Ultrasonic diagnostic scan conversion for three dimensional display processing

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A method for producing a perspective view of a volumetric region of the body from a plurality of spatially related planar ultrasonic sector images comprising the steps of:

receiving a plurality of spatially related ultrasonic sector images from said volumetric region;

identifying the angle of said perspective view in relation to a reference plane;

processing each image by a) scaling one or more of the dimensions of said image in proportion to said perspective viewing angle, and b) translating the image in the plane of the image in proportion to the spacing between said spatially related planes and said perspective viewing angle;

combining said processed images to form a composite perspective view image; and

displaying said perspective view image.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of repeating said identifying, processing, and combining steps a number of times, each for a different perspective viewing angle; and

wherein said displaying step comprises the step of displaying a sequence of said composite perspective view images.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said displaying step comprises the step of displaying said sequence of composite perspective view images in a sequence order which is in the order of increasing or decreasing perspective viewing angle.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said processing step of scaling comprises the step of reducing the horizontal dimension of said image in proportion to said perspective viewing angle; and

wherein said processing step of translating comprising the step of translating the image in the horizontal direction.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of repeating said identifying, processing, and combining steps a number of times, each for a different perspective viewing angle; and

wherein said displaying step comprises the step of displaying a sequence of said composite perspective view images.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said processing step of scaling comprises the step of reducing the vertical dimension of said image in proportion to said perspective viewing angle; and

wherein said processing step of translating comprising the step of translating the image in the vertical direction.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of repeating said identifying, processing, and combining steps a number of times, each for a different perspective viewing angle; and

wherein said displaying step comprises the step of displaying a sequence of said composite perspective view images.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said received ultrasonic sector images each exhibit a given angle of sector; and

wherein said processing step of scaling comprises the step of reducing the angle of said sectors in relation to said perspective viewing angle; and

wherein said processing step of translating comprising the step of translating the image in the horizontal direction.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of repeating said identifying, processing, and combining steps a number of times, each for a different perspective viewing angle; and

wherein said displaying step comprises the step of displaying a sequence of said composite perspective view images.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said received ultrasonic sector images each exhibit a given angle of sector; and

wherein said processing step of scaling comprises the step of increasing the angle of said sectors and decreasing the radial depth of said sectors in relation to said perspective viewing angle; and

wherein said processing step of translating comprising the step of translating the image in the vertical direction.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of repeating said identifying, processing, and combining steps a number of times, each for a different perspective viewing angle; and <