Nonuniform Rotational Distortion (NURD) reduction
AssigneeSciMed Life Systems, Inc.
InventorShashidhar Sathyanarayana
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A new image processing method reduces Nonuniform Rotational Distortion (NURD) in a medical image acquired using a rotating transducer. The image comprises a plurality of image vectors having texture. In a preferred embodiment, the image processing technique computes an average frequency of the texture for each image vector and estimates an angle for each image vector based on the average frequency for the respective image vector. The image processing technique then corrects for NURD by remapping each image vector to the estimated angle for the respective image vector.
Claims23
A method for reducing Nonuniform Rotational Distortion (NURD) in an image, said image comprising a plurality of image vectors, each image vector having texture and each image vector being mapped to an angle in the image, the method comprising:
- computing an average frequency of the texture in the azimuthal direction for each image vector;
- estimating an angle for each image vector based on the average frequency for the respective image vector;
- and
- remapping each image vector to the estimated angle for the respective image vector.
A computer program product that includes a medium useable by a processor, the medium comprising a sequence of instructions which, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to execute a method for reducing Nonuniform Rotational Distortion (NURD) in an image, the computer program product comprising:
- an instruction for receiving an input image, the input image comprising a plurality of image vectors, each image vector having texture and each image vector being mapped to an angle in the image;
- an instruction for computing an average frequency of the texture in the azimuthal direction for each image vector in the input image;
- an instruction for estimating an angle for each image vector based on the average frequency for the respective image vector;
- and
- an instruction for producing an output image by remapping each image vector to the estimated angle for the respective image vector.
A medical imaging system comprising:
- (a) a processor;
- (b) an interface to receive data for the processor to use to create a medical image;
- and
- (c) a medium useable by the processor, the medium comprising a sequence of instructions which, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to create a medical image with reduced Nonuniform Rotational Distortion (NURD), the medium including
- (i) an instruction for receiving an input image, the input image comprising a plurality of image vectors, each image vector having texture and each image vector being mapped to an angle in the image;
- (ii) an instruction for computing an average frequency of the texture in the azimuthal direction for each image vector in the input image;
- (iii) an instruction for estimating an angle for each image vector based on the average frequency for the respective image vector;
- and
- (iv) an instruction for producing an output image by remapping each image vector to the estimated angle for the respective image vector.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.