Patent ID: 8355547

Claim:
A method for combining ultrasonic images of the same object, the method including: for each ultrasonic image, seeking a contour representing an interface on the ultrasonic image; identifying an interest area in each ultrasonic image, the interest area being an enlarged area around the contour; assigning weights to pixels in the interest areas of the ultrasonic images; and constructing a combination image from the ultrasonic images, a pixel of the combination image corresponding to a pixel within at least one interest area being obtained from a weighting of the corresponding pixels of the ultrasonic images according to the weights assigned to the corresponding pixels, wherein the weights are assigned such that when a pixel is within the interest area of more than one of the ultrasonic images, equal weights are assigned to the corresponding pixels for each ultrasonic image for which the pixel is within the interest area, and wherein the weights are assigned such that when a pixel is within the interest area of a first one of the ultrasonic images, but not within the interest area of a second one of the ultrasonic images, then the weight assigned to the corresponding pixel of the first ultrasonic image is greater than the weight assigned to the corresponding pixel of the second ultrasonic image.