The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 22, 1988
Filed:
Jun. 30, 1986
William R Hardin, Folsom, CA (US);
General Electric Company, Milwaukee, WI (US);
Abstract
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.