Patent Document ID: 9704240
Application ID: 14508707
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A system for producing high definition intravascular images comprising: an intravascular imaging catheter assembly configured to generate a raw frame of imaging information that includes a raw set of vectors, with each vector of the raw set of vectors comprising a raw set of data points; and an imaging engine coupled to the intravascular imaging catheter assembly and being configured to receive the raw frame of imaging information from the intravascular imaging catheter assembly and to produce an enhanced frame of imaging information that includes an enhanced set of vectors, the imaging engine comprising: (a) a coherence filter configured to (i) group vectors of the raw set of vectors into raw vector groups and (ii) generate a first set of vectors based on comparisons of data points of each raw vector group's vectors with one another at like radial positions, wherein each vector of the first set of vectors (A) is representative of the vectors of one of the raw vector groups and (B) comprises a first set of data points having the same number of data points as the raw set of data points, and wherein generating the first set of vectors comprises generating, for each of the raw vector groups, two or more super vectors within the first set of vectors and associated with the raw vector group such that the first set of vectors consists of the generated super vectors, (b) an envelope detection module comprising a plurality of envelope detectors arranged in parallel and configured to generate a second set of vectors based on comparisons of data points within each first set of data points with one another, wherein (i) each vector of the second set of vectors comprises a second set of data points with a smaller number of data points that are representative of the data points of the first set of data points, (ii) the second set of vectors comprises the same number of vectors as the first set of vectors, (iii) the number of parallel envelope detectors in the envelope detection module is equal to the number of super vectors associated with each of the raw vector groups such that, (A) for each raw vector group, each super vector associated with that raw vector group is processed in parallel by a corresponding one of the parallel envelope detectors, and (B) each envelope detector generates a subset of the second set of vectors, and (c) a spatial filter configured to (i) group vectors of the second set of vectors into processed vector groups and (ii) generate the enhanced set of vectors based on comparisons of data points of each processed vector group's vectors with one another at like and near radial positions, wherein each vector of the enhanced set of vectors (A) is representative of the vectors of one of the processed vector groups and (B) comprises an enhanced set of data points having the same number of data points as the second set of data points, and (d) an image generator configured to generate an image based on the enhanced frame of imaging information.