Patent ID: 8343054

Claim:
A method of creating an ultrasound image, comprising; creating a plurality of ultrasound images of an area, each of the plurality of ultrasound images acquired using a respective beam steering angle; for each of a plurality of image pixel locations in each of the plurality of ultrasound images, determining a value of an image pixel located at an image pixel location; for each of the plurality of image pixel locations, identifying a value among the plurality of values determined for the pixel location other than the largest value of the plurality of values determined for the pixel location; creating a first output image in which each of the plurality of image pixel locations of the output image includes an image pixel having the value identified for the image pixel location; acquiring a second ultrasound image of the area using a beam steering angle substantially perpendicular to an ultrasound transducer array; for each of the plurality of image pixel locations in the second ultrasound image, determining a value of an image pixel located at the image pixel location; and creating a second output image in which a value of an image pixel located at each of the plurality of image pixel locations of the second output image is the sum of the value identified for the image pixel location in the first output image multiplied by a first weight, and a weighted value of the image pixel determined for the image pixel location in the second ultrasound image multiplied by a second weight.