Non-scanning measurement of local curvature with an ultrasound annular array

The paper studies a novel approach for measuring local object curvature radii without scanning. Instead of scanning, an ultrasound annular array is used, and the phase and amplitude differences on the different receiver rings, which contain the curvature information, are used to determine the object curvature radius. Two evaluation methods are compared: One method is based on changing the focus of the transducer, whereas the other one is based on measuring phase differences between several receiving channels.