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++.

1 . A method for providing streaming video in with a handheld portable 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 ultrasonic operation conducted with a battery powered handheld portable ultrasonic imaging system; executing, in the ultrasonic application server, a result corresponding to the command; and sending data from the ultrasonic application server to the external application. 
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising storing data in 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  further comprising generating real-time image data and transformation parameters. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising generating the external application is on a remote computer. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7  further comprising generating the remote computer to the connecting ultrasonic application server using 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 a remote computer. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the command includes an instruction and at least one ultrasonic imaging 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 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 a universal serial lens. 
     
     
         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, a communication control circuit and a display within a housing of the battery powered handheld portable ultrasound system; 
 connecting the communication control circuit to a remote 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 - 63 . (canceled)