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TECHNOLOGY LICENSING OPPORTUNITY: Acoustic Camera
Contact and place of performance
Kathleen McDonald
Los Alamos, NM 87545
USA
When water turns murky or dense with mud, sediment or chemistry, optical cameras stop being useful, and operators are left guessing about what lies on the other side of the fluid. The Acoustic Camera from Los Alamos National Laboratory replaces that guesswork with sharp 3D imagery generated from sound, achieving sub-millimeter depth resolution in near real time. Instead of inferring the size and orientation of a subm...
View moreTechnical Description:
Acoustic Camera uses a broadband piezoelectric transducer to insonify the object with frequencies between roughly 100 kHz and 800 kHz. Because attenuation in fluids scales with the square of frequency, this band is chosen as the practical compromise between mud penetration (favoring lower frequencies) and image resolution (favoring higher frequencies). Reflected pulses pass through a compound high-density polyethylene (HDPE) acoustic lens consisting of a fixed plano-concave primary element and a motor-positioned secondary element, allowing focus adjustment without changing the receiver position, and yielding an appropriate magnification factor.
The receive array is a 2D segmented piezoelectric detector submerged in sound-communicating fluid whose low sound speed provides a roughly three-fold reduction in wavelength versus water and enables a compact camera housing. Image reconstruction can use either tone-burst excitation with first-arrival extraction or, for higher resolution, frequency-chirp excitation followed by cross-correlation of the transmit and receive signals — yielding depth resolution below 1 mm at working distances of up to approximately 2 feet in drilling mud. The film allows the source and detector to share a single optical axis, eliminating the multiple reflections and aberrations introduced by semi-transparent acoustic mirrors used in earlier architectures.
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Market Applications:
Development Status: TRL 4
US Patent No. 10,054,676-B2
LA-UR-26-24351
LANL Tech Partnerships: Unlock the Innovative Potential
Los Alamos National Laboratory offers a wide range of cutting-edge technologies and capabilities that may provide your company with a competitive edge in the market and unlock the innovative potential that can enhance, refine, and revolutionize your products.
LANL’s licensing program focuses on moving inventions developed by our researchers to commercial innovations. Patented and patent pending inventions and copyrighted software are available to existing and start-up companies through exclusive and non-exclusive licensing agreements. For specific discussions, please contact [email protected].
Note: This is not a call for external services for the development of this technology.
https://www.lanl.gov/engage/collaboration/feynman-center/partner-with-us/licensing-technology
m.lanl.gov/tech-search
The Department of Energy, through its contractor Triad at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), is offering a technology licensing opportunity for an Acoustic Camera. This system generates sharp 3D imagery from sound to provide sub-millimeter depth resolution in near real-time, functioning in environments where water is murky or dense with mud, sediment, or chemicals. The technology utilizes high-frequency ultrasonic pulses and a two-dimensional acoustic receiver array to reconstruct object shapes based on time-of-flight and spatial distribution. This approach eliminates the need for fluid replacement or well cleanout in applications such as oil and gas operations, mining, geothermal systems, and submerged infrastructure inspection.
Technical specifications of the Acoustic Camera include a broadband piezoelectric transducer operating between 100 kHz and 800 kHz, combined with a compound high-density polyethylene acoustic lens for focus adjustment. The system achieves depth resolution below 1 mm at working distances of approximately two feet in drilling mud by using frequency-chirp excitation and cross-correlation of signals. The technology is currently at Technology Readiness Level 4 and is protected under U.S. Patent No. 10,054,676-B2. LANL intends to transition this invention to commercial innovation through exclusive or non-exclusive licensing agreements rather than seeking external development services.
The opportunity is identified under solicitation number S-129409 with a response deadline of June 30, 2026. The associated NAICS code is 334511 for Search, Detection, Navigation, Guidance, Aeronautical, and Nautical System and Instrument Manufacturing, and the PSC is 5845 for Underwater Sound Equipment. This special notice has no set-aside designation. Performance and administration are centered at Los Alamos, NM, under the direction of point of contact Kathleen McDonald.
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