A device and method used to image wells and other fluid-carrying tubulars having localized features of interest. The device scans large areas of the tubular first in a low-resolution mode, then identifies areas that contain those localized features with some probability. The device images the identified areas in a high-resolution mode and stores the images for further image processing. The device may comprise two sensors axially spaced-apart on the device, which sensors may be electromagnetic, acoustic, or cameras.

A device and method used to image wells and other fluid-carrying tubulars having localized features of interest. The device scans large areas of the tubular first in a low-resolution mode using an ultrasound sensor and in a high-resolution mode using a camera, then identifies areas that contain those localized features with some probability. The device images are stored for further image processing. The two sensors are axially spaced-apart on the device. A computer remote from the imaging device renders a visualization of the tubular and localized features using the optical and ultrasound images.

An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system scans a plurality of planar slices in a volumetric region which are parallel to each other. Following detection of the image data of the slices the slice data is combined by projecting the data in the elevation dimension to produce a “thick slice” image. Combining may be by means of an averaging or maximum intensity detection or weighting process or by raycasting in the elevation dimension in a volumetric rendering process. Thick slice images are displayed at a high frame rate of display by combining a newly acquired slice with slices previously acquired from different elevational planes which were used in a previous combination. A new thick slice image may be produced each time at least one of the slice images is updated by a newly acquired slice. Frame rate is further improved by multiline acquisition of the slices.

An ultrasound imaging system (1) comprises an ultrasound transducer array (100) comprising a plurality of ultrasound transducer tiles (101a-d), each of said tiles having an independently adjustable orientation such as to conform an ultrasound transmitting surface to a region of a body (50) including a foreign object such as a pacemaker, a stent, or an interventional tool (200). Using a known spatial arrangement of a plurality of features (201-204) of the foreign object (200), the respective ultrasound images generated by the ultrasound transducer tiles are registered in order to generate a composite image, in which the position and orientation of the foreign object in the individual images is superimposed. The position and orientation of an interventional tool may be determined for each image using object recognition algorithms or using acoustic feedback information provided by at least three ultrasound sensors (201-204) arranged in a known spatial arrangement on the interventional tool.

A method for aligning spatially different subvolumes of ultrasonic data of a blood vessel comprising: acquiring temporally discrete signals of a blood vessel with elements of a two dimensional array of ultrasonic transducer elements from spatially different depths of scanning opposed by each transducer element, said array being located in a first position with respect to the blood vessel during the acquiring; Doppler processing the temporally discrete signals received from each transducer element to produce spectral Doppler data of the scanning depth opposed by each transducer element; producing a first three dimensional map of the spectral Doppler data in spatial relationship to the position of the array with respect to the blood vessel; acquiring temporally discrete signals of the blood vessel with elements of the two dimensional array of ultrasonic transducer elements from spatially different depths of scanning opposed by each transducer element, said array being located in a second position with respect to the blood vessel during the acquiring; Doppler processing the temporally discrete signals received from each transducer element to produce spectral Doppler data of the scanning depth opposed by each transducer element; producing a second three dimensional map of the spectral Doppler data in spatial relationship to the position of the array with respect to the blood vessel; aligning the first three dimensional map with the second three dimensional map on the basis of one or more regions of matching spectral Doppler data of the two map; and producing a combined three dimension map of the blood flow of the vessel from the aligned first and second three dimensional maps.

An imaging method. The method comprises the following steps: determining a target by identifying target-related position information or characteristic information (S101); implementing a two-dimensional scan of the target to collect image data of the target in a three-dimensional space (S102); processing, during the scanning, and on a real-time basis, the image data and relevant spatial information to obtain a plurality of image contents of the target, and displaying the image content on a real-time basis (S103); and arranging the plurality of image contents in an incremental sequence to form an image of the target (S104). The imaging method prevents collection of unusable image information, shortens image data collection time, and increases the speed of an imaging process. The application further provides an imaging device.

An ultrasonic imaging system is provided which can obtain an accurate synthesized image, even if a specimen has a surface with a large curvature. An ultrasonic imaging system may include a probe and processing circuitry. The probe may perform scan of first and second ultrasonic waves different from each other. The processing circuitry may generate a first ultrasonic image based on the first ultrasonic wave and generate a second ultrasonic image based on the second ultrasonic wave. The processing circuitry may calculate a spatial relationship based on two first ultrasonic images at two positions and two second ultrasonic images at the two positions. The processing circuitry may synthesize one of the first and second ultrasonic images at one of the two positions with the one of the first and second ultrasonic images at the other position based on the calculated relationship.

A shared-housing ultrasound transducer and machine-vision camera system is disclosed for registering the transducer's x, y, z position in space and pitch, yaw, and roll orientation with respect to an object, such as a patient's body. The position and orientation are correlated with transducer scan data, and scans of the same region of the object are compared in order to reduce ultrasound artifacts and speckles. The system can be extended to interoperative gamma probes or other non-contact sensor probes and medical instruments. Methods are disclosed for computer or remote guiding of a sensor probe or instrument with respect to saved positions and orientations of the sensor probe.

A device and method used to image wells and other fluid-carrying tubulars having localized features of interest. The device scans large areas of the tubular first in a low-resolution mode, then identifies areas that contain those localized features with some probability. The device images the identified areas in a high-resolution mode and stores the images for further image processing. The device may comprise two sensors axially spaced-apart on the device, which sensors may be electromagnetic, acoustic, or cameras.

The purpose is to provide an ultrasound imaging device capable of automatically detecting a boundary of a biological tissue in an ultrasound image. An ultrasound imaging device includes an image generation module which receives ultrasound waves transmitted from a surface of an analyte toward an inside of the analyte and reflected therein to generate an ultrasound image inside the analyte, a reference point setting module which sets a reference point of a tissue of interest of the ultrasound image, a first seed point imparting module which imparts one or more seed points to the ultrasound image with reference point, and a region demarcating module which demarcates a region to which the seed point belongs and divides an image region of the analyte included in the ultrasound image into a plurality of regions according to a type of tissue.