JPH0212963Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention relates to an image display device for an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.

BACKGROUND ART Conventionally, ultrasonic diagnostic apparatuses have been able to emit ultrasonic waves to a subject, detect the echoes thereof, and display a tomographic image of the subject on a cathode ray display tube (hereinafter referred to as CRT). Furthermore, this image can also be photographed. In this case, it would be very convenient for explanations and examinations now or at a later date if it were possible to display annotative text or figures directly on the image, such as the name of the affected area or the name of the disease, with a simple operation.

In view of these points, the purpose of this invention is to
An ultrasonic diagnostic device that can display characters, figures, etc. superimposed on the tomographic image above, and allows easy designation of the display position of the characters, figures, etc., and also has a simple configuration that allows for easy compositing with images. The present invention aims to realize an image display device of the type shown in FIG.

The present invention will be described in detail with reference to Examples below. FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a main part configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the image display device. In Figures 1 and 2,
10 is a housing having a caster 10a, 20 is a keyboard, 30 is a CRT, and 40 is a camera. The keyboard 20 is attached to the upper front surface of the housing 10 and includes a functional keyboard 21 mainly having operation command keys and an alphanumeric keyboard 22 mainly having keys for alphabetic characters, numbers, and symbols.
It is composed of The CRT 30 displays tomographic images and other images, and is attached to the top surface of the housing 10. The camera 40 is for taking a photograph of the CRT display screen, and is capable of taking an instant film image of another CRT disposed inside the housing 10. In this case, you can freeze only the CRT screen inside the housing and take a picture by operating the keyboard.

As shown in FIG. 4, on the CRT screen 31, letters, numbers, symbols, etc. are displayed superimposed on the tomographic image of the subject on the tomographic image screen 32. An electrical configuration diagram for obtaining such a display is shown in FIG.
In the figure, 11 is an analog-to-digital converter (hereinafter referred to as AD converter), 12 is an image memory, and 1
3 is a digital-to-analog converter (hereinafter referred to as DA converter), 14 is an adder, 15 is a character converter,
16 is a refresh memory, 17 is a control circuit, and these hardwares are arranged inside the housing 10. The AD converter 11 digitizes an echo signal obtained from a probe (not shown) at each sampling point in the vertical and horizontal directions. The image memory 12 is capable of storing the output of the AD converter 11 at a predetermined address and then reading out the stored data in an order corresponding to the raster direction of the CRT, which is different from the order of storage. The DA converter 13 sequentially converts the read data from the image memory 12 into analog data. The adder 14 adds the output of the DA converter 13 and the output of the fresh memory 16, and supplies this to the CRT 30 as a luminance signal. The refresh memory 16 is similar to the image memory 12.
It has a storage area that corresponds one-to-one to each pixel on the CRT display screen. The CRT 30 receives a scanning signal from the control circuit 17, and the image memory 1
2 and the contents of the refresh memory 16 are displayed in a superimposed manner. The character converter 15 converts characters, numbers, and symbols displayed on the CRT designated by the keyboard 20 into font data for display, and the data is provided to the refresh memory 16. The data read from the refresh memory 16 is applied to the adder 14 as a binary level signal corresponding to the white level and black level of the video signal.

As mentioned above, the keyboard 20 includes a functional keyboard 21 and an alphanumeric keyboard 2.
As shown in FIG. 3, the functional keyboard 21 includes a record key 211, a position key 212,
It is composed of a gain key 213 and a general control key 214. The recording key 211 is the camera 40
This key is used to issue a command to take a CRT image. The position key 212 is an operation key for moving the position of a cursor (for example, an underline of one character width) called up on the CRT 30, other calipers, etc. in connection with function specification on the alphanumeric keyboard 22. . now,
To explain only in the case of cursor specification, the position keys 212 are direction keys 212a, 212b, 212c, and 212d that instruct the movement directions of up, down, left, and right.
and a movement speed switching key F. Since the gain key 213 and the general control key 214 are not directly related to the present invention, their explanation will be omitted.

The operation of the present invention in such a configuration will be described next. The echo signal sampled and digitized by the AD converter 11 is stored in the image memory 12.
are stored sequentially. When all the echo data for one scan of the probe is stored, the echo data is then read out in the order of display on the CRT 30, converted into analog data by the DA converter 13, and guided to the adder 14. On the other hand, the refresh memory 16 stores characters, numbers, symbols (hereinafter collectively referred to as characters) designated by the keyboard 20 and the control circuit 17 via the character converter 15 as needed. These designated characters are stored at specific addresses in the refresh memory 16 so that they are displayed at predetermined positions on the CRT screen 31 (an area outside the tomographic image screen 32 shown in FIG. 4). There is. The contents of the image memory 12 and the refresh memory 16 are read out in synchronization with the scanning of the CRT 30 under the control of a control circuit 17, added together by an adder 14, and given to the CRT 30 as a luminance signal. The output data of the refresh memory 16 is “1”.
When the data is "0", it is a white level signal, and when the data is "0", it is a black level signal. The adder 14 adds the level signal of the refresh memory 16 to the output of the image memory 12, but in the case of black level signal addition, the output signal of the image memory is output as is, and in the case of white level signal addition, it outputs the output signal of the image memory as it is. outputs a white level signal regardless of the output of the image memory. Adder 1
The video signal output from 4 is given to the CRT 30, and in this way the CRT screen is stored in the image memory 1.
An image in which the contents of 2 and the contents of the refresh memory 16 are superimposed can be obtained.

Next, the operation when displaying characters, symbols, figures, etc. on a tomographic image will be explained. While image display continues as described above, a cursor is called up on the CRT 30 in response to a command from the alphanumeric keyboard 22 of the keyboard 20. The position key 212 of the functional keyboard 21 is operated to move this cursor to a desired position on the tomographic image. Subsequently, a character to be displayed is designated from the keyboard 22, and the font data of the character converted via the character converter 15 is written to the address of the refresh memory 16 corresponding to the cursor designated position. The content thus written is read and displayed in connection with CRT scanning. For example, as shown in Figure 4,
“TAIHYOU”, “TANNOU”, “OUKAKU-”
MAKU”, specify the first character position of each annotation with the cursor and type each annotation character sequentially from the keyboard.In a horizontal series of characters, the character spacing is predetermined, so You only need to specify the position of the first character with the cursor, and you do not need to specify the second and subsequent characters with the cursor each time.However, in the case of the vertical annotation "SYINZOU", the position of the cursor is specified each time you enter one character. It is necessary to specify.

In this way, letters, numbers, and symbols can be directly displayed at any position on the image while monitoring the tomographic image. CRT with annotations like this
The screen can be photographed by pressing the record key 211 and using the camera 40.

As explained above, according to the present invention, a cursor is positioned on a tomographic image, and letters, numbers,
When displaying annotations consisting of symbols, etc., you only need to specify the first character position for horizontal character strings, so there is no need to specify the position of each character, making the character input process very easy. An advantage of combining the image and the annotation is that it can be realized with a simple circuit configuration.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of main parts showing an embodiment of the image display device of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a keyboard. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a CRT display. 10... Housing, 11... AD converter, 12...
Image memory, 13...DA converter, 14...Adder, 15...Character converter, 16...Refresh memory, 17...Control circuit, 20...Keyboard, 21...Functional keyboard, 22... Alphanumeric keyboard, 211...Record key, 212...Position key, 30...CRT, 40
……camera.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] A tomographic image of a subject obtained based on echo signals is temporarily stored in an image memory having a storage area corresponding one-to-one to the pixels of a CRT display screen, and the image memory is The contents can be sequentially read out and displayed on the CRT screen, and characters entered from the keyboard,
An image display device of an ultrasound diagnostic device configured to display numbers or symbols on a CRT screen has a memory area that corresponds one-to-one to the pixels of the CRT display screen, and has a memory area that corresponds to the pixels of the CRT display screen, and the characters and symbols specified by the keyboard.
A refresh memory stores font data corresponding to numbers or symbols, and the output of this refresh memory and the output of the image memory are added for each pixel display, and the output of the refresh memory is " an adder that outputs the contents of the image memory as is when the output is ``0'', and outputs a white level signal regardless of the contents of the image memory when the output of the refresh memory is ``1''; When displaying a series of letters, numbers, or symbols superimposed on a CRT display image, a means of controlling the display so that a horizontal line of characters is displayed at a predetermined character interval by simply specifying the first character position of the character string with a cursor. 1. An image display device for an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, comprising: a control circuit including: