Ultrasound imaging system with improved dynamic range control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11908110-B2
Application number	US-201917262921-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 19, 2019
Priority date	Jul 24, 2018
Publication date	Feb 20, 2024
Grant date	Feb 20, 2024

Abstract

An ultrasound imaging system has an improved dynamic range control which enables a user to reduce image haze with substantially no effect on bright tissue in the image and without increasing speckle variance. A dynamic range processor processes an input image to produce an approximation image which is a spatially low pass filtered version of the input image. The dynamic range of the approximation image is compressed, and image detail, unaffected by the compression, is added back to produce a dynamically compressed image for display.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An ultrasound imaging system with image dynamic range control comprising:
a transducer array probe;
a beamformer coupled to the probe;
an image processor coupled to the beamformer and configured to produce ultrasound images;
a dynamic range processor, coupled to the image processor, and adapted produce an approximation image in response to an input image, to apply dynamic range compression to the approximation image, and to add image detail to the dynamic range compressed approximation image; and
a display, coupled to the dynamic range processor, and adapted to display a dynamic range compressed approximation image with added image detail.

2. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the approximation image further comprises a spatial low pass form of the input image.

3. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the dynamic range processor is further adapted to one or more of converting a low range of image values of the approximation to a black value or converting a high range of image values of the approximation image to a white value.

4. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the image detail further comprises the difference between the input image and the approximation image.

5. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 3 , wherein the ultrasound imaging system further comprises a user control coupled to the dynamic range processor.

6. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 5 , wherein the user control is further adapted to define the low range of input values to be converted to a black value.

7. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 6 , wherein the user control is further adapted to simultaneously define the high range of input values to be converted to a white value.

8. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 5 , wherein the user control is further adapted to define the high range of input values to be converted to a white value.

9. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 2 , wherein the dynamic range processor is further adapted to produce an approximation image value from a plurality of input image values.

10. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 9 , wherein the dynamic range processor is further adapted to spatially low pass filter an input image value with spatially adjacent image input values.

11. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the image detail added to the dynamic range compressed approximation image further comprises speckle dynamic range information.

12. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 11 , wherein the image detail added to the dynamic range compressed approximation image further comprises image detail weighted by a speckle dynamic range term.

13. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 12 , further comprising a user interface control, coupled to the dynamic range processor, and adapted to enable user variation of the speckle dynamic range term.

14. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 1 , further comprising a user control adapted to weight the image detail to be added to the dynamic range compressed approximation image.

15. The ultrasound imaging system of claim 14 , wherein the user control is further adapted to smooth the image produced by the display.

Assignees

• Koninklijke Philips Nv

Inventors

• Vignon Francois Guy Gerard Marie
• Clark David Wesley
• Adams Darwin Philip
• Prater David
• Periyapatna Nagendra Aditya
• Radhakrishnan Kirthi
• Sivley Roy Allan

Classifications

• G06T5/009 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G01S7/52071 Primary

  Multicolour displays; using colour coding; Optimising colour or information content in displays, e.g. parametric imaging · CPC title

• G01S7/52077

  with means for elimination of unwanted signals, e.g. noise or interference · CPC title

• G01S7/52084

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

• G01S15/8906

  Short-range imaging systems; Acoustic microscope systems using pulse-echo techniques · CPC title