GESTURE COMMANDS USER INTERFACE FOR ULTRASOUND IMAGING SYSTEMS

• US 20130225999A1
• Filed: 02/29/2012
• Published: 08/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.), Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.), Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: BANJANIN, Zoran, WOODS, Raymond F.
• Application Number:
  US13/408,217
• Publication Number:
  US 20130225999A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/443
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/461 Displaying means of special interest
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/467 characterised by special input means
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/468 allowing annotation or message recording
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/469 for selection of a region of interest
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/582 Remote testing of the device
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52084 related to particular user interfaces special user input means for ultrasonic medical diagnostic devices A61B8/467
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0381 Multimodal input, i.e. interface arrangements enabling the user to issue commands by simultaneous use of input devices of different nature, e.g. voice plus gesture on digitizer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0304 Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0426 tracking fingers with respect to a virtual keyboard projected or printed on the surface virtual keyboards on touch screens G06F3/04886
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02166 Microphone arrays; Beamforming

Abstract

The embodiments of the ultrasound imaging diagnostic apparatus include at least one non-touch input device for receiving a predetermined gesture as an input command. An optional sequence of predetermined gestures is inputted as an operational command and or data to the embodiments of the ultrasound imaging diagnostic apparatus. A gesture is optionally combined with other conventional input modes through devices such as a microphone, a mouse, a keyboard, a button, a panel switch, a touch command screen, a foot switch, a trackball, and the like.

Claims

1. An ultrasound imaging system, comprising:

a probe for acquiring ultrasound imaging data from a patient, a first operator holding said probe over the patient;

at least a non-touch input device for receiving a combination of gesture commands and for generating input commands according to the combination of the gesture commands;

a processing unit operationally connected to said probe and said non-touch input device for processing the ultrasound imaging data and generating an image according to the input commands; and

at least a display unit operationally connected to said processing unit for displaying the image.

2. The ultrasound imaging system according to claim 1 further comprising a hand-driven control unit connected to said processing unit for generating the input commands.

3. The ultrasound imaging system according to claim 1 wherein said non-touch input device is placed on said display unit.

4. The ultrasound imaging system according to claim 1 wherein said non-touch input device is integrated into said display unit.

5. The ultrasound imaging system according to claim 1 wherein one of said non-touch input devices is placed near a second operator to receive the commands from the second operator.

6. The ultrasound imaging system according to claim 1 wherein said non-touch input device wirelessly communicates with said processing unit.

7. The ultrasound imaging system according to claim 6 wherein said processing unit is remotely placed from said non-touch input device.

8. The ultrasound imaging system according to claim 1 wherein said non-touch input device captures at least an image and motion.

9. The ultrasound imaging system according to claim 1 wherein said non-touch input device receives additional combination of predetermined voice commands.

10. The ultrasound imaging system according to claim 1 wherein said display unit wirelessly communicates with said processing unit.

11. The ultrasound imaging system according to claim 10 wherein said display unit is remotely placed from said processing unit.

12. The ultrasound imaging system according to claim 1 wherein at least one of said non-touch input devices is placed in front of the first operator so that the first operator maintains a predetermined position facing the patient while the patient is examined by the first operator.

13. The ultrasound imaging system according to claim 1 wherein said non-touch input device detects a relative position of said probe with respect to the patient for generating and input command for freezing a currently available image.

14. The ultrasound imaging system according to claim 1 wherein said non-touch input device detects a type of said probe for generating and input command for setting scanning parameters corresponding to the detected type.

15. The ultrasound imaging system according to claim 1 further comprising a virtual input device for generating the input commands.

16. A method of providing hand-free user interface for an ultrasound imaging system, comprising:

examining a patient using the ultrasound imaging system;

articulating any combination of predetermined gesture commands while the patient is examined by an operator; and

generating inputs to the ultrasound imaging system according to the commands.

17. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 16 wherein the operator maintains a predetermined position facing the patient while the patient is examined by the operator.

18. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 16 wherein the commands are articulated in said articulating by a combination of the operator and a non-operator.

19. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 16 wherein said articulating further includes additional combinations of predetermined voice commands.

20. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 19 wherein the voice commands are selectively filtered for a predetermined person.

21. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 19 wherein certain noise is selectively minimized in the voice commands.

22. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 19 wherein the voice commands and the gesture commands are associated as they are trained in advance.

23. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 19 further comprising of annotating using a combination of the voice commands and the gesture commands while the patient is examined, the voice commands inputting text information for annotation.

24. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 16 wherein the image is remotely generated.

25. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 16 wherein the combination further includes inputs through predetermined hand-driven input devices.

26. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 16 wherein the patient is examined as ultrasound imaging data is acquired from the patient through a probe.

27. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 26 wherein the ultrasound imaging data is measured.

28. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 16 further comprising of selecting a probe, the selected probe automatically associating a predetermined image recognition feature.

29. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 16 wherein the predetermined gesture commands include a first predetermined hand gesture for performing a combination of a selecting task and an activating task over displayed data.

30. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 16 wherein the predetermined gesture commands include a second predetermined hand gesture for adjusting a level of image gain.

31. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 16 wherein the predetermined gesture commands include a third predetermined hand gesture for adjusting a scan depth.

32. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 16 wherein the predetermined gesture commands include a fourth predetermined hand gesture for freezing an ultrasound image.

33. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 16 further comprising of removing a probe from the patient to freeze an ultrasound image.

34. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 16 wherein the predetermined gesture commands include a fifth predetermined hand gesture for reviewing cine images.

35. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 16 further comprising of detecting a relative position of a probe with respect to the patient for freezing a currently available image.

36. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 16 further comprising of detecting a type of a probe for setting scanning parameters corresponding to the detected type.

37. The method of providing hand-free user interface for ultrasound imaging system according to claim 16 further comprising of projecting a virtual input device for inputting the commands.

38. A method of retrofitting existing ultrasound imaging systems, comprising:

providing an existing ultrasound imaging system; and

retrofitting the existing ultrasound imaging system with a hand-free user interface unit for generating inputs to the ultrasound imaging system according to any combination of predetermined gesture commands while the patient is examined.

39. The method of retrofitting existing ultrasound imaging systems according to claim 38 wherein said hand-free user interface unit generates the inputs to the ultrasound imaging system according to additional combinations of predetermined voice commands.

40. The method of retrofitting existing ultrasound imaging systems according to claim 38 wherein the voice commands alone are selectively filtered for a predetermined person.

41. The method of retrofitting existing ultrasound imaging systems according to claim 38 wherein the voice commands and the gesture commands are associated as they are trained in advance.

42. The method of retrofitting existing ultrasound imaging systems according to claim 38 wherein certain noise is selectively minimized in the voice commands.