Abstract: An ultrasound diagnostic device includes: a contour extraction unit extracting a first contour image from ultrasound images obtained from spatially-successive examination positions and each including an image of an organ, a contour image indicating a contour of the organ and extracted from the organ image; a specification unit receiving, from a user, specification information specifying a manual correction target ultrasound image and correction information indicating details of a manual correction performed with respect to a first contour image extracted from the manual correction target ultrasound image; and a contour correction unit correcting the first contour image extracted from the manual correction target ultrasound image according to the correction information. The contour extraction unit further extracts a second contour image from a target ultrasound image by using information indicating the corrected first contour image. The target ultrasound image differs from the manual correction target image.

Abstract: An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus measures blood flow velocity by emitting ultrasound towards a measurement target and receiving a reflected wave, via an ultrasound probe. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes an ultrasound image acquisition unit, a vascular region detection unit, a measurement position determination unit, and a Doppler gate setting unit. The ultrasound image acquisition unit acquires an ultrasound image which has been captured of the measurement target. The vascular region detection unit detects, from the ultrasound image, a vascular region corresponding to a blood vessel. The measurement position determination unit detects a specific part of the vascular region based on vascular region shape and determines, in accordance with the specific part, one or more measurement positions in the vascular region in terms of longitudinal direction thereof. The Doppler gate setting unit sets, with respect to each measurement position, a Doppler gate in a lumen region of the vascular region.

Abstract: An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes a measurement position-orientation determination unit, a judgment unit and a property measurement unit. The measurement position-orientation determination unit determines a measurement target region for measuring a property of a vascular wall, based on a 3D image of a blood vessel generated from transverse tomographic images acquired by scanning of an ultrasound probe in a longitudinal direction, and also determines a measurement position and measurement orientation of the ultrasound probe for acquiring a longitudinal tomographic image including the measurement target region. The judgment unit judges whether a current position and current orientation of the ultrasound probe differ from the measurement position and measurement orientation respectively by no greater than a threshold value, and when judging affirmatively causes the apparatus to acquire the longitudinal tomographic image.

Abstract: An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus which detects a target blood vessel of a subject based on reflected ultrasound waves obtained, using an ultrasound probe, from the subject, the ultrasound diagnostic apparatus including: a B-mode image generation unit which generates a tomographic image of the subject, based on the reflected ultrasound waves; a blood flow image generation unit which generates blood flow information indicating a blood flow region of the subject in the tomographic image, based on the reflected ultrasound waves; and a blood flow region determination unit which determines whether or not the blood flow region corresponds to the target blood vessel, by analyzing the blood flow information generated by the blood flow image generation unit.

Abstract: An ultrasound image generation apparatus includes: a first motion estimation unit which estimates, as a first motion vector, a motion vector of the ultrasound probe using a first estimation method, the motion vector indicating the movement between images of the respective ultrasound signals; a second motion estimation unit which estimates, as a second motion vector, a motion vector of the ultrasound probe using a second estimation method different from the first estimation method in direction dependency of estimation accuracy; and a position reconstruction unit which (i) assigns, based on a direction of the first motion vector or a direction of the second motion vector, weights to the first and the second motion vectors, (ii) combines the weighted first and second motion vectors into a combined motion vector, and (iii) constructs an ultrasound diagnostic image of a subject using the combined motion vector and the images.

Abstract: Attempts to achieve a higher resolution and a higher frame rate of a distance image when a distance to an object within a target space is estimated using the TOF method would cause CCD saturation due to shot noise or environment light, and lower distance precision. A distance estimation apparatus illuminates an object with illumination light for distance estimation emitted from a light source that can emit light (electromagnetic wave) having a predetermined illumination frequency, receives reflected light of the illumination light, obtains information about the distance from the apparatus to the object, generates distance image data based on the distance information, extracts edge information of a color image formed using a visible light component obtained in synchronization with the reflected light, and corrects distance information of a target part of the distance image using distance information of a neighboring part of the target part based on the edge information.

Abstract: On the display screen of a video signal display device, when the emission amount is monotonically lowered toward the screen periphery from a certain point (screen center), if there are a plurality of regions that viewers notice easily (such as faces), then correction by monotically decreasing the emission amount cannot always raise the signal level in the regions that are noticed, and it may not be possible to obtain a sufficient sense of brightness.

Abstract: Conventionally, there has been a danger that CCD saturation may occur because of the influence of the shot noise and the environment light if a higher resolution of a distance image showing the distance to an object present in a target space and a higher frame rate are achieved when the distance image is estimated by the TOF method, and the distance accuracy may degrade. An emission frequency selecting unit (7) receives light (S2) reflected from the object when a light source does not emit light and selects illumination light (S1) having an emission frequency insusceptible to the environment light according to the frequency analysis of the reflected light (S2). An image creating unit (6) selects a light source emitting the illumination light having the optimum emission frequency from among prepared light sources (9A to 9N), receives reflected light of the illumination light from the selected light source, and creates the distance image showing the distance to the object.

Abstract: Attempts to achieve a higher resolution and a higher frame rate of a distance image when a distance to an object within a target space is estimated using the TOF method would cause CCD saturation due to shot noise or environment light, and lower distance precision. A distance estimation apparatus illuminates an object with illumination light for distance estimation emitted from a light source that can emit light (electromagnetic wave) having a predetermined illumination frequency, receives reflected light of the illumination light, obtains information about the distance from the apparatus to the object, generates distance image data based on the distance information, extracts edge information of a color image formed using a visible light component obtained in synchronization with the reflected light, and corrects distance information of a target part of the distance image using distance information of a neighboring part of the target part based on the edge information.

Abstract: On the display screen of a video signal display device, when the emission amount is monotonically lowered toward the screen periphery from a certain point (screen center), if there are a plurality of regions that viewers notice easily (such as faces), then correction by monotically decreasing the emission amount cannot always raise the signal level in the regions that are noticed, and it may not be possible to obtain a sufficient sense of brightness.