Patent ID: 6468212
Filing Date: 2002-10-22
Classification: A61B,G01S

Abstract:
A computer system electronically coupled to an ultrasound system comprising an ultrasound scan head and a scan head interface unit, said computer comprising:a processor unit, a memory unit, a display monitor, a keyboard having a tactile user actuated control surface, an input/output interface for said display monitor and said keyboard, software in said memory unit for causing said processor unit to upload or download data from or to the ultrasound system; software for operating an ultrasound system with predetermined operating and display parameters including focus, time gain compensation, gain, display colors, frequency probe adjustments, doppler settings and shot sequences; and, a bus electronically coupling the ultrasound system to said processor unit, said memory unit, said display monitor, and said input/output interface for said display monitor and said keyboard; said computer system including a virtual control user interface comprising: software controls in said memory unit for manipulating, enhancing, annotating and post-processing images on said display monitor under the control of said processor unit and for storing said images, said images including live images of a hardware control configuration for a subject being viewed by the ultrasound system, or archived images of a hardware control configuration in said memory or retrieved from another ultrasound system or from an archival device; said software controls including: a plurality of computer driven gain control user interfaces, a plurality of computer driven ultrasound image enhancement control user interfaces, and at least one computer driven focus control user interface, said software controls having multiple menu levels for display of (a) said plurality of gain control images, (b) said plurality of ultrasound images and (c) said focus control images, and said software controls enabling the operating parameters of the ultrasound system and the display parameters of data from the ultrasound system to be altered by the user of said computer system to the predetermined operating and display parameters or to parameters desired by the user, said parameters including at least one of: focus, time gain compensation, gain, display colors, frequency probe adjustments, DOPPLER settings and shot sequences.