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:
Apr. 05, 1994
Filed:
Dec. 21, 1992
Fredrick B Brown, Reno, NV (US);
Nathan Cohen, Belmont, MA (US);
National Fertility Institute, Greenbrae, CA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus (10) and method for real-time reduction of noise components from echographic images. A plurality of scan line processor circuits (22) are connected through an interface (18) to an echographic imaging apparatus (20), such as an ultrasonic imaging device. Each scan line processor circuit (22) receives a row of dirty image signals (24) and simultaneously and independently performs a one-dimensional side lobe subtraction of noise components (a deconvolution of the dirty beam pattern) from the row of signals using a CLEAN algorithm. After subtraction, the resulting clean components are convolved by the scan line processor circuits (22) with a clean beam pattern to smooth the image for display. Finally, the clean image signals optionally can be masked by a masking multiplier (52) to remove processing artifacts and compressed by a compression device (56) to enhance contrast. The resulting masked and compressed clean image signals (26) are then displayed on a display device (17,20). A sufficient number of scan line processor circuits (22), relative to the number of rows in a complete image frame, are provided to effect real-time processing of image frames.