Optoacoustics Ltd

Last updated
Optoacoustics Ltd
TypePrivate
Founded2006
Headquarters Or Yehuda, Israel
Key people
Dr. Yuvi Kahana
Dr. Alexander Kots
Dr. Alexander Paritsky
ProductsHigh performance optical sensing products and communications systems

Optoacoustics Ltd [1] is a private company that makes fiber optic-based acoustic microphones, fiber optic microphones, headphones, accelerometers, sensors, telephony accessories, and other components, primarily for medical, industrial, environmental and research applications.

Contents

History

Established in 2006, Optoacoustics' founders are the inventors of the original fiber optical microphone. [2] [3] The company pioneered the microphone's commercial manufacture, which is now in its third generation.

In 2008, Optoacoustics began installing the first fully optical fiber-based communication systems for interventional magnetic resonance imaging (iMRI) at leading U.S. research and clinical hospitals. [4] This system enables doctors, staff and patients to converse normally while performing complex MRI medical procedures, safely abating noise levels of more than 120 dB commonly found in these environments.

Optoacoustics' fiber optical microphones are also used in functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) environments to enable brain researchers to better understand the underlying workings of human speech and communications. [5] [6]

Optoacoustics' products combine two physical disciplines, optics and acoustics, to meet requirements which cannot be addressed by conventional sensing. In particular, Optoacoustics products do not react to or influence any electrical, magnetic, electrostatic or radioactive fields, offering complete EMI/RFI immunity. The company's technology is protected by over 20 international patents.

Products

Related Research Articles

Magnetic resonance imaging Medical imaging technique

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio waves to generate images of the organs in the body. MRI does not involve X-rays or the use of ionizing radiation, which distinguishes it from CT and PET scans. MRI is a medical application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) which can also be used for imaging in other NMR applications, such as NMR spectroscopy.

A communications system or communication system is a collection of individual telecommunications networks, transmission systems, relay stations, tributary stations, and terminal equipment usually capable of interconnection and interoperation to form an integrated whole. The components of a communications system serve a common purpose, are technically compatible, use common procedures, respond to controls, and operate in union.

Microphone Device that converts sound into an electrical signal

A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike, is a device – a transducer – that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and public events, motion picture production, live and recorded audio engineering, sound recording, two-way radios, megaphones, radio and television broadcasting. They are also used in computers for recording voice, speech recognition, VoIP, and for non-acoustic purposes such as ultrasonic sensors or knock sensors.

Medical imaging Technique and process of creating visual representations of the interior of a body

Medical imaging is the technique and process of imaging the interior of a body for clinical analysis and medical intervention, as well as visual representation of the function of some organs or tissues (physiology). Medical imaging seeks to reveal internal structures hidden by the skin and bones, as well as to diagnose and treat disease. Medical imaging also establishes a database of normal anatomy and physiology to make it possible to identify abnormalities. Although imaging of removed organs and tissues can be performed for medical reasons, such procedures are usually considered part of pathology instead of medical imaging.

Optical fiber Light-conducting fiber

An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber and find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at higher bandwidths than electrical cables. Fibers are used instead of metal wires because signals travel along them with less loss; in addition, fibers are immune to electromagnetic interference, a problem from which metal wires suffer. Fibers are also used for illumination and imaging, and are often wrapped in bundles so they may be used to carry light into, or images out of confined spaces, as in the case of a fiberscope. Specially designed fibers are also used for a variety of other applications, some of them being fiber optic sensors and fiber lasers.

Neuroimaging Set of techniques to measure and visualize aspects of the nervous system

Neuroimaging or brain imaging is the use of various techniques to either directly or indirectly image the structure, function, or pharmacology of the nervous system. It is a relatively new discipline within medicine, neuroscience, and psychology. Physicians who specialize in the performance and interpretation of neuroimaging in the clinical setting are neuroradiologists. Neuroimaging falls into two broad categories:

Magnetic resonance microscopy

Magnetic resonance microscopy is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at a microscopic level down to the scale of microns. The first definition of MRM was MRI having voxel resolutions of better than 100 μm.

Jens Frahm is Director of the Biomedizinische NMR at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany.

ITK-SNAP

ITK-SNAP is an interactive software application that allows users to navigate three-dimensional medical images, manually delineate anatomical regions of interest, and perform automatic image segmentation. The software was designed with the audience of clinical and basic science researchers in mind, and emphasis has been placed on having a user-friendly interface and maintaining a limited feature set to prevent feature creep. ITK-SNAP is most frequently used to work with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) and computed tomography (CT) data sets.

A fiber-optic sensor is a sensor that uses optical fiber either as the sensing element, or as a means of relaying signals from a remote sensor to the electronics that process the signals. Fibers have many uses in remote sensing. Depending on the application, fiber may be used because of its small size, or because no electrical power is needed at the remote location, or because many sensors can be multiplexed along the length of a fiber by using light wavelength shift for each sensor, or by sensing the time delay as light passes along the fiber through each sensor. Time delay can be determined using a device such as an optical time-domain reflectometer and wavelength shift can be calculated using an instrument implementing optical frequency domain reflectometry.

Robert Turner is a British neuroscientist, physicist, and social anthropologist. He has been a director and professor at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, and is an internationally recognized expert in brain physics and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Coils inside every MRI scanner owe their shape to his ideas.

Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain

Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to produce high quality two-dimensional or three-dimensional images of the brain and brainstem without the use of ionizing radiation (X-rays) or radioactive tracers.

Ian Robert Young was a British medical physicist, known for his work in the field of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Fiber-optical thermometers can be used in electromagnetically strongly influenced environment, in microwave fields, power plants or explosion-proof areas and wherever measurement with electrical temperature sensors are not possible.

Arno Villringer is a director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany; director of the Department of Cognitive Neurology at University Hospital Leipzig; and Academic Director of the Berlin School of Mind and Brain and the Mind&Brain Institute, Berlin. He holds a full professorship at University of Leipzig and an honorary professorship at Charité, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to brain mapping:

Val Murray Runge

Val Murray Runge is an American professor of radiology and the editor-in-chief of Investigative Radiology. Runge was one of the early researchers to investigate the use of gadolinium-based contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), giving the first presentation in this field, followed two years later by the first presentation of efficacy. His research also pioneered many early innovations in MRI, including the use of tilted planes and respiratory gating. His publication on multiple sclerosis in 1984 represented the third and largest clinical series investigating the role of MRI in this disease, and the first to show characteristic abnormalities on MRI in patients whose CT was negative.

The Scanning Fiber Endoscope (SFE) is a next generation technology that uses a flexible, small peripheral or coronary catheter to provide wide-field, high-quality, full-color, laser-based video imaging. These differences distinguish SFE applications from current imaging approaches such as IVUS and Intracoronary OCT. Applications for the device, are expected to include medical diagnosis and support in determining interventional treatments such as surgery or biopsy. Providing both full-color images and a wide-field, real-time surgical view into the inner depths of arteries, enables physicians to circumnavigate hard to reach internal tissues to assess for potential disease.

Denis Le Bihan is a medical doctor, physicist, member of the Institut de France, member of the French Academy of Technologies and director since 2007 of NeuroSpin, an institution of the Atomic Energy and Alternative Energy Commission (CEA) in Saclay, dedicated to the study of the brain by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with a very high magnetic field. Denis Le Bihan has received international recognition for his outstanding work, introducing new imaging methods, particularly for the study of the human brain, as evidenced by the many international awards he has received, such as the Gold Medal of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (2001), the coveted Lounsbery Prize, the Louis D. Prize from the Institut de France and the prestigious Honda Prize (2012). His work has focused on the introduction, development and application of highly innovative methods, notably diffusion MRI.

References

  1. Optoacoustics Web Site
  2. Paritsky, Alexander; Kots, A. (1997). Shladov, Itzhak; Rotman, Stanley R (eds.). "Fiber optic microphone as a realization of fiber optic positioning sensors". Proc. Of International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE). 10th Meeting on Optical Engineering in Israel. 3110: 408–409. Bibcode:1997SPIE.3110..408P. doi:10.1117/12.281371. S2CID   110338054.
  3. USpatent 6462808,Alexander Paritsky and Alexander Kots,"Small optical microphone/sensor",issued 2002-10-08
  4. "Case Study: Can You Hear Me Now?". rt image . Valley Forge Publishing. pp. 30–31. Archived from the original on 2011-07-15. Retrieved 2009-08-23.
  5. NessAiver (Dept. of Diagnostic Radiology, Univ. of Maryland Medical School, Maryland, USA), M.; Stone, M; Parthasarathy, V; Kahana, Y; Paritsky, A (2006). "Recording High Quality Speech During Tagged Cine-MRI Studies Using a Fiber Optic Microphone". Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging. January (1): 92–7. doi: 10.1002/jmri.20463 . PMID   16331589. S2CID   34266115.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. M. Papoutsi (Centre for Speech, Language, and the Brain, Univ. of Cambridge, England), M.; De Zwart, JA; Jansma, JM; Pickering, MJ; Bednar, JA; Horwitz, B (2009). "From Phonemes to Articulatory Codes: An fMRI Study of the Role of Broca's Area in Speech Production". Cerebral Cortex. 19 (9): 2156–2165. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhn239. PMC   2722428 . PMID   19181696.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)