Keywords
Citation
(2000), "Ultrasound scanning", Sensor Review, Vol. 20 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/sr.2000.08720cad.019
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2000, MCB UP Limited
Ultrasound scanning
Ultrasound scanning
Keywords: Ultrasonic, Ultrasound
Inventor: William Thomas Hatfield (US), Steven C. Miller (US), Larry Y. Mo (US)Patent number: US6012458Publication date: 11 January 2000Title: Method and apparatus for tracking scan plane motion in free-hand three-dimensional ultrasound scanning using adaptive speckle correlation
The present invention is a method and an apparatus for tracking scan plane motion in free-hand three-dimensional ultrasound scanning using adaptive speckle correlation. The method employs a correlation index which adapts to different display dynamic range and post-processing filters. The apparatus in accordance with one preferred embodiment comprises: means for choosing a kernel within each image frame for correlation calculations; means for rejecting duplicate image frames; means for measuring the degree of correlation between successive image frames; means for rejecting correlation estimates which may be associated with hand jitter and other artefacts; and means for computing the average frame-to-frame (i.e. interslice) spacing based on the average correlation estimate. These means are incorporated into a host computer which interfaces with the cine memory. A major benefit of this image-based motion tracking technique is that it enables three-dimensional reconstruction with good geometric fidelity, without use of any external position-sensing device.