General Electric Company

William R Hardin

James K Riley

Pixel data stored in a display memory of an ultrasonic scanning system is updated in response to weighted new pixel data generated from a reflected ultrasonic wave averaged with weighted stored pixel data. A measure of difference between the new pixel data and the stored pixel data is obtained, and the weighting factor for the new pixel data increases as a function of the difference while the weighting factor for the stored data decreases as a function of the difference whereby small differences in the signals due to noise are suppressed while large differences in the pixel values due to fast moving echogenic targets such as a heart valve are enhanced. The weighting of the two pixel values can further include a factor depending on the selected display dynamic range of the ultrasonic scanner. The weighted values of the pixels are stored in memories that are addressed by the pixel value and the measure of difference between the present intensity value and the stored intensity value, and the outputs of the memories are then combined such as by averaging to obtain an updated pixel value for storage in the image memory.

Method and means or dynamically weighted temporal averaging of pixel data

Real time image zoom is obtained by sampling electrical signals corresponding to reflected ultrasonic waves at a sampling frequency whereby display data is obtained only in an area of interest. The sampling is delayed to eliminate signals from areas not of interest. Ultrasonic pulse repetition rate is selected so that internal resolution in the area of interest is optimized.

Method and means for real time image zoom display in an ultrasonic

The amplitudes of electrical signals generated by a transducer in an ultrasound scanning system are controlled by applying the electrical signals to an electrical filter whose frequency pass characteristics can be varied. As the ampltude and frequency of the generated electrical signals decrease due to passage through tissue, the low frequency of the filter is reduced. The control of the filter can be automatically implemented or can be manually implemented by the system operator.

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North Highlands, CA, United States of America

William R Hardin