Fully Automatic Three-Dimensional Ultrasound Imaging Based on Conventional B-Scan

• Published in: IEEE transactions on biomedical circuits and systems Vol. 12; no. 2; pp. 426 - 436
• Main Authors: Huang, Qinghua, Wu, Bowen, Lan, Jiulong, Li, Xuelong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.04.2018; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Automatic ultrasound scanning; Breast; depth imaging; Error analysis; Force measurement; Image reconstruction; Imaging; Probes; robotic 3D ultrasound; Robots; scan path planning; Scanning; Skin; Three-dimensional displays; Tissues; Ultrasonic imaging; Ultrasound; Volume measurement
• ISSN: 1932-4545; 1940-9990
• DOI: 10.1109/TBCAS.2017.2782815

Robotic ultrasound systems have turned into clinical use over the past few decades, increasing precision and quality of medical operations. In this paper, we propose a fully automatic scanning system for three-dimensional (3-D) ultrasound imaging. A depth camera was first used to obtain the depth data and color data of the tissue surface. Based on the depth image, the 3-D contour of the tissue was rendered and the scan path of ultrasound probe was automatically planned. Following the scan path, a 3-D translating device drove the probe to move on the tissue surface. Simultaneously, the B-scans and their positional information were recorded for subsequent volume reconstruction. In order to stop the scanning process when the pressure on the skin exceeded a preset threshold, two force sensors were attached to the front side of the probe for force measurement. In vitro and in vivo experiments were conducted for assessing the performance of the proposed system. Quantitative results show that the error of volume measurement was less than 1%, indicating that the system is capable of automatic ultrasound scanning and 3-D imaging. It is expected that the proposed system can be well used in clinical practices.