Patent ID: 7717850

Claim:
An ultrasound imaging system that interfaces with an ultrasound transducer, the system comprising: an ultrasound frequency transmitter that generates drive signals for the ultrasound transducer for each line of an image; a ultrasound frequency receiver that receives return signals from the ultrasound transducer and outputs samples of the received return signals for each line of the image; and an image processor that processes pixels of the image by performing the steps of (a) computing a ratio of power in a predetermined spatial frequency band to total power for samples of the received return signal that are associated with a given pixel, wherein the samples have a first linear density and the pixels have a second linear density, and the first linear density is at least twice as high as the second linear density, (b) mapping the computed ratio to a gain for the given pixel, and (c) modifying a raw intensity of the given pixel in accordance with the gain, wherein the raw intensity for the given pixel is determined by averaging a group of J samples centered about the given pixel, and wherein the step of computing a ratio comprises determining frequency characteristics of a group of K samples centered about the given pixel, where K is greater than J.