Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for generating large compound ultrasound image

US5575286A · kind A · utility

156Cited by
13References
24Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 31, 1995
Grant dateNov 19, 1996
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 31, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06T2207/30196
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

An image registration method and apparatus is provided in which consecutive ultrasonic image frames are correlated in order to derive transducer motion information. Since ultrasonic images from real-time scanning operations are highly correlated from one frame to another, the individual images can be divided into several smaller sub-image regions and a very fast and robust image motion detection algorithm utilized to measure the sub-image motion. This algorithm uses a fast adaptive coarse/fine minimum-sum-absolute-difference (MSAD) search strategy to compute an initial estimation of the local motion vectors. The initial estimation is combined with two measurement parameters by use of a fuzzy logic technique to derive a final estimation of the local motion vectors. The final local motion vectors are applied to a least-squares (L-S) process in order to estimate global image motion. Finally, a fast display technique generates compound images based on the derived global image motion.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.