Patent ID: 7632229

Claim:
A system for range dependent weighting in ultrasound imaging, said system including: a transducer array receiving a first ultrasound beam; a data acquisition system receiving a first ultrasound imaging signal from said array, said first signal including first image data for a first image frame based on at least said first beam, wherein said first image data is over a first range, wherein said first image frame includes at least a first near field and a first far field, wherein a portion of said first image data is included in said first near field and another portion of said first image data is included in said first far field based on said first range; an imaging processor combining a first data contribution from said first image data with at least second image data for a second image frame from a second ultrasound imaging signal to create a spatially compounded image, wherein said second image data is over a second range, wherein said second image frame includes at least a second near field and a second far field, wherein a portion of said second image data is included in said second near field and another portion of said second image data is included in said second far field based on said second range; and a memory in communication with said imaging processor, said memory storing a threshold angle from a non-steered beam direction, wherein said imaging processor is configured to determine said first contribution based on a range-dependent weighting applied to said first image data over said first range if the threshold angle exceeds a steering angle of said first ultrasound beam, wherein said range-dependent weighting is applied to said first image data only when said steering angle is within said threshold angle from the non-steered beam direction.