Patent ID: 8235900

Claim:
An ultrasound imaging system, comprising: a transmitter configured to deliver one or more ultrasound pulses to a patient; a receiver configured to receive and process one or more ultrasound echoes from the patient; a systems control that is configured to cause the transmitter to deliver the one or more ultrasound pulses to the patient and the receiver to receive and process the one or more ultrasound echoes from the patient according to one or more imaging parameters; an imaging performance evaluator that is configured to determine a plurality of performance evaluation parameters from the one or more ultrasound echoes; a negative feedback controller that is configured to: receive the plurality of performance evaluation parameters; determine quantitative differences between the plurality of performance evaluation parameters and corresponding performance evaluation parameter thresholds, wherein the corresponding performance evaluation parameter thresholds represent a desired imaging performance; and modify one or more of the imaging parameters according to one or more mathematical functions of the determined quantitative differences to cause one or more performance evaluation parameters determined from subsequent echoes to approach the corresponding performance evaluation parameter thresholds, wherein a predetermined importance value is associated with each of the performance evaluation parameters, and wherein the one or more imaging parameters are modified also in accordance with the importance values of the performance evaluation parameters; a memory unit that is configured to store the performance evaluation parameter thresholds; and a feedback architecture configuration & control unit that is programmed to implement different imaging performance evaluators and to reconfigure the negative feedback controller for different imaging applications, wherein the different imaging applications include one or more of different imaging modes, imaging different patient types, and imaging different parts of a human body.