Design of a low power and portable ultrasound machine

Project Title

Design of a low power and portable ultrasound machine

Project Area of Specialization Biomedical EngineeringProject Summary

Ultrasound, also known as ultrasonography, is an important part of medical applications. It uses sound waves to take images of inside the body. It consists of a transducer and a machine that shows images of inside the body. The machine is large and kept and specific places, also ultrasound consumes very high power. We need to design a machine that is portable so that it can be carried everywhere one wants. Specially, it can be carried in ambulance so that the ultrasound of the patient can be done immediately before he/she reaches to the hospital so that the treatment can be started earlier. This project is to design an ultrasound machine that is portable and can be kept and carried anywhere one wants to, and also that is power efficient that is it consumes low power. The project will use different algorithms and MATLAB coding to acieve these tasks. We also need to design the filters to remove different kinds of noises from ultrasound images.

Project Objectives

The objective of this project is to design an ultrasound machines that consumes low power and is portable so that it can be carried everywhere one wants. Specially, it can be carried in ambulance so that the ultrasound of the patient can be done immediately before he/she reaches to the hospital so that the treatment can be started earlier. Also, the objective is to design filters that removes different kinds of noises from ultrasound images.

Project Implementation Method

A method for operating an ultrasound device comprises automatically switching among power modes in responses to changes in the power remaining available for operation of the ultrasound device. Two or more power modes may be available for each of a number of operational modes. The power modes may trade off performance against operating time. In some embodiments the ultrasound device can operate in a reduced-power idle mode in which the ultrasound device checks for ultrasound echoes indicating that a transducer is against a subject. In some embodiments, switching among power modes involves changes such as: changing a line density of ultrasound images; changing numbers of transducer elements being used for ultrasound transmission and/or reception; reconfiguring data processing circuitry; and changing pulse characteristics of transmitted ultrasound. 

The system has been designed for POC applications in a way to manifest extended imaging capabilities. The use of multiple (four), simple 2D phased array transducers is adopted in order for the system to provide enhanced field of view, as well as automatic scanning of the Region of Interest (ROI) (radiologist intervention-free). In order to deal with the high complexity of the system, the transducers were designed with limited number of elements (256 each) and were integrated to a single FPGA board. To compensate for the image degradation caused by transducers of fewer elements, a new image enhancement methodology was proposed. The methodology targets to image de-speckling and image resolution improvement, given the redundant information provided by the multiple transducers. It uses a combination of spatial and frequency compounding techniques along with a Super-Resolution (SR) algorithm. In order to vindicate the selection of the techniques that were used for the proposed methodology, a parametric study regarding the performance of numerous de-noising and SR techniques was conducted. The performance of the methodology was firstly tested using typical 1D phased array transducers and the results in the 2D images offered promising insights its advantages.

Having verified the effectiveness of the proposed methodology for the case of 2D ultrasound images, the methodology was extended to volumetric images. The final de-noised B-mode images manifested increased Contrast Noise Ratio (CNR) and Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) compared to various other ultrasound image de-speckling techniques, while at the same time image resolution improvement was observed.

Benefits of the Project

Portable ultrasounds help provide accurate and speedy diagnoses wherever the patient is located. The affordability of portable ultrasound machines makes it feasible for physicians, general practitioners, and specialists to purchase separate equipment for each clinic or practice, eliminating the need to move it from one facility to another. Critical care patients being extremely sensitive to any movements, cannot be transported from facility to facility or even room to room for imaging purposes. Portable ultrasounds completely eliminate the challenge of transporting vulnerable patients by transporting imaging capabilities to the patient’s location. Portable ultrasounds make it possible for doctors to examine patients in the ease of their clinics or even patients’ homes. The availability of portable medical equipment eliminates the need for doctors to redirect patients elsewhere (another department or external imaging facility) for ultrasound imaging. By providing ultrasound imaging at their own clinics, doctors can provide focused attention and accurate diagnoses to their patients. Advances in ultrasound technology have led to advancements in portable ultrasound equipment. Consequently, portable ultrasounds provide high-quality imaging that was once limited to bulkier devices. Furthermore, ultrasound machines are becoming increasingly smaller, ranging from laptop-based ultrasound machines to a variety of hand-held scanners

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

As The project is research based , The final deliverable will be in form of a research paper 
which we will try to publish , to enhance the understanding of our project and to show the working of algorithm
we might make one small prototype base on the time left for us. but for now we are working and the goal is to publish 
our work as research paper.If we have more time left , we will go toward the hardware part. we will be making filters
using algorithm to enhance picture quality and remove noise from the ultrasound images.

Final Deliverable of the Project Hardware SystemCore Industry MedicalOther Industries Health Core Technology OthersOther Technologies Wearables and ImplantablesSustainable Development Goals Good Health and Well-Being for PeopleRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	44340
Piezoelectric Transducer	Equipment	2	1200	2400
Beamformer	Equipment	1	4000	4000
rf demodulator ic	Equipment	2	250	500
Display IC	Equipment	2	500	1000
Lcd small	Equipment	1	1500	1500
ADS1284 High-Resolution, Analog-to-Digital Converter	Equipment	1	7000	7000
IC's	Equipment	5	500	2500
Resistors	Equipment	20	10	200
Transistors	Equipment	6	20	120
Wires	Equipment	2	60	120
Prototype assembly	Equipment	1	10000	10000
Microcontrollers	Equipment	2	2500	5000
Report file prints	Miscellaneous	300	10	3000
Research paper publishing	Miscellaneous	1	7000	7000