Abstract: Methods and systems for controlling an ultrasound system are provided. The method includes receiving scanning information from an ultrasound system, with the scanning information including at least one of image information and spectral information. The method further includes controlling power to a transducer of the ultrasound system based on the scanning information.

Abstract: Certain embodiments include a system and method for improved compound imaging using a plurality of imaging modes. In an embodiment, a plurality of echo signals are received in response to a plurality of beams formed based on different imaging modes corresponding to different steering angles, such as steered or non-steered angles. The plurality of echo signals is compounded to form a compound image. In an embodiment, the imaging mode includes at least one of harmonic, fundamental, coded harmonic, and variable frequency imaging. Parameters may be generated for the plurality of beams formed based on different imaging modes corresponding to different steering angles. Additionally, the parameters may be stored. The echo signals may be filtered. Imaging mode may be controlled based on steering angle. Employing different imaging modes based on steering angles for spatial compound imaging helps reduce grating lobe artifacts while improving speckle reduction effect.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for smoothing speckle pattern and increasing contrast resolution in ultrasound images is provided. Compared to other frequency compounding techniques, wide-band harmonic frequency compounding reduces speckle noise without sacrificing the resolution. Compared to spatial compounding, wide-band harmonic frequency compounding is more robust against tissue motion because sequential vectors rather than frames are summed together for compounding. The method and apparatus is implemented by transmitting two or more firings, combining two or more of the firings coherently to extract the tissue-generated harmonic components, detecting the outputs of the coherent sums and detecting one or more firings before coherent sum, and finally combining all detected outputs to form the compounded image. The method and apparatus sums wide-band fundamental and wide-band harmonic images after detection to form a compounded image.

Abstract: Flash artifacts in ultrasound flow images are suppressed to achieve enhanced flow discrimination. Flash artifacts typically occur as regions of elevated signal strength (brightness or equivalent color) within an image. A flash suppression algorithm includes the steps of estimating the flash within an image and then suppressing the estimated flash. The mechanism for flash suppression is spatial filtering. An extension of this basic method uses information from adjacent frames to estimate the flash and/or to smooth the resulting image sequence. Temporal information from adjacent frames is used as an adjunct to improve performance.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for smoothing speckle pattern and increasing contrast resolution in ultrasound images is provided. Compared to other frequency compounding techniques, wide-band harmonic frequency compounding reduces speckle noise without sacrificing the resolution. Compared to spatial compounding, wide-band harmonic frequency compounding is more robust against tissue motion because sequential vectors rather than frames are summed together for compounding. The method and apparatus is implemented by transmitting two or more firings, combining two or more of the firings coherently to extract the tissue-generated harmonic components, detecting the outputs of the coherent sums and detecting one or more firings before coherent sum, and finally combining all detected outputs to form the compounded image. The method and apparatus sums wide-band fundamental and wide-band harmonic images after detection to form a compounded image.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for improving the penetration of the harmonic imaging while preserving the image uniformity by using signals from a similar frequency band to form a composite image. A near field image uses primarily tissue generated harmonic signal associated with a first transmitting event that has a center frequency of f1. Such tissue generated harmonic signal has a frequency band centered on 2f1. In the far field, fundamental echo signals from the second transmitting event that has a center frequency of f2 are primarily use. Since the center frequency f2 in the transmitting event is close to 2f1 and there is a significant overlap in frequency band between signals extracted from the first transmitting event and signals extracted from the second transmitting event, a composite image formed from these signals has similar speckle size across the whole image.

Abstract: An apparatus for determining at least one property of a cooktop is provided. The cooktop includes a cooktop surface and a vessel selectively positioned on the cooktop surface. The apparatus comprises an ultrasound transducer contacting the cooktop surface. The ultrasound transducer includes an ultrasound transmitter that contacts the cooktop surface and provides an ultrasound waveform to the cooktop surface creating an excitation in the cooktop surface. The ultrasonic transducer also includes an ultrasound receiver contacting the cooktop surface. The ultrasound receiver receives a resultant ultrasound waveform in response to the excitation and produces a receiver output signal in response to the resultant ultrasound waveform. A processor is connected to the ultrasound transducer. The processor receives the receiver output signal and produces a processor output signal corresponding to the at least one property of the cooktop.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for perfusion imaging using coded excitation. Bursting pulses are scanned over the region of interest in one or more frames followed by scanning one or more encoded imaging pulses in each subsequent frame. The bursting pulse is intended to break contrast micro-bubbles within a transmit focal zone and therefore should have high mechanical index and low frequency. The basic concept is to use a very low-amplitude encoded pulse train to image the contrast agents. The low amplitude prevents the contrast bubbles in the transmit focal zone from being destroyed while imaging, and the coded excitation provides the necessary signal-to-noise ratio. The imaging pulses are transmitted during refilling of the transmit focal zone with contrast agent subsequent to transmission of the bursting pulse into the transmit focal zone. On receive, the receive vectors are decoded to form a compressed pulse.

Abstract: Harmonic imaging using harmonic Golay-coded excitation that encodes the fundamental and second harmonic signals utilizes the transmit sequences encoded using QPSK implemented as quarter-cycle circular rotations or shifts of the base pulse. This is implemented by time shifting the chips of the transmit sequence encoded with a “j” or “−j” code symbol by ¼ fractional cycle at center frequency relative to the chips encoded with a “1” or “−1” code symbol. A different QPSK transmit code is used for each of four transmits A, B, C and D. The transmit codes are selected such that (A-B) and (C-D) are encoded by Y and −X, respectively, while (A2-B2) and (C2-D2) are encoded by X and Y, respectively, where X and Y form a Golay code pair. The coding and decoding technique achieves fundamental suppression and second harmonic compression for a given Golay code pair X and Y.

Abstract: For ultrasound imaging using Golay-coded excitation for echocardiology, at least three focused and coded beams are transmitted at a fundamental frequency to each transmit focal zone during acquisition of acoustic data for a single image frame. The resulting receive vectors then undergo receive correlation and “slow-time” filtering, i.e., filtering from firing to firing. The “slow-time” filtering is accomplished by multiplying each set of receive correlation filter coefficients by respective scalar weightings before summing the resulting set of filtered receive vectors for subsequent processing to form one image scan line. Employment of more than two firings suppresses the sidelobe response without altering the mainlobe response substantially in the presence of tissue motion after the weighted receive vectors have been summed.

Abstract: An optimized pulse waveform is used to excite contrast microbubbles such that the subharmonic signal may be easily isolated for imaging. By reducing the contribution of transmitted fundamental frequency f0 within the subharmonic band, the subharmonic imaging quality is improved. This is accomplished by transmitting an optimized pulse waveform and then filtering the received signal to isolate the subharmonic signal for imaging. The optimized pulse waveform has low spectral energy within a band of frequencies centered at f0/2 and high spectral energy within another band of frequencies centered at f0, where both bands are within the transducer passband. The contrast-generated subharmonic signal is extracted by a receive filter centered at f0/2.

Abstract: An optimized pulse waveform is used to excite contrast microbubbles such that the subharmonic signal may be easily isolated for imaging. By reducing the contribution of transmitted fundamental frequency f0 within the subharmonic band, the subharmonic imaging quality is improved. This is accomplished by transmitting an optimized pulse waveform and then filtering the received signal to isolate the subharmonic signal for imaging. The optimized pulse waveform has low spectral energy within a band of frequencies centered at f0/2 and high spectral energy within another band of frequencies centered at f0, where both bands are within the transducer passband. The contrast-generated subharmonic signal is extracted by a receive filter centered at f0/2.

Abstract: For ultrasound imaging using Golay-coded excitation for echocardiology, at least three focused and coded beams are transmitted at a fundamental frequency to each transmit focal zone during acquisition of acoustic data for a single image frame. The resulting receive vectors then undergo receive correlation and “slow-time” filtering, i.e., filtering from firing to firing. The “slow-time” filtering is accomplished by multiplying each set of receive correlation filter coefficients by respective scalar weightings before summing the resulting set of filtered receive vectors for subsequent processing to form one image scan line. Employment of more than two firings suppresses the sidelobe response without altering the mainlobe response substantially in the presence of tissue motion after the weighted receive vectors have been summed.

Abstract: Harmonic imaging using harmonic Golay-coded excitation that encodes the fundamental and second harmonic signals utilizes the transmit sequences encoded using QPSK implemented as quarter-cycle circular rotations or shifts of the base pulse. This is implemented by time shifting the chips of the transmit sequence encoded with a “j” or “−j” code symbol by ¼ fractional cycle at center frequency relative to the chips encoded with a “1” or “−1” code symbol. A different QPSK transmit code is used for each of four transmits A, B, C and D. The transmit codes are selected such that (A−B) and (C−D) are encoded by Y and −X, respectively, while (A2−B2) and (C2−D2) are encoded by X and Y, respectively, where X and Y form a Golay code pair. The coding and decoding technique achieves fundamental suppression and second harmonic compression for a given Golay code pair X and Y.

Abstract: An apparatus for determining at least one property of a cooktop is provided. The cooktop includes a cooktop surface and a vessel selectively positioned on the cooktop surface. The apparatus comprises an ultrasound transducer contacting the cooktop surface. The ultrasound transducer includes an ultrasound transmitter that contacts the cooktop surface and provides an ultrasound waveform to the cooktop surface creating an excitation in the cooktop surface. The ultrasonic transducer also includes an ultrasound receiver contacting the cooktop surface. The ultrasound receiver receives a resultant ultrasound waveform in response to the excitation and produces a receiver output signal in response to the resultant ultrasound waveform. A processor is connected to the ultrasound transducer. The processor receives the receiver output signal and produces a processor output signal corresponding to the at least one property of the cooktop.

Abstract: In performing tissue-generated harmonic imaging using coded excitation, the transmit waveform for acquiring the N-th harmonic signal is biphase (1,−1) encoded using two code symbols of a code sequence, the portions (i.e., chips) of the transmit waveform encoded with the second code symbol each being phase-shifted by 180°/N relative to the chips encoded with the first code symbol. This is implemented by time shifting the portions (i.e., chips) of the transmit sequence which are encoded with the second code symbol by ½N fractional cycle at center frequency relative to the chips of the transmit sequence encoded with the first code symbol. During reception, the desired harmonic signal is isolated by a bandpass filter centered at twice the fundamental frequency and enhanced with decoding.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for perfusion imaging using coded excitation. Bursting pulses are scanned over the region of interest in one or more frames followed by scanning one or more encoded imaging pulses in each subsequent frame. The bursting pulse is intended to break contrast micro-bubbles within a transmit focal zone and therefore should have high mechanical index and low frequency. The basic concept is to use a very low-amplitude encoded pulse train to image the contrast agents. The low amplitude prevents the contrast bubbles in the transmit focal zone from being destroyed while imaging, and the coded excitation provides the necessary signal-to-noise ratio. The imaging pulses are transmitted during refilling of the transmit focal zone with contrast agent subsequent to transmission of the bursting pulse into the transmit focal zone. On receive, the receive vectors are decoded to form a compressed pulse.

Abstract: Flow imaging of a living body using Golay codes and wall filtering is performed using Golay-encoded transmit sequences that are transmitted successively to a given focal position, with matched filtering being performed on the received echoes. The matched filtering may employ a constant scalar multiplier f (close to unity) that changes from one Golay pair to the next, but remains constant for each Golay pair. The output signals of the matched receive signal filtering for all of the firings are vector-summed to form a compressed and high-pass-filtered signal which is detected, log-compressed, and displayed in the conventional B-mode (i.e., as a gray-scale image). The high-pass filtering suppresses the strong tissue signal, thereby enabling visualization of the weaker blood signal with or without the tissue background.

Abstract: Ultrasound imaging of biological tissue using multiple harmonic response parameters is performed by transmitting a pulse centered at fundamental frequency ƒ0 and filtering the returned beamformed signal with a bandpass filter centered at a frequency less than ƒ0. The fundamental transmit pulse spectrum and the receive filter passband are chosen to have negligible overlap so that substantially only harmonic signal components are bandpassed. The harmonic signals leaked through the passband from harmonic spectra centered at DC or at ƒ0 are detected and processed to form display image data which are displayed on a display subsystem. The signal content leaked through the passband is a function of the entire set of harmonic response parameters.

Abstract: In performing flow imaging using coded excitation and wall filtering, a coded sequence of broadband pulses (centered at a fundamental frequency) is transmitted multiple times to a particular transmit focal position, each coded sequence constituting one firing. On receive, the receive signals acquired for each firing are supplied to a finite impulse response filter which both compresses and bandpass filters the receive pulses, e.g., to isolate a compressed pulse centered at the fundamental frequency. The compressed and isolated signals are then high pass filtered across firings using a wall filter. The wall-filtered signals are used to image blood flow and contrast agents.