  Ultrasound imaging has been improving, but continues to suffer from inherent
artifacts that are challenging to model, such as attenuation, shadowing,
diffraction, speckle, etc. These artifacts can potentially confuse image
analysis algorithms unless an attempt is made to assess the certainty of
individual pixel values. Our novel confidence algorithms analyze pixel values
using a directed acyclic graph based on acoustic physical properties of
ultrasound imaging. We demonstrate unique capabilities of our approach and
compare it against previous confidence-measurement algorithms for
shadow-detection and image-compounding tasks.
