| abstract |
An ultrasound emission device (10) includes, within a case (12) having a watertight structure, an ultrasonic transducer (20), a power source (16), and a control unit (17). The ultrasonic transducer (20) is attached to the inside of the case (12) via an acoustic matching layer (22). An acoustic scattering layer (24) is provided on the outside of the case (12). The acoustic scattering layer (24) is formed from a material for which the acoustic impedance difference with water is large. One example of the acoustic scattering layer (24) is a wire net. High-strength ultrasonic waves (19) generated by the ultrasonic transducer (20) are scattered by the acoustic scattering layer (24) and emitted, as low-strength ultrasonic waves (21), to a wide area of a human body (h). The ultrasound emission device (10) can be floated on water inside a water tank (52), or can be used in the water inside the water tank (52). With the present invention, ultrasound stimulation can be applied to the bones of nearly the entirety of the human body (h) or of the entire body of a mammalian animal (H). |