JP3035493B2 - Ultrasound diagnostic equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and, more particularly, to an arrangement for outputting image data to an external device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 shows the concept of a conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus having an image data output function. When a scanning control signal is input from the scanning control unit 15 to the transmission / reception unit 16, a transmission pulse is supplied from the transmission / reception unit 16 to the probe 12, and the probe 12 emits an ultrasonic pulse into the living body. The reflected wave from the living body is received by the probe 12, and the received signal output from the probe 12 is subjected to processing such as amplification and detection by the transmission / reception unit 16, and is then converted into a well-known DSC (digital scan converter) 20 as image data. Sent to

Here, the probe 12 has a built-in array transducer, for example, and a two-dimensional scanning surface is formed by electronically scanning an ultrasonic beam.
Received signals corresponding to the respective ultrasonic beams constituting the scanning plane are input to C20, whereby a two-dimensional tomographic image is formed in the DSC 20, for example. Note that image data is input to the DSC 20 at a scanning frame rate, as is apparent from the above description.

The DSC 20 has an image forming function as described above, and further has a coordinate conversion function, a data interpolation function, a frame rate conversion function, and the like. Since the scanning frame rate of the ultrasonic beam and the display frame rate on the display device 14 usually do not match, the DSC 20
Performs the addition of image data corresponding to the shortage (output of duplicated image data or output of interpolated data by interpolation processing between image data) when the display frame rate is higher than the scanning frame rate. ing.

[0005] The image data output from the DSC at the display frame rate is output to the display device 14, and the display device 1
At 4, an ultrasound image is displayed.

When the image data output to the display device 14 is to be output to an external storage device or the image data is to be output to an external processing device via a network, the video data is transmitted via the video memory 26. Image data is output to the outside.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION However, DSC
The image data continuously output from the display device 20 at the display frame rate includes, in addition to the original image data, additional image data additionally inserted by interpolation or the like. The additional image data is the same image data as the original image data or interpolated image data that can be generated from the original image data. Therefore, storing up to the additional image data in the video memory is a waste of memory capacity, and furthermore, the amount of data to be stored and transferred to an external device unnecessarily increases.

Therefore, conventionally, in order to cope with this problem, a write control unit 24 is provided, and when the image data is stored in the video memory 26 by the write control unit 24, the image data is deleted in a certain thinning cycle. I was thinning out.

[0009] However, even in this case, the data amount can be reduced uniformly, and the same problems as described above, such as the overlapping capture of the same image data and the capture of the interpolated image data, still remain, and the original image data is further thinned out. There was a problem that there was a possibility.

It is conceivable that image data is taken out before the DSC 20 and output to the outside. In this case, however, image data which has not been subjected to coordinate conversion processing by the DSC 20 is output. When processing image data, processing such as coordinate conversion must be separately performed. That is, there is a demand for a device that can extract only original data on the assumption that image data is externally output at the subsequent stage of the DSC 20.

Although Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 7-328008 and 7-75636 disclose techniques related to the present application, the preconditions and principles are different from those of the present invention. The present invention has been made in view of the above-described conventional problems, and has as its object to extract only original image data from a series of image data strings when externally outputting image data that has undergone frame rate conversion processing. Thus, an object of the present invention is to reduce a data storage amount and a data transmission amount.

[0012]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a transmitting / receiving means for scanning an ultrasonic beam, and a display frame for displaying image data input at a scanning frame rate of the ultrasonic beam. A synchronizing signal output for outputting a synchronizing signal synchronized with the scanning frame rate in an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus including a converting means for converting the image data into a rate image data, and a display means for displaying an ultrasonic image at the display frame rate. Means, and synchronous type thinning means for thinning out the additional image data added by the conversion means by extracting image data in synchronization with the synchronization signal from the image data output from the conversion means. The image data after the thinning is output to the outside.

According to the above arrangement, the image data can be thinned out in synchronism with the scanning frame rate, in other words, the image data can be extracted. External output can be avoided. That is, the synchronization signal is a signal indicating switching between frames, and is generated in the same number as the number of original frames in conformity with the scanning frame rate. Therefore, the original image data can be easily specified by using the synchronization signal. In this case, it is desirable to thin out the image data in consideration of a delay in data processing. In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the apparatus further includes a video memory in which the extracted image data is temporarily stored, and wherein the synchronous thinning-out unit thins out the additional image data by controlling writing of the image data to the video memory. I do. That is, the thinning of the image data can be easily realized by controlling the writing of the image data to the video memory.

In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the video memory and the synchronous thinning-out means are housed in an apparatus main body, and the apparatus main body is provided with an external output port for outputting image data from the video memory. .

That is, the video memory and the synchronous thinning-out means can be configured as a unit separate from the apparatus main body, but can be built in the apparatus main body in advance. In that case, it is desirable to provide a port (terminal) for outputting image data to the outside.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the concept of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention. The scanning control unit 15 generates a scanning control signal (scanning synchronization pulse signal) indicating the scanning timing of the ultrasonic beam. The scanning control signal is input to the transmission / reception unit 16 and sent to the writing control unit 25 described later. Is entered.

When the scanning control signal is input to the transmission / reception unit 16, a transmission pulse is supplied from the transmission / reception unit 16 to the probe 12, and the probe 12 emits an ultrasonic pulse into the living body. The reflected wave from the living body is received by the probe 12, and the received signal output from the probe 12 is subjected to processing such as amplification and detection by the transmission / reception unit 16, and then sent to the DSC 20 as image data.

The probe 12 has, for example, a built-in array vibrator in which a plurality of vibrating elements are linearly arranged, and a two-dimensional scanning surface is formed by electronically scanning an ultrasonic beam. Therefore, the DSC 20 is supplied with a reception signal corresponding to each ultrasonic beam forming the scanning plane, and the DSC 20 forms, for example, a two-dimensional tomographic image. Note that this DS
Image data is input to C20 at the scanning frame rate as described above. The DSC 20 has an image forming function as described above, and further has a coordinate conversion function, a data interpolation function, a frame rate conversion function, and the like. Scanning frame rate of ultrasonic beam and display device 14
In general, the display frame rate does not match. Therefore, when the display frame rate is higher than the scanning frame rate, the DSC 20 adds image data corresponding to the shortage (output of duplicated image data or image data Output of interpolated data by interpolating between them).

The image data output from the DSC 20 at the display frame rate is output to the display device 14, and the display device 14 displays an ultrasonic image.

By the way, when it is desired to output image data output to the display device 14 to an external storage device, or to output the image data to an external processing device via a network, the video data is transmitted through the video memory 26. Image data is output to an external device. Here the video memory 26
Has a storage capacity capable of storing tens or hundreds of image data, for example.

In this embodiment, writing of image data to the video memory 26 is controlled by the writing control unit 25 based on a scanning control signal. The writing control unit 25 is composed of, for example, a frame counter, counts synchronization pulses forming a scanning control signal, and writes the image data of the frame after the count value is incremented to the video memory 26. As a result, only the original image data is extracted, and additional image data other than the original image data is thinned out.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining synchronous thinning according to the present invention. As shown in (A), each image data is taken into the DSC 20 at the scanning frame rate.
The DSC 20 performs image interpolation processing and the like.
Image data is output at a display frame rate as shown in FIG. Here, as described above, if the display frame rate is higher than the scanning frame rate, additional image data is added to a series of original image data.

FIG. 3C shows the result of a conventional thinning process. Here, an example in which image data is fetched in a cycle of one skip and two samplings is shown. As shown in the figure, the additional image data of the number with a dash is taken.

FIG. 4D shows the result of the thinning process of the present embodiment. In this writing control, writing of image data is performed in synchronization with the frame synchronization signal. That is,
The image data of the display frame immediately after the input of the synchronization signal is captured. According to this, only the original image data can be extracted, and the additional image data can be thinned.

In the present embodiment, the external output unit 102 comprising the write control unit 25 and the video memory 26 is built in the apparatus main body 10, and correspondingly, the apparatus main unit 1
0 is an output port 10 for externally outputting image data.
0 is provided. An optical disc device, a data processing device, or the like is connected to the output port 100 as an external device. Note that the external output unit 102 is connected to the apparatus main body 10.
The present invention can be applied even when externally attached.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention, when image data after frame rate conversion processing is output to the outside, only original image data can be extracted from a series of image data strings. The amount of storage and the amount of data transmission can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining synchronous thinning.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 apparatus main body, 12 probes, 15 scanning control unit,
20 DSC, 25 write control unit, 26 video memory.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) A61B 8/00-8/14

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] A transmitting / receiving unit for scanning an ultrasonic beam; a converting unit for converting image data input at a scanning frame rate of the ultrasonic beam into image data at a display frame rate; A display unit on which an ultrasonic image is displayed; and an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, comprising: a synchronization signal output unit that outputs a synchronization signal synchronized with the scanning frame rate; and the image data output from the conversion unit. Synchronizing thinning means for thinning out the additional image data added by the conversion means by extracting image data in synchronization with a synchronization signal, wherein the thinned image data is output to the outside Ultrasound diagnostic device. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a video memory in which the extracted image data is temporarily stored, wherein the synchronous thinning-out unit controls writing of the image data to the video memory. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for thinning out additional image data. 3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said video memory and said synchronous thinning-out means are housed in an apparatus main body, and said apparatus main body is provided with an output port for outputting image data from said video memory. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned.