New improved unsharp masking methods compatible with ultrasound B-mode imaging

摘要

In medical ultrasound B-Mode imaging, increasing the image contrast, spatial and temporal resolution will improve medical diagnostic and decision making process. One of the methods used to achieve those improvement in medical imaging is unsharp masking (UM) technique. Previously UM has been successfully implemented as noise filtering and edge enhancement techniques. However the outcomes of the method is limited and influenced by the image formats conversion, lower dynamic range and high frequency noises. Furthermore the technique only enhances the image more in darker compare to lighter regions. To overcome these issues, a new improved UM methods compatible with ultrasound B-Mode imaging applied on compound plane wave imaging (CPWI) and beamformed with delay and sum (DAS) and filtered delay and sum (FDMAS).