An ultrasound imaging apparatus includes: a processor; and a storage. The storage is configured to store first-type reference data corresponding to a first observation target and second-type reference data corresponding to a second observation target. The processor is configured to transmit, to an ultrasound probe, a signal for making the ultrasound probe transmit an ultrasound wave to an observation target, receive an echo signal, perform frequency analysis based on the echo signal to calculate a frequency spectrum, obtain reference data, correct the frequency spectrum using the reference data, calculate a feature based on the corrected frequency spectrum, when the observation target is the first observation target, obtain the first-type reference data as the reference data, and when the observation target is the second observation target, obtain the second-type reference data as the reference data.

A method for determining a physical characteristic on a punctual location inside a medium, comprising the steps of: sending an emitted sequence comprising emitted pulses having different amplitudes, receiving a received sequence comprising received pulses corresponding to echoes of emitted pulses, calculating a phase difference between the received pulses relative to the emitted pulses, and determining the physical characteristic on the bases of a phase difference.

In some examples, two dimensional (2D) datasets, such as images, may be transformed into three dimensional (3D) datasets (e.g., volumes). The values and material properties of voxels of the 3D dataset may be based, at least in part, on values of pixels in the 2D dataset. A 3D scene of the 3D dataset may be rendered from a plane parallel to a plane of the 2D dataset to generate a “top-down” render that may look like a 2D image. In some examples, additional coloring may be added to the rendered 2D image based on intensity or other properties of the 2D dataset.

An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes an ultrasound probe, a reference image holding unit that holds an ultrasound image acquired by fixing the position of the ultrasound probe as a reference image, a movement vector calculation unit that calculates a movement vector between two ultrasound images, a movement vector integration unit that integrates the movement vectors from the time when the reference image is held until the current time, a deformed image generation unit that generates a deformed image in which the reference image is moved and changed on the basis of an integration result, a tomographic plane determination unit that compares the deformed image with the current ultrasound image, to determine whether or not tomographic planes of the reference image and the current ultrasound image are the same as each other, and a determination result notification unit that notifies a user of a determination result.

A method for measuring an ultrasonic attenuation parameter guided by harmonic elastography including applying, using a vibrator included in a probe in contact with a viscoelastic medium, of a continuous low frequency vibration, the continuous low frequency vibration generating an elastic wave within the viscoelastic medium and generating, during the propagation of the elastic wave, using an ultrasonic transducer in contact with the viscoelastic medium, a series of ultrasonic acquisitions, the series of ultrasonic acquisitions including groups of ultrasonic acquisitions, the groups of ultrasonic acquisitions being generated with a repetition rate, each group of ultrasonic acquisitions including at least one acquisition; the ultrasonic attenuation parameter being measured from the ultrasonic acquisitions realised during the application of the continuous low frequency vibration.

A method of full-field or “ping-based” Doppler ultrasound imaging allows for detection of Doppler signals indicating moving reflectors at any point in an imaging field without the need to predefine range gates. In various embodiments, such whole-field Doppler imaging methods may include transmitting a Doppler ping from a transmit aperture, receiving echoes of the Doppler ping with one or more separate receive apertures, detecting Doppler signals and determining the speed of moving reflectors. In some embodiments, the system also provides the ability to determine the direction of motion by solving a set of simultaneous equations based on echo data received by multiple receive apertures.

The embodiments of the present disclosure disclose an ultrasound imaging method and system, the method may include transmitting a plurality of plane wave ultrasound beams to a scan target and acquiring corresponding plane wave echo signals; transmitting focused ultrasound beams to the scan target and acquiring corresponding focused beam echo signals; acquiring a plurality of velocity components of a target point in the scan target using the plane wave echo signals, and acquiring velocity vectors of the target point according to the plurality of velocity components; acquiring an ultrasound image of the scan target using the focused beam echo signals; and displaying the velocity vector and the ultrasound image.

An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus includes: a two-dimensional (2D) transducer array in which a plurality of transducers that transmit/receive an ultrasound signal to/from an object are arranged in two dimensions; an analog beamformer configured to perform analog beamforming in a first direction, and perform analog beamforming in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction on signals respectively received by the plurality of transducers; and a digital beamformer configured to perform digital beamforming on the signals that are analog-beamformed in the first direction, and perform digital beamforming on the signals that are analog-beamformed in the second direction.

Changes in tissue stiffness have long been associated with disease. Systems and methods for determining the stiffness of tissues using ultrasonography may include a device for inducing a propagating shear wave in tissue and tracking the speed of propagation, which is directly related to tissue stiffness and density. The speed of a propagating shear wave may be detected by imaging a tissue at a high frame rate and detecting the propagating wave as a perturbance in successive image frames relative to a baseline image of the tissue in an undisturbed state. In some embodiments, sufficiently high frame rates may be achieved by using a ping-based ultrasound imaging technique in which unfocused omni-directional pings are transmitted (in an imaging plane or in a hemisphere) into a region of interest. Receiving echoes of the omnidirectional pings with multiple receive apertures allows for substantially improved lateral resolution.

An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus includes: a two-dimensional (2D) transducer array in which a plurality of transducers that transmit/receive an ultrasound signal to/from an object are arranged in two dimensions; an analog beamformer configured to perform analog beamforming in a first direction, and perform analog beamforming in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction on signals respectively received by the plurality of transducers; and a digital beamformer configured to perform digital beamforming on the signals that are analog-beamformed in the first direction, and perform digital beamforming on the signals that are analog-beamformed in the second direction.