Real time 3D visualization of ultrasonic data using a standard PC

Nikolov, Svetoslav Ivanov; González, Juan Pablo; Jensen, Jørgen Arendt

doi:10.1016/s0041-624x(03)00130-6

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…The individual RF data can be both stored in the RAM and processed by the FPGAs at the same time. The last receiver board in the system then transmits the focused signal to the SHARC ADSP for transmission to the display PC [23]. The storage RAM can contain more than 3 seconds of real-time data for each channel that can be accessed later from the PCs controlling the system.…”

Section: B Receivermentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrasound research scanner for real-time synthetic aperture data acquisition

Jensen

Holm²,

Jerisen³

et al. 2005

IEEE Trans. Ultrason., Ferroelect., Freq. Contr.

162

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Abstract-Conventional ultrasound systems acquire ultrasound data sequentially one image line at a time. The architecture of these systems is therefore also sequential in nature and processes most of the data in a sequential pipeline. This often makes it difficult to implement radically different imaging strategies on the platforms and makes the scanners less accessible for research purposes. A system designed for imaging research flexibility is the prime concern. The possibility of sending out arbitrary signals and the storage of data from all transducer elements for 5 to 10 seconds allows clinical evaluation of synthetic aperture and 3D imaging. This paper describes a real-time system specifically designed for research purposes.The system can acquire multichannel data in real-time from multi-element ultrasound transducers, and can perform some real-time processing on the acquired data. The system is capable of performing real-time beamforming for conventional imaging methods using linear, phased, and convex arrays. Image acquisition modes can be intermixed, and this makes it possible to perform initial trials in a clinical environment with new imaging modalities for synthetic aperture imaging, 2D and 3D B-mode, and velocity imaging using advanced coded emissions.The system can be used with 128-element transducers and can excite 128 transducer elements and receive and sample data from 64 channels simultaneously at 40 MHz with 12-bit precision. Two-to-one multiplexing in receive can be used to cover 128 receive channels. Data can be beamformed in real time using the system's 80 signal processing units, or it can be stored directly in RAM. The system has 16 Gbytes RAM and can, thus, store more than 3.4 seconds of multichannel data. It is fully software programmable and its signal processing units can also be reconfigured under software control. The control of the system is done over a 100-Mbits/s Ethernet using C and Matlab. Programs for doing, e.g., B-mode imaging can be written directly in Matlab and executed on the system over the net from any workstation running Matlab. The overall system concept is presented along with its implementation and examples of B-mode and in vivo synthetic aperture flow imaging.

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Section: B Receivermentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrasound research scanner for real-time synthetic aperture data acquisition

Jensen

Holm²,

Jerisen³

et al. 2005

IEEE Trans. Ultrason., Ferroelect., Freq. Contr.

162

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“…Texture mapping is a method of laying out rectangular bitmap image onto arbitrary 3D object. In our case the slices of the acquired rectangular B-mode image were mapped onto the generated planar sector shape (similar to the method described by Nikolov et al [6]). The shape of the sector is automatically recalculated for the current settings (e.g.…”

Section: Digital Rf Signal Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

P1A-6 Versatile High Frequency Coded Imaging System

Lewandowski¹,

Nowicki²

2007

2007 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium Proceedings

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Coded transmission is an approach to solve the inherent compromise between penetration and resolution required in ultrasound imaging. It is widely acknowledged that this technique gives major improvement in SNR and enables higher contrast imaging without sacrificing the resolution. A novel HF (20-35 MHz) ultrasound real-time imaging system for research and evaluation of the coded transmission was developed. The digital programmable coder-digitizer module based on the field programmable gate array (FPGA) chip supports arbitrary waveform coded transmission and RF echoes sampling up to 200 MSPS, as well as real-time streaming of digitized RF data via a high speed USB interface to the PC. All RF and image data processing was implemented in the software. A novel balanced software architecture supports real-time processing and display at rates up to 30 frames/sec. Verified system was used to gather data for sine burst and 16-bit Golay code excitation using a single element scanning head with thick film focused spherical transducer 25 MHz center frequency and 56% system bandwidth. SNR gain for the Golay codes (referenced to single burst) of 15 dB for 20 MHz and 16 dB for 35 MHz were obtained. In water the axial resolution for both single burst and the Golay codes was the same FWMH=20 ns at 20 MHz and FWMH=15 ns at 35 MHz. The presented system is a practical and low cost implementation of coded excitation technique in HF ultrasound imaging that can be used as a research tool as well as to be introduced into production.

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“…The flow estimation is based on cross-correlation. Both I and Q values are produced by the beamformer and the envelope detection, logarithmic compression, scan-conversion and image display are left for a separate PC-based unit [23].…”

Section: Real-time Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Real-time synthetic aperture imaging: opportunities and challenges

Nikolov

Tomov

Jensen

2006

2006 Fortieth Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems and Computers

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Abstract-Synthetic aperture (SA) ultrasound imaging has not been introduced in commercial scanners mainly due to the computational cost associated with the hardware implementation of this imaging modality.SA imaging redefines the term beamformed line. Since the acquired information comes from all points in the region of interest it is possible to beamform the signals along a desired path, thus, improving the estimation of blood flow. The transmission of coded excitations makes it possible to achieve higher contrast and larger penetration depth compared to "conventional" scanners.This paper presents the development and implementation of the signal processing stages employed in SA imaging: compression of received data acquired using codes, and beamforming. The goal was to implement the system using commercially available field programmable gate arrays. The compression filter operates on frequency modulated pulses with duration of up to 50 μs sampled at 70 MHz. The beamformer can process data from 256 channels at a pulse repetition frequency of 5000 Hz and produces 192 lines of 1024 complex samples in real time. The lines are described by their origin, direction, length and distance between two samples in 3D. This parametric description makes it possible to quickly change the image geometry during scanning, thus enabling adaptive imaging and precise flow estimation.The paper addresses problems such as large bandwidth and computational load and gives the solutions that have been adopted for the implementation.

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Real time 3D visualization of ultrasonic data using a standard PC

Cited by 12 publications

References 5 publications

Ultrasound research scanner for real-time synthetic aperture data acquisition

Ultrasound research scanner for real-time synthetic aperture data acquisition

P1A-6 Versatile High Frequency Coded Imaging System

Real-time synthetic aperture imaging: opportunities and challenges

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