ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,303,234, issued on May 20.
"Diffuse acoustic confocal imager" was invented by Rodney Herring (Victoria, Canada).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A diffuse acoustic confocal imager device for use with a data analyzer for providing a three dimensional and state information on an object based on an at least one phase image, the device comprising a coherent acoustic source for producing an acoustic confocal beam ranging from about 0.5 megahertz to about 100 megahertz, an acoustic coherent beam focuser for focusing the acoustic coherent beam to a virtual source, an acoustic detector for detecting an at least one diffusely scattered beam from the...