A new technique for fast dynamic focusing law computing

Dynamic focusing requires computing the individual delays for every element and every focus in the image. This is an easy and relatively fast task if the inspected medium is homogeneous. Nevertheless, some difficulties arise in presence of interfaces (i.e, wedges, immersion, etc.): refraction effects require computing the Snell's law for every focus and element to find the fastest ray entry point in the interface. The process is easy but takes a long time. This work presents a new technique to compute the focusing delays for an equivalent virtual array that operates in the second medium only, thus avoiding any interface. It is nearly as fast as computing the focal laws in the homogeneous case and an order of magnitude faster than Snell's or Fermat's principle based methods. Furthermore, the technique is completely general and can be applied to any equipment having dynamic focusing capabilities. In fact, the technique is especially well suited for real-time focal law computing hardware.