Subject information acquisition apparatus

Abstract

A subject information acquisition apparatus includes an electromechanical conversion element which receives an elastic wave generated by irradiating with an electromagnetic wave an object in a subject and converts the received elastic wave into an electric signal; a moving device moves the electromechanical conversion element; a signal processing device calculates an image value based on the electric signal. The moving device moves the electromechanical conversion element from a first position to a second position, the electromechanical conversion element receives the elastic wave at the first position and converts the received elastic wave into a first electric signal, and receives the elastic wave at the second position and converts the received elastic wave into a second electric signal; when the electromechanical conversion element is situated at the second position, the signal processing device calculates a first image value at a specified position inside the subject based on the first electric signal.

1 . A bioinformation acquisition apparatus, comprising:
 an electromechanical conversion element group including a plurality of arranged electromechanical conversion elements, each receiving an elastic wave emitted by irradiating an electromagnetic wave to a test object in a test body to convert the received elastic wave into an electric signal;   a moving device moving the electromechanical conversion element group into an arrangement direction of the electromechanical conversion elements;   an adding device adding electric signals transmitted from at least two or more electromagnetic transducers of the plurality of electromechanical conversion elements, wherein   the moving device moves the electromechanical conversion element group so that the electromechanical conversion element group situated at a first position at a first time point may be situated at a second position at a second time point,   the electromechanical conversion element group receives elastic waves at the first position, the elastic waves emitted by irradiating the electromagnetic wave to the test object at the first time point, and receives the elastic waves at the second position, the elastic waves emitted by irradiating the electromagnetic wave to the test object at the second time point, and   the adding device adds an electric signal transmitted from a first electromechanical conversion element corresponding to a specified position of the test body among electric signals of the elastic waves received at the first time point, and an electric signal transmitted from a second electromechanical conversion element corresponding to the specified position among electric signals of the elastic waves received at the second time point.