Acoustical Sensing and Imaging

Acoustical Sensing and Imaging
Hua Lee
CRC Press, Boca Raton, (2016)
122 pp., hardback, 89.95 USD
ISBN: 978-1-4987-2573-6
eBook, 62.97 USD

This book is a succinct well-written book summarizing the various mathematical approaches to acoustical sensing and imaging. Hua Lee provides by example the necessary foundation to help the reader determine the methodology for an imaging application that will result in a better resolution based on the given constraints and requirements of the specific application. The format of the book provides the essential technical tools and background essential to understand, compare, and then use the various mathematical fundamental processes. These technical tools include details of the core elements of signal processing that are required to enhance the image, such as the signature of the waveforms, image reconstruction algorithms, and error minimization.

The examples provided include medical imaging, underwater acoustics, sonar imaging, tomographic acoustic microscopy and geophysical signal processing. While not all applications are utilized in the examples, the ones used are sufficiently diversified to demonstrate the result of each theoretical approach. This in turn facilitates the understanding of the weaknesses and strengths of the different methods and the subtle differences between them. Procedures to improve the system performance are also explained, including the correction of quadrature phase errors prior to image reconstruction.

The step-by-step theoretical framework of the book comes from the fact that the book has been used for a graduate course in acoustic imaging. Hua Lee is known for his pioneering research laboratory. This facility and associated work provided the clear imaging pictures that are used in the book to help demonstrate some of the differences of the various approaches.

Although Hua Lee is also the author of other books with substantial content on imaging technology and engineering, one of the assets of this book is that it is short and concise. The back cover of the book, often made available online prior to ordering the book, provides an excellent summary of the book’s theoretical content.

Bonnie Schnitta
SoundSense, LLC
Wainscott, NY, USA
bonnie@soundsense.com