Patent attributes
A metal detector system 30 for sensing target (e.g., metal) objects within soil or other strata includes a pickup head 36 carrying an excitation coil configured to generate an excitation signal to energize a target object 400 and uses a 2-D (e.g., planar, rectangular) array of pixel-receive coils configured within the pickup head to receive electro-magnetic energy from the energized target object. As the user moves the pickup head across the strata's surface, the pixel-receive coils sense relative motion between each pixel-receive coil and the energized target object, where motion is detectable as individually sensed changes in received signal levels among the pixel-receive coils. The metal detector system also includes a 2-D display 46 which depicts or visually represents the 2-D array of pixel-receive coils and generates a changing display of any sensed moving target object 60 in response to sensed changes in received signal levels among the pixel-receive coils.
