Ultrasonic image display method and ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus
AssigneeGE Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLC
InventorShunichiro Tanigawa
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ultrasonic image display method for displaying a composite image made from a B mode image and a tissue velocity image of an object taken by means of ultrasound. The method includes decreasing the weight of the B mode image while increasing the weight of the tissue velocity image, in response to increase of brightness of the B mode image, adding thus weighted B mode image and tissue velocity image, and displaying an image obtained by the addition.
Claims20
An ultrasonic image display method for displaying a composite image made from a B mode image and a tissue velocity image of an object taken by means of an ultrasonic imaging system, said method comprising:
- receiving an echo receiver signal using a transceiver unit in response to ultrasound waves transmitted into the object by an ultrasonic probe, the echo receiver signal including a Doppler signal and a signal indicative of an intensity of echo at each reflection point on a sonic scan line;
- processing a tissue velocity data component of the Doppler signal using a Doppler processing unit in order to generate the tissue velocity image;
- decreasing a weight of the B mode image using a B mode processing unit while increasing a weight of the tissue velocity image in response to an increase of a brightness of the B mode image, the weight of the B mode image decreased based on a linear function when the brightness of the B mode image is less than a threshold and decreased based on at least one linear function when the brightness of the B mode image is greater than or equal to the threshold;
- adding the weighted B mode image and the tissue velocity image using an image processing unit coupled to the Doppler processing unit and the B mode processing unit in order to form a composite image that is expressed by
- RGB_Transparent=a—Ib*RGB—B+(1.0−a—Ib)*RGB_Color;
- and
- displaying the composite image using a composite image display unit coupled to the image processing unit.
An ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus for taking a B mode image and a tissue velocity image of an object by means of ultrasound to display a composite image of a weighted B mode image and the tissue velocity image, said ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus comprising:
- a Doppler processing unit configured to process a tissue velocity data component of a Doppler signal and to generate the tissue velocity image based on the tissue velocity data component;
- a weight adjustor device configured to decrease a weight of the B mode image in response to an increase of a brightness of the B mode image, while increasing a weight of the tissue velocity image, the weight of the B mode image decreased based on a linear function when the brightness of the B mode image is less than a threshold and decreased based on at least one linear function when the brightness of the B mode image is greater than or equal to the threshold;
- an adder device configured to add the weighted B mode image and the tissue velocity image to obtain the composite image based on the equation
- RGB_Transparent=a—Ib*RGB—B+(1.0−a—Ib)*RGB_Color;
- and
- a display device configured to display the composite image obtained from the addition.
An ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus comprising:
- an ultrasonic probe;
- a transceiver coupled in signal communication to said ultrasonic probe, said transceiver configured to transmit driving signals to said ultrasonic probe to generate ultrasound waves and to receive echo signals from said ultrasonic probe, the echo signals generated in response to the driving signals;
- a B mode processing unit coupled in signal communication to said transceiver, said B mode processing unit configured to generate a B mode image based on the echo signals received by said transceiver from said ultrasonic probe and transmitted by said transceiver to said B mode processing unit;
- a Doppler processing unit coupled in signal communication to said transceiver, said Doppler processing unit configured to generate a tissue velocity image based on the echo signals received by said transceiver from said ultrasonic probe and transmitted by said transceiver to said Doppler processing unit, said Doppler processing unit further configured to generate the tissue velocity image by processing a tissue velocity data component of the received echo signals;
- and
- an image processing unit coupled in signal communication to said B mode processing unit, said Doppler processing unit, and a display device, said image processing unit configured to:
- decrease a weight of the B mode image in response to an increase of a brightness of the B mode image, while increasing a weight of the tissue velocity image, the weight of the B mode image decreased based on a linear function when the brightness of the B mode image is less than a threshold and decreased based on a plurality of linear functions when the brightness of the B mode image is greater than or equal to the threshold;
- add a weighted B mode image and a weighted tissue velocity image using the equation
- RGB_Transparent=a—Ib*RGB—B+(1.0−a—Ib)*RGB_Color;
- and
- transmit a composite image obtained from the addition to said display device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.