PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a biological information processor capable of processing data of a photoacoustic tomography and an ultrasonic wave echo at a high speed while suppressing a circuit scale.SOLUTION: Generally, a photoacoustic signal has a wavelength longer than a general ultrasonic signal. That is, when acquiring the photoacoustic signal, an element pitch of a probe can be several times as large as that when acquiring the ultrasonic signal. Then, when acquiring the photoacoustic signal, a plurality of neighboring elements in a receiving element array are collectively considered as one element, and a phasing process is performed. Thus, the same effect as that when a plurality of phasing addition circuits are disposed in parallel is obtained, and not only a phasing addition process of the photoacoustic signal but also image reconstruction can be performed in real time at high speed. In addition, an ultrasonic image is generated simultaneously in real time, and both of the photoacoustic images and the ultrasonic images are generated in real time.COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT【課題】回路規模を抑制しつつ、光音響トモグラフィと超音波エコーのデータを高速に処理可能な生体情報処理装置を提供する。【解決手段】光音響信号は、多くの場合一般の超音波信号より波長が長い。つまり、光音響信号取得時は、超音波信号取得時よりも探触子の素子ピッチが数倍大きくても良い。そこで、光音響信号取得時は、受信素子アレイ中の近接する複数の素子をまとめて一素子とみなし、整相処理を行う。それにより、整相加算回路を複数並列に設置したのと同様の効果が得られ、光音響信号の整相加算処理ひいては画像再構成を高速にリアルタイムで行うことができる。加えて、超音波画像生成も同時にリアルタイムで行い、光音響画像と超音波画像の双方をリアルタイム生成する。【選択図】図1B
