Total Focusing Method Patents: Leaders & Filing Trends 2026
- Concentration is modest. the ranked leader holds just 9 records and the top 5 assignees combine for only 33.3% of the 102 records in scope — no single company controls this space.
- Filing has plateaued, not fallen. the field held flat at 4 records in both 2021 and 2024 (0% change), with a peak of 7 records in 2022; 2025-2026 figures are still filling in due to publication lag.
- Imaging classes dominate the claims. H04N (pictorial communication) appears in 40.2% of records and A61B (diagnosis & surgery) in 22.5%, showing this is as much a consumer-imaging fight as a medical-ultrasound one.
Filing growth compares 2021 (4 records) with 2024 (4) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 102 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Total Focusing Method (TFM) ultrasonic imaging reconstructs high-resolution images by combining focused signal paths across a full matrix of transmit-receive element pairs, rather than relying on a single fixed beamforming geometry. The approach shows up across two quite different filing communities: medical ultrasound systems chasing image resolution and real-time imaging under compute constraints, and consumer camera and mobile-imaging systems solving analogous auto-focusing and sparse array problems. This page tracks 102 published records from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off, ranked by patent family so continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction duplicates do not inflate any single assignee’s position.
The dataset spans medical device manufacturers, mobile handset and camera-module makers, semiconductor imaging suppliers and academic research institutes, filing across six receiving offices with the United States and China as the two largest gateways.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 102 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings ran from 5 records in 2017 to a peak of 7 in 2022, then held flat at 4 records across 2021 and 2024 — a 0% change over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 show fewer published records, which reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than a genuine drop-off.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
H04N (pictorial communication) touches 40.2% of the 102 records, well ahead of A61B (22.5%), with G01N and G01S tied at 16.7% each. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares sum to well over 100% and should be read as overlap density, not a partition of the field.
Shares are the percentage of the 102 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Total Focusing Method Ultrasonic Imaging with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about total focusing method ultrasonic imaging and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
US9160917B2 — Handheld electronic apparatus and image capturing apparatus and focusing method thereof
A handheld electronic apparatus, an image capturing apparatus and focusing method thereof are provided. The image capturing apparatus includes a main image capturer, an auxiliary image capturer and a controller. The main image capturer performs an image capturing operation on a target object according to a detection focusing distance. The auxiliary image capturer performs a plurality of focusing operations on the target object according to a plurality of focusing distances, and generates a plurality of image contrast values, which the controller uses to refine the focus setting.Filed by HTC Corporation, published 2015-10-13 — illustrates the consumer dual-capture auto-focus branch of this landscape rather than the medical-ultrasound branch.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US8002705B1 | Continuous transmit focusing method and apparatus for ultrasound imaging system | 134 |
| 2 | US6231511B1 | Ultrasonic signal focusing method and apparatus for ultrasonic imaging system | 125 |
| 3 | US20120293706A1 | Image pickup device, digital photographing apparatus using the image pickup device, auto-focusing method, and… | 61 |
| 4 | US8672846B2 | Continuous transmit focusing method and apparatus for ultrasound imaging system | 48 |
| 5 | US20030125628A1 | Synthetic aperture focusing method for ultrasound imaging based on planar waves | 48 |
| 6 | CN101169390A | 一种工程结构损伤主动监测中Lamb波时间反转聚焦方法 | 46 |
| 7 | US6736780B2 | Synthetic aperture focusing method for ultrasound imaging based on planar waves | 43 |
| 8 | US6305225B1 | Ultrasonic signal focusing method for ultrasonic imaging system | 33 |
| 9 | US20070293752A1 | Synthetic Focusing Method | 31 |
| 10 | CN105105791A | 一种血管内超声聚焦方法、聚焦诊断仪及聚焦换能器 | 28 |
Citation counts accumulate over time, so older records are structurally favoured — treat this table as a map of foundational influence, not of current commercial importance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the data means for filing decisions
Three read-outs from the concentration, trend and IPC figures above, translated into what they mean for someone deciding where to file next.
No single assignee owns this space
The ranked leader holds 9 of 102 records and the top 5 combined reach only 33.3% of all records in scope. That is a fragmented field compared with landscapes where a leader alone exceeds 20%, meaning freedom-to-operate risk is spread across many small portfolios rather than concentrated in one blocking party.
Activity has plateaued at a low but steady rate
After peaking at 7 records in 2022, filing settled back to 4 records in both 2021 and 2024 — flat, not declining. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, 2025-2026 figures will fill in further before the true recent trend is visible.
Consumer imaging claims outweigh pure medical ultrasound
H04N (pictorial communication) touches more records than A61B (diagnosis & surgery, 22.5%), which signals that camera and mobile-imaging auto-focus techniques are drawing on the same claim language as medical TFM systems. A filer targeting only the medical use case should still search H04N prior art.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to total focusing method ultrasonic imaging, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked assignee list covers 47 companies across medical device, mobile handset, semiconductor and academic filers; recent-year momentum has cooled across the named leaders, with several showing zero filings in the latest tracked year.
A narrow lead, not a moat
The top-ranked assignee holds 9 of 102 records, with fifth place at 5 and tenth place at 3 — a gentle slope rather than a cliff. That shape favours new entrants: displacing the leader requires only a handful of well-targeted filings, not decades of portfolio building.
Even top filers have gone quiet recently
Several of the most active historical assignees show zero filings in the latest tracked year. Combined with the 18-month publication lag, this is consistent with a pause in visible activity rather than exit from the field — portfolios worth re-checking once 2025-2026 data completes.
Filing is concentrated in two gateways
The United States receives the largest share of filings (44), with China second (20) and EPO, Japan, WIPO and India trailing behind. A freedom-to-operate search limited to one jurisdiction will miss the majority of comparable art filed elsewhere.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Medison Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Korea) | 0 | — |
| Vivo Mobile Communication Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Casio Computer Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| ZONARE MEDICAL SYSTEMS INC | 0 | — |
| Novatek Microelectronics Corp. | 0 | — |
| Optis Technology Inc. | 0 | — |
| Industrial Research Limited | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The landscape numbers point to a fragmented but active field with specific gaps. Two directions are worth pursuing with a working session rather than a static report.
Map claim boundaries around the highest-cited records
US8002705B1 and US6231511B1 anchor the continuous-transmit-focusing branch with the heaviest citation counts in this dataset. Any new filing in that specific sub-area should be checked against their claim scope before drafting.
Explore citation trees in Eureka →Track the under-claimed sub-areas as they fill in
Sound velocity assumption correction and sparse array selection carry lower filing density than the core imaging classes today. Re-running this search after the 2025-2026 publication lag closes will show whether that gap is closing or still open.
Set up a monitoring search in Eureka →Common questions about this landscape
The ranked leader in this dataset holds 9 of the 102 records in scope, with the fifth-placed assignee at 5 and the tenth at 3. That is a narrow lead rather than dominance: the top 5 assignees combined reach only 33.3% of all records, and the top 10 reach 51.0%. Practically, this means no single company's portfolio is likely to block a well-designed filing outright — the risk is spread across a longer list of moderate-sized holders rather than concentrated in one gatekeeper.
Filing activity peaked at 7 records in 2022 and then settled to 4 records in both 2021 and 2024, a 0% change over that span, so the honest read is a plateau rather than growth or decline. Counts for 2025 and 2026 appear lower in the raw data, but publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so those most recent years are still incomplete rather than genuinely quieter. Anyone using this trend to time a filing decision should wait for another data cut before concluding the field is cooling.
Total Focusing Method reconstructs an image by combining focused signal contributions from every transmit-receive element pair in a matrix array, rather than steering a single fixed beam. The patent evidence shows this method's claim language overlapping heavily with sparse array design, sound velocity assumption correction and real-time compute load reduction — all searched terms in this dataset. That overlap is why filings show up across both dedicated ultrasound imaging classes (G01S, A61B) and general pictorial communication classes (H04N), since the underlying focusing computation is not exclusive to medical devices.
H04N (pictorial communication) appears in 40.2% of the 102 records in scope, the single most common class, ahead of A61B (diagnosis & surgery) at 22.5% and G01N/G01S tied at 16.7% each. A search limited to medical-device classes like A61B alone would miss a substantial share of relevant prior art sitting in consumer imaging and semiconductor classes. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, a thorough search should span at least the top four or five classes rather than assuming the field maps cleanly to one classification.
The evidence points to sound velocity assumption correction, sparse array element selection and real-time compute load reduction as sub-areas with thinner filing density relative to the dominant imaging classes. These are still active search terms in the dataset's underlying query, meaning they are recognised technical problems, but the concentration of filings sits more heavily in image resolution and general pictorial communication claims. A first claim in one of these narrower branches — for instance, a specific correction method for sound velocity assumptions in heterogeneous media — has more room to be drafted without colliding with the densest prior art.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.