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:
Jul. 21, 1998
Filed:
Dec. 30, 1996
Matthew A Bernstein, Waukesha, WI (US);
Gary H Glover, Stanford, CA (US);
Other;
Abstract
A phase unwrapping method is provided comprising a post-processing MR operation for an array of phase-related MR data elements. The method includes the steps of defining a Region of Interest, of comparing each data element with the first and second data elements which are adjacent thereto in the array, in order to generate respectively corresponding first and second gradient values. A subset of the data elements is constructed, wherein a data element is assigned to the subset only if its corresponding first and second gradient values are less than a selected threshold value VENC/2. The data element subset is employed to generate a fitted phase function having a value at the position of each data element in the array, and the value of the fitted function thereof, for a given data element, is subtracted from the measured value thereof. A first unwrap correcting value is subtracted from the given data element if the difference is greater than a first specified level, and a second unwrap correcting value is added thereto if the difference is less than a second specified level. A measure of the number of wrapped pixels is monitored. The phase unwrap procedure can be iterated until the number of unwrapped pixels is zero, or does not decrease with further iterating.