JPH0337193B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an ultrasonic image display device that displays an ultrasonic image on a television scanning type display device such as a television monitor.

Ultrasonic diagnostic equipment transmits an ultrasound beam, receives its echo signal with the same directivity as the transmitted beam (receive beam), and samples this single echo signal at a predetermined sampling period. By doing so, each data of pixels aligned in the ultrasound (transmission and reception) beam direction is obtained. As an image display device, a television scanning type display is generally used instead of a vector type display because it is widely used and inexpensive. Therefore, it is necessary to rearrange the image data aligned in the ultrasound beam direction as described above in accordance with the television scanning method.
A scan converter is used for this purpose.

By the way, if you want to obtain a high-resolution ultrasound image by increasing the pixel density, you can increase the number of ultrasound beams, but then it will take time to obtain one screen's worth of data, and the frame rate will increase. A problem arises in that the performance decreases. Moreover, the capacity of the image memory of the scan converter must also be increased.

This invention does not increase the number of ultrasound beams,
Therefore, we have developed an ultrasound image display device that can display smooth ultrasound images by increasing pixel density without causing problems such as reducing the frame rate or increasing the image memory capacity of the scan converter. The purpose is to provide.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In Figure 1, an ultrasound probe (vibrating paper) is placed in close contact with a subject (patient's body) 1.
A driving pulse is sent from the wave transmitting circuit 3 to the probe 2, and ultrasonic waves are emitted from the probe 2, and the ultrasonic beam is linearly scanned, for example, as shown in the figure. The probe 2 receives the reflected waves of the ultrasonic beams sequentially emitted while shifting their positions in a parallel motion and converts them into electrical signals to generate echo signals. This echo signal passes through the wave receiving circuit 4, further passes through the AD converter 5, is digitized, and is written into each storage section of the image memory 6. For example, a digitized echo signal obtained for each ultrasound beam emission is sequentially written to each address in the vertical direction (solid arrow) of the image memory 6. The capacity is: horizontal direction; number of ultrasonic beams x vertical direction; number of samplings of one echo signal. When the writing for one screen is completed, it is successively output in the horizontal direction (dotted line arrow; direction that traverses the ultrasonic beam direction array of image data) in synchronization with television scanning. The function of a scan converter is achieved by writing and reading data into and from the image memory. Each read data is sent to an interpolation circuit 9 via a multiplexer 7 and a buffer 8. This interpolation circuit 9 is composed of, for example, switching circuits 91, 94, a latch circuit 92, and an averaging circuit 93, and data is read out sequentially as P, Q, R, etc., as shown in FIG. 2a, for example. At this time, first, at timing P, both switching circuits 91 and 94 are switched to the a side, and data P is stored in latch circuit 92 and output as is. Next, at timing Q, the switching circuits 91 and 94 are first switched to the b side. Then, data P+Q/2 is obtained from the averaging circuit 93, and this P+Q/2 is outputted via the switching circuit 94. Next, while the data Q is still being sent, the switching circuits 91 and 94 are switched to the a side. Output Q.
In this way, as shown in Figure 2b, as a result,
For example...P, P+Q/2, Q, P+R/2, R,..., data of the average value of data on both sides can be inserted between the original data. The output of the interpolation circuit 9 is converted into an analog signal by a DA converter 10, and sent through a low-pass filter 11 to a television monitor 12, which is a television scanning display.

Therefore, on the screen of the television monitor 12,
The data read out by horizontally scanning the image memory 6 (see Figure 2 a) is interpolated (second
(see Figure b) are displayed to represent each pixel on each horizontal scanning line. Assuming that there is no interpolation circuit 9, a display as shown in FIG. By increasing the number of data in the circuit 9, the data shown in FIG.
A smooth display with small pixel size as shown in is produced. This is the same as increasing the number of ultrasound beams and increasing the capacity of the image memory 6, and the pixel density can be increased without reducing the frame rate or increasing the capacity of the image memory 6 of the scan converter. It means that it has been raised.

In the above embodiment, the interpolation circuit 9 is configured to obtain the average value data from data of two adjacent points, but it is also possible to create new data from data of three or more consecutive points. It is also not necessary to use average value data.

As explained above in the embodiment, since the data read out from the image memory of the scan converter is processed by the interpolation circuit to create and add new data, the density resolution and spatial resolution of the displayed image The resolution can be improved at the same time, and smooth image display can be achieved.Moreover, this can be achieved without increasing the capacity of the image memory and without reducing the frame rate.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
Figures a and b are time charts for explaining the operation of the interpolation circuit shown in Figure 1. 1... Subject, 2... Ultrasonic probe, 3... Wave transmitting circuit, 4... Wave receiving circuit, 5... AD converter, 6
...Image memory, 7...Multiplexer, 8...
Buffer, 9...Interpolation circuit, 9
1, 94...Switching circuit, 92...Latch circuit, 9
3... Average circuit, 10... DA converter, 11...
Low-pass filter, 12...TV monitor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Once the echo signal data obtained along the ultrasonic beam is written as image data on the scanning line corresponding to the beam of the image memory, the echo signal data obtained along the ultrasonic beam is written in the direction that crosses the writing scanning line according to the television scanning method. In an ultrasonic image display device that sequentially reads image data from this image memory along a scanning line and displays it on the scanning line of a television scanning display device so that one piece of image data represents one pixel, A plurality of pieces of image data to be lined up on one scanning line that has been read out is temporarily held, new image data is created between these pieces of image data, and a plurality of pieces of image data corresponding to the original plurality of image data are created. An ultrasonic image display device that displays a pixel corresponding to this new image data at an intermediate position between each pixel.