Patent ID: 8882675

Claim:
A method implemented by an imaging system, comprising: acquiring color Doppler data; detecting one or more transitions of the color Doppler data, each of the one or more transitions being between a first area representing flow velocity in a first direction and a second area representing flow velocity not in the first direction; applying a first set of aliasing corrections to the color Doppler data to generate second color Doppler data; for each of the one or more transitions, determining one or more pairs of color Doppler values in the second color Doppler data, wherein each color Doppler value of a pair of color Doppler values is located on opposite sides of a transition; for each of the one or more transitions, evaluating a first energy function based on the one or more pairs of color Doppler values in the second color Doppler data, wherein each color Doppler value of a pair of color Doppler values is located on opposite sides of a transition; determining a first total energy function associated with the first set of aliasing corrections based on the evaluated first energy functions; applying a second set of aliasing corrections to the color Doppler data to generate third color Doppler data; for each of the one or more transitions, determining one or more pairs of color Doppler values in the third color Doppler data, wherein each color Doppler value of a pair of color Doppler values is located on opposite sides of a transition; for each of the one or more transitions, evaluating a second energy function based on the one or more pairs of color Doppler values in the third color Doppler data, wherein each color Doppler value of a pair of color Doppler values is located on opposite sides of a transition; determining a second total energy function associated with the second set of aliasing corrections based on the evaluated second energy functions; determining whether the first total energy function is less than the second total energy function or whether the second total energy function is less than the first total energy function; and identifying the first set of aliasing corrections as a correct set of aliasing corrections if the first total energy function is less than the second total energy function, and identifying the second set of aliasing corrections as the correct set of aliasing corrections if the second total energy function is less than the first total energy function.