2012 Proceedings - International Tissue Elasticity Conference

Invited Presentation:
099 THE MODERN ULTRASOUND RESEARCH INTERFACE.
Reza Zahiri Azar 1 , Corina Leung 1 , Kris Dickie 1 , Laurent Pelissier 1 .
1 Ultrasonix Medical Corporation, Richmond, BC, CANADA.
Ultrasound is one of the most inexpensive and safest methods to capture real–time medical images. These
advantages have made it popular in many medical applications as well as numerous research studies. As
a result, having access to its data for research purposes has gained a lot of interest in the past few
decades and has been shown to enable new imaging techniques such as elastography and photo–acoustic
imaging. Furthermore, having control over all its internal parameters has also proven to be critical in
several advanced imaging modes such as ultrafast imaging and angular compounding.
Previous to system designs like the Ultrasonix, research was carried out mainly by using frame grabbers
to obtain the analog video signal from the ultrasound, or very large scale systems that could be digitally
programmed, but remained immobile. With the miniaturization of technology, and the ability to use more
programmable components, the ultrasound market has seen more functional and portable devices
become available to researchers. Further, a proper research interface is required that makes use of
modern software development techniques to efficiently provide data for researchers.
Since the introduction of the research package in 2001, Ultrasonix has always tried to improve the
experience of the researchers by allowing them to tailor the system to their custom working environment
while still maintaining clinical integrity of using a robust medical device. Its PC–based architecture has
drastically simplified the acquisition of ultrasound data, allowing the researcher to have access to these
data at every step of the signal processing, starting from pre–beamformed ultrasound data up to the final
ultrasound image, in both off–line and real–time modes, on the system itself as well as over the internet.
Its programmable hardware and open architecture have also allowed the user to reconfigure all the
imaging parameters including all the transmit and receive parameters as well as adjusting all the internal
parameters according to their custom applications. Its open architecture has allowed the researcher to
integrate his work directly into the system as additional plug ins, thus eliminating the need for additional
hardware. Its clinically driven interface has also allowed the researcher to collect data in the clinical
environment directly. In addition, custom ultrasound transducers can be easily integrated onto the device
allowing researchers to use the system for many different applications.
In this presentation, we will review some of the latest technologies and systems that are developed using
Ultrasonix research devices from more than 200 research sites around the world. We will also reveal
some works–in–progress technologies that may be implemented into research devices in the near future
to help further improve the experience of the researchers.
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Research Device Time–Line, Ultrasonix Medical Corporation.
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indicates Presenter