TECHNICAL NOTES AND RESEARCH BRIEFS

16.3; 5.5; 13.11n, 13.11

AWARD v•rINNING ACOUSTIC DEVICES

EACH YEAR, INDUSTRIAL I•gSEARCH INC. examines the year's technical products and selects the 100considered "most significant" for the year. The list for 1968, which was announced at an award-presentation ban- quet on 4 October and reported in In- dustrial Research for December 1968, in- cludes five examples of applied acoustics.

In one, the "MS-110 Ultrasonic Rapid Sector Imaging System, high-speed ultra- sonic sector scanning is combined with fluoroscopy in a unique system that permits visualization of internal motion and third-

dimension view of heart walls, heart valves, and other internal structures.

"Pericardial effusion can be diagnosed by the system because it projects cross-section images through the same plane in rapid succession. The cross-section image shows the separation between pericardium and heart muscle, thus displaying the presence of fluid in the space.

"The scanning instrument's oscillating contact-type transducer is mounted on the tracks on which the compression cone diaphragm of the fluoroscope usually travels, and is positioned in the center of the view field of the fluoroscopic system. The fluoroscopic image pinpoints the region of the body the ultrasonic device is scan- ning. Simultaneous observation is provided by sector-scan display on a cathode ray tube arranged side by side with the fluoro- scopic display screen.

"Three-dimensional interpretation is pro- vided by the MS-110 because the sector scan presents a cross-section and the fluoroscope shows what is essentially a plan view. The system was developed in a two- year joint research project by the Depart- ment of Radiology, Presbyterian-St. Luke's Hospital, and the Medical Div., Magnaflux Corp., both in Chicago. Developers were John J. Flaherty and Peter J. Rosauer,

engineers, Magnaflux Corp.; and Dr. John W. Clark, radiologist, Presbyterian-St. Luke's Hospital."

A second acoustic prize winner was an evoked response audiometer that "deter- mines auditory thresholds in acoustically handicapped children and uncooperative subjects." "The Model 140 'Evoked Re- sponse Audiometer,' developed at Princeton Applied Research Corp., Princeton, N.J., is the first practical, economical system developed for objectively evaluating audi- tory acuity in babies, small children, and uncooperative adults. It is useful in both research and clinical applications, and also can serve as a general-purpose evoked response system with other types of input stimuli such as photic and tactile.

"An efficient analog-type signal averag- ing computer, a newly developed audio- meter, and solid-state EEG amplifier operate to average electro-encephalographic responses to a series of auditory stimuli. The system provides a wide range of critical parameters: tone frequency, intensity level, pulse duration, pulse repetition rate, rise and fall times, total number of pulses, integrating time constant, sweep duration, recorder chart speed, EEG amplifier gain, and high and low EEG frequency roll-offs. Developers were Dr. Drance de Arnorim, director, medical instrumentation; and Daniel McCabe, development engineer."

The third device honored with an award

was a pulse Doppler sonar navigator, which "gives true vector ground speed as meas- ured in terms of the Doppler shift on the echo, thus providing an accurate source of data for automatic dead reckoning. "The navigation and positioning system features a pulsed sonar that radiates four beams of 400 kHz sonic energy towards the ocean bottom. Echo received over each beam

provides a measure of the Doppler shift. True speed and track of the vessel are provided by processing these returns. By combining these inputs with compass data, the computer provides accurate, completely

automatic dead reckoning navigation. L. O. Vladimir, principal engineer, J. R. Coulter, engineer, and G. Stavis, depart- ment manager, developed the system, which is produced by Singer-General Precision Inc., GPL Div., Kearfott Group, Pleasant- ville, N.Y."

The fourth and fifth acoustic products included in the list of 100 were two of three

Honeywell Inc. electronic systems, which won a combined award. The "Acoustic

Position Reference System (APRS)," developed by the company's Marine Systems Center, Seattle, is a sonar system for precise determination of vessel position relative to an underwater reference point. Accuracy to within 8% of water depth is obtained by the system, which employs a single underwater beacon at the reference point, a shipboard array of hydrophones for receiving the signal from the beacon, and a shipboard signal-processing and display console, which computes the ship position and indicates it on a geographical X-Y display. Position is determined by measur- ing the differences in time of arrival of the beacon signal at the hydrophones. De- velopers were I. Gil Raudsep, marine products planning manager, and Don D. Uhrich, senior development engineer."

The "Acoustic Control and Telemetry System" (ACTS), also from the Seattle Marine Systems Center, provides remote control and monitoring of underwater equipment without intervening physical connections. It comprises a battery- powered underwater unit that interfaces with equipment to be controlled, and a shipboard system with a control panel for transmitting commands to the underwater unit and displaying the received data. The system provides both discrete and con- tinuous control and data telemetry. Security coding of all signals assures error- free operation. Principal ACTS developers were James A. Lagoe, project supervisor, and Dan H. Kusaka, principal development engineer."•

9.8

IT HAD TO HAPPEN...

SOONER OR LATER, THAT IS. it seems that after centuries of unassisted do-it-yourself varieties of oratorical boo-boos (the symp- toms of foot-in-mouth disease), man can

now talk through his hat with electronic assistance for louder errors and assurance

of greater coverage. We call to your atten- tion Patent 3,442,224 which describes a hat shaped like a fireman's helmet, which con- tains a microphone, amplifiers, and loud-

speaker (and note without comment that it was issued to an advertising agency). So, if you should find people saying to you "Will you please turn down your hat!," think about it--they may be trying to tell you something.•

3.1

NEW TECHNICAL REPORTS

Characteristics of Sea Reverberation-- V. V. Ol'shevskii, Consultants Bureau/ Plenum Press, New York, 1967, 159 pp., $19.50. An analysis of the statistical char- acteristics of sea reverberation on the basis

of a discrete model of sound scattering by inhomogeneities in the ocean medium and

irregularities at it• boundaries. Also con- sidered in this translation from the Russian

are specific problems related to the nature of the transmitted signal, the bandpass characteristics of the receiver and motions of the acoustic source.

Acoustic Provinces of the North Pacific Based on Deep-Sea Cores (A Prelimi- nary Survey)--D. R. Horn et al., Lamont

Geological Observatory of Columbia Uni- versity, Palisades, New York, for the Navy, Dec. 1967, 67 pp., AD-671864.

Hearing Loss, Hearing Aids, and the Elderly,--1968, 390 pp. il. Y4. Ag 4:H 35, presents hearings, held before the Sub- committee on Consumer Interests of the

Elderly of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, 90th Congr., 2nd session, 18 and 19

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 1061

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