• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.60-66
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• 2016

This study used an ultrasound infrared thermography technique to detect issues in the motor core of typical power equipment. The current defect inspection method of the motor core is often incomplete (due to the limits of visual inspection) and thus the reliability of the motor core is reduced. Therefore, in this study, experiments were carried out to increase the reliability of the test by using an ultrasonic infrared thermal non-destructive inspection method to image the motor core. The ambient temperature of the experimental system was maintained at $25^{\circ}C$. Experiments were carried out to examine a damaged motor core and a defect-free motor core. Experimental results confirm the technique clearly detected defects in the motor core, thereby confirming the possibility of using this technique in the field.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.422-428
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• 2023

Ultrafast ultrasound imaging has been applied to various imaging approaches, including shear wave elastography, ultrafast Doppler, and super-resolution imaging. However, these methods are still challenging in real-time implementation for three Dimension (3D) or portable applications because of their massive data rate required. In this paper, we proposed an adaptive quantization method that effectively reduces the data rate of large Radio Frequency (RF) data. In soft tissue, ultrasound backscatter signals require a high dynamic range, and thus typical quantization used in the current systems uses the quantization level of 10 bits to 14 bits. To alleviate the quantization level to expand the application of ultrafast ultrasound imaging, this study proposed a depth-sectional quantization approach that reduces the quantization errors. For quantitative evaluation, Field II simulations, phantom experiments, and in vivo imaging were conducted and CNR, spatial resolution, and SSIM values were compared with the proposed method and fixed quantization method. We demonstrated that our proposed method is capable of effectively reducing the quantization level down to 3-bit while minimizing the image quality degradation.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.195-202
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• 2020

Needle detection in ultrasound images is sometimes difficult due to obstruction of fat tissues. Accurate needle detection using continuous ultrasound (CUS) images is a vital stage of treatment planning for tissue biopsy and brachytherapy. The main goal of the study is classified into two categories. First, new detection model, i.e. D-Attention Unet, is developed by combining the context information of 3D medical data and CUS images. Second, the D-Attention Unet model was compared with other models to verify its usefulness for needle detection in continuous ultrasound images. The continuous needle images taken with ultrasonic waves were converted into still images for dataset to evaluate the performance of the D-Attention Unet. The dataset was used for training and testing. Based on the results, the proposed D-Attention Unet model showed the better performance than other 3 models (Unet, D-Unet and Attention Unet), with Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC), Recall and Precision at 71.9%, 70.6% and 73.7%, respectively. In conclusion, the D-Attention Unet model provides accurate needle detection for US-guided biopsy or brachytherapy, facilitating the clinical workflow. Especially, this kind of research is enthusiastically being performed on how to add image processing techniques to learning techniques. Thus, the proposed method is applied in this manner, it will be more effective technique than before.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.751-759
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• 2023

Breast ultrasonography is difficult to image in fatty breasts and to find micro-calcification, but the discovery of micro-calcification is very important for breast cancer screening. Among the color Doppler artifact of ultrasound, twinkle artifact mainly occur on strong reflectors such as stones or calcification in images, and evaluation methods using them are clinically being used. In this study, we are conducting experiments on the color Doppler settings of ultrasound equipment, such as repetition frequency, ensemble, persist, wall filtering, smoothing, linear density, and dissociation value, by producing a breast simulation phantom using the largest amount of calcium phosphate among breast implants. The purpose of this study was to improve the contrast of twinkle artifact in breast ultrasound examinations and to maximize their use in clinical practice. As a result, the pulse repetition frequency occurred in the range of 3.6 kHz to 7.2 kHz, and did not occur above 10.5 kHz. For ensembles, twinkle artifact occurred in all sizes of calcification under low conditions, and in threshold settings, the twinkle artifact increased slightly only under 80 to 100 conditions, and did not occur in 1 mm size calcification. Persist, wall filter, smoothing, and line density settings did not have much meaning in the setting variable because conditions did not increase by condition, and pulse repetition frequency, ensemble, and thresholds had the greatest impact on the twinkling artifact image. This study is expected to help examiners select optimal conditions to effectively increase twinkle artifact by adjusting color Doppler settings.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.33 no.5 s.133
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• pp.29-37
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• 2005

A previous study verified that the SIRT (simultaneous iterative reconstruction technique) method is more efficient than the back-projection method as a CT algorithm for wood. However, it was expected that the determination of the initial model function of the SIRT method would influence the quality of CT image. Therefore, in this study, we intended to develop a technique that could be used to determine an adequate initial model function. For this purpose, we proposed several techniques, and for each technique we examined the effects of the initial model function on the average errors and the CT image at each iteration. Through this study, it was shown that the average error was decreased and the image quality was improved using the proposed techniques. This tendency was most pronounced when the back-projection method was used to determine the initial model function. From the results of this study, we drew the following conclusions: 1) The initial model function of the SIRT method should be determined with careful attention, and 2) the back-projection method efficiently determines the initial model function of the SIRT method.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.124-130
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• 2011

In this study, in order to evaluate the yield of bubble by ultrasonic cavitation in HIFU sonication, the bubble image analysis was performed. The changing phenomenon of cavitation effect according to the sonication condition was discussed by analyzing the bubble image. Especially the appearance of bubble cloud, the size of micro-bubble, and the yield of bubble were considered. The 500 KHz and 1.1 MHz concave type ultrasonic transducers were used for HIFU sonication. Computer controlled digital camera was used to obtain the bubble image, and the binary image processing(binarization coefficient : 0.15) was performed to analyze them. In results of 500 KHz and 1.1 MHz transducer, the area of bubble cloud was increased in proportion to the rise in sonication intensity($R^2$ : 0.7031 and 0.811). The mean size of single microbubble was measured as 98.18 um in 500 KHz sonication, and 63.38 um in 1.1 MHz sonication. In addition, the amount of produced bubble was increased in proportion to sonication intensity. Through the result of this study and further study for variable image processing method, the quantitative evaluation of ultrasonic cavitation effects in HIFU operation could be possible with the linearity associated with the sonication conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.957-964
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• 2023

This study focused on hand sanitizer as a medium that can replace ultrasonic gel, which is vulnerable to contamination by bacteria that reside on the hand. Hand sanitizer produces a strong sterilization effect from germs resident on the hands through different sterilization principles depending on the ingredients. Select products of gel type, cream type, and foam type, except for liquid type with low viscosity, and ultrasonically apply one 62% ethanol gel type and one cream type, one benzalkonium chloride 0.066% cream type and one foam type, respectively. Using ATS-539 as a medium, image evaluation was performed on the axial and lateral resolution and penetration depth, and the presence or absence of an air layer between the probe and the phantom. As a result, in the evaluation of the axial and lateral resolution and the depth of penetration, all four experimental groups met the evaluation criteria. However, in the case of the foam type, although it was suitable for the evaluation criteria of resolution and penetration depth, dark shadows appeared on both sides except for the center of observation during image evaluation. Through this experiment, it was possible to confirm the possibility that the remaining three types of hand sanitizers except the foam type could replace the ultrasonic gel.

• Journal of Advanced Engineering and Technology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.245-251
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• 2018

Terahertz waves (T-ray) was extensively studied for the NDE (nondestructive evaluation) of characterization of trailing edges for a use of turbines composed with composite materials. The used NDE system were consisted of both CW(Continuous wave) and TDS (Time domain spectroscopy). The FRP composites were utilized for two kinds of both trailing edges of wind energy (non-conducting polymeric composites) and carbon fiber composites with conducting properties. The signals of T-ray in the TDS (Time domain spectroscopy) mode resembles almost that of ultrasound waves; however, a terahertz pulse could not penetrate a material with conductivity unlike ultrasound. Also, a method was suggested to obtain the "n" in the materials, which is called the refractive index (n). The data of refractive index (n) could be solved for the trailing edges. The trailing edges were scanned for characterization and inspection. C-scan and B-scan images were obtained and best optimal NDE techniques were suggested for complicated geometry samples by terahertz radiation. Especially, it is found that the defect image of T-ray corresponded with defect locations for the trailing edges of wind mill.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.50
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• pp.25.1-25.11
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• 2020

Scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM) or Acoustic Micro Imaging (AMI) is a powerful, non-destructive technique that can detect hidden defects in elastic and biological samples as well as non-transparent hard materials. By monitoring the internal features of a sample in three-dimensional integration, this technique can efficiently find physical defects such as cracks, voids, and delamination with high sensitivity. In recent years, advanced techniques such as ultrasound impedance microscopy, ultrasound speed microscopy, and scanning acoustic gigahertz microscopy have been developed for applications in industries and in the medical field to provide additional information on the internal stress, viscoelastic, and anisotropic, or nonlinear properties. X-ray, magnetic resonance, and infrared techniques are the other competitive and widely used methods. However, they have their own advantages and limitations owing to their inherent properties such as different light sources and sensors. This paper provides an overview of the principle of SAM and presents a few results to demonstrate the applications of modern acoustic imaging technology. A variety of inspection modes, such as vertical, horizontal, and diagonal cross-sections have been presented by employing the focus pathway and image reconstruction algorithm. Images have been reconstructed from the reflected echoes resulting from the change in the acoustic impedance at the interface of the material layers or defects. The results described in this paper indicate that the novel acoustic technology can expand the scope of SAM as a versatile diagnostic tool requiring less time and having a high efficiency.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.975-984
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• 2022

Since a linear transducer has an area of interest equal to the length of the transducer, the area of interest can be expanded using the virtual convex function installed in the device.However, it was thought that the change in the direction of the ultrasonic sound velocity according to the change in the visual area of interest would affect the image quality, so this was objectively confirmed. For this study, image evaluation and SNR·CNR of the phantom for ultrasound quality control were measured. As a result, in the phantom image evaluation, both images were able to identify structures in functional resolution, grayscale, and dynamic range. However, it was confirmed that the standard image was excellent in the reproducibility of the size and shape of the structure. As a result of SNR·CNR evaluation, SNR·CNR of most trapezoidal images was low, except for structures at specific locations. In addition, through the statistical analysis graph, it was further confirmed that the SNR and CNR for each depth decreased as the size of the cystic structure decreased. Through this study, it was confirmed that the use of the function has the advantage of providing a wide visual area of interest, but it has an effect on the image quality. Therefore, when using the virtual convex function, it is judged that the examiner should use it in an appropriate situation and conduct various studies to acquire high-quality images and to improve the understanding and proficiency of the equipment.