서강대학교

초록/요약

In medical ultrasound imaging, image magnification techniques such as read zoom and write zoom are widely used. In read zoom, image magnification is achieved during scan conversion so that it suffers from blurring and blocking artifacts. While, in write zoom, a higher line density is used for enhancing spatial resolution, its frame rate is lowered. In addition, due to scan conversion, write zoom still suffers from inherent blurring artifacts. In this paper, a new magnification technique called as high-definition zoom based on two-way direct pixel beamforming is presented. The proposed high-definition zoom method, in which synthetic aperture and (SA) compounded direct pixel beamforming (CDPB) are used, can provide enhanced contrast resolution in image magnification without blurring and blocking artifacts. From the phantom study, the proposed HDZ-TDPB method showed the higher contrast resolution and less blurring and blocking artifacts compared to the read zoom, write zoom and CDPB zoom. These results are consistent with the measured information entropy contrast (IEC) values, i.e., 130.5 vs. 78.5, 90.7, and 112.1, respectively, and blocking artifact factor (BAD) values, i.e., 0.02 vs. 0.71, 0.53, and 0.29, respectively. These results indicate that the proposed HDZ-TDPB method can provide higher contrast resolution so that it can be more effectively used for observing the lesions with a portable ultrasound imaging system where a large magnification ratio is necessary.