Ultrasonic imaging apparatus, ultrasonic probe apparatus, signal processing apparatus and method of controlling ultrasonic imaging apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016209502-A1
Application number	US-201514943189-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 17, 2015
Priority date	Jan 21, 2015
Publication date	Jul 21, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

There are provided an ultrasonic imaging apparatus, an ultrasonic probe apparatus, a signal processing apparatus, and a method for controlling an ultrasonic imaging apparatus. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus may include at least one first ultrasound element installed in a first ultrasound element installation unit; at least one second ultrasound element installed in a second ultrasound element installation unit that is separate from the first ultrasound element installation unit and such that the second ultrasound element forms a gap with the first ultrasound element; and a processor configured to estimate one or two or more virtual ultrasound signals that correspond to the gap based on a first ultrasound signal output from the at least one first ultrasound element and a second ultrasound signal output from the at least one second ultrasound element.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An ultrasonic imaging apparatus, comprising:
at least one first ultrasound element installed in a first ultrasound device; at least one second ultrasound element installed in a second ultrasound device that is separate from the first ultrasound device and such that the at least one second ultrasound element forms a gap with the at least one first ultrasound element; and a processor configured to estimate at least one virtual ultrasound signal that corresponds to the gap, based on at least one first ultrasound signal output from the at least one first ultrasound element and at least one second ultrasound signal output from the at least one second ultrasound element and to perform beamforming by using the at least one first ultrasound signal, the at least one second ultrasound signal and the estimated at least one virtual ultrasound signal.

2 . The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the processor is further configured to estimate the at least one virtual ultrasound signal that corresponds to the gap based on the performed interpolation by performing an interpolation based on the at least one first ultrasound signal and the at least one second ultrasound signal, to estimate an average of the at least one first ultrasound signal and the at least one second ultrasound signal as the at least one virtual ultrasound signal that corresponds to the gap, or to estimate at least one of the at least one first ultrasound signal and the at least one second ultrasound signal as the at least one virtual ultrasound signal that corresponds to the gap.

3 . The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the processor is further configured to use linear interpolation based on the at least one first ultrasound signal and the at least one second ultrasound signal.

4 . The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the at least one first ultrasound element is installed in the first ultrasound device to approach the second ultrasound device, and the at least one second ultrasound element is installed in the second ultrasound device to approach the first ultrasound device.

5 . The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the at least one first ultrasound element is configured to output a plurality of first ultrasound signals and the at least one second ultrasound element is configured to output a plurality of second ultrasound signals, and the processor is further configured to perform at least one temporal interpolation based on the plurality of first ultrasound signals and the plurality of second ultrasound signals and to estimate the at least one virtual ultrasound signal based on the performed at least one temporal interpolation.

6 . The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 5 ,
wherein the at least one first ultrasound element is configured to output a first ultrasound signal at a first time, and the second ultrasound element is configured to output a second ultrasound signal at a second time, and the processor is further configured to use the first ultrasound signal output at the first time and the second ultrasound signal output at the second time in order to estimate a virtual ultrasound signal at a third time between the first time and the second time.

7 . The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 6 ,
wherein the processor is further configured to estimate at least one virtual ultrasound signal that corresponds to the gap at the first time and to estimate at least one virtual ultrasound signal that corresponds to the gap at the second time, and to estimate a virtual ultrasound signal at the third time by using the estimated at least one virtual ultrasound signal at the first time and the estimated at least one virtual ultrasound signal at the second time.

8 . The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
at least one third ultrasound element installed in at least one third ultrasound device, wherein, the processor is configured to estimate at least one virtual ultrasound signal that corresponds to a gap between the at least one first ultrasound element and the at least one second ultrasound element based on the first ultrasound signal, the second ultrasound signal and a third ultrasound signal output from the at least one third ultrasound element.

9 . A method for controlling an ultrasonic imaging apparatus that includes at least one first ultrasound element installed in a first ultrasound device and at least one second ultrasound element installed in a second ultrasound device that is separate from the first ultrasound device such that the at least one second ultrasound element forms a gap with the at least one first ultrasound element, the method comprising:
outputting a first ultrasound signal from the at least one first ultrasound element and outputting a second ultrasound signal from the at least one second ultrasound element; estimating a virtual ultrasound signal that corresponds to the gap based on the first ultrasound signal and the second ultrasound signal; and performing beamforming by using the first ultrasound signal, the second ultrasound signal and the estimated virtual ultrasound signal.

10 . The method according to claim 9 ,
wherein the estimating the virtual ultrasound signal includes estimating at least one virtual ultrasound signal that corresponds to the gap by performing an interpolation based on the first ultrasound signal and the second ultrasound signal.

11 . The method according to claim 10 ,
wherein the estimating the virtual ultrasound signal includes estimating at least one virtual ultrasound signal that corresponds to the gap by using linear interpolation based on the first ultrasound signal and the second ultrasound signal.

12 . The method according to claim 9 ,
wherein the estimating the virtual ultrasound signal includes estimating an average of the first ultrasound signal and the second ultrasound signal as the virtual ultrasound signal, or estimating at least one from among the first ultrasound signal and the second ultrasound signal as the virtual ultrasound signal.

13 . The method according to claim 9 ,
wherein the at least one first ultrasound element is installed in the first ultrasound device to approach the second ultrasound device; and the second ultrasound element is installed in the second ultrasound device to approach the first ultrasound device.

14 . The method according to claim 9 ,
wherein the outputting the first ultrasound signal from the at least one first ultrasound element includes outputting, by the at least one first ultrasound element, a plurality of first ultrasound signals, and the outputting the second ultrasound signal from the second ultrasound element includes outputting, by the at least one second ultrasound element, a plurality of second ultrasound signals; and the estimating the virtual ultrasound signal includes estimating at least one virtual ultrasound signal by performing at least one temporal interpolation based on the plurality of first ultrasound signals and the plurality of second ultrasound signals.

15 . The method according to claim 14 ,
wherein the outputting the first ultrasound signal from the at least one first ultrasound element and the outputting the second ultrasound signal from the at least one second ultrasound element includes sequentially outputting the first ultrasound signal at a first time and the second ultrasound signal at a second time, and the estimating the virtual ultrasound signal includes estimating a virtual ultrasound signal at

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kim Baehyung
• Kim Kyuhong
• Park Suhyun

Classifications

• G01S7/52003 Primary

  Techniques for enhancing spatial resolution of targets (G01S7/52046 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01S7/52017

  particularly adapted to short-range imaging (G01S7/53 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01S15/8913

  using separate transducers for transmission and reception · CPC title

• G01S15/8915

  using a transducer array · CPC title

• B06B1/0629

  Square array · CPC title