Diagnostic medical ultrasound system having a pipes and filters architecture
First Claim
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1. A component for use with a diagnostic medical ultrasound system comprising:
- an input source operative to provide a sequence of digital signals, each of said sequence of digital signals having been derived from at least one ultrasonic echo received by an ultrasound transducer from a subject in response to transmission of acoustic energy into said subject by said transducer;
at least one processor coupled with said input source and comprising an incremental data processing architecture for executing a first application program, said first application program operative to incrementally receive and process each of at least a subset of said sequence of digital signals in succession; and
an output sink coupled with said at least one processor and operative to receive said processed digital signals from said first application program.
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Abstract
A diagnostic medical ultrasound system is disclosed. The system obtains data representative of an ultrasonic echo, processes that data in a sequential architecture, and transmits the result to an output. Further, the ultrasound system provides an interface for non-sequentially architectured applications to interact within the sequential architecture of the present invention.
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Citations
32 Claims
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1. A component for use with a diagnostic medical ultrasound system comprising:
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an input source operative to provide a sequence of digital signals, each of said sequence of digital signals having been derived from at least one ultrasonic echo received by an ultrasound transducer from a subject in response to transmission of acoustic energy into said subject by said transducer;
at least one processor coupled with said input source and comprising an incremental data processing architecture for executing a first application program, said first application program operative to incrementally receive and process each of at least a subset of said sequence of digital signals in succession; and
an output sink coupled with said at least one processor and operative to receive said processed digital signals from said first application program. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method of operating a diagnostic medical ultrasound system comprising:
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(a) receiving a sequence of digital signals, each of said sequence of digital signals having been derived from an ultrasonic echo received by an ultrasound transducer from a subject in response to transmission of acoustic energy into said subject by said transducer;
(b) executing a first application program on at least one processor coupled with said input source, said at least one processor comprising an incremental data processing architecture;
(c) receiving and processing incrementally, by said first application program, each of at least a subset of said sequence of digital signals in succession; and
(d) transmitting said processed digital signals from said first application to an output sink coupled with said at least one processor. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A diagnostic medical ultrasound system comprising:
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input source means for providing a sequence of digital signals, each of said sequence of digital signals having been derived from an ultrasonic echo received by an ultrasound transducer from a subject in response to transmission of acoustic energy into said subject by said transducer;
processor means coupled with said input source and comprising an incremental data processing architecture means for executing at least one application program means for receiving and processing a subset of said sequence of digital signals in succession; and
output sink means coupled with said processor for receiving said processed subset of said sequence of digital signals from said at least one application program means.
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32. A component of a diagnostic medical ultrasound system comprising:
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an input source filter operative to incrementally provide a first sequence of digital signals, said first sequence of digital signals having been derived from at least one ultrasonic echo received by an ultrasound transducer from a subject in response to transmission of acoustic energy into said subject by said transducer;
an output sink filter operative to accept a second sequence of digital signals; and
a processing filter dynamically coupled with at least one of said input source filter and said output sink filter at a time of execution of said processing filter, said processing filter operative to receive and process each of said first sequence of digital signals in succession.
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Specification