Method and apparatus for tracking scan plane motion in free-hand three-dimensional ultrasound scanning using adaptive speckle correlation

摘要

A method for tracking scan plane motion, comprising: manually scanning an ultrasound scanner across an object; operating the ultrasound scanner to transmit ultrasound beams and detect ultrasound echoes reflected from a multiplicity of scan planes; acquiring data for each of a multiplicity of image frames, the data for each of said imaging frames being derived from ultrasaound echoes reflected from a respective one of said scan planes; determining a degree of correlation between the data of respective kernels of respective pairs of successive image frames, said respective degree of correlation being a function of a normalized sum of the absolute differences between corresponding data of said respective kernels; and computing, as a function of said degree of correlation, a spacing between sucessive ones of said multiplicity of scan planes. 3583 כ" ו בכסלו התשס" ג - December 1, 20