Imaging method and device based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound, convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound equipment and storage medium

Abstract

The present invention provides an imaging method, apparatus, convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device, and storage medium based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound, relating to the field of medical ultrasound imaging technology. The method comprises acquiring three-dimensional channel data, performing delay accumulation based on the delay times of multiple transmit element-receive element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, and performing beamforming based on the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result. This method can compress the three-dimensional data into two-dimensional data for transmission, maintaining image quality while reducing data transmission volume.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of medical ultrasonic imaging, and in particular to an imaging method and apparatus based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound, a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device and a storage medium. Background Art

[0002] Synthetic aperture ultrasound (SA) technology enables dynamic focusing of transmitting and receiving elements, effectively improving ultrasound image resolution and contrast. In SA, one element transmits a signal, and all elements receive it simultaneously. After all elements transmit and receive all signals sequentially, beamforming technology is used to sum the data from all channels to produce the imaging result. Convex array SA uses a convex array probe.

[0003] Convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound technology requires a huge amount of data to be transmitted. Although the current convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging method based on image compression reduces the amount of transmitted data, it also reduces the quality of the image. Summary of the Invention

[0004] The present invention provides an imaging method, apparatus, convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound equipment and storage medium based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound, which are used to solve the defect in the prior art of convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging methods based on image compression that reduces the amount of transmitted data but at the same time reduces the quality of the imaged image, and achieves the effect of not reducing the quality of the imaged image when compressing three-dimensional data into two-dimensional data for transmission.

[0005] The present invention provides an imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound, comprising the following steps:

[0006] Acquire three-dimensional channel data, the three-dimensional channel data including coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and coordinates of multiple receiving array elements, the three-dimensional channel data being raw data collected by a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device;

[0007] Performing delay accumulation according to delay times of multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, wherein the delay times of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are determined based on the coordinates of the multiple transmitting elements and the coordinates of the multiple receiving elements to determine the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs, and then determined based on the coordinates of imaging points of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs, wherein the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs are all located on the same line segment, and the two-dimensional radio frequency data is used to represent data obtained by self-excitation and self-reception of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs;

[0008] Beamforming is performed according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result.

[0009] According to an imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention, the delay time of multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data is accumulated to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, including:

[0010] Determining a plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs and a center point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair according to the coordinates of the plurality of transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the plurality of receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data;

[0011] When it is determined that the imaging point of each transmitting element-receiving element pair is located on a target line segment, determining the delay time of each transmitting element-receiving element pair according to a speed of acoustic wave transmission, a distance from the transmitting element in each transmitting element-receiving element pair to the imaging point, and a distance from the imaging point to the receiving element, wherein the target line segment is a line segment passing through the center point;

[0012] Delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs are accumulated to obtain the two-dimensional radio frequency data.

[0013] According to an imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention, determining multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs and the center point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair based on the coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and the coordinates of multiple receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data includes:

[0014] Combining the plurality of transmitting array elements and the plurality of receiving array elements one by one according to the coordinates of the plurality of transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the plurality of receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data to obtain the plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs;

[0015] A two-dimensional coordinate system is established for each transmitting element-receiving element pair, where the x-axis of the two-dimensional coordinate system is a line parallel to a target line and tangent to the front end of the convex array, and the z-axis is a line perpendicular to the target line. The x-axis coordinate of the center point of each transmitting element-receiving element pair is determined to be the midpoint of the target line, and the z-axis coordinate is determined to be zero. The target line is the line connecting the transmitting element and the receiving element in each transmitting element-receiving element pair.

[0016] According to an imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention, determining the delay time of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair according to the sound wave transmission speed, the distance from the transmitting array element to the imaging point in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair, and the distance from the imaging point to the receiving array element, includes:

[0017] Calculating the distance from the transmitting array element to the imaging point and the distance from the receiving array element to the imaging point in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair to obtain a first distance and a second distance;

[0018] Dividing the sum of the first distance and the second distance by the propagation speed of sound waves to obtain a first time, and then dividing the Z-axis coordinate value of the imaging point by the propagation speed of sound waves to obtain a second time;

[0019] The first time is subtracted from the second time to obtain the delay time of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair.

[0020] According to an imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention, the delay times of multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are pre-stored in the memory of the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device.

[0021] According to an imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention, beamforming is performed according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result, including:

[0022] The imaging result is obtained by utilizing the acoustic wave transmission speed and the two-dimensional radio frequency data and adopting a Fourier domain imaging method of wave field extrapolation.

[0023] The present invention also provides an imaging device based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound, comprising the following modules:

[0024] A three-dimensional data acquisition module, configured to acquire three-dimensional channel data, wherein the three-dimensional channel data includes coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and coordinates of multiple receiving array elements, and the three-dimensional channel data is raw data collected by a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device;

[0025] a two-dimensional data acquisition module, configured to perform delay accumulation based on the delay times of multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, wherein the delay times of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are determined based on the coordinates of the multiple transmitting elements, the coordinates of the multiple receiving elements, and the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs, the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs all being located on the same line segment, and the two-dimensional radio frequency data being used to represent data obtained by self-excitation and self-reception of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs;

[0026] The ultrasonic image acquisition module is used to perform beamforming according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result.

[0027] The present invention also provides a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device, comprising a convex array probe, a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and running on the processor. The convex array probe is used to collect three-dimensional channel data and send it to the processor. When the processor executes the computer program, it implements any of the above-mentioned imaging methods based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound.

[0028] The present invention also provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon. When the computer program is executed by a processor, the imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound as described above is implemented.

[0029] The present invention also provides a computer program product, comprising a computer program, wherein when the computer program is executed by a processor, the computer program implements any of the above-mentioned imaging methods based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound.

[0030] The imaging method, apparatus, convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device and storage medium provided by the present invention compress three-dimensional data into two-dimensional data for transmission, thereby maintaining the imaging image quality while reducing the data transmission volume. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0031] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the present invention or the prior art, a brief introduction is given below to the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art. Obviously, the drawings described below are some embodiments of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying any creative work.

[0032] Figure 1 It is a flow chart of the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging method provided by the present invention.

[0033] Figure 2 It is a flow chart of the method for obtaining two-dimensional radio frequency data provided by the present invention.

[0034] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of ultrasonic propagation using a convex array synthetic aperture provided by the present invention.

[0035] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of the overall process of imaging based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention.

[0036] Figure 5 It is a schematic diagram of the liver and kidney imaging section provided by the present invention.

[0037] Figure 6 It is a structural schematic diagram of the imaging device based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention.

[0038] Figure 7 It is a schematic diagram of the physical structure of the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasonic device provided by the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0039] To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the present invention more clear, the technical solutions of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the embodiments described are only some of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of them. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without making creative efforts shall fall within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0040] Synthetic aperture ultrasound (SA) technology enables dynamic focusing of transmitting and receiving elements, effectively improving ultrasound image resolution and contrast. In SA, one element transmits a signal, and all elements receive it simultaneously. After all elements transmit and receive all signals sequentially, beamforming technology is used to sum the data from all channels to produce the imaging result. Convex array SA uses a convex array probe.

[0041] Convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound technology requires a huge amount of data to be transmitted. Although the current convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging method based on image compression reduces the amount of transmitted data, it also reduces the quality of the image.

[0042] In view of this, an embodiment of the present invention provides a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging method, which obtains three-dimensional channel data and performs delay accumulation based on the delay times of multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data. The delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are determined based on the coordinates of the multiple transmitting array elements, the coordinates of the multiple receiving array elements, and the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs. The coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs are all located on the same line segment. Beamforming is performed based on the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result. This method can compress three-dimensional data into two-dimensional data for transmission, maintaining the imaging image quality while reducing the amount of data transmission.

[0043] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention.

[0044] Figure 1 The figure is a flow chart of the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging method provided by the present invention. The convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging method can be applied to a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device, which can be a device with information processing capabilities during implementation. For example, the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device can include a personal computer, a laptop computer, a palmtop computer, or a server. Figure 1 As shown, the method may include the following steps 101 to 103:

[0045] Step 101: Acquire three-dimensional channel data, where the three-dimensional channel data includes coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and coordinates of multiple receiving array elements. The three-dimensional channel data is original data collected by a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device.

[0046] It should be noted that the three-dimensional channel data is the original data collected by the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device. The method for obtaining the three-dimensional channel data can be to receive data transmitted by the convex array probe or to receive data transmitted by other devices. The present invention does not limit the method of obtaining the three-dimensional channel data.

[0047] Step 102: Delay accumulation is performed based on the delay times of multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data. The delay times of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are determined based on the coordinates of the multiple transmitting elements and the coordinates of the multiple receiving elements to obtain multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs, and then determined based on the coordinates of imaging points of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs. The coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs are all located on the same line segment. The two-dimensional radio frequency data is used to represent data obtained by self-excitation and self-reception of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs.

[0048] It should be noted that delay accumulation is performed according to the delay times of multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, which can be the first step of beamforming. The first step of beamforming can be completed at the sensor end (front end) using a delay accumulation method.

[0049] Determining the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs based on the coordinates of the multiple transmitting elements and the coordinates of the multiple receiving elements may involve selecting transmitting elements and receiving elements according to a preset rule to form the transmitting element-receiving element pairs, or may involve combining the transmitting elements and receiving elements one by one to form the transmitting element-receiving element pairs. The present invention does not limit the method for determining the transmitting element-receiving element pairs. In addition, the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs may be set to lie on the same line segment as required.

[0050] Step 103: Perform beamforming according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result.

[0051] It should be noted that there are many ways to perform beamforming based on the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain imaging results, such as synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging, medical ultrasound imaging, or sonar imaging. The present invention does not limit the method of performing beamforming based on the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain imaging results.

[0052] It is understandable that the delay time of multiple transmit element-receive element pairs is significantly affected by the location of the imaging point. In traditional convex array synthetic aperture single-step beamforming methods, the imaging point falls within a predetermined two-dimensional imaging area, resulting in a high computational load for beamforming. Beamforming at the imaging end requires the transmission of all three-dimensional channel data, resulting in a large amount of data. In this application, however, the coordinates of the imaging points of multiple transmit element-receive element pairs are all located on the same line segment, reducing the amount of computation and, therefore, the amount of data transmitted.

[0053] In some embodiments, the imaging point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair may be located on a line segment passing through the center point of the transmitting array element-receiving array element pair.

[0054] Figure 2 FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a method for obtaining two-dimensional radio frequency data provided by the present invention. Figure 2 As shown, the delay accumulation of the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain the two-dimensional radio frequency data may include:

[0055] Step 201: Determine a plurality of transmitting element-receiving element pairs and a center point of each transmitting element-receiving element pair according to the coordinates of the plurality of transmitting elements and the coordinates of the plurality of receiving elements in the three-dimensional channel data.

[0056] It should be noted that the method for determining the center point of each transmitting element-receiving element pair may also be determined according to a preset rule, or may be determined based on the center of the line connecting the transmitting element and the receiving element in the transmitting element and receiving element pair. The present invention does not limit the method for determining the center point of each transmitting element-receiving element pair.

[0057] Step 202: When it is determined that the imaging point of each transmitting element-receiving element pair is located on a target line segment, the delay time of each transmitting element-receiving element pair is determined based on the speed of sound wave transmission, the distance from the transmitting element in each transmitting element-receiving element pair to the imaging point, and the distance from the imaging point to the receiving element. The target line segment is a line segment passing through the center point.

[0058] Step 203: Accumulate the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs to obtain the two-dimensional radio frequency data.

[0059] It should be noted that the given sound wave propagation speed can be The delay time is calculated using the distance from the transmitting array element to the imaging point and the distance from the imaging point to the receiving array element. The delay is then accumulated to obtain the two-dimensional RF data estimation of the self-excited and self-received RF (i.e., the first stage beamforming result). in is the first stage beamformer, Represents two-dimensional RF data.

[0060] The first step of beamforming is completed at the sensor end (front end). Similar to the superposition of seismic data, the original convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound three-dimensional channel data is delayed and accumulated to obtain an estimate of the two-dimensional RF data of self-excitation and self-reception (a single array element transmits and receives by itself). This not only realizes the first stage of beamforming, but also compresses the amount of data to be transmitted.

[0061] Furthermore, determining multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs and the center points of each transmitting element-receiving element pair based on the coordinates of the multiple transmitting elements and the coordinates of the multiple receiving elements in the three-dimensional channel data may include: combining the multiple transmitting elements and the multiple receiving elements one by one according to the coordinates of the multiple transmitting elements and the coordinates of the multiple receiving elements in the three-dimensional channel data to obtain the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs; establishing a two-dimensional coordinate system for each transmitting element-receiving element pair, wherein the X-axis of the two-dimensional coordinate system is a line parallel to the target line and tangent to the front end of the convex array, and the Z-axis is a line perpendicular to the target line, and determining that the X-axis coordinate of the center point of each transmitting element-receiving element pair is the midpoint of the target line and the Z-axis coordinate is zero, and the target line is the line connecting the transmitting element and the receiving element in each transmitting element-receiving element pair.

[0062] Figure 3 Schematic diagram of ultrasonic propagation using a convex array synthetic aperture provided by the present invention. Figure 3 As shown, the three-dimensional channel data collected by convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound is ,in, is the coordinate of the transmitting element, is the coordinate of the receiving array element, is the round-trip propagation time of the sound wave. and , construct a two-dimensional coordinate system, set a line parallel to the line connecting the two and tangent to the front edge of the convex array as the X axis, and the Z axis perpendicular to the line. The coordinates of the center point of the transmitting-receiving array element are marked as ( , .

[0063] Furthermore, determining the delay time of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair based on the acoustic wave transmission speed, the distance from the transmitting array element to the imaging point in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair, and the distance from the imaging point to the receiving array element may include: calculating the distance from the transmitting array element to the imaging point and the distance from the receiving array element to the imaging point in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair to obtain a first distance and a second distance; dividing the sum of the first distance and the second distance by the acoustic wave propagation speed to obtain a first time, and then dividing the Z-axis coordinate value of the imaging point by the acoustic wave propagation speed to obtain a second time; and subtracting the first time from the second time to obtain the delay time of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair.

[0064] It should be noted that the method proposed in the present invention first assumes that a transmitting element-receiving element pair and Imaging point Only falls on Figure 3 The dotted line through the center point shown, that is, Using the given sound wave propagation speed To calculate the delay time as follows:

[0065] (1),

[0066] (1) In the formula, , , , It is the propagation time of the ultrasound from the center point to the imaging point and then back to the center point.

[0067] It is understandable that in the traditional convex array synthetic aperture single-step beamforming method, for each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair and , imaging point It falls within a pre-given two-dimensional imaging area. The computational complexity of beamforming is large. Beamforming at the imaging end requires the transmission of all three-dimensional channel data, which results in a large amount of data.

[0068] The delay obtained by formula (1) is accumulated to obtain the two-dimensional RF data estimation of self-excitation and self-reception (i.e. the first stage beamforming result) ,in This is the first-stage beamformer. The first-stage beamforming process not only completes the first-stage beamforming, but also compresses the three-dimensional channel data into two-dimensional self-excited and self-received data, significantly reducing the amount of data transmitted.

[0069] In some embodiments, the delay times of the plurality of transmit array element-receive array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data may be pre-stored in the memory of the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device.

[0070] It should be noted that since all transmit array-receive array element pairs and of The value is limited, we calculate all possible The delay is reduced and stored in the memory to reduce the amount of calculation.

[0071] In the embodiment of the present invention, according to formula (1), all possible The data is stored in memory, which improves the processing speed.

[0072] In some embodiments, the second step of beamforming can be completed at the imaging end (back end) using a wavefield extrapolation Fourier domain imaging method.

[0073] In an embodiment of the present invention, performing beamforming according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result may include: utilizing the acoustic wave transmission speed and the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain the imaging result using a Fourier domain imaging method of wave field extrapolation.

[0074] It should be noted that Fourier domain imaging is used to perform a second beamforming on the two-dimensional RF data obtained in the first beamforming step to obtain the final imaging result. Fourier domain imaging with wavefield extrapolation is an effective acoustic imaging technique that combines the speed of acoustic wave transmission with two-dimensional RF data to achieve imaging of target objects.

[0075] For example, this step of beamforming is completed at the imaging end (back end), using a given acoustic wave propagation speed , using the Fourier domain imaging method of wave field extrapolation to obtain ,in is the first stage beamformer, For imaging results.

[0076] This invention provides a highly efficient convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging technology, a means of reducing the data transmission volume and imaging computational complexity of convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound. It is also a convex array synthetic aperture imaging method based on stacking followed by shifting, which not only compresses transmitted data but also reduces the computational complexity of beamforming, providing a new imaging method option for fast convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging systems.

[0077] The following describes an exemplary application of an embodiment of the present invention in a practical application scenario.

[0078] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the overall process of imaging based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention. Figure 4 As shown, the method includes the following steps 401 to 404:

[0079] Step 401: According to formula (1), calculate all possible The delay is stored in memory;

[0080] Step 402: Based on the first step of delay accumulation beamforming, obtain the self-excited and self-received two-dimensional RF data estimation ;

[0081] Step 403: The second step of beam forming based on the wave field extrapolation Fourier domain imaging method is used to obtain a B-ultrasound image. ;

[0082] Wherein, step 402 may further include: for the transmitting array-receiving array element pair and , get the one-dimensional delay from the memory; the corresponding transmit-receive array element pair and The channel data is delayed and accumulated to obtain the two-dimensional RF data estimation of self-excited and self-received .

[0083] The convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging provided in the above embodiment uses the first beamforming step to account for the fact that the convex array elements are not coplanar. The second beamforming step takes into account the depth-dependent expansion of the convex array imaging area, utilizing wavefield extrapolation to achieve imaging at each depth in the Fourier domain. This achieves both compressed transmission data and reduced beamforming computational complexity.

[0084] The following describes the prototype test results obtained by using the above-mentioned convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging method to conduct prototype tests.

[0085] A 32-channel handheld synthetic aperture ultrasound prototype was used to verify the method of the present invention. The ultrasound frequency was 3 MHz, the time sampling rate was 40 MHz, the convex array radius was 60 mm, and the array element spacing was 0.498 mm. The imaging end used an RTX4070 GPU laptop.

[0086] Figure 5 Schematic diagram of the liver and kidney imaging section provided by the present invention. Figure 5 As shown, the liver and kidney imaging sections obtained by the imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention have a detection depth of 160 mm and an imaging frame rate of 19 fps, which verifies that the present invention can effectively compress three-dimensional data into two-dimensional data transmission and reduce the computational complexity of the convex array synthetic aperture imaging algorithm.

[0087] Based on the foregoing embodiments, an embodiment of the present invention provides an imaging device based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound. The modules included in the device and the units included in each module can be implemented by a processor; of course, they can also be implemented by a specific logic circuit; in the implementation process, the processor can be a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor (MPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) or a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc.

[0088] The imaging device based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention is described below. The imaging device based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound described below and the imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound described above can refer to each other.

[0089] Figure 6 Schematic diagram of the structure of the imaging device based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the present invention. Figure 6 As shown, the device 600 includes a three-dimensional data acquisition module 601, a two-dimensional data acquisition module 602 and an ultrasound image acquisition module 603, wherein:

[0090] The three-dimensional data acquisition module 601 is used to acquire three-dimensional channel data, wherein the three-dimensional channel data includes coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and coordinates of multiple receiving array elements, and the three-dimensional channel data is raw data collected by a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device;

[0091] The two-dimensional data acquisition module 602 is configured to perform delay accumulation based on the delay times of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, wherein the delay times of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are determined based on the coordinates of the multiple transmitting elements, the coordinates of the multiple receiving elements, and the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs, the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs are all located on the same line segment, and the two-dimensional radio frequency data is used to represent data obtained by self-excitation and self-reception of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs;

[0092] The ultrasound image acquisition module 603 is configured to perform beamforming according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result.

[0093] In some embodiments, the two-dimensional data acquisition module 602 includes a center point determination unit, a delay time determination unit, and a two-dimensional data acquisition unit, wherein:

[0094] The center determination unit is configured to determine a plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs and a center point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair based on the coordinates of the plurality of transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the plurality of receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data;

[0095] The delay time determining unit is configured to determine the delay time of each transmitting element-receiving element pair based on a speed of acoustic wave transmission, a distance from the transmitting element to the imaging point, and a distance from the imaging point to the receiving element in each transmitting element-receiving element pair, when it is determined that the imaging point of each transmitting element-receiving element pair is located on a target line segment, wherein the target line segment is a line segment passing through the center point;

[0096] The two-dimensional data acquisition unit is used to accumulate the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs to obtain the two-dimensional radio frequency data.

[0097] In some embodiments, the center point determination unit is specifically used to combine multiple transmitting array elements and multiple receiving array elements one by one according to the coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and the coordinates of multiple receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data to obtain the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs; establish a two-dimensional coordinate system for each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair, the X-axis of the two-dimensional coordinate system is a line parallel to the target line and tangent to the front end of the convex array, and the Z-axis is a line perpendicular to the target line, and determine that the X-axis coordinate of the center point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair is the midpoint of the target line and the Z-axis coordinate is zero, and the target line is the line connecting the transmitting array element and the receiving array element in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair.

[0098] In some embodiments, the delay time determination unit is specifically configured to calculate the distance from the transmitting array element to the imaging point, and the distance from the receiving array element to the imaging point in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair, to obtain a first distance and a second distance; divide the sum of the first distance and the second distance by the sound wave propagation speed to obtain a first time, and then divide the Z-axis coordinate value of the imaging point by the sound wave propagation speed to obtain a second time; and calculate the difference between the first time and the second time to obtain the delay time of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair.

[0099] In some embodiments, the delay times of the plurality of transmit array element-receive array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are pre-stored in the memory of the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device.

[0100] In some embodiments, the ultrasound image acquisition module 603 is specifically configured to obtain the imaging result by utilizing the acoustic wave transmission speed and the two-dimensional radio frequency data and adopting a Fourier domain imaging method of wave field extrapolation.

[0101] In the embodiment of the present invention, three-dimensional data can be compressed into two-dimensional data for transmission, thereby maintaining the quality of the imaging image while reducing the amount of data transmission.

[0102] Figure 7 Schematic diagram of the physical structure of the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasonic device provided by the present invention. Figure 7 As shown, the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device 700 may include: a processor 710, a communications interface 720, a memory 730, a communication bus 740 and a convex array probe 750, wherein the processor 710, the communications interface 720, and the memory 730 communicate with each other through the communication bus 740, and the convex array probe 750 collects three-dimensional channel data and sends it to the processor 710. The processor 710 can call the logic instructions in the memory 730 to execute an imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound, the method including: obtaining three-dimensional channel data, the three-dimensional channel data including the coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and the coordinates of multiple receiving array elements, the three-dimensional channel data being the original data collected by the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device; performing delay accumulation according to the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are determined based on the coordinates of the multiple transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the multiple receiving array elements, and then determined based on the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs, the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs are all located on the same line segment, the two-dimensional radio frequency data is used to represent data obtained by self-excitation and self-reception of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs; and beamforming is performed based on the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result.

[0103] Furthermore, the logic instructions in the aforementioned memory 730 can be implemented as software functional units and, when sold or used as independent products, can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present invention, or the portion that contributes to the prior art, or a portion of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product. This computer software product, stored in a storage medium, includes instructions for enabling a computer device (which can be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the methods described in various embodiments of the present invention. The aforementioned storage medium includes various media capable of storing program code, such as a USB flash drive, a mobile hard drive, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

[0104] On the other hand, the present invention also provides a computer program product, which includes a computer program. The computer program can be stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. When the computer program is executed by a processor, the computer can execute the imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the above methods, the method including: acquiring three-dimensional channel data, the three-dimensional channel data including the coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and the coordinates of multiple receiving array elements, the three-dimensional channel data being the original data collected by the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device; according to the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data The delay time of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data is accumulated and delayed to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data. The delay time of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data is determined according to the coordinates of the multiple transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the multiple receiving array elements. The multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs are determined according to the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs. The coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs are all located on the same line segment. The two-dimensional radio frequency data is used to characterize the data obtained by self-excitation and self-reception of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs; beamforming is performed according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result.

[0105] The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When loaded and executed on a computer, the computer program instructions fully or partially perform the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the present invention. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another. For example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) method. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium capable of computer storage or a data storage device such as a server or data center that integrates one or more available media. The available medium may be magnetic media (e.g., floppy disks, hard disks, magnetic tapes), optical media (e.g., DVDs), or semiconductor media (e.g., solid-state drives (SSDs)).

[0106] On the other hand, the present invention also provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, is implemented to execute the imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound provided by the above methods, the method comprising: acquiring three-dimensional channel data, the three-dimensional channel data comprising coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and coordinates of multiple receiving array elements, the three-dimensional channel data being original data collected by a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device; performing delay accumulation according to delay times of multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, the delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data being determined based on the coordinates of the multiple transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the multiple receiving array elements, and then determined based on the coordinates of imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs, the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs being all located on the same line segment, the two-dimensional radio frequency data being used to characterize data obtained by self-excitation and self-reception of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs; performing beamforming according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result.

[0107] The computer-readable storage medium may be any combination of one or more computer-readable media. The computer-readable medium may be a computer-readable signal medium or a computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electrical, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any combination thereof. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of computer-readable storage media include: an electrical connection having one or more conductors, a portable computer disk, a hard disk, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) or flash memory, optical fiber, a portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination thereof. In this document, a computer-readable storage medium may be any tangible medium containing or storing a program that can be used by or in conjunction with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

[0108] A computer-readable signal medium may include a data signal propagated in baseband or as part of a carrier wave, which carries computer-readable program code. Such a propagated data signal may take a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electromagnetic signals, optical signals, or any suitable combination thereof. A computer-readable signal medium may also be any computer-readable medium other than a computer-readable storage medium that can transmit, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in conjunction with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

[0109] Program code embodied on a computer-readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, radio frequency (RF), etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

[0110] Computer program code for performing the operations of this specification may be written in one or more programming languages, or a combination thereof, including object-oriented programming languages ​​such as Java, Smalltalk, and C++, as well as conventional procedural programming languages ​​such as "C" or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partially on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partially on the user's computer and partially on a remote computer, or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the case of a remote computer, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or may be connected to an external computer (e.g., through the Internet using an Internet service provider).

[0111] The device embodiments described above are merely illustrative. The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, i.e., they may be located in one location or distributed across multiple network units. Some or all of the modules may be selected based on actual needs to achieve the objectives of the present embodiment. Persons of ordinary skill in the art will be able to understand and implement the present invention without inventive effort.

[0112] Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art will clearly understand that each embodiment can be implemented using software plus a necessary general-purpose hardware platform, or of course, hardware. Based on this understanding, the essence of the above technical solution, or the portion that contributes to the prior art, can be embodied in the form of a software product. This computer software product can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, such as ROM / RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, and includes a number of instructions for causing a computer device (such as a personal computer, server, or network device) to execute the methods described in each embodiment or certain portions of the embodiments.

[0113] Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention, rather than to limit it. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the aforementioned embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that they can still modify the technical solutions described in the aforementioned embodiments, or make equivalent replacements for some of the technical features therein. However, these modifications or replacements do not deviate the essence of the corresponding technical solutions from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the various embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. An imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound, characterized in that: include: Acquire three-dimensional channel data, the three-dimensional channel data including coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and coordinates of multiple receiving array elements, the three-dimensional channel data being raw data collected by a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device; Performing delay accumulation according to delay times of multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, wherein the delay times of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are determined based on the coordinates of the multiple transmitting elements and the coordinates of the multiple receiving elements to determine the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs, and then determined based on the coordinates of imaging points of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs, wherein the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs are all located on the same line segment, and the two-dimensional radio frequency data is used to represent data obtained by self-excitation and self-reception of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs; Performing beamforming according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result; The step of accumulating delay times of a plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data includes: Determining a plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs and a center point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair according to the coordinates of the plurality of transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the plurality of receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data; The determining, based on the coordinates of the plurality of transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the plurality of receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data, a plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs and a center point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair comprises: Combining the plurality of transmitting array elements and the plurality of receiving array elements one by one according to the coordinates of the plurality of transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the plurality of receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data to obtain the plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs; A two-dimensional coordinate system is established for each transmitting element-receiving element pair, where the x-axis of the two-dimensional coordinate system is a line parallel to a target line and tangent to the front end of the convex array, and the z-axis is a line perpendicular to the target line. The x-axis coordinate of the center point of each transmitting element-receiving element pair is determined to be the midpoint of the target line, and the z-axis coordinate is determined to be zero. The target line is the line connecting the transmitting element and the receiving element in each transmitting element-receiving element pair.

2. The imaging method according to claim 1, wherein Accumulating the delay times of the plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data further includes: When it is determined that the imaging point of each transmitting element-receiving element pair is located on a target line segment, determining the delay time of each transmitting element-receiving element pair according to a speed of acoustic wave transmission, a distance from the transmitting element in each transmitting element-receiving element pair to the imaging point, and a distance from the imaging point to the receiving element, wherein the target line segment is a line segment passing through the center point; Delay times of the multiple transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs are accumulated to obtain the two-dimensional radio frequency data.

3. The imaging method according to claim 2, wherein: Determining the delay time of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair according to the sound wave transmission speed, the distance between the transmitting array element and the imaging point in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair, and the distance between the imaging point and the receiving array element includes: Calculating the distance from the transmitting array element to the imaging point and the distance from the receiving array element to the imaging point in each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair to obtain a first distance and a second distance; Dividing the sum of the first distance and the second distance by the propagation speed of sound waves to obtain a first time, and then dividing the Z-axis coordinate value of the imaging point by the propagation speed of sound waves to obtain a second time; The first time is subtracted from the second time to obtain the delay time of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair.

4. The imaging method according to claim 1, wherein The delay times of the plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are pre-stored in the memory of the convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device.

5. The imaging method according to claim 1, wherein The performing beamforming according to the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result includes: The imaging result is obtained by utilizing the acoustic wave transmission speed and the two-dimensional radio frequency data and adopting a Fourier domain imaging method of wave field extrapolation.

6. An imaging device based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound, characterized in that: include: A three-dimensional data acquisition module, configured to acquire three-dimensional channel data, wherein the three-dimensional channel data includes coordinates of multiple transmitting array elements and coordinates of multiple receiving array elements, and the three-dimensional channel data is raw data collected by a convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device; a two-dimensional data acquisition module, configured to perform delay accumulation based on the delay times of multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data to obtain two-dimensional radio frequency data, wherein the delay times of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs corresponding to the three-dimensional channel data are determined based on the coordinates of the multiple transmitting elements, the coordinates of the multiple receiving elements, and the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs, the coordinates of the imaging points of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs all being located on the same line segment, and the two-dimensional radio frequency data being used to represent data obtained by self-excitation and self-reception of the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs; an ultrasound image acquisition module, configured to perform beamforming based on the two-dimensional radio frequency data to obtain an imaging result; The two-dimensional data acquisition module includes a center point determination unit, configured to determine a plurality of transmitting array element-receiving array element pairs and a center point of each transmitting array element-receiving array element pair based on the coordinates of the plurality of transmitting array elements and the coordinates of the plurality of receiving array elements in the three-dimensional channel data; The center point determination unit is specifically configured to combine multiple transmitting elements and multiple receiving elements one by one according to the coordinates of the multiple transmitting elements and the coordinates of the multiple receiving elements in the three-dimensional channel data to obtain the multiple transmitting element-receiving element pairs; establish a two-dimensional coordinate system for each transmitting element-receiving element pair, where the x-axis of the two-dimensional coordinate system is a line parallel to a target line and tangent to the front end of the convex array, and the z-axis is a line perpendicular to the target line; and determine that the x-axis coordinate of the center point of each transmitting element-receiving element pair is the midpoint of the target line and the z-axis coordinate is zero, where the target line is the line connecting the transmitting element and the receiving element in each transmitting element-receiving element pair.

7. A convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound device, comprising a convex array probe, a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and running on the processor, characterized in that: The convex array probe is used to collect three-dimensional channel data and send it to the processor. When the processor executes the computer program, it implements the imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound as described in any one of claims 1 to 5.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, characterized in that: When the computer program is executed by a processor, the imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5 is implemented.

9. A computer program product comprising a computer program, characterized in that When the computer program is executed by a processor, the imaging method based on convex array synthetic aperture ultrasound as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5 is implemented.

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