Patent ID: 8852107

Claim:
An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system which produces a guided extended field of view (EFOV) image comprising: an ultrasound probe including an array transducer which may be moved along a surface of a subject in a front direction; a beamformer coupled to the array transducer which controls the ultrasound probe to repeatedly scan a plurality of image planes as the ultrasound probe is moved along the surface in the front direction; an image processor responsive to signals received from the array transducer to form a sequence of images as the ultrasound probe is moved; a motion estimator, responsive to a sequence of images which produces estimates of probe motion; an EFOV subsystem responsive to the probe motion estimates which operates to produce an EFOV image from a sequence of images; a probe motion indicator responsive to the motion estimator which produces an indication of probe motion in the front direction and variation of probe motion transverse to the front direction; and a display responsive to the EFOV subsystem and the probe motion indicator for adjacently displaying the probe motion indicator as the probe is moved and the EFOV image.