Method and apparatus for adaptive filtering by counting acoustic sample zeroes in ultrasound imaging
US6135962A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 1, 1998 |
| Grant date | Oct 24, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 1, 2018 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01S7/52025
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
An ultrasound imaging system having an adaptive spatial filter the filter coefficients of which, for particular image parameter sample, are determined by counting the number of neighboring image parameter samples having zero or near-zero values. If the number of zero or near-zero values in a data window is greater than a predetermined threshold, the data in the window is passed, not filtered. This filter has two advantages over other spatial filters. First, image parameter data samples having only zero or near-zero neighboring values (i.e., isolated "point noise") are not smeared. Second, boundaries such as the edge of color in a vessel (where the surrounding area is black, i.e., the color image parameter values are zero or near zero) are not smoothed as much as in conventional filters, preserving the sharpness of the edge.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.