Abstract
We propose new denoising and edge sharpening algorithms for medical ultrasound imaging. In ultrasound images, it is desirable to minimize speckle noise and enhance tissue boundaries (edges) while maintaining a natural appearance. The spatial frequency characteristics of the speckle patterns differ depending on the imaging conditions and scanning region, making it difficult to achieve good denoising performance for various types of images. To address this problem, we propose a denoising method employing multiresolution analysis that estimates the amount of noise in each spatial frequency band and adjusts the strength of denoising accordingly. We also propose an edge sharpening method employing a morphological filter that can avoid introducing artifacts. These techniques, when implemented in a special-purpose parallel processor, can achieve real-time display rates (60 frames per second).
