Dynamic receive aperture downsampling for ultrasound imaging

We propose a simple method for reducing the number of sampled array elements during ultrasound signal reception. Our approach involves dynamic data-driven switching between various downsampling factors applied to the receive aperture in real time. Our simulation results show that one can achieve approximately 70-85% savings in the total number of sampled array elements per image (thus reducing the total number of expensive analog-to-digital conversions during image acquisition), without significant image quality losses.