Patents by Inventor Shunichiro Tanigawa
Shunichiro Tanigawa has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Publication number: 20150119710Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus is provided. The ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus includes an ultrasonic probe configured to transmit ultrasonic push pulses to a biological tissue of a test object and further configured to transmit measuring ultrasonic pulses to the biological tissue subjected to the transmitted push pulses in order to measure an elasticity of the biological tissue, a respiration detection part configured to detect respiration of the test object, and a notification part which, based on the detection by the respiration detection part, is configured to give notification allowing a transmission timing of the push pulses to be recognized.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 31, 2014Publication date: April 30, 2015Applicant: GE MEDICAL SYSTEMS GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY COMPANY, LLCInventors: Sotaro Kawae, Shunichiro Tanigawa, Eigil Samset, Michael Charles MacDonald
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Publication number: 20140155746Abstract: An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus is provided. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes a physical quantity data generating unit configured to generate physical quantity data by calculating a physical quantity related to elasticity of parts in a living tissue based on an echo signal obtained by transmission and reception of an ultrasound wave to and from the living tissue, an elasticity image data generating unit configured to generate elasticity image data including information indicative of a display form corresponding to the calculated physical quantity, and a display unit configured to display an elasticity image generated based on the elasticity image data and having a display form corresponding to the physical quantity, wherein the elasticity image is generated based on physical quantity data for a plurality of frames within a predetermined time period having a length that includes a plurality of heartbeats.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 21, 2013Publication date: June 5, 2014Applicant: GE MEDICAL SYSTEMS GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY COMPANY, LLCInventor: Shunichiro Tanigawa
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Patent number: 8684931Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes a physical quantity calculator for setting correlation windows to two echo signals obtained by transmission/reception of ultrasound to and from a biological tissue and different in time on the same sound rays and performing a correlation arithmetic operation between the correlation windows to thereby calculate physical quantities related to elasticity of respective regions in the biological tissue, an elastic image data generator for generating elastic image data of the biological tissue with respect to an elastic image forming region of a transmission/reception surface of the ultrasound, based on the physical quantities, a physical quantity average unit for calculating an average of the physical quantities in the elastic image forming region for every frame, a comparator for comparing a value calculated by the physical quantity average unit and a preset average value of the physical quantities, and a notification unit for notifying a result of comparison by the comType: GrantFiled: August 26, 2010Date of Patent: April 1, 2014Assignee: GE Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLCInventors: Shunichiro Tanigawa, Koji Miyama, Seiji Funaya
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Publication number: 20140081137Abstract: An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus is provided. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes a physical quantity calculating unit configured to set correlation windows to two echo signals different in time from each other on the same sound ray, and perform a correlation computation to calculate a physical quantity related to elasticity. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus further includes a computing unit configured to compute a computed value from a computational equation, the computed value emphasizing parameter characteristics of a cyst in a biological tissue, the computational equation using at least two of the following three parameters: an absolute value of the physical quantity, a correlation coefficient related to the correlation computation, and an intensity of each echo signal of ultrasound obtained from the biological tissue. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus further includes a display unit configured to display an image having a display form corresponding to the computed value.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 17, 2013Publication date: March 20, 2014Applicant: GE MEDICAL SYSTEMS GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY COMPANY, LLCInventor: Shunichiro Tanigawa
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Publication number: 20130030293Abstract: An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus is provided. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes a physical quantity calculating unit configured to calculate a physical quantity related to elasticity of biological tissue, based on echo signals obtained by transmission/reception of ultrasound to and from a subject, and a three-dimensional elastic image data generating unit configured to generate three-dimensional elastic image data by volume rendering processing that projects data related to the physical quantity in a three-dimensional region of the subject in a predetermined visual line direction to thereby obtain data of respective pixels on a projection plane, wherein the three-dimensional elastic image data generating unit is configured to obtain data corresponding to the number of data related to the physical quantity in a prescribed range of elasticity in the visual line direction as the data of the respective pixels.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 27, 2012Publication date: January 31, 2013Inventor: Shunichiro TANIGAWA
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Publication number: 20120215102Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes a physical amount calculation device configured to calculate a physical amount on elasticity of living tissue based on an echo signal obtained by transmitting an ultrasonic wave to the living tissue, and a display image control device configured to control display of a predetermined alternative elastic image displayed instead of an elastic image based on the physical amount calculated for error frames using a ratio of non-error frames or the error frames in a predetermined plurality of frames, wherein the error frames are determined as not meeting a standard.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 13, 2011Publication date: August 23, 2012Inventor: Shunichiro Tanigawa
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Publication number: 20120133663Abstract: A medical image display apparatus for displaying medical images of a biological tissue includes a physical quantity calculator that calculates a first physical quantity related to elasticity of the biological tissue, and a display image control unit that displays a first elastic image having a display form corresponding to the first physical quantity calculated by the physical quantity calculator and a second elastic image having a display form corresponding to a second physical quantity related to elasticity of the biological tissue calculated by other another medical image display apparatus as the medical images. The display image control unit displays images in which portions having a same elasticity in the biological tissue in a same display form as the first and second elastic images.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 30, 2011Publication date: May 31, 2012Inventor: Shunichiro Tanigawa
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Publication number: 20120016237Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes a physical amount calculation device configured to calculate a physical amount on elasticity of living tissue based on an echo signal obtained by transmitting an ultrasonic wave to the living tissue, and a display image control device configured to control display of a predetermined alternative elastic image displayed instead of an elastic image based on the physical amount calculated for error frames using a ratio of non-error frames or the error frames in a predetermined plurality of frames, wherein the error frames are determined as not meeting a standard.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 13, 2011Publication date: January 19, 2012Inventor: Shunichiro Tanigawa
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Patent number: 8096950Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a random processing device which adds independent random components to a pixel value of a pixel point on each actual frame corresponding to a given time and a pixel value of a pixel point on each actual frame corresponding to a time subsequent to the time respectively thereby to obtain random-processed pixel values and a weighting/adding device which weights/adds the random-processed pixel values thereby to obtain a pixel value of a pixel point on each interpolation frame corresponding to an intermediate time.Type: GrantFiled: August 7, 2008Date of Patent: January 17, 2012Assignee: GE Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLCInventors: Shunichiro Tanigawa, Koji Miyama
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Publication number: 20110306884Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes a physical quantity calculation unit configured to calculate a physical quantity relating to an elasticity of body tissue based on ultrasound echo data, a physical quantity average unit configured to calculate an average value of physical quantities in an elastic image of the body tissue generated based on the calculated physical quantity, a comparison value calculation unit configured to calculate a comparison value for each pixel by comparing a physical quantity for each pixel of the elastic image with the average value, and an index value calculation unit configured to calculate an index value relating to an elasticity of a predetermined region in the elastic image based on the comparison values.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 9, 2011Publication date: December 15, 2011Inventors: Shunichiro Tanigawa, Mayumi Ito
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Patent number: 7959571Abstract: The invention provides an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and an ultrasonic diagnostic image generating method realizing improvement in picture quality to thereby improve diagnosis efficiency in a diagnosis using images. An extracting process of extracting a sound ray vector image extending in a sound ray direction in which an ultrasonic beam is transmitted in an ultrasonic diagnosis image from the ultrasonic diagnosis image is performed. After that, a correcting process is performed so as to eliminate the sound ray vector image extracted by the extracting process from the ultrasonic diagnosis image.Type: GrantFiled: June 20, 2007Date of Patent: June 14, 2011Assignee: GE Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLCInventor: Shunichiro Tanigawa
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Publication number: 20110054314Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes a physical quantity calculator for setting correlation windows to two echo signals obtained by transmission/reception of ultrasound to and from a biological tissue and different in time on the same sound rays and performing a correlation arithmetic operation between the correlation windows to thereby calculate physical quantities related to elasticity of respective regions in the biological tissue, an elastic image data generator for generating elastic image data of the biological tissue with respect to an elastic image forming region of a transmission/reception surface of the ultrasound, based on the physical quantities, a physical quantity average unit for calculating an average of the physical quantities in the elastic image forming region for every frame, a comparator for comparing a value calculated by the physical quantity average unit and a preset average value of the physical quantities, and a notification unit for notifying a result of comparison by the comType: ApplicationFiled: August 26, 2010Publication date: March 3, 2011Inventors: Shunichiro Tanigawa, Koji Miyama, Seiji Funaya
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Publication number: 20110019894Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes a physical quantity calculator for setting correlation windows to echo signals via ultrasound of a biological tissue and lying on the same sound rays which belong to frames different in time, and performing a correlation arithmetic operation between the correlation windows to calculate a physical quantity related to elasticity of the biological tissue, and an elastic image data generator for generating elastic image data of the biological tissue, based on the physical quantity. Upon setting each correlation window to the echo signal on one sound ray which belongs to either one of the frames, the physical quantity calculator sets the each correlation window using a correlation arithmetic operation on an immediately preceding correlation window adjacent to the correlation window on one sound ray and previously subjected to a correlation arithmetic operation, and a correlation arithmetic operation on another sound ray correlation window.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 22, 2010Publication date: January 27, 2011Inventor: Shunichiro Tanigawa
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Patent number: 7608044Abstract: An ultrasonic image display method for displaying a composite image made from a B mode image and a tissue velocity image of an object taken by means of ultrasound. The method includes decreasing the weight of the B mode image while increasing the weight of the tissue velocity image, in response to increase of brightness of the B mode image, adding thus weighted B mode image and tissue velocity image, and displaying an image obtained by the addition.Type: GrantFiled: August 10, 2005Date of Patent: October 27, 2009Assignee: GE Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLCInventor: Shunichiro Tanigawa
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Publication number: 20090043201Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a random processing device which adds independent random components to a pixel value of a pixel point on each actual frame corresponding to a given time and a pixel value of a pixel point on each actual frame corresponding to a time subsequent to the time respectively thereby to obtain random-processed pixel values and a weighting/adding device which weights/adds the random-processed pixel values thereby to obtain a pixel value of a pixel point on each interpolation frame corresponding to an intermediate time.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 7, 2008Publication date: February 12, 2009Inventors: Shunichiro Tanigawa, Koji Miyama
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Publication number: 20070299344Abstract: The invention provides an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and an ultrasonic diagnostic image generating method realizing improvement in picture quality to thereby improve diagnosis efficiency in a diagnosis using images. An extracting process of extracting a sound ray vector image extending in a sound ray direction in which an ultrasonic beam is transmitted in an ultrasonic diagnosis image from the ultrasonic diagnosis image is performed. After that, a correcting process is performed so as to eliminate the sound ray vector image extracted by the extracting process from the ultrasonic diagnosis image.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 20, 2007Publication date: December 27, 2007Inventor: Shunichiro Tanigawa
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Patent number: 7149277Abstract: An object of the present invention is to calculate a more accurate beam-hardening correction coefficient. A phantom having an oblong section or a phantom having an annular (sector) section and a uniform thickness is positioned in an X-ray CT system, and scanned from plural directions in order to acquire a plurality of views. The results of the scan are used to calculate a correction coefficient that is used to correct projection information to be acquired from a subject.Type: GrantFiled: April 2, 2004Date of Patent: December 12, 2006Assignee: GE Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLCInventors: Shunichiro Tanigawa, Masatake Nukui
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Patent number: 7088800Abstract: An X-ray computed tomographic (CT) system includes: a beam-hardening correction block that corrects first projection information in terms of the beam-hardening effect so as to produce second projection information; a first fitting block that fits a first function to the second projection information so as to produce third projection information; a second fitting block that fits a second function to the third projection information values that are provided as functions having as independent variables the second projection information values sampled in relation to all the views and each of the channels of an X-ray detector; and a correction coefficient modification block that modifies a second correction coefficient, which is calculated using a second phantom larger in dimensions than a first phantom, using a first correction coefficient calculated using the first phantom.Type: GrantFiled: April 15, 2004Date of Patent: August 8, 2006Assignee: GE Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLCInventors: Masatake Nukui, Shunichiro Tanigawa
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Publication number: 20060058666Abstract: An ultrasonic image display method for displaying a composite image made from a B mode image and a tissue velocity image of an object taken by means of ultrasound. The method includes decreasing the weight of the B mode image while increasing the weight of the tissue velocity image, in response to increase of brightness of the B mode image, adding thus weighted B mode image and tissue velocity image, and displaying an image obtained by the addition.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 10, 2005Publication date: March 16, 2006Inventor: Shunichiro Tanigawa
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Patent number: 6944258Abstract: A beam hardening post-processing method that can improve the accuracy of channel-by-channel correction on a BH effect easily and yet taking a non-linear effect into account, phantoms of different diameters are disposed at a position offset from an imaging center to acquire projection information having a transmission length of an X-ray beam varying from view to view, hence, acquire projection information having a projection information value varying from view to view, for each channel, correction factors are determined, and a corrective function containing even a non-linear effect is determined by higher-order function fitting from the correction factors; and therefore, correction with high accuracy can be achieved in the channel-by-channel correction on the projection information values conducted after BH correction, and moreover, correction with high accuracy can be achieved using a smaller amount of phantom projection information, thus reducing the time for calibration work.Type: GrantFiled: November 19, 2003Date of Patent: September 13, 2005Assignee: GE Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLCInventors: Masatake Nukui, Shunichiro Tanigawa