The optical detection of ultrasound field is to study the acoutooptic effectiveness when the light passes through the sound disturbing field. The information of the sound field can be obtained by analyzing the emergent light. Compared with conventional ultrasound field detection technology, the optical detection is a nonintrusive method, which has no disturbing to the sound field. It has the advantages of fast detection speed, high spatial resolution and wide frequency band. It has been widely utilized in the ultrasound field detection since 1936, when the first accurate model of acoustooptics was introduced. It has made significant progress in both theoretical research and sound field detection. In this study, we summarize the progress in acoustooptic effectiveness, and prospect for the future application of acoustooptic effectiveness.