PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technology that allows detecting, stably and with good precision, positions at which a singular region is likely to be present, for instance a high-reflection body, in particular a small high-reflection body, on the basis of received waveform data of elastic waves.SOLUTION: A signal processing apparatus includes: an transducer that performs scanning over the interior of an object and acquires received waveform data of a plurality of scanlines a signal intensity screening unit that outputs a high intensity position at which signal intensity calculated from the received waveform data is higher than a first predetermined value a correlation-between-scanlines calculation unit that calculates a correlation value in a constant-width division for received waveform data of a first scanline and of a second scanline having a predetermined correlation with the first scanline a correlation variation position extraction unit that extracts, as a candidate position of a singular region, a position which corresponds to a high intensity position and for which the correlation value is lower than a second predetermined value and an image processor that performs signal processing of generating a tomographic image of the object on the basis of the received waveform data.COPYRIGHT: (C)2012,JPO&INPIT【課題】弾性波の受信波形データから高反射体、特に微小な高反射体などの特異領域の存在し得る位置を精度良く安定的に検出可能な技術を提供する。【解決手段】被検体内部を走査して複数の走査線の受信波形データを取得する振動子と、受信波形データから算出した信号強度が第1の所定の値よりも高い高強度位置を出力する信号強度判定部と、第1の走査線および第1の走査線と所定の相関を有する第2の走査線の受信波形データにつき、一定幅の区間において相関値を算出する走査線間相関算出部と、相関値が第2の所定の値よりも低く高強度位置に対応する位置を特異領域の候補位置として抽出する相関変化位置抽出部と、受信波形データから被検体の断層像を形成する信号処理を行う画像処理部を備える信号処理装置を用いる。【選択図】図6
