间窗内,二是弱点目标回波与圆柱筒反射的混响重叠于同一个时间窗内,对所提出的方法进行强混响背景下弱悬浮目标的成像能力验证。结果表明,此方法对强混响背景下的弱悬浮目标的成像质量明显优于传统的时反成像方法。      

Time reversal imaging of suspended target in strong reverberation

The weighted wideband time-reversal imaging approach of full signal subspaces was proposed.The extended target is modeled as an infinite number of independent point-like scatterers,and the imaging is constructed by accumulating all time-reversal images over all signal subspaces and the entire bandwidth in the region of suspected targets.On the bottom of a laboratory water waveguide,a cylindrical shell was used to produce reverberation.Two experiments were carried out.The first experiment is that an extended target was suspended near the cylindrical shell,whose echo and the reverberation reflected by the cylindrical shell were in different time windows.The second experiment is that a point-like target was suspended above the cylindrical shell,thus the echo and the reverberation were in the same time window.The experimental results show that the imaging quality of the proposed method is better than that of the conventional time reversal imaging methods for weak suspended targets in a strong reverberation background.     

Detection of cracks in a thin air-filled hollow cylinder by application of the DORT method to elastic components of the echo

The DORT method (Decomposition de l'Opérateur de Retournement Temporel in French) is a scattering analysis technique which uses arrays of transducers. This method is efficient for detection of selective focusing on point-like scatterers. It has been also applied to analyze the scattering by an air-filled cylindrical steel shell immersed in water. It was shown that the diagonalization of the time reversal operator allows us to separate the different elastic components of the scattered field. Here, we apply the method to detect flaws in hollow cylinders. In this case, the dominant components are the three circumferential waves (A0, A1 and S0 Lamb modes). Each Lamb mode corresponds to an invariant of the time reversal operator. The dispersion curves of these waves are calculated from these invariants. Resonance frequencies of the shell are deduced from the frequency dependence of the eigenvalues of the time reversal operator. It is shown that the presence of a crack (0.2 mm in depth) affects significantly the eigenvalue distribution of the time reversal operator. Thus, the DORT method offers a new means for detecting defects in a shell.     

Revisiting iterative time reversal processing: application to detection of multiple targets

The iterative time reversal processing represents a high speed and easy way to self-focus on the strongest scatterer in a multitarget medium. However, finding weaker scatterers is a more difficult task that can be solved by computing the eigenvalue and eigenvector decomposition of the time reversal operator, the so-called DORT method. Nevertheless, as it requires the measurement of the complete interelements response matrix and time-consuming computation, the separation of multiple targets may not be achieved in real time. In this study, a new real time technique is proposed for multitarget selective focusing that does not require the experimental acquisition of the time reversal operator. This technique achieves the operator decomposition using a particular sequence of filtered waves propagation instead of computational power. Due to its simplicity of implementation, this iterative process can be achieved in real time. This high speed selective focusing is experimentally demonstrated by detecting targets through a heterogeneous medium and in a speckle environment. A theoretical analysis compares this technique to the DORT formalism.     

Experimental detection and focusing in shallow water by decomposition of the time reversal operator

A rigid 24-element source-receiver array in the 10-15 kHz frequency band, connected to a programmable electronic system, was deployed in the Bay of Brest during spring 2005. In this 10- to 18-m-deep environment, backscattered data from submerged targets were recorded. Successful detection and focusing experiments in very shallow water using the decomposition of the time reversal operator (DORT method) are shown. The ability of the DORT method to separate the echo of a target from reverberation as well as the echo from two different targets at 250 m is shown. An example of active focusing within the waveguide using the first invariant of the time reversal operator is presented, showing the enhanced focusing capability. Furthermore, the localization of the scatterers in the water column is obtained using a range-dependent acoustic model.     

Imaging in the presence of grain noise using the decomposition of the time reversal operator

In this paper, we are interested in detecting and imaging defects in samples of cylindrical geometry with large speckle noise due to the microstructure. The time reversal process is an appropriate technique for detecting flaws in such heterogeneous media as titanium billets. Furthermore, time reversal can be iterated to select the defect with the strongest reflectivity and to reduce the contribution of speckle noise. The DORT (the French acronym for Decomposition of the Time Reversal Operator) method derives from the mathematical analysis of the time reversal process. This detection technique allows the determination of a set of signals to be applied to the transducers in order to focus on each defect separately. In this paper, we compare three immersion techniques on a titanium sample, standard transmit/receive focusing, the time reversal mirror (TRM), and the DORT method. We compare the sensitivity of these three techniques, especially the sensitivity to a poor alignment of the array with the front face of the sample. Then we show how images of the sample can be obtained with the TRM and the DORT method using backpropagation algorithm.     

Characterization of circumferential guided waves in a cylindrical cortical bone-mimicking phantom

The femoral neck cortical shell was recently demonstrated to act like a waveguide for circumferential waves. Femoral neck assessment with ultrasound could be enhanced by guided waves measurement. In this study, the decomposition of the time reversal operator (DORT) method is used to measure the phase velocities of circumferential guided modes in a circular tube with dimensions characteristic of femoral neck. The tube is made of a bone-mimicking material. Five guided modes are obtained and compared to theoretical predictions. The work substantiates the feasibility of measuring guided waves in a relatively thick tube of attenuating material with the DORT method.     

Transmission mode time-reversal super-resolution imaging

The theory of time-reversal super-resolution imaging of point targets embedded in a reciprocal background medium [A. J. Devaney, "Super-resolution imaging using time-reversal and MUSIC," J. Acoust. Soc. Am. (to be published)] is generalized to the case where the transmitter and receiver sensor arrays need not be coincident and for cases where the background medium can be nonreciprocal. The new theory developed herein is based on the singular value decomposition of the generalized multistatic data matrix of the sensor system rather than the standard eigenvector/eigenvalue decomposition of the time-reversal matrix as was employed in the above-mentioned work and other treatments of time-reversal imaging [Prada, Thomas, and Fink, "The iterative time reversal process: Analysis of the convergence," J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 97, 62 (1995); Prada et al., "Decomposition of the time reversal operator: Detection and selective focusing on two scatterers," J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 99, 2067 (1996)]. A generalized multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm is derived that allows super-resolution imaging of both well-resolved and non-well-resolved point targets from arbitrary sensor array geometries. MUSIC exploits the orthogonal nature of the scatterer and noise subspaces defined by the singular vectors of the multistatic data matrix to form scatterer images. The time-reversal/MUSIC algorithm is tested and validated in two computer simulations of offset vertical seismic profiling where the sensor sources are aligned along the earth's surface and the receiver array is aligned along a subsurface borehole. All results demonstrate the high contrast, high resolution imaging capabilities of this new algorithm combination when compared with "classical" backpropagation or field focusing. Above and beyond the application of seismo-acoustic imaging, the time-reversal super-resolution theory has applications in ocean acoustics for target location, and ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation of parts.     

Spatio-temporal invariants of the time reversal operator

The decomposition of the time reversal operator, known by the French acronym DORT, is a technique to extract point scatterers' monochromatic Green's functions from a medium. It is used to detect, locate, and focus on scatterers in various domains such as underwater acoustics, medical ultrasound, and nondestructive evaluation. A limitation of the method arises from its single-frequency nature, when the signals used in acoustics are often broadband. Reconstruction of the broadband Green's functions from the single-frequency Green's functions can be very difficult when numerous scatterers are present in the medium. Moreover, the method does not take advantage of the axial resolution associated with broadband signals. Time domain methods are investigated here as an answer to these problems. It is shown that the time reversal operator in the time domain takes the form of a tensor. The properties of the invariants are discussed. It is shown they do not have all the expected properties. Another method is proposed that requires a priori information on the medium.     

基于时反算子分解的时反高分辨率定位技术研究

基于时反算子分解技术,提出了主动时间反转选择性定位方法。为提高此定位方法的分辨率,根据时反算子和协方差矩阵的相似性,提出了时反MUSIC和对角线加载时反MVDR定位技术。传统的获取时反算子的方法是通过单个阵元依次发射,该方法的缺点是每次只有单个元发射,导致输入信噪比较小,本文提出通过多个波束正交发射获取时反算子,能得到较大的输入信噪比,从而改善三种定位方法的定位性能。波导实验分别对三种定位方法和正交发射技术进行了验证,结果显示三种定位算法中,子空间基于的时反MUSIC方法具有较好的定位精度,时反MVDR技术具有较高的分辨率。      

Automatic determination of the number of targets present when using the time reversal operator

Acoustical time reversal mirrors have been shown to provide a highly accurate means of studying and focusing on acoustical sources. The DORT method is a derivation of the time reversal process, which allows for focusing on multiple targets. An important step in this process is the determination of the number of targets or sources present. This is achieved by examining the eigenvalues of the time reversal operator (TRO). The number of significant eigenvalues is then chosen as the number of sources present. However, as mentioned in [N. Mordant, C. Prada, and M. Fink, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 105, 2634-2642 (1999) and C. Prada, M. Tanter, and M. Fink, in Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium, 1997, pp. 679-683], factors such as low signal to noise ratio (SNR), small data sample, array configuration and the target location may result in the eigenvalues corresponding to the targets no longer being distinguishable from the background noise eigenvalues. This paper proposes a robust method of automatically determining the number of targets even in the presence of a small number of snapshots. For white Gaussian noise, the profile of the ordered eigenvalues is seen to fit an exponential law. The observed eigenvalues are then compared to this model and a mismatch is detected between the observed profile and the noise-only model. The index of the mismatch gives the number of scatterers present.     

基于奇异值分解和中位数绝对偏差的拉曼成像数据去噪方法

拉曼成像是一种无损伤、无需标记的光谱成像技术,它可以提供样品的不同组分的分子指纹信息以及空间分布特征,相比其他成像技术有着更重要的应用。但是拉曼散射的截面积小,灵敏度低,加上在很多实验中为了观察某些组分的动态分布而缩短扫描时间,导致最终得到的成像数据被噪声干扰,因此往往需要对信号进行去噪处理。常规的算法一般都是基于一个给定的数学模型对光谱进行处理,容易造成过滤波,使得信号失真;另外,在处理拉曼成像数据时,常规算法往往是对数据进行逐条光谱去噪,从而忽略了多条光谱之间的相互关系,导致最终的拉曼图像仍然受许多噪点干扰。因此,提出了一种基于奇异值分解和中位数绝对偏差的拉曼成像的信号处理方法,用于拉曼成像数据的去噪处理。该方法首先对拉曼成像数据进行奇异值分解,获得一个奇异值矩阵与两个正交矩阵;然后通过中位数绝对偏差法对奇异值矩阵中的各奇异值进行离群值检测,选取前k个被连续标记的离群值作为要保留的奇异值,并将其余的奇异值赋值为零,得到新的奇异值矩阵;最后用新的奇异值矩阵与两个正交矩阵重新求解得到去噪后的拉曼成像数据。实验中,首先验证了中位数绝对偏差法确定前k个奇异值的正确性,其次分别从处理后的图像质量和信号波形两方面对比了该算法与常规算法的去噪效果。结果证明,中位数绝对偏差法可以快速地确定出合理的k值大小,而且,依据该k值处理后的成像数据不仅在成像质量上消除了大量的噪点,使得组分的空间分布特征清晰可见,也在信号波形上较完美地保留了微小谱峰,并恢复光谱信号。该算法不同于常规算法,能同时对整个拉曼成像数据进行处理,并保留光谱之间的统计特征,是一种更加有效的拉曼成像数据的去噪方法。     

浅海波导中水平接收阵被动时反混响抑制方法研究

使用基于射线简正波异地混响理论建立的水平接收阵接收海底混响模型,提出了水平阵被动时反混响抑制方法。以水平接收阵接收回波信号的某一时刻作为开始,分别对其前一时刻和后一时刻的回波信号做时反算子分解获得两个混响子空间,将这两个混响子空间的平均作为该时刻的混响子空间的一个估计,然后利用投影处理来抑制该时刻接收信号中的混响成分。该方法可以在一定程度上克服由于海底粗糙引起的局部时间(距离)段内接收回波信号的不平稳性,使得估计得到的混响子空间更加接近真实混响子空间。因此,利用其进行被动时反混响抑制可以增强回波信混比,提高对目标的检测和方位估计能力。针对典型浅海波导环境开展的仿真验证了本文方法的有效性。      

Echo-to-reverberation enhancement based on decomposition of time reversal operator with forward and backward reverberation nulling constrains

Combined the decomposition of time reversal operator and the time reversal reverberation nulling, a new time reversal processing approach for echo-to-reverberation ratio enhancement is proposed. In this method, a 2-dimensional signal subspace for the range of the target and two bottom focusing weight vectors for the ranges near the target are obtained by the decomposition of time reversal operator. From the signal subspace and focusing weight vectors, a constrained optimal excitation weight vector of source receiver array can be deduced to null the acoustic energy on the corresponding bottom and maximize the energy at the tar- get. This method remedies the shortages of conventional time reversal processing, time reversal reverberation nulling and time reversal selective focusing method. It focuses sound energy at the target and nulls the energy at the bottom near the target range simultaneously, therefore enhancing the echo-to-reverberation ratio without probe source and prior-knowledge of the relative scattering intensity of target and bottom. Numerical simulations in typical shallow water environments showed the effectiveness of the proposed method and its improved performance for echo-reverberation enhancement than conventional time reversal processing.     

一种基于奇异谱的语音激活检测方法

为了提高语音激活检测在低信噪比环境中的检测性能,提出了一种基于奇异谱的语音激活检测方法。首先用多窗口方法计算每一帧语音信号的相关矩阵;然后对相关矩阵进行奇异值分解;利用奇异值可以反映有用信号和噪声分布情况的特性,将每一帧语音信号经过加权处理后的最大奇异值与自适应阈值进行比较进行语音激活检测。该方法原理简单,易于硬件实现,通过实验仿真表明,在低信噪比环境下,和基于对数能量方法相比,本文方法也能够很好的区分语音段和非语音段,有良好的检测性能。     

The DORT solution in acoustic inverse scattering problem of a small elastic scatterer

The DORT (French acronym for Décomposition de l’Opérateur de Retournement Temporel) method is a novel approach for active detection and focusing of acoustic waves on the targets in the scattering medium. This technique involves the determination of the invariant of the time-reversal operator obtained by measurement of the scattering data in a pulse-echo mode. In this paper, a proposed approach based on the DORT method is developed to solve the acoustic inverse scattering problem of a small metallic scatterer. The proposed approach not only estimates the position of the scatterer, but also determines the physical properties of an unknown metallic scatterer such as the shape (cylinder or sphere), the material (density), and the size (radius) in an anisotropic scattering case. Theoretical and numerical simulation results are also studied and investigated to show that the proposed approach can simultaneously characterize all those properties of an unknown metallic scatterer. Moreover, the advantage of the proposed approach is to avoid the complex iterative scheme in solving the direct scattering problem and results in smaller computational load and faster implementation.     

Segmentation of the brain using direction-averaged signal of DWI images

Segmentation of brain tissue in diffusion MRI image space has some unique advantages. A novel segmentation method using the direction-averaged diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) signal is proposed. Two images can be obtained from the fitting of the direction-averaged DWI signal as a function of b-value: one with superior contrast between the gray matter and white matter; one with prominent CSF contrast. A pseudo T1 weighted image can be constructed and standard segmentation tools can be applied. The method was tested on the HCP dataset using SPM12, and showed good agreement with segmentation using the T1 weighted image with the same resolution. The Dice score was all greater than 0.88 for GM or WM with full DWI data and very stable against subsampling of the DWI data in number of diffusion directions, number of shells, and spatial resolution.     

A time reversal damage imaging method for structure health monitoring using Lamb waves

This paper investigates the Lamb wave imaging method combining time reversal for health monitoring of a metal-lic plate structure.The temporal focusing effect of the time reversal Lamb waves is investigated theoretically.It demonstrates that the focusing effect is related to the frequency dependency of the time reversal operation.Numerical simulations are conducted to study the time reversal behaviour of Lamb wave modes under broadband and narrowband excitations.The results show that the reconstructed time reversed wave exhibits close similarity to the reversed nar-rowband tone burst signal validating the theoretical model.To enhance the similarity,the cycle number of the excited signal should be increased.Experiments combining finite element model are then conducted to study the imaging method in the presence of damage like hole in the plate structure.In this work,the time reversal technique is used for the recompression of Lamb wave signals.Damage imaging results with time reversal using broadband and narrowband excitations are compared to those without time reversal.It suggests that the narrowband excitation combined time reversal can locate and determine the size of structural damage more precisely,but the cycle number of the excited signal should be chosen reasonably.     

结合主动时间反转算法的短基线定位研究

短基线声学定位技术是水下运动目标定位的重要研究内容。为了解决定位系统工作于浅水或近岸时多途扩展严重造成的时延估计误差和系统工作不稳定的问题,本文提出一种结合时间反转算法的短基线宽带应答定位技术,该方法利用短基线阵元发射宽带信号,通过应答器接收该信号时间反转处理后再返回给短基线阵元位置,实现信道多途的自适应聚焦,进而提高时延估计精度及信号检测的鲁棒性。仿真研究和湖上试验表明,该方法能够充分利用信道多途信息实现聚焦,减少信道多途对定位信号时延估计的影响,具有较强的抗噪声和多途干扰的能力。相对传统定位方法,该方法可以抑制短基线定位过程中误差及野点的产生,改善了物体定位导航的精度。