Ultrasound probe with integrated electronics

• US 6,969,352 B2
• Filed: 03/11/2002
• Issued: 11/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Teratech Corporation
• Original Assignee: Teratech Corporation
• Inventors: Litchfield, Michael P., Chiang, Alice M., Brodsky, Michael, Kischell, Eric R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jaworski, Francis J.
• Application Number:
  US10/094,950
• Publication Number:
  US 20030073894A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,359 Days
• Field of Search: 600437-471
• US Class Current: 600/437
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4472 Wireless probes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/546 involving monitoring or regulation of device temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/56 Details of data transmission or power supply
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/565 involving data transmission via a network
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/585 Automatic set-up of the device
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8915 using a transducer array
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8979 Combined Doppler and pulse-echo imaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/899 Combination of imaging systems with ancillary equipment
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52025 for pulse systems G01S7/52034 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52055 in association with ancillary recording equipment
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52079 Constructional features constructional features of transducers B06B; mounting transducers G10K11/00; constructional features of ultrasonic medical diagnostic devices A61B8/44
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/5208 with integration of processing functions inside probe or scanhead
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52082 involving a modular construction, e.g. a computer with short range imaging equipment modular ultrasonic medical diagnostic devices A61B8/4411

Abstract

A hand-held ultrasound system includes integrated electronics within an ergonomic housing. The electronics includes control circuitry, beamforming and circuitry transducer drive circuitry. The electronics communicate with a host computer using an industry standard high speed serial bus. The ultrasonic imaging system is operable on a standard, commercially available, user computing device without specific hardware modifications, and is adapted to interface with an external application without modification to the ultrasonic imaging system to allow a user to gather ultrasonic data on a standard user computing device such as a PC, and employ the data so gathered via an independent external application without requiring a custom system, expensive hardware modifications, or system rebuilds. An integrated interface program allows such ultrasonic data to be invoked by a variety of such external applications having access to the integrated interface program via a standard, predetermined platform such as visual basic or c++.

Claims

1. A method of integrating an ultrasonic imaging system with an external application comprising:

providing an ultrasonic application server having at least one ultrasonic operation;

receiving from the external application, a request for at least one of the ultrasonic operations; and

executing, in the ultrasonic application server, a result corresponding to the request.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

providing an integrated interface program having a plurality of entry points into the ultrasonic application server, the entry points operable to access each of the at least one ultrasonic operations;

transmitting, via the integrated interface program, a command to the ultrasonic application server;

receiving, over a communication interface, ultrasonic data indicative of ultrasonic image information; and

transmitting, via the integrated interface program, the result to the external application.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the integrated interface program is adapted to transmit information pertinent to data selected from the group consisting of radiation therapy, fetal images, cardiac images, and image guided surgery.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the result is image data and transformation parameters.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the external application is on a remote computer.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the remote computer is connected to the ultrasonic application server by a public access network.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the public access network is the Internet.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the external application is on the same computer.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the command includes an instruction and at least one parameter.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the command conforms to a communication interface.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the command includes operations selected from the group consisting of freeze live data, fetch live data, export image, exit, initialize, and get status.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmitting via the integrated interface program employs sockets.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the transmitting via the integrated interface program conforms to a predetermined protocol.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the protocol is TCP/IP.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving of ultrasonic data further comprises receiving according to a standardized interface.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the standardized interface is IEEE 1394.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the ultrasonic application server includes a graphical user interface (GUI).

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the GUI includes image control presets.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the image control presets are operable to store image settings.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the image settings include settings selected from the group consisting of size, depth, focus, time gain compensation (TGC) and TGC lock.

21. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing a probe housing having a transducer array that is connected to a processing circuit having a beamforming circuit, a memory, a system controller integrated circuit and a digital communication control circuit;

connecting the digital communication control circuit to a personal computer with a standard communication interface; and

transmitting data along the communication interface.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising providing an interface housing in which the first circuit board assembly and the second board assembly are mounted.

23. The method of claim 21 further comprising providing an interface housing in which a first circuit board assembly having the beamforming circuit and a second circuit board assembly having the memory, controller and communication control circuit are mounted.

24. The method of claim 21 further comprising providing a body mounted personal computer.

25. The method of claim 21 further comprising providing a body mounted interface housing.

26. The method of claim 21 wherein the communication interface is a wireless interface.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the wireless interface is a RF interface.

28. The method of claim 26 wherein the wireless interface is an infrared interface.

29. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying a plurality of images in a windows format, at least one image including an ultrasound image and at least a second image from an external therapeutic application.

30. A system for integration of an ultrasonic imaging system with an external application comprising:

a user computing device having an ultrasonic application server operable to receive and process ultrasonic data;

an integrated interface program in communication with the ultrasonic application server and operable to invoke operations in the ultrasonic application server;

an external application operable to communicate with the integrated interface program, such that the integrated interface program communicates with the ultrasonic application server to transmit the ultrasonic data to the external application.

31. The system of claim 30 wherein the integrated interface program is adapted to transmit information pertaining to data selected from the group consisting of radiation therapy data, fetal images, cardiac images, and image guided surgery.

32. The system of claim 30 wherein the result further comprises image data and transformation parameters.

33. The system of claim 30 further comprising a remote computer wherein the external application is on a remote computer.

34. The system of claim 30 further comprising a public access network, wherein the remote computer is connected to the ultrasonic application via the public access network.

35. The system of claim 34 wherein the public access network is the Internet.

36. The system of claim 35 wherein the transmitting via the integrated interface program further includes sockets.

37. The system of claim 36 wherein the GUI includes image control presets.

38. The system of claim 35 wherein the transmitting via the integrated interface program conforms to a predetermined protocol.

39. The system of claim 38 wherein the image control presets are operable to store image settings.

40. The system of claim 35 further comprising a standardized interface, wherein the ultrasonic data is received via the standardized interface.

41. The system of claim 35 wherein the ultrasonic application server includes a graphical user interface (GUI).

42. The system of claim 30 wherein the external application is on a remote computer.

43. The system of claim 42 wherein the predetermined protocol is TCP/IP.

44. The system of claim 43 wherein the image settings include settings selected from the group consisting of size, depth, focus, time gain compensation (TGC) and TGC lock.

45. The system of claim 30 wherein at least one of the interfaces is a wireless interface.

46. The system of claim 30 wherein the command further comprises an instruction and at least one parameter.

47. The system of claim 46 wherein the command conforms to a predetermined interprocess communication interface.

48. The system of claim 47 wherein the command includes operations selected from the group consisting of freeze live data, fetch live data, export image, exit, initialize, and get status.

49. The system of claim 47 wherein the standardized interface is IEEE 1394.

50. The system of claim 30 further comprising:

a probe housing having a transducer array;

an interface system communicating with the probe housing, the interface system having a beamforming circuit, a memory, a system controller integrated circuit and a communication control circuit connected to the computing device with a standard communication interface.

51. The system of claim 50 wherein the interface system has a first circuit board assembly and a second circuit board assembly are mounted in an interface housing.

52. The system of claim 51 wherein the first circuit board assembly and the second circuit board assembly are electrically connected by a connector.

53. The system of claim 50 wherein the computing device comprises a body mounted system.

54. The system of claim 50 wherein the memory further comprises a video random access memory (VRAM).

55. The system of claim 50 wherein the standard communication interface comprises an IEEE 1394 interface.

56. The system of claim 50 wherein the standard communication interface comprises a universal serial bus (USB) interface.

57. The system of claim 50 wherein the communication system is a wireless interface between the communication control circuit of the interface system and the computing device.