Method for controlling image appearance features in ultrasound system, image appearance feature control user interface operating according to the said method and ultrasound system comprising said user interface

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11523803-B2
Application number	US-201716473499-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 2, 2017
Priority date	Jan 2, 2017
Publication date	Dec 13, 2022
Grant date	Dec 13, 2022

Abstract

Controlling an image appearance in ultrasound system comprises: providing a set of image appearance feature control parameters, each of which relates to an image appearance feature according to a pre-defined relation between a value scale of the said image appearance feature control parameter and an image appearance related to a certain condition of the corresponding image appearance feature; generating a function between the value of each image feature control parameter and the value of the standard workflow setting parameters of a combination of standard workflow setting parameters influencing the said image appearance feature; and varying automatically the value of the one or more of the standard workflow setting parameters of the combination of standard workflow setting parameters influencing an image appearance feature as a function of a variation of the value of the corresponding image appearance feature control parameters for obtaining the requested image appearance feature variation.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for controlling an image appearance in ultrasound system, the said method comprising the steps of:
providing a set of image appearance feature control parameters, each one of which is related to an image appearance feature according to a pre-defined relation between a value scale of the said image appearance feature control parameter and an image appearance related to a certain condition of the corresponding image appearance feature;
generating a function between the value of each image appearance feature control parameter and the value of the standard workflow setting parameters of a combination of standard workflow setting parameters influencing the said image appearance feature;
visualizing of the image with the requested image appearance feature;
providing control organs for varying manually by a user one or more of the image appearance features of a displayed image by varying through the said control organs the values of said one or more image appearance feature control parameters; and
varying, automatically without the user, the function used to calculate the value of the one or more of the said standard workflow setting parameters of the combination of standard workflow setting parameters influencing an image appearance feature as a function of a variation of the value of the corresponding image appearance feature control parameters for obtaining the image appearance feature variation requested by the variation of the said image appearance feature control parameter.

2. A method according to claim 1 in which each image appearance feature control parameter is expressed as a function of a combination of one or more of the standard workflow setting parameters which have an influence on the image appearance feature associated with the said image appearance feature control parameter.

3. A method according to claim 1 in which the said functional relation of the image appearance feature control parameter with a combination of standard workflow setting parameters is factory defined.

4. A method according to claim 1 in which the said factory defined functional relation of the image appearance feature control parameter with a combination of standard workflow setting parameters may be modified by the user.

5. A method according to claim 1 in which the value of each image appearance feature control parameter is associated with a scale or a field of values ranging from a minimum value to a maximum value, the minimum value and the maximum values corresponding to a certain extreme condition of the image appearance feature related to the image appearance feature control parameter a function being defined relating the values of the image appearance feature control parameter to the conditions of appearance of the corresponding image appearance feature.

6. A method according to claim 1 in which each standard workflow setting parameter of the combination of standard workflow setting parameters defining the image appearance feature control parameter is related to the image appearance feature control parameter by a function which may be different from the one of the other standard workflow setting parameters of the combination.

7. A method according to claim 1 in which the factory definition steps of the method comprise the following steps:
defining a set of independent image appearance features and assigning to each image appearance feature a related image appearance feature control parameter;
defining the image appearance feature control parameter of each image appearance feature as a function of a combination of one or more ultrasound system standard workflow setting parameters related to the physics of the imaging process and which influence the corresponding image appearance feature;
for each image appearance feature, generating a correlation between the variation of the image appearance relatively to the image appearance feature and the variation of the value of the corresponding image appearance feature control parameter;
for each image appearance feature, generating a correlation between the values of the image appearance feature control parameter and the values of the said standard workflow setting parameters of the combination of the said standard workflow setting parameters empirically or experimentally or numerically
defining for each standard workflow setting parameter a function relating the values of the said image appearance feature control parameter to the values of the standard workflow setting parameter or
a database or a look-up table consisting in an array of the values of the corresponding image appearance feature control parameter and the values of each of the standard workflow setting parameters defining the image appearance feature associated with a value of the image feature control parameter which values are empirically or experimentally determined;
the said function being used or the said database or the said look-up table being addressable and readable for:
relating the value of each image appearance feature control parameter to the value of the standard workflow setting parameters of a combination of standard workflow setting parameters influencing the said image feature;
varying, automatically without the user, the value of the one or more of the said standard workflow setting parameters of the combination of standard workflow setting parameters influencing an image appearance feature as a function of a variation of the value of the corresponding image appearance feature control parameters for obtaining the image appearance feature variation requested by the variation of the said image appearance feature control parameter.

8. A method according to claim 1 in which the said function relating the values of the said image appearance feature control parameter to the values of the standard workflow setting parameter of the combination of standard workflow setting parameter describing the image appearance feature control parameter is determined numerically by calculating the best fit curve of empirically or experimentally measured relation between different image appearance conditions of an image appearance feature, the corresponding value of the image appearance feature control parameter and the corresponding values of the standard workflow setting parameters of the combination of standard workflow setting parameter describing the image appearance feature control parameter.

9. A method according to claim 1 wherein image appearance feature control parameters are set for at least two of the following image appearance features:
Penetration-resolution ratio;
speed-detail ratio; and
smooth-contrast ratio.

10. A method according to claim 9 , in which
the penetration-resolution ratio image appearance feature control parameter is a function of at least one of the following standard workflow setting parameters: frequency, number of transmit pulses;
the speed-detail ratio image appearance feature control parameter is a function of at least one of the following standard workflow setting parameters: Image field of view, Persistence, Line density, Number of view lines and XView-details;
the smooth-contrast ratio image appearance feature control parameter is a function of at least one of the following standard workflow setting parameters: Dynamic compression, dynamic range, enhancement, graymap settings, MView settings, Xview-balance, Xview-Smooth, XView-enhancement.

11. A method according to claim 1 providing a control input organ operable by the user for each control parameter, for setting the value of the corresponding image appearance feature control parameter according to a desired setting of the image appearance feature, which control in

Assignees

• Esaote Spa
• Esaote Spa

Inventors

• Borreani Giampaolo
• Pesce Roberto
• Bombino Luca

Classifications

• A61B8/54 Primary

  Control of the diagnostic device · CPC title

• A61B8/4488

  the transducer being a phased array · CPC title

• G01S7/52084

  related to particular user interfaces (special user input means for ultrasonic medical diagnostic devices A61B8/467) · CPC title

• G01S7/52098

  related to workflow protocols · CPC title

• G01S7/52063

  Sector scan display · CPC title