US 11,937,977 B2
Compounding and non-rigid image registration for ultrasound speckle reduction
Noah Yuzo Toyonaga, Stanford, CA (US); Yilei Li, Stanford, CA (US); and Steven Chu, Stanford, CA (US)
Assigned to The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, Stanford, CA (US)
Appl. No. 17/254,014
Filed by The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, Stanford, CA (US)
PCT Filed Jun. 18, 2019, PCT No. PCT/US2019/037771
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Dec. 18, 2020,
PCT Pub. No. WO2019/246127, PCT Pub. Date Dec. 26, 2019.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/687,138, filed on Jun. 19, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2021/0219961 A1, Jul. 22, 2021
Int. Cl. A61B 8/00 (2006.01); A61B 8/08 (2006.01); G01S 15/89 (2006.01); G06T 5/00 (2006.01); G06T 7/20 (2017.01); G06T 7/32 (2017.01); G06T 7/37 (2017.01)
CPC A61B 8/4245 (2013.01) [A61B 8/5253 (2013.01); A61B 8/5269 (2013.01); G01S 15/895 (2013.01); G01S 15/8995 (2013.01); G06T 5/005 (2013.01); G06T 7/20 (2013.01); G06T 7/32 (2017.01); G06T 7/37 (2017.01); G06T 2207/10132 (2013.01)] 21 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of generating a compounded ultrasound image with reduced speckle, the method comprising:
generating ultrasound image data using an ultrasound probe;
frequency compounding the ultrasound image data to generate frequency compounded ultrasound image data comprising a plurality of ultrasound images;
identifying a first portion of the plurality of ultrasound images from the frequency compounded ultrasound image data, the first portion having an angular displacement that exceeds a threshold angular displacement, wherein a second portion of the plurality of ultrasound images from the frequency compounded ultrasound image data does not exceed the threshold angular displacement;
selecting the one or more ultrasound images from the frequency compounded ultrasound image data based on the angular displacement exceeding the threshold angular displacement;
non-rigidly registering the first portion of the plurality of ultrasound images from the frequency compounded ultrasound image data to generate registered ultrasound images;
angle compounding the registered ultrasound images to generate a compounded ultrasound image; and
outputting the compounded ultrasound image.