MOBILE ULTRASOUND SYSTEM WITH COMPUTER-AIDED DETECTION

• US 20110218436A1
• Filed: 03/06/2010
• Published: 09/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kenneth Jacobsen, Russell H. Dewey
• Original Assignee: Kenneth Jacobsen, Russell H. Dewey
• Inventors: Jacobsen, Kenneth, Dewey, Russell H.
• Application Number:
  US12/718,969
• Publication Number:
  US 20110218436A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/443
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/14 Echo-tomography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4209 by using holders, e.g. positioning frames
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4427 Device being portable or laptop-like

Abstract

A mobile ultrasound scanning system with computer-based detection methods is disclosed, comprising: (1) a small ultrasound probe containing at least one transmitting and receiving element; a probe enclosure (21); a human attachment means (22) for temporarily attaching the probe enclosure to a human finger, or group of fingers, or the palm of a human hand; (2) a system data communications means for data communications and control communications between the small ultrasound probe and a mobile data processing computer; (3) a mobile data processing computer containing a CPU, operating system, remote information network TCP/IP connectivity, and memory; (4) a library of down-loadable and installable computer-based medical-condition detection methods, which methods execute within the said mobile data processing computer, and which library contains at least one computer-based method capable of executing in said data processing computer and capable of analyzing ultrasound probe echo data and drawing probable inferences concerning the detection of a specific disease therefrom; (5) a user interface means for accepting end-user input commands and input data, and for displaying inference results derived from the execution of a computer-based method of disease detection, and presenting said results to the end-user as a simple color-coded visual indicator.

Claims

1. A mobile ultrasound scanning system with computer-based detection methods, that is comprised of:

(a) a small ultrasound probe comprised of at least one ultrasound transmitting element and at least one ultrasound receiving element, electronic circuits needed for ultrasound transmitting and receiving, and a probe enclosure containing said transmitting elements, receiving elements, and electronic circuits;

(b) a human attachment means for temporarily attaching said probe enclosure, and its contents, to a human hand;

(c) a system data communications means for data communications and control communications between the small ultrasound probe and a mobile data processing computer;

(d) a mobile data processing computer containing a CPU, operating system, remote information network connectivity, and memory;

(e) a library of down-loadable and installable computer-based methods containing at least one computer-based method capable of executing in said data processing computer and capable of analyzing ultrasound probe echo data and drawing probable inferences concerning disease detection therefrom; and

(f) a user interface means for accepting end-user input commands and input data, and for displaying inference results derived from the execution of a computer-based method of disease detection as a simple color-coded visual indicator.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said data processing computer is a data processing device contained within a Smartphone, which is a mobile telephone containing a programmable computer that runs operating system software, processes data, connects to Internet sites, runs application software, and provides a standardized interface and platform for developers.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein said system data communication means is a Universal Serial Bus (USB) cable and connectors.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein said inference results are displayed as a variable sized graphic to represent the quantitative level of belief in the likelihood that a particular disease is present.

5. The system of claim 2 wherein said system data communication means is a wireless technology, of a class of wireless technologies including BlueTooth and WiFi.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein said inference results are displayed as a variable sized graphic to represent the quantitative level of belief in the likelihood that a particular disease is present.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said data processing computer is any mobile data processing device of a class of computer devices including notebook computers, pocket-sized computers, multi-media devices, and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs).

8. The system of claim 7 wherein said data communication means is a standard Universal Serial Bus (USB) cable and connectors.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein said inference results are displayed as a variable sized graphic to represent the quantitative level of belief in the likelihood that a particular disease is present.

10. The system of claim 5 wherein said data communication means is a wireless technology, of a class including BlueTooth and WiFi.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein said inference results are displayed as a variable sized graphic to represent the quantitative level of belief in the likelihood that a particular disease is present.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein said small ultrasound probe, and system data communication means, and data processing computer, and user interface means are contained within a single system enclosure of a size about equal to the size of a semi-open human hand, which system enclosure is capable of wireless communicating with said library of computer-based detection methods for selecting and downloading and installing specific methods from said library.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the results of a scan are displayed as a variable sized graphic to represent the quantitative level of belief in the likelihood that a disease is present

14. The system of claim 1 wherein said small ultrasound probe, and system data communications means, and user interface means are all contained within a single system enclosure capable of wireless communicating with a data processing computer in a remote information network, and capable of wireless communicating with a library of computer-based detection methods in a remote information network.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the results of a scan are displayed as a variable sized graphic to represent the quantitative level of belief in the likelihood that a disease is present.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein the human attachment means is an adjustable-size cincture capable on encircling one or more fingers on a human hand.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein the human attachment means is comprised of a slip-on and slip-off flexible finger enclosure in the shape of a sewing thimble, and a finger enclosure attachment means for attaching the probe enclosure to said finger enclosure.

18. The system of claim 1 wherein the human attachment means is comprised of a slip-on and slip-off flexible glove enclosure in the shape of a glove for a human hand, and a glove attachment means for attaching the probe enclosure to said glove enclosure.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein the user interface means includes a plurality of touch-sensitive colored rectangles, where each of the said rectangles corresponds to a plurality of programmable numerical values, where said numerical values may be read by and used by an installed computer-aided detection method to modify its execution logic based on said numerical values, and thus taking into account different physical characteristics of different end-users.