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Underwater acoustic transducer array and sound field shaping system

Patent Number: 8111585
Publication Date: 2012-02-07
Inventor: Graber, Curtis E.

A sonar system includes an objective having reflecting surface(s) with coincident forward radiant axes. Each of the reflecting surfaces defines sets of equivalent acoustic output/receiving locations allowing the use of a plurality of transducers with each reflecting surface. When used in a projection mode, and depending upon the frequency radiated, the sound sources may function as a distributed, functionally continuous sound source. In a passive mode use of a field reflector allows ...

Optical sensing arrangements

Patent Number: 8111584
Publication Date: 2012-02-07
Inventor: Langston, Robert John

A method of detecting a submerged vessel in or near the wake of a ship in which a plurality of optical fiber sensors are trailed from said ship and in which at least one of said sensors which is located in the ship's wake comprises a magnetically-responsive optical fiber ...

Method and apparatus for determining and indicating direction and type of sound

Patent Number: 8111583
Publication Date: 2012-02-07
Inventor: Schwartz, Adam L.

A method and apparatus for determining the direction of a sound source is disclosed. The method includes determining time differences of arrival of the sound at N locations and using the differences to determine the angular direction of the source. The apparatus indicates the angle of arrival and additionally indicates the type of the sound ...

Projectile-detection collars and methods

Patent Number: 8111582
Publication Date: 2012-02-07
Inventors: Beck, Steven David; Hamm, Douglas W.; Hoenes, Eric Charles; Harmse, Jorgen Ernst; Bartlett, George Andrew

User-wearable sensor arrays for use with projectile-detection systems, and methods of detecting a projectile with user-wearable sensor ...

Monitoring system for a ship"S radiated noise

Patent Number: 8111581
Publication Date: 2012-02-07
Inventors: Donaldson, John Marshall; Millar, Stuart Lawson; Duncan, George Alexander; Moody, Martin John

A ship's radiated noise monitoring system includes a plurality of arrays of spaced vibration-responsive detectors, the arrays being adapted for location adjacent to the ship's hull in the region of possible noise sources; summing amplifiers for receiving the detectors output signals from respective arrays and providing output signals representative of the average vibration signals received by each array; an analyzer connected to the output of each summing amplifier to perform a spectrum ...

Boomer for marine seismic survey

Patent Number: 8107323
Publication Date: 2012-01-31
Inventors: Kim, Young Jun; Chun, Jong Hwa; Shin, Sung Ryul; Yoo, Dong Geun

Provided is a boomer that is a type of a seismic source generator for marine seismic survey. In the boomer for marine seismic survey according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of transducer coupling parts capable of separating and coupling a transducer are disposed on a bottom of a board floating on a surface of water, the transducer coupling parts are disposed along a straight line L forming left and right center of gravity of the board, and a transducer ...

Device and method for attenuating an anti-resonant circuit

Patent Number: 8107322
Publication Date: 2012-01-31
Inventor: Reiche, Martin

A device for the attenuation of an anti-resonant circuit which has a first capacitor and a secondary inductance. A signal is able to be coupled into the anti-resonant circuit via a primary inductance. An attenuator is connected in parallel to a switching device and to the secondary inductance and/or the primary ...

Joint position-pitch estimation of acoustic sources for their tracking and separation

Patent Number: 8107321
Publication Date: 2012-01-31
Inventors: Wohlmayr, Michael; Kubin, Gernot; Képesi, Marián

The invention relates to a method for localizing and tracking acoustic sources (101) in a multi-source environment, comprising the steps of recording audio-signals (103) of at least one acoustic source (101) with at least two recording means (104, 105), creating a two- or multi-channel recording signal, partitioning said recording signal into frames of predefined length (N), calculating for each frame a cross-correlation function as a function of discrete ...

Autonomous sonar system and method

Patent Number: 8107320
Publication Date: 2012-01-31
Inventors: Janik, Michael F.; McPhillips, Kenneth J.; Novick, Arnold W.; Short, John R.; McHale, Thomas J.; Rozenfeld, Ilya; Casalegno, James W.

An autonomous sonar system and method provide an arrangement capable of beamforming in three dimensions, detecting loud targets, adaptively beamforming in three dimensions to avoid the loud targets, detecting quiet targets, localizing the loud or quiet targets in range, bearing, and depth, detecting modulation of noise associated with propellers of the loud or quiet targets, generating three dimensional tracks of the loud or quiet targets in bearing, range and depth, making classification ...

Acoustic fluid height monitoring using dynamic surface perturbations

Patent Number: 8107319
Publication Date: 2012-01-31
Inventors: Datwani, Sammy S.; Stearns, Richard G.

A method of determining the volume or height of fluid in a reservoir is provided. A first burst of focused acoustic energy is used to raise temporarily a protuberance on a free surface of the fluid. A second burst of acoustic energy is directed to the free surface of the fluid. Echoes from the second burst of acoustic energy are detected. The detected echoes are employed to compute the height of the ...

Sonar scanner

Patent Number: 8107318
Publication Date: 2012-01-31
Inventors: Chiappetta, Mark; Allard, James

Detecting an object using sound waves includes outputting a sound wave from a transducer, receiving an echo after outputting the sound wave, obtaining a threshold value based on the echo and plural other echoes that are within a predetermined range of the echo, and determining if the echo is a result of the sound wave based on the threshold ...

Technique and system for performing a cross well survey

Patent Number: 8107317
Publication Date: 2012-01-31
Inventors: Fayard, Alfredo; Leaney, Scott W.; Gerez, David; Underhill, William B.

A technique includes providing a source in a first well and a seismic receiver in a second well to detect a seismic event that is caused by the source. The technique includes referencing clocks in the source and receiver to a common reference time frame and determining a time in the reference time frame at which the seismic source generates the seismic ...

Controlled source imbalance apparatus, systems, and methods

Patent Number: 8107316
Publication Date: 2012-01-31
Inventors: Birchak, James R.; Geerits, Tim W.

In some embodiments, an apparatus and a system, as well as a method and an article, may include exciting a plurality of signal source pairs having a substantially equal and non-zero acoustic signature amplitude difference in a frequency domain to provide acoustic signal data, and acquiring the acoustic signal data along a selected azimuth. The plurality of signal source pairs may comprise acoustic bender plates, perhaps included in the outer wall of a downhole ...

High intensity focused ultrasound transducer with acoustic lens

Patent Number: 8102734
Publication Date: 2012-01-24
Inventors: Goetz, Peter; Ciciarelli, Timothy E.; Ma, Zhenyi; Morse, Stephen; Teng, Jennifer; Sliwa, John W.; Callaghan, Frank

A high intensity focused ultrasound transducer includes an ultrasonic emitter having a surface that emits ultrasonic energy along a beam path, at least one low attenuation polymeric ultrasonic lens acoustically coupled to the surface in the beam path of the ultrasonic energy, such that the lens can direct the ultrasonic energy in at least one direction, and at least one stress mitigation feature, such as a kerf, a heat sink, or an acoustic matching layer, to mitigate thermal expansion ...

Communicating using sonar signals at multiple frequencies

Patent Number: 8102733
Publication Date: 2012-01-24
Inventors: Rapp, John W.; Lee, Joseph S.

An embodiment of an apparatus includes a communication circuit and a transducer array coupled to the communication circuit. The communication circuit is operable to generate first and second information signals, and the transducer array is operable to generate in response to the first information signal a first sonar signal having a first frequency, and to generate in response to the second information signal a second sonar signal having a second frequency. The transducer array may generate ...

Anisotropy measurement while drilling

Patent Number: 8102732
Publication Date: 2012-01-24
Inventors: Pabon, Jahir; Hsu, Chaur-Jian; Sinha, Bikash K.

Methods and apparatus facilitating measurement of anisotropy are disclosed. According to some aspects, anisotropy can be determined while drilling. Monopole/quadrupole interactions, as well as monitoring dipole excitations and other methods, may be used to find the principal shear directions of a formation while drilling or during wireline or other ...

Method for operating marine seismic vibrator array to enhance low frequency output

Patent Number: 8102731
Publication Date: 2012-01-24
Inventor: Cambois, Guillaume

A method for operating marine seismic vibrators includes towing at least a first and a second marine seismic vibrator in a body of water beneath the hull of a vessel. At least a third marine seismic vibrator is towed at a selected depth in the water other than beneath the hull of the vessel. The at least first, second and third vibrators are operated to sweep through respective frequency ranges. The first and second frequency ranges have lowermost frequencies and uppermost frequencies ...

Geophone having improved sensitivity

Patent Number: 8098546
Publication Date: 2012-01-17
Inventor: Woo, Daniel M.

A geophone utilizing an Alnico-9 magnet and having an improved sensitivity over Alnico-9 geophones of prior art through the lengthening of the parasitic air gap between the upper and lower pole pieces which, results in less magnetic flux leakage. The flux concentration through the geophone coils is increased and shifted towards the ends of the magnet. The increase of sensitivity of geophone of the present invention over prior art geophones may exceed 3 dB. The axial length of the coil ...

Underwater vehicle guidance

Patent Number: 8098545
Publication Date: 2012-01-17
Inventors: Rhodes, Mark; Hyland, Brendan

The present invention relates to an underwater guidance system for guiding an underwater apparatus, for example an underwater vehicle, towards a target structure, such as a docking station. The system comprises at least one system for capturing or sensing information on the relative position of the apparatus and the target structure and/or at least one imaging system for capturing an image of the target structure and a transmitter for wireless electromagnetic transmission of data indicative ...

Method and system for enhancing accuracy in ultrasonic alignment

Patent Number: 8098544
Publication Date: 2012-01-17
Inventors: McIntosh, Jason; Boillot, Marc; Roche, Martin

A method for short range alignment using ultrasonic sensing is provided. The method includes shaping an ultrasonic pulse on a first device to produce a pulse shaped signal and transmitting the pulse shaped signal from the first device to a second device, receiving the pulse shaped signal and determining an arrival time of the pulse shaped, identifying a relative phase of the pulse shaped signal with respect to a previously received pulse shaped signal, identifying a pointing location of the ...

Estimation of stress and elastic parameters

Patent Number: 8098543
Publication Date: 2012-01-17
Inventors: Bachrach, Ran; Sengupta, Madhumita

Various implementations described herein are directed to estimating stresses and elastic parameters in a formation based on seismic data. In one implementation, wide azimuth seismic data may be used to derive anisotropic elastic parameters. Furthermore, stresses may be calculated using a geomechanical earth model, followed by deriving anisotropic elastic parameters based on the calculated stresses. The anisotropic elastic parameters derived from the wide azimuth seismic data may then be ...

Combined electromagnetic and seismic acquisition system and method

Patent Number: 8098542
Publication Date: 2012-01-17
Inventors: Lunde, Nils; Hillesund, Øyvind

A method for marine geophysical surveying according to one aspect of the invention includes towing at least one geophysical sensor streamer in a body of water. The streamer includes a plurality of spaced apart electromagnetic field receivers disposed at spaced apart locations along the streamer. The streamer also includes a plurality of seismic sensors disposed at spaced apart locations. The seismic sensors each include at least one pressure responsive receiver and at least one particle ...