Ultrasound diagnosis apparatus and method and computer-readable storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9841831-B2
Application number	US-201514637560-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 4, 2015
Priority date	Sep 19, 2014
Publication date	Dec 12, 2017
Grant date	Dec 12, 2017

Abstract

An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes a touch interface configured to display a screen comprising an ultrasound image of an object, and receive a user touch on the ultrasound image; and a controller configured to acquire a seed point, at which the user touch is sensed, acquire shape information of the object, and perform a control to display, on the ultrasound image, a touch point corresponding to the user touch, the touch point being determined based on the seed point and the shape information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus comprising:
a touch interface configured to display an ultrasound image of an object, and receive a user touch on the ultrasound image; and
a controller configured to acquire a seed point, at which the user touch is sensed, acquire shape information of the object, and perform a control to display, on the ultrasound image, a touch point corresponding to the user touch, the touch point being determined based on the seed point and the shape information.

2. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to determine the touch point, based on a distance between the seed point and a point of the object, the point being determined based on the shape information, and to perform the control to display the determined touch point on the ultrasound image.

3. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to acquire the shape information comprising information about an edge of the object, based on the ultrasound image, acquire distances between the seed point and points on the edge, and determine the touch point, based on the distances between the seed point and the points on the edge.

4. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to acquire a region of interest (ROI) of a portion of the ultrasound image, based on the seed point, and acquire the shape information of the object by image processing the ROI.

5. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the touch interface is configured to display the image of the ROI on the ultrasound image.

6. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein, when the touch interface receives a seed line comprising seed points obtained from the user touch, the controller is configured to determine a touch line comprising touch points corresponding to the user touch in real time, based on the seed line.

7. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein
the shape information of the object comprises information about an edge of the object, and
the controller is configured to automatically determine a point, which is closest to the seed point, among points on the edge, as the touch point.

8. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein
the shape information of the object comprises information about an edge, and
the controller is configured to determine one or more candidate touch points, which are within a certain distance from the seed point, among points on the edge.

9. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 8 , wherein
the touch interface is configured to receive a motion pattern from a user, and
the controller is configured to determine one of the one or more candidate touch points as the touch point, based on the received motion pattern.

10. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the touch interface is configured to display in real time at least one of the ultrasound image, the seed point, the touch point, and the shape information of the object.

11. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein, when the touch interface receives a motion pattern from a user, the controller is configured to determine the seed point as the touch point.

12. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to acquire the shape information of the object by morphological image processing.

13. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the morphological image processing comprises at least one of an edge detection algorithm, an image segmentation algorithm, and a machine learning algorithm.

14. An ultrasound diagnostic method comprising:
receiving a user touch on an ultrasound image of an object;
acquiring a seed point, at which the user touch is sensed;
acquiring shape information of the object;
determining a touch point corresponding to the user touch, based on the seed point and the shape information; and
displaying the touch point together with the ultrasound image.

15. The ultrasound diagnostic method of claim 14 , wherein the determining the touch point comprises determining the touch point, based on a distance between the seed point and a point of the object, the point being determined based on the shape information.

16. The ultrasound diagnostic method of claim 14 , wherein
the acquiring the shape information of the object comprises acquiring the shape information comprising information about an edge of the object, based on the ultrasound image, and
the determining the touch point comprises:
acquiring distances between the seed point and points on the edge; and
determining the touch point, based on the distances between the seed point and the points on the edge.

17. The ultrasound diagnostic method of claim 14 , wherein the acquiring the shape information of the object comprises:
acquiring a region of interest (ROI) of a portion of the ultrasound image, based on the seed point; and
acquiring the shape information of the object by image processing the ROI.

18. The ultrasound diagnostic method of claim 17 , wherein the displaying the touch point comprises displaying an enlarged image of the ROI on the ultrasound image.

19. The ultrasound diagnostic method of claim 14 , wherein
the acquiring the seed point comprises receiving a seed line comprising seed points obtained from the user touch, and
the determining the touch point comprises determining a touch line comprising touch points corresponding to the user touch in real time, based on the seed line.

20. The ultrasound diagnostic method of claim 14 , wherein
the shape information of the object comprises information about an edge of the object, and
the determining the touch point comprises automatically determining a point, which is closest to the seed point, among points on the edge, as the touch point.

21. The ultrasound diagnostic method of claim 14 , wherein
the shape information of the object comprises information about an edge of the object, and
the determining the touch point comprises determining one or more candidate touch points, which are within a certain distance from the seed point, among points on the edge obtained based on the shape information.

22. The ultrasound diagnostic method of claim 21 , wherein
the receiving the user touch comprises receiving a motion pattern from a user, and
the determining the touch point comprises determining one of the one or more candidate touch points as the touch point, based on the received motion pattern.

23. The ultrasound diagnostic method of claim 14 , wherein the displaying the touch point comprises displaying in real time at least one of the ultrasound image, the seed point, the touch point, and the shape information of the object.

24. The ultrasound diagnostic method of claim 14 , wherein
the receiving the user touch comprises receiving a motion pattern from a user, and
the determining the touch point comprises determining the seed point as the touch point.

25. The ultrasound diagnostic method of claim 14 , wherein the acquiring the shape information of the object comprises acquiring the shape information of the object by morphological image processing.

26. The ultrasound diagnostic method of claim 25 , wherein the morphological image processing comprises at least one of an edge detection algorithm, an image segmentation algorithm, and a mac

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Lee Myong-Woo
• Park Jong-Geun
• Sohn Ki-Won

Classifications

• G06T2207/20101

  Interactive definition of point of interest, landmark or seed · CPC title

• G16H40/63

  for local operation · CPC title

• G06T7/12

  Edge-based segmentation · CPC title

• G06F3/04883

  for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text · CPC title

• G16H50/20

  for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems · CPC title