Ultrasound Probe Tracking With 3D Reference Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing ultrasound training systems lack the ability to accurately simulate real-world ultrasound procedures and provide effective feedback to trainees, often requiring specialized hardware and failing to integrate spatial data and virtual media effectively.
Innovation Solution
An ultrasound simulation system that utilizes a physical tridimensional reference element with markings, tracked by a camera, to correlate real-world movements with virtual ultrasound data, allowing precise spatial alignment and enhanced media display, including augmented reality, and records user actions for scoring and feedback.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If specialized hardware is used to simulate ultrasound procedures, then simulation accuracy is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a camera to capture images of a physical reference element and digitally reconstructs ultrasound data from these images. This copying approach replaces the need for complex specialized hardware with a simpler camera-based system that can still achieve accurate simulation by digitally processing and correlating spatial data.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces mechanical tracking systems with a camera-based image processing system. Instead of using complex mechanical sensors or trackers to monitor transducer position, the system uses a camera to capture the physical reference element and computationally determines spatial relationships, thereby reducing hardware complexity while maintaining measurement precision.
2Reliability
If spatial data and virtual media are integrated, then training effectiveness is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a physical reference element with markings as an intermediary between the camera and the virtual ultrasound data. This reference element serves as a mediator that the camera can detect and track, enabling the system to correlate real-world spatial positions with virtual ultrasound images without requiring direct complex integration between all system components.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent divides the system into distinct functional segments: a camera for capture, a processing unit for image analysis and spatial data extraction, and a display unit for presenting virtual ultrasound data. This segmentation allows each component to be simpler and more specialized, reducing overall system integration complexity while maintaining training effectiveness through the coordinated operation of these modular segments.
3Reliability
If real-time simulation feedback is provided, then training quality is improved, but processing time and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by capturing images of the physical reference element and pre-processing the spatial data before the actual training simulation occurs. The system establishes the correlation between camera images and virtual ultrasound data in advance, enabling faster real-time feedback during training without requiring extensive computational processing at the moment of simulation.
Data Source
AI summary
Aspects of some embodiments of the invention relate to systems and methods for simulating an ultrasound, comprising a camera, a physical tridimensional reference element attached to an ultrasound transducer of an ultrasound device and a processing module comprising instructions to perform the following while performing an ultrasound examination or after performing the ultrasound examination and spatial location of the documented information: digitally imaging a physical tridimensional reference element, determining from said imaging a second spatial data of said physical tridimensional reference element relative to a virtual location-identifying orientation; displaying said ultrasound data when said second spatial data is the same as said first spatial data and said orientation of a patient is the same as said virtual location-identifying orientation.