Portable Low Cost Ultrasound Imaging System
Project Manager:
Göksen Göksenin Yaralıoğlu
Section:
Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Research Areas:
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), inertial sensors (gyroscopes and accelerometers), ultrasound, material characterization and Atomic Force Microscopy
Project Start Year:
2013
Project End Year:
2015
Phone:
0(216) 564 93 55
About the Project:
Ultrasonic imaging systems are vital tools in medicine. In a typical system, sonographers use a hand probe in touch with a patient. To view different parts of the body, the probe is scanned over the human body manually. The probe is composed of an array of ultrasonic transducers. Each array element is driven by an appropriate electrical signal to generate a 2D cross sectional image of the desired part of the body. For a high-resolution image more than 50 array elements must be used. Each element should have its own electronics channel. Due to the high number of channels and the large amount of data that need to be processed, ultrasonic imaging systems are quite costly and bulky. The high cost and the large volume of the ultrasound systems limit their use in medicine. Especially, emergency situations require very small devices which can be moved from one location to another easily. Previous researches have also found out that the integration of ultrasonic imaging as a part of clinical examination increases the chances of early diagnosis of diseases. Therefore, there has been a need for a portable, low-cost, ultrasound imaging system.
Project Finding:
This project aims to design a mechanically scanned hand probe which uses a simple transducer rather than an array of transducers. The transducer position and direction are tracked by inertial sensors. The ultrasound data is registered by using the position data. Using hand gestures for mechanical scanning and tracking the transducer using inertial sensors is a new approach in ultrasonic imaging. This project addresses the themes of this age; "early diagnosis" and "mobile devices". This device will enable low cost and widespread use of ultrasound systems in clinics, allowing early diagnosis of various diseases.