High-speed ultrasound image improvement using an optical correlator
OwnerThomas Burkeinventor
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Abstract
A medical ultrasound imaging system is disclosed that uses an optical correlator to provide improved ultrasound image quality. In a first embodiment, the optical correlator is used to compute an optimization metric based on speckle size and shape. This metric is used to compare images generated using different values for several parameters, including receive delays, transmit delays, filter settings, and transmit waveforms, and to automatically select settings for these parameters for the tissue being examined. Other embodiments use the optical correlator to identify and highlight features in ultrasound images, and to reduce distortion and noise in ultrasound images using a “synthetic aperture” beamformer technique.
Claims30
An ultrasound imaging system comprising:
- a scanhead, the scanhead comprising one or more transducer elements, each transducer element capable of transmitting pulses and receiving echo signals;
- beamformer circuitry coupled to the scanhead, the beamformer circuitry having a plurality of imaging parameters, the beamformer circuitry adjusting the pulses and the echo signals;
- filter circuitry coupled to the beamformer circuitry and having filter parameters, the filter circuitry adjusting the filtering of the echo signals;
- an image processor that composes an ultrasound image from the echo signals, and processes and enhances the ultrasound image prior to display;
- and
- an optical correlator coupled to the image processor, the optical correlator correlating a source image produced by the image processor with each one of a plurality of mask images to produce correlation data which is used in automatically adjusting the plurality of imaging parameters and filter parameters to improve the guality of the ultrasound image.
In an ultrasound imaging system comprising a scanhead having a transducer element capable of transmitting pulses and receiving echo signals, beamformer circuitry coupled to the scanhead to adjust the pulses and the echo signals, and filter circuitry coupled to the beamformer circuitry to adjust the filtering of the echo signals, the improvement comprising:
- a circuit board comprising an image processor that composes an ultrasound image from the echo signals, and processes and enhances the ultrasound image prior to display;
- and
- an optical correlator coupled to the image processor, the optical correlator correlating a source image produced by the image processor with each one of a plurality of mask images to produce correlation data which is used in automatically adjusting a plurality of imaging parameters of the beamformer circuitry and a plurality of filter parameters of the filter circuitry to improve the quality of the ultrasound image.
A method of enhancing an image produced by an ultrasound imaging system, the method comprising:
- providing an optical correlator coupled to an image processor of the ultrasound imaging system;
- generating a source image;
- supplying the source image to the optical correlator;
- using the optical correlator to correlate the source image to each one of a plurality of mask images to produce correlation data;
- and
- using the correlation data to improve the quality of an ultrasound image.
A method of improving image quality in an ultrasound imaging system, the ultrasound imaging system using a plurality of parameters to adjust an imaging process, the method comprising:
- (a) selecting an initial parameter set, containing values for the plurality of parameters;
- (b) generating a first ultrasound image using the initial parameter set;
- (c) adjusting a parameter in the initial parameter set to produce an adjusted parameter set;
- (d) generating a second ultrasound image using the adjusted parameter set;
- (e) using an optical correlator to compute an optimization metric indicative of image quality for the first and second ultrasound images;
- (f) comparing the images based on the optimization metric, to determine which of the first and second ultrasound images provides a better image;
- (g) replacing the initial parameter set with the adjusted parameter set if the second ultrasound image is the better image;
- (h) replacing the first ultrasound image with the second ultrasound image if the second ultrasound image is the better image;
- (i) repeating (c) through (h) until the plurality of the parameters has been adjusted.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.