General Electric Company

James A Smith

Rowland F Saunders

Matthew E Ellis

Anne Lindsay Hall

Steven P Roehm

Ruchi Mangalik

Patrick Noret

A method and an apparatus for increasing the apparent acoustic frame rate of ultrasound images. Frames of acoustic data are acquired at the acoustic frame rate, stored in double-buffered acoustic frame buffers and scan converted one after the other. For each pair of successive frames, the first acoustic frame is stored in a frame delay buffer while the other acoustic frame is being scan converted. In accordance with this scheme, the scan converter is always reading from an acoustic frame buffer that contains a single complete frame of acoustic data, thereby eliminating the swirl artifact. To increase the apparent acoustic frame rate, the scan-converted acoustic data is input to a scan-converted frame interpolator, which incorporates the frame delay buffer, a frame interpolator programmable read only memory (PROM) and a software-programmable inter-polator bank select look-up table. The frame interpolator PROM incorporates a two-point FIR filter which outputs a frame of interpolated scan-converted acoustic data X.sub.n ' in response to input of the scan-converted acoustic data X.sub.n and X.sub.n-1. A predetermined number of unique frames of scan-converted acoustic data X.sub.n ' can be generated from the acoustic data X.sub.n and X.sub.n-1 of a given pair of frames by changing the weighting factors at the video rate while recycling the scan-converted acoustic data of the given pair of frames.

Framem interpolator for increasing apparent acoustic frame rate in

A color adaptive frame averaging method for an ultrasound imaging system adds persistence to images. The color adaptive frame averaging is achieved by computing filter weighting coefficients and using the filter weighting coefficients to compensate for aliased color data. Frame rate compensation is achieved by adjusting the filter weighting coefficients. In accordance with the present invention, the color adaptive frame averaging method comprises a filter, such as an infinite impulse response filter.

Color adaptive frame averaging

An x-ray fluorographic system which produces a cineangiogram enables a feature in the image to be identified with a cursor and automatically tracked in subsequent images. The identified feature, such as a suspected lesion in a coronary artery, is located in each x-ray frame of the cineangiogram and the data is displayed such that the feature remains motionless in the center of each successive image.

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Pewaukee, WI, United States of America

James A Smith