Adaptive imaging using the generalized coherence factor
Top Cited Papers
- 28 February 2003
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control
- Vol. 50 (2), 128-141
- https://doi.org/10.1109/tuffc.2003.1182117
Abstract
Sound-velocity inhomogeneities degrade both spatial and contrast resolutions. This paper proposes a new adaptive imaging technique that uses the generalized coherence factor (GCF) to reduce the focusing errors resulting from the sound-velocity inhomogeneities. The GCF is derived from the spatial spectrum of the received aperture data after proper receive delays have been applied. It is defined as the ratio of the spectral energy within a prespecified low-frequency range to the total energy. It is demonstrated that the low-frequency component of the spectrum corresponds to the coherent portion of the received data, and that the high-frequency component corresponds to the incoherent portion. Hence, the GCF reduces to the coherence factor defined in the literature if the prespecified low-frequency range is restricted to DC only. In addition, the GCF is also an index of the focusing quality and can be used as a weighting factor for the reconstructed image. The efficacy of the GCF technique is demonstrated for focusing errors resulting from the sound-velocity inhomogeneities. Simulations and real ultrasound data are used to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed GCF technique. The characteristics of the GCF, including the effects of the signal-to-noise ratio and the number of channels, are also discussed. The GCF technique also is compared with the correlation-based technique and the parallel adaptive receive compensation algorithm; the improvement in image quality obtained with the proposed technique rivals that of the latter technique. In the presence of a displaced phase screen, this proposed technique also outperforms the correlation-based technique. Computational complexity and implementation issues also are addressed.Keywords
This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit:
- Efficient parallel receive beam forming for phased array imaging using phase rotation (medical US application)Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2002
- Ultrasound scattering model: 2-D cross-correlation and focusing criteria-theory, simulations, and experimentsIEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 2001
- A Fourier transform-based sidelobe reduction method in ultrasound imagingIEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 2000
- Efficient parallel adaptive aberration correctionIEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 1998
- Improved estimation of phase aberration profilesIEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 1997
- A speckle target adaptive imaging technique in the presence of distributed aberrationsIEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 1997
- Phase aberration correction on two-dimensional conformal arraysIEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, 1995
- Adaptive focusing in scattering media through sound-speed inhomogeneities: The van Cittert Zernike approach and focusing criterionThe Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1994
- Correction of ultrasonic wavefront distortion using backpropagation and a reference waveform method for time-shift compensationThe Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1994
- Improved Detectability with Blocked Element CompensationUltrasonic Imaging, 1994