Patents by Inventor Douglas C. Noll

Douglas C. Noll 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).

  • Patent number: 10247801
    Abstract: A system and method for acquiring image data from an object that includes a plurality of spins is described. A magnetic field is applied to the object to align the spins along a longitudinal axis. A first pulse is applied to the spins for rotating the spins from the longitudinal axis toward a transverse plane. Image data is acquired from the spins during a free precession interval in which the spins precess in the transverse plane. A second pulse is applied to the spins for rotating the spins from the transverse plane to at least substantially along the longitudinal axis. At least one of the first and second pulses is spectrally or spectrally-spatially designed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2019
    Assignee: THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
    Inventors: Hao Sun, Jon-Fredrik Nielsen, Douglas C. Noll, Jeffrey A. Fessler
  • Patent number: 9791530
    Abstract: A method of acquiring image data with an MRI system from an object using a sequence of tip-down and tip-up RF pulses is described. A slice-selective first pulse ? rotates the in-slice spins from the longitudinal axis (z) toward a transverse plane (x, y). Image data is acquired from the in-slice spins during a free precession interval (Tfree) in which the in-slice spins precess along the transverse plane (x, y). A spatially tailored, non-slice-selective second pulse ?({right arrow over (r)}) is applied for rotating the in-slice spins from the transverse plane (x, y) to at least substantially along the longitudinal axis (z). A third pulse S may be applied to the in-slice and out-of-slice spins to eliminate (spoil) residual transverse signal from out-of-slice spins.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2017
    Assignee: THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
    Inventors: Jon-Fredrik Nielsen, Daehyun Yoon, Douglas C. Noll
  • Publication number: 20150309133
    Abstract: A system and method for acquiring image data from an object that includes a plurality of spins is described. A magnetic field is applied to the object to align the spins along a longitudinal axis. A first pulse is applied to the spins for rotating the spins from the longitudinal axis toward a transverse plane. Image data is acquired from the spins during a free precession interval in which the spins precess in the transverse plane. A second pulse is applied to the spins for rotating the spins from the transverse plane to at least substantially along the longitudinal axis. At least one of the first and second pulses is spectrally or spectrally-spatially designed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 24, 2015
    Publication date: October 29, 2015
    Applicant: THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
    Inventors: Hao Sun, Jon-Fredrik Nielsen, Douglas C. Noll, Jeffrey A. Fessler
  • Publication number: 20130271134
    Abstract: A method of acquiring image data with an MRI system from an object using a sequence of tip-down and tip-up RF pulses is described. A slice-selective first pulse ? rotates the in-slice spins from the longitudinal axis (z) toward a transverse plane (x, y). Image data is acquired from the in-slice spins during a free precession interval (Tfree) in which the in-slice spins precess along the transverse plane (x, y). A spatially tailored, non-slice-selective second pulse ?({right arrow over (r)}) is applied for rotating the in-slice spins from the transverse plane (x, y) to at least substantially along the longitudinal axis (z). A third pulse S may be applied to the in-slice and out-of-slice spins to eliminate (spoil) residual transverse signal from out-of-slice spins.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 12, 2013
    Publication date: October 17, 2013
    Inventors: Jon-Fredrik Nielsen, Daehyun Yoon, Douglas C. Noll
  • Patent number: 5311132
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method for automatically removing blur in magnetic resonance image signals introduced due to inhomogeneity in the magnetic field and variations in magnetic susceptibility of an object being imaged. Detected signals are demodulated at several different frequencies and reconstructed to create a series of base images. The amount of blur is determined by establishing a focusing measure for each point or part in each base image, and a composite image is then constructed using only the unblurred regions from each base image. Focusing criterion can include minimization of the imaginary part of the complex MRI after removal of constant and low frequency phase information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 1992
    Date of Patent: May 10, 1994
    Assignee: The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
    Inventors: Douglas C. Noll, John M. Pauly, Albert Macovski
  • Patent number: 5257626
    Abstract: Measures of a velocity component during a plurality of time frames of cyclical motion of a region of interest are obtained using contrast cine MRI techniques. Trajectories of the region of interest are calculated in a backward direction and in a forward direction. The trajectories are then combined to define a motion trajectory. The forward and backward trajectories are weighted prior to combining with the forward trajectory being more heavily weighted for early frames and the backward trajectory being more heavily weighted for late frames.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 1992
    Date of Patent: November 2, 1993
    Assignee: Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
    Inventors: Norbert J. Pelc, Douglas C. Noll, John M. Pauly
  • Patent number: 5243284
    Abstract: The acquisition of radial lines in 2-D Fourier space (k-space) allows the realization of the extremely short echo times useful in the imaging of short-T.sub.2 species and flow using Magnetic Resonance (MR). The disadvantage of this imaging method, which is also known as projection reconstruction, is that in order to prevent aliasing at a given resolution, .pi. times as many excitations are required as the conventional 2-D Fourier transform or spin-warp acquisition. Disclosed is an acquisition and reconstruction method that reduces the required number of radial lines and excitations by using the properties that projections are real or have slowly varying phase and the at radial acquisition methods are oversampled at the center of k-space. This method preserves resolution while reducing imaging time at the expense of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). This has been verified with both phantom and human subjects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 1991
    Date of Patent: September 7, 1993
    Assignee: Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
    Inventor: Douglas C. Noll