Ultrasound probe with integrated electronics

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++.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A method for providing streaming video in an ultrasonic imaging system comprising:
 providing an ultrasonic application server having at least one ultrasonic operation and corresponding ultrasonic data;   sending, from an external application, a command indicative of at least one of the ultrasonic operations;   executing, in the ultrasonic application server, a result corresponding to the commands; and   sending data from the ultrasonic application server to the external application.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising providing a shared memory in communication with the ultrasonic application server and the external application. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the steps of:
 defining 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, the command to the ultrasonic application server; 
 receiving, over a predetermined communication interface, ultrasonic data indicative of ultrasonic image information; and 
 transmitting, via the integrated interface program, the result to the external application. 
 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3  wherein the integrated interface program is adapted to transmit real-time imaging data including ultrasonic imaging for radiation therapy planning and treatment, minimally invasive and robotic surgery methods including biopsy procedures, catheter introduction for diagnostic and therapeutic angiography, fetal imaging, cardiac imaging, vascular imaging, imaging during endoscopic procedures, imaging for telemedicine applications, imaging for veterinary applications, cryotherapy, and ultrasound elastography. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the streaming video includes radio frequency data. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the result is real-time image data and transformation parameters. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the external application is on a remote computer. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7  wherein the remote computer is connected to the ultrasonic application server by a public access network. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  wherein the public access network is the Internet. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the external application resides on the same computer. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the command includes an instruction and at least one parameter. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the external application communicates with the ultrasonic application server using at least one of a control program using a component object model automation interface and a shared memory interface. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the command includes operations selected from the group consisting of ultrasound application initialization and shutdown functions, ultrasound setup functions and ultrasound image capture functions such as, for example, freeze live data, fetch live data, and resume live imaging. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1  wherein control instructions using ActiveX controls are used to transfer data between the ultrasonic application server and the external application. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14  wherein the command conforms to transmitting via an integrated communication interface and program which conforms to a predetermined protocol. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15  wherein the protocol is TCP/IP. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the receiving of ultrasonic data further comprises receiving according to a standardized interface. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17  wherein the standardized interface is IEEE 1394. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the ultrasonic application server includes a graphical user interface (GUI). 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19  wherein the GUI includes image control presets. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20  wherein the image control presets are operable to store image settings. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21  wherein the image settings include settings selected from the group consisting of application controls, B-mode controls, M-mode controls, image quality controls, and Doppler controls. 
     
     
         23 . 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. 
 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23  further comprising providing an interface housing in which the first circuit board assembly and the second board assembly are mounted. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 23  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. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 23  further comprising providing a body mounted personal computer. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 23  further comprising providing a body mounted interface housing. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 23  wherein the communication interface is a wireless interface. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 28  wherein the wireless interface is a RF interface. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 28  wherein the wireless interface is an infrared interface. 
     
     
         31 . A system for providing streaming data in an ultrasonic imaging system comprising:
 a user computing device having an ultrasonic application server operable to receive and process ultrasonic data via a predetermined interface;   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 generate a command corresponding to the operations, and further operable to transmit the commands to the integrated interface program, wherein the integrated interface program invokes the ultrasonic application server to compute a result in response to the command, and transmits the result back to the external application.   
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 31  wherein the integrated interface program is adapted to transmit real-time imaging data including ultrasonic imaging for radiation therapy planning and treatment, minimally invasive and robotic surgery methods including biopsy procedures, catheter introduction for diagnostic and therapeutic angiography, fetal imaging, cardiac imaging, vascular imaging, imaging during endoscopic procedures, imaging for telemedicine applications, imaging for veterinary applications, cryotherapy, and ultrasound elastography. 
     
     
         33 . The system of  claim 31  wherein the result further comprises real time image data and transformation parameters. 
     
     
         34 . The system of  claim 31  further comprising a shared memory in communication with the ultrasonic application server and the external application. 
     
     
         35 . The system of  claim 31  further comprising a remote computer wherein the external application is on a remote computer. 
     
     
         36 . The system of  claim 31  wherein the streaming data includes radio frequency data. 
     
     
         37 . The system of  claim 31  further comprising a public access network, wherein the remote computer is connected to the ultrasonic application via the public access network. 
     
     
         38 . The system of  claim 37  wherein the public access network is the Internet. 
     
     
         39 . The system of  claim 31  wherein the external application resides on the user computing device. 
     
     
         40 . The system of  claim 31  wherein the command further comprises an instruction and at least one parameter. 
     
     
         41 . The system of  claim 40  wherein the command conforms to a predetermined interprocess communication interface. 
     
     
         42 . The system of  claim 41  wherein the command includes operations selected from the group consisting of ultrasound application initialization and shutdown functions, ultrasound setup functions and ultrasound image capture functions such as, for example, freeze live data, fetch live data, and resume live imaging. 
     
     
         43 . The system of  claim 31  wherein at least one of the interfaces is a wireless interface. 
     
     
         44 . The system of  claim 38  wherein the transmitting via the integrated interface program further includes sockets. 
     
     
         45 . The system of  claim 38  wherein the transmitting via the integrated interface program conforms to a predetermined protocol. 
     
     
         46 . The system of  claim 39  wherein the predetermined protocol is TCP/IP. 
     
     
         47 . The system of  claim 31  wherein the external application communicates with the ultrasonic application server using at least one of a control program using a component object model automation interface and a shared memory interface. 
     
     
         48 . The system of  claim 38  further comprising a standardized interface, wherein the ultrasonic data is received via the standardized interface. 
     
     
         49 . The system of  claim 41  wherein the standardized interface is IEEE 1394. 
     
     
         50 . The system of  claim 38  wherein the ultrasonic application server includes a graphical user interface (GUI). 
     
     
         51 . The system of  claim 50  wherein the GUI includes image control presets. 
     
     
         52 . The system of  claim 51  wherein the image control presets are operable to store image settings. 
     
     
         53 . The system of  claim 52  wherein the image settings include settings selected from the group consisting of application controls, B-mode controls, M-mode controls, image quality controls, and Doppler controls. 
     
     
         54 . The system of  claim 31  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. 
 
     
     
         55 . The system of  claim 54  wherein the interface system has a first circuit board assembly and a second circuit board assembly are mounted in an interface housing. 
     
     
         56 . The system of  claim 55  wherein the first circuit board assembly and the second circuit board assembly are electrically connected by a connector. 
     
     
         57 . The system of  claim 54  wherein the computing device comprises a body mounted system. 
     
     
         58 . The system of  claim 54  wherein the memory further comprises a video random access memory (VRAM). 
     
     
         59 . The system of  claim 54  wherein the memory comprises a synchronous dynamic random access memory (synchDRAM). 
     
     
         60 . The system of  claim 54  wherein the standard communication interface comprises an IEEE 1394 interface. 
     
     
         61 . The system of  claim 54  wherein the standard communication interface comprises a universal serial bus (USB) interface. 
     
     
         62 . The system of  claim 54  wherein the communication system is a wireless interface between the communication control circuit of the interface system and the computing device. 
     
     
         63 . A computer program product having computer program instructions for integration of a external application in an ultrasonic imaging system comprising:
 computer program instructions for defining an ultrasonic application server having at least one ultrasonic operation;   computer program code for defining 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;   computer program code for sending, from the external application, a command indicative of at least one of the ultrasonic operations; and   computer program code for executing, in the ultrasonic application server, a result corresponding to the command.