Patent ID: 11899142
Assignee: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  A | IPC A  G

Claim 6:
7. A method for producing images with improved noise performance, comprising:
acquiring ultrasound echo signals from an image field for imaging;
producing an ultrasound image from the ultrasound echo signals;
obtaining a noise level model of pixels of an ultrasound image, wherein the noise level model is adapted for comparison with pixel values of an image to determine a likelihood that a pixel value is noise;
producing noise bias coefficients by:
comparing the pixel values of the ultrasound image with the noise model to determine the likelihood that a pixel is noise; and
producing noise bias coefficients that are a function of the likelihood that a pixel value is noise;

adjusting a user-operable persistence control to produce a persistence coefficient for a greater degree of persistence by increasing a weighting applied to previous images, the number of images which are persisted, or both, for more aggressive persistence;
persistence processing ultrasound images in response to both the noise bias coefficients and persistence coefficients to improve the noise performance of images processed with persistence,
wherein the production of a greater degree of persistence also produces more aggressive noise processing to improve the signal to noise ratio of the ultrasound image.