In recent years we have improved processing of ultrasound cardiac images depicting the human heart by sophisticated algorithms programmed for a self developed Image Sequence Processing System incorporating some connected microprocessors. For a higher speed-up we have extended our system with a data-flow/pipeline processing unit supporting multiple data streams. In this paper we explain the chosen data-flow architecture with pipeline facilities. Image processing of sequences of pictures (echocardiograms) is done by a mixture of filtering and texture analysis. Local intraframe computations are based on a static data-flow mode, but interframe processing follows a typed dynamic data-flow mode. Besides results of different preprocessing and feature extraction algorithms, we describe some attractive properties and some limitations of the data flow concept in the context of image processing.

Date Published: 18 July 1988
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 0939, Hybrid Image and Signal Processing, (18 July 1988); doi: 10.1117/12.947065

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 0939:
Hybrid Image and Signal Processing
David P. Casasent; Andrew G. Tescher, Editor(s)