EFFICIENT COMPUTATION OF SPATIALLY VARYING ULTRASOUND ANALYTICAL POINT SPREAD FUNCTIONS

The invention is directed to a computer-implemented method for computing a tissue reflectivity function (TRF). This method comprises accessing radio-frequency (RF) data and computing a point spread function (PSF), to obtain the TRF. The RF data accessed are data obtained by beamforming time signals Ri from an array of transducers of an ultrasound device. Next, for each pair (r, s) of given pairs of points in the imaging plane, the PSF is computed as a sum of contributions from at least some of the transducers. Each of said contributions is computed by evaluating a transducer's transfer function h, based on two outputs of a respective time-of-flight function τ. Such outputs are obtained by evaluating the time-of-flight function at a first point r and at a second point s of said each pair, respectively. Finally, the RF function can be deconvoluted, based on the computed PSF, so as to obtain the TRF.