Medical diagnostic ultrasound instrument with ECG module, authorization mechanism and methods of use
First Claim
1. A handheld ultrasound device weighing less than fifteen pounds, including a transducer, beamformer and image processor and a first digital signal processor capable of processing B mode and flow (2D Doppler) scans, having a second digital processor block comprising:
- a digital Doppler QBP filter (FPGA) for filtering PW Doppler signals; and
a second digital signal processor core for PW Doppler signal processing.
2 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
A handheld ultrasound instrument is disclosed having enhanced diagnostic modes including pulse/continuous wave Doppler, time-motion analysis, spectral analysis and tissue harmonic imaging. An external electrocardiograph (ECG) recording unit is also disclosed. The ECG unit is adaptable to be used with the handheld ultrasound instrument to provide for ECG monitoring while performing an ultrasound scan in B-mode, Doppler, color Doppler, M-mode, and CW/PW mode. The enhanced handheld ultrasound instrument further includes a security mechanism allowing any combination of the diagnostic modes to be enabled by the manufacturer, and later to enable or disable any one or group of the diagnostic modes. The invention also discloses a method for a manufacturer to maintain a database of handheld ultrasound instrument capabilities after the instruments enter the stream of commerce.
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Citations
52 Claims
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1. A handheld ultrasound device weighing less than fifteen pounds, including a transducer, beamformer and image processor and a first digital signal processor capable of processing B mode and flow (2D Doppler) scans, having a second digital processor block comprising:
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a digital Doppler QBP filter (FPGA) for filtering PW Doppler signals; and
a second digital signal processor core for PW Doppler signal processing. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. In an electrocardiograph (ECG) module having first signal processing circuitry for processing ECG signals from a patient and second signal processing circuitry for further processing of the ECG signals for diagnostic use, a power supply circuit for providing electrical power from the system to the first signal processing circuitry comprising:
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a) a serial inductive path for receiving a DC voltage and a shunt capacitive path and a shunt switch connecting the serial inductive path to a power ground;
b) a first coupling capacitor for coupling the serial inductive path to the first signal processing circuitry and a second coupling capacitor for coupling the power ground to the first signal processing circuitry; and
c) a rectifying circuit in the first signal processing circuitry including a forward polarity diode connecting the first coupling capacitor to a first terminal of a positive charge capacitor and a reverse polarity diode coupling the first coupling capacitor to a first terminal of a negative charge capacitor, and an isolated reference terminal connected to the second coupling capacitor and to a second terminal of the positive charge capacitor and to a second terminal of the negative charge capacitor whereby electrical power is coupled through the coupling capacitors to the charge capacitors at the frequency of the shunt switch. - View Dependent Claims (13)
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14. A power interface for coupling DC power from a non-isolated system to signal processing circuitry isolated from the system power supply comprising:
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chopping circuitry for chopping DC power supply voltage of the system;
coupling capacitors for coupling power supply voltage to isolation circuitry; and
rectifying circuitry in the signal processing circuitry for receiving and rectifying the capacitively coupled chopped DC voltage. - View Dependent Claims (15)
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16. A method of performing spectral Doppler analysis in a handheld ultrasound system comprising the steps of:
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(a) analyzing the display data to restructure the original power frequency spetrum;
(b) performing a temporal smoothing on the frequency spectrum;
(c) determining the absolute value deviation for each frequency spectrum;
(d) determining the mean power per frequency spectrum;
(e) applying one of several fixed smoothing filters to each frequency column;
(f) finding the maximum value before the mean of each frequency spectrum;
(g) establishing a frequency spectrum threshold;
(h) employing a peak finding algorithm;
(i) applying a fixed width filter for temporal smoothing; and
(j) reversing the process of (a) to return the image data to the size appropriate for the system display. - View Dependent Claims (17)
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- 18. In a programmable diagnostic ultrasound instrument having stored software and data for operation control, a software security mechanism which restricts modification of software or data including an algorithm which generates a keycode based on a unique system identifier which allows a person or agency to perform a system or data update.
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24. An ultrasound instrument having a software library and data for operational control stored on a persistent memory device, and having a means for securely enabling and disabling applications within the software library.
- 25. A programmable diagnostic ultrasound instrument having a plurality of diagnostic modes, wherein access to the diagnostic modes is controlled through a gate flag registry, the gate flag registry capable of modification through a verification procedure utilizing a secure means for extracting hidden bits from a keycode based on one or more unique system identifiers.
- 37. In a programmable diagnostic ultrasound instrument having stored software and data for operation control, a software security mechanism which restricts modification of software or data utilizing a 64-bit mixing algorithm and a bit-wise signature generator within an architecture using a X-OR logic to perform reversible encryption and decryption operations, thereby allowing a user to change software or data using a short sequence of numbers while providing the security of a large bit string verification scheme enabling signature verification, error correction and licensing verification.
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40. A system for the tracking diagnostic modes in one or more programmable diagnostic ultrasound instruments comprising:
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a) a general purpose computer having a means for generating a unique keycode for each programmable diagnostic ultrasound instrument, the keycode having encrypted error detection bits, signature bits and options bits for enabling diagnostic modes in a particular instrument;
b) at least one programmable diagnostic ultrasound instrument having a plurality of diagnostic modes that can be enabled or disabled upon successful verification of the keycode, the verification procedure utilizing a secure means for extracting hidden bits used to modify a gate flag registry from the keycode; and
c) a data structure for centrally recording and tracking diagnostic modes of each diagnostic ultrasound instrument. - View Dependent Claims (41, 42, 43)
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44. A method of upgrading the functional software of a programmable diagnostic ultrasound instrument comprising the steps of:
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(a) generating a keycode generation algorithm comprising at least one encryption algorithm, at least one signature generator, and a reversible logic operation for mixing a bit string produced by said encryption algorithm and a bit string produced by said signature generator;
(b) generating a keycode using the keycode generation algorithm, said keycode utilizing data specific to a programmable diagnostic ultrasound instrument and data relating to a desired software upgrade;
(c) inputting the keycode obtained from the step (b) into the programmable diagnostic ultrasound instrument; and
(d) verifying the keycode generated by step (b) in the programmable diagnostic ultrasound instrument, using a reversing algorithm of step (a) to compare and verify the signature bits, error detection bits and option bits. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52)
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Specification