Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 7
Claim 1
Independent Claim
130 words
A process of machine generating machine executable state-change instructions for a sequence controller of a multi-slice magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, said process comprising the steps of: defining predetermined program-change tables T1, T2, . . . Tn of MRI parameter values in a machine accessible memory; defining predetermined slice-specific program segments P1, P2, . . . Pm of machine executable MRI sequencer instructions in a machine accessible memory, which segments are referenced by predetermined respective symbolic addresses and which segments include pointer-references to said tables; and machine replicating a predetermined set of said slice-specific program segments in a predetermined order while indexing the corresponding symbolic addresses and referenced table entries in a predetermined sequence so as to maintain proper correspondence between slice-specific main programs and subroutines in each replicated segment.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
130 words
A process of machine generating machine executable state-change instructions for a sequence controller of a multi-slice magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, said process comprising the steps of: defining predetermined program-change tables T1, T2, . . . Tn of MRI parameter values in a machine accessible memory; defining predetermined slice-specific program segments P1, P2, . . . Pm of machine executable MRI sequencer instructions in a machine accessible memory, which segments are referenced by predetermined respective symbolic addresses and which segments include pointer-references to said tables; and machine replicating a predetermined set of said slice-specific program segments in a predetermined order while indexing the corresponding symbolic addresses and referenced table entries in a predetermined sequence so as to maintain proper correspondence between slice-specific main programs and subroutines in each replicated segment.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
22 words
A process as in claim 1 wherein said machine replicating step includes: replicating included program segments without indexing predetermined symbolic address(es) thereof.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
90 words
A process as in claim 2 wherein said machine replicating step is controlled by an ordered string of input digital data of the following format: P3(P4:6)S20P7/P10(P14)S1:20P15P16;C1:256 wherein Pn=symbols representing predetermined program segments; /=symbol representing a separation between subroutines and main programs; (x)Sy=slice-specific designation symbols identifying slice specific program segments x to be replicated for slices y; ;=a symbol representing a separation between the main program segments and cycle specification; and C1:256=symbols associated with an entire sequence of program segments to be replicated which specifies the range of successive phase-encoding cycles.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
41 words
A process as in claim 3 wherein said ordered string of input digital data includes a further symbol (Rq) designating a subset of slice-specific program segments to be replicated as a unit q times before the following program segment is utilized.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
91 words
A process as in claim 1 wherein said machine replicating step is controlled by an ordered string of input digital data of the following format: P3(P4:6)S20P7/P10(P14)S1:20P15P16;C1:256 wherein Pn=symbols representing predetermined program segments; /=symbol representing a separation between subroutines and main programs; (x)Sy=slice-specific designation symbols identifying slice specific program segments x to be replicated for slices y; ;=a symbol representing a separation between the designated main program segments and cycle specification; and C1:256=symbols associated with an entire sequence of program segments to be replicated which specifies the range of successive phase-encoding cycles.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
41 words
A process as in claim 5 wherein said ordered string of input digital data includes a further symbol (Rq) designating a subset of slice-specific program segments to be replicated as a unit q times before the following program segment is utilized.