Big Boom in Ultrasound Imaging Industry

Ultrasound are sound waves with frequencies that are above the upper audible limit of the human hearing. Ultrasound does not differ in its physical properties from "normal" (audible) sound, except that humans cannot hear it. This limit varies from person to person and is around 20 kilohertz (20,000 hertz) in healthy young adults. Ultrasonic devices work with frequencies from 20 kHz up to several gigahertz.

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Some of the key players of Ultrasound Imaging Industry:

General Electric, Samsung Electronics, Koninklijke Philips, Toshiba, Hitachi, Siemens, Analogic, Fujifilm, Mindray Medical International, Esaote

Ultrasound is used in many different areas. Ultrasonic devices are used to detect objects and measure distances. Ultrasound or sonography is widely used in medicine. In the non-destructive testing of products and structures, invisible defects are detected with ultrasound. Ultrasound is used industrially to clean, mix and accelerate chemical processes. Animals like bats and porpoises use ultrasound to locate prey and obstacles.

Acoustics, the science of sound, began as early as the 6th century BC. With Pythagoras, who wrote about the mathematical properties of string instruments. Echolocation in bats was discovered by Lazzaro Spallanzani in 1794 when he demonstrated that bats were hunted and navigated by inaudible sounds rather than visions. Francis Galton invented the Galton whistle in 1893, an adjustable whistle that produced ultrasound that he used to measure the hearing range of humans and other animals to demonstrate that many animals could hear sounds above the hearing range of humans. The first technological application of ultrasound was when Paul Langevin's submarines were attempted to be detected in 1917. The piezoelectric effect, discovered by Jacques and Pierre Curie in 1880, was useful in transducers to create and detect ultrasonic waves in air and water.