Patent ID: 8571277

Claim:
A method for use in medical ultrasound imaging, comprising: obtaining a first two dimensional ultrasound image of an internal object of interest using a handheld ultrasound device, said first two dimensional ultrasound image having a first image plane and a first three dimensional point of reference obtained from an unconstrained tracker adapted to provide location information in three dimensional space, wherein said first three dimensional point of reference is correlated with said first image plane, and wherein said unconstrained tracker is attached to the handheld ultrasound device; obtaining a second two dimensional ultrasound image of the internal object of interest using the handheld ultrasound device, said second two dimensional ultrasound image having a second image plane and second three dimensional point of reference obtained from the unconstrained tracker attached to the handheld ultrasound device, wherein said second three dimensional point of reference is correlated with said second image plane, and wherein said first and second three dimensional points of reference are different and said image planes are non-aligned such that said first and second ultrasound images have arbitrary orientations relative to one another; translating pixel information from said first and second two dimensional ultrasound images into a common three dimensional volume; and interpolating between information associated with translated pixel information of said two dimensional ultrasound images as disposed within said common three dimensional volume to generate a three dimensional image of the object of interest having different resolution in at least first and second regions of said three dimensional image.