Patent Document ID: 8559685
Application ID: 12449582
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for generating 3D ultrasound imagery, comprising: acquiring a first ultrasound image and a second ultrasound image, the first ultrasound image corresponding to a first image location, and the second ultrasound image corresponding to a second image location, and wherein the first image location and the second image location are separated by an elevation distance; dividing the first ultrasound image and the second ultrasound image into a plurality of patches; computing a signal to noise ratio value and a skewness value for each of the plurality of patches as statistical parameters that characterize a statistical distribution of speckle scattering within each of the plurality of patches; comparing the signal to noise ratio value and skewness value for each patch to a range of acceptable signal to noise ratio values and a range of acceptable skewness values; determining whether each patch of the plurality of patches is a good patch, wherein each good patch has a corresponding signal to noise ratio value and skewness value that lie within the range of acceptable signal to noise ratio values and skewness values; computing a correlation coefficient for a corresponding pair of good patches, wherein one of the corresponding pair is from the first ultrasound image, and the other of the corresponding pair is from the second ultrasound image; and computing an elevation distance corresponding to the correlation coefficient.