| 主权项 |
1. An ultrasound signal processing device
(i) performing a sequence of transmission events each involving selecting a first group of transducer elements from among a plurality of transducer elements of an ultrasound probe that are arranged in at least one line along a transducer element array direction, and causing each transducer element in the first group to transmit ultrasound towards a subject; (ii) for each of the transmission events, generating a sub-frame acoustic line signal based on ultrasound reflection received from the subject in response to the transmission event, to yield a plurality of sub-frame acoustic line signals each corresponding to a different one of the transmission events; and (iii) generating a frame acoustic line signal for the sequence based on the sub-frame acoustic line signals for the transmission events, the ultrasound signal processing device comprising ultrasound signal processing circuitry that operates as: a transmitter that, in each of the transmission events, selects the first group and causes each transducer element in the first group to transmit ultrasound towards the subject, the transmitter selecting the first group such that the first group shifts in the transducer element array direction from one transmission event to another; a receiver that, for each of the transmission events, selects a second group of transducer elements from among the plurality of transducer elements of the ultrasound probe, and generates a reception signal sequence for each transducer element in the second group based on ultrasound reflection received by the transducer element; a target area setter that, for each of the transmission events, sets a target area being a virtual signal area for generating the sub-frame acoustic line signal for the transmission event; a delay-and-sum calculator that, for each of the transmission events, generates the sub-frame acoustic line signal by performing, for each measurement point that is included in the target area for the transmission event, delay-and-sum processing with respect to one or more reception signal sequences generated based on ultrasound reflection received from the measurement point; and a synthesizer generating the frame acoustic line signal for the sequence based on the sub-frame acoustic line signals for the transmission events, wherein the ultrasound signal processing circuitry further operates as a motion amount calculator that calculates, based on reflected ultrasound, a motion amount indicating movement between image signals for the subject, and the number of sub-frame acoustic line signals that the synthesizer uses to generate a frame acoustic line signal decreases when the motion amount is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold. |
