Acoustic diagnostic apparatus with scan control

Claim 1

A non-invasive medical apparatus comprising: a vessel holding an acoustically transmissive liquid (ATL), said vessel being of sufficient size to hold at least a portion of the body of an animal therein such that said portion generates infrasonic acoustic signatures and launch same into said acoustically transmissive liquid, said vessel having a wall surface, a plurality of acoustic transducer means sequentially mounted on said wall surface and immersed in said body of acoustically transmissive liquid for converting said infrasonic acoustic energy travelling in said acoustically transmissive body of liquid to electrical signals, there being primary acoustic paths between said body and one or more of said transducer means and one or more secondary paths between said body and said one or more transducer means, means for scanning said acoustic transducers means, including electronic gate means, and a microprocessor means for controlling said gate means to allow the primary path acoustic signals to be selected over secondary path acoustic signals, means connectable to said transducer means for detecting the acoustic signatures of parts of said body.