Patent ID: 8824762

Claim:
A method of processing ultrasound data, comprising: receiving ultrasound data for a first ultrasound image, said first ultrasound image being represented as a first set of discrete pixels corresponding to positions of a region of interest; receiving ultrasound data for a second ultrasound image, said second ultrasound image being represented as a second set of discrete pixels corresponding to positions of said region of interest; generating a displacement map by minimizing a cost function using a dynamic programming procedure that identifies each of said first set of discrete pixels with a corresponding one of said second set of discrete pixels; refining said displacement map to obtain intermediate displacement values corresponding to positions between said discrete pixels based on minimizing a local approximation to said cost function; calculating a physical property of said region of interest based on said displacement map; wherein said receiving ultrasound data for said first ultrasound image corresponds to said region of interest having a first temperature distribution, wherein said receiving ultrasound data for said second ultrasound image corresponds to said region of interest having a second temperature distribution, and said calculating said physical property of said region of interest based on said displacement map is calculating a temperature map.