Acoustic tree and wooden member imaging apparatus

This invention relates to the non-destructive analysis of standing and felled trees and poles, such as utility poles, and more particularly to generating two and three dimensional images of such trees that indicate their internal structure. An ultrasonic computed tomography tree or log scanner has a plurality of ultrasonic transceivers carried on a belt () sized to encircle a tree (). The belt includes an apparatus for engaging is tightly around the tree (). The transceivers are strapped around the tree, and their mutual relative distances are known. Electronic circuitry energizes the transmitters in a known sequence. The signals received at each of the receivers are also collected and analyzed. Computed tomographic techniques analyze the time of arrival of the acoustic pulse that is first to arrive at each receiver. A signal processor generates a two-dimensional image of a slice of the tree () at the locus of the belt.