FPGA-Based Portable Ultrasound Scanning System with Automatic Kidney Detection

Bedsides diagnosis using portable ultrasound scanning (PUS) offering comfortable diagnosis with various clinical advantages, in general, ultrasound scanners suffer from a poor signal-to-noise ratio, and physicians who operate the device at point-of-care may not be adequately trained to perform high level diagnosis. Such scenarios can be eradicated by incorporating ambient intelligence in PUS. In this paper, we propose an architecture for a PUS system, whose abilities include automated kidney detection in real time. Automated kidney detection is performed by training the Viola–Jones algorithm with a good set of kidney data consisting of diversified shapes and sizes. It is observed that the kidney detection algorithm delivers very good performance in terms of detection accuracy. The proposed PUS with kidney detection algorithm is implemented on a single Xilinx Kintex-7 FPGA, integrated with a Raspberry Pi ARM processor running at 900 MHz

Computer Aided Diagnosis on customized Ultrasound Imaging system

This thesis seeks implementation of mid end, back end algorithms to develop ultrasound imaging system and computer aided diagnosis for kidney. Integration of new algorithms onto present ultra-sound system is not possible as they are mostly based on DSPs and FPGAs. Hence firstly, mid end and back-end system has been designed for Kintex 7 FPGA, to replicate present ultrasound system. Later our algorithms related to compression techniques, image contrast enhancement are validated by porting them on to the developed system. The thesis also focuses on diagnosing kidney related problems using ultrasound images. Recent statistics show that there is a large increase in population suffering with kidney related problems. Many a times, detecting the kidney related problem at an early stage can prevent most of these diseases. Some of the major issues in maintaining quality of healthcare services are low doctor to patient ratio in rural areas, unavailability of trained medical professionals in remote areas, infrastructural constraints etc. Computer aided diagnosis helps in solving this issue. Computer aided algorithms can assist semi-skilled sonographers to confidently make decisions, thus improving the quality of healthcare services

Multichannel arbitrary waveform beamformer transmitter for experimental research activities of ultrasound

This paper presents the development of a digital beamformer transmitter system for generation of arbitrary ultrasound waveforms, specifically designed for research purposes. The proposed architecture has 8 independent excitation channels and uses an FPGA device (Field Programmable Gated Array) for electronic control channel generation of ultrasonic acoustic beam transmission. The system allows operation in pulse-echo mode, with pulse repetition rate of excitation between 62.5 Hz and 8 kHz, or single pulse, center frequency between 500 kHz and 20 MHz, excitation voltage between -100 and +100 V, and individual control of amplitude apodization, phase angle and time delay trigger. The mathematical method for determining the digital signals of excitation is presented and validated through practical results for waveform generation with Gaussian profile and center frequency of 20 MHz, in a load formed by a 220 pF capacitor in parallel with a resistor of 1 k Ω. The results show that the proposed flexible and fully programmable architecture, can support the development of new algorithms and sophisticated processing techniques of the transmission beamformer.Este trabalho apresenta o desenvolvimento de um sistema digital beamformer de transmissão para geração de formas de onda arbitrárias de ultrassom, projetado especificamente para fins de pesquisa. A arquitetura proposta possui 8 canais de excitação independentes e utiliza um dispositivo FPGA (Field Programmable Gated Array) para controle eletrônico dos canais de geração do feixe acústico ultrassônico de transmissão. O sistema permite operação no modo pulso-eco, com taxa de repetição dos pulsos de excitação entre 62,5 Hz e 8 kHz, ou pulso único, frequência central entre 500 kHz e 20 MHz, tensão de excitação entre -100 V e +100 V, e controle individual da amplitude de apodização, ângulo de fase e atraso temporal de disparo. O método matemático para determinação dos sinais digitais de excitação é apresentado e validado através dos resultados práticos para geração de forma de onda com perfil Gaussiano e frequência central de 20 MHz, em uma carga equivalente formada por um capacitor de 220 pF em paralelo com um resistor de 1 k Ω. Os resultados demonstram que a arquitetura flexível e totalmente programável proposta, pode apoiar o desenvolvimento de novos algoritmos e técnicas sofisticadas de processamento do beamformer de transmissão.667678Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGING AND PATTERN RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGIES FOR REAL TIME FRUIT SAFETY AND QUALITY INSPECTION

Hyperspectral band selection and band combination has become a powerful tool and have gained enormous interest among researchers. An important task in hyperspectral data processing is to reduce the redundancy of the spectral and spatial information without losing any valuable details that are needed for the subsequent detection, discrimination and classification processes. An integrated principal component analysis (PCA) and Fisher linear discriminant (FLD) method has been developed for feature band selection, and other pattern recognition technologies have been applied and compared with the developed method. The results on different types of defects from cucumber and apple samples show that the integrated PCA-FLD method outperforms PCA, FLD and canonical discriminant methods when they are used separately for classification. The integrated method adds a new tool for the multivariate analysis of hyperspectral images and can be extended to other hyperspectral imaging applications. Dimensionality reduction not only serves as the first step of data processing that leads to a significant decrease in computational complexity in the successive procedures, but also a research tool for determining optimal spectra requirement for online automatic inspection of fruit. In this study, the hyperspectral research shows that the near infrared spectrum at 753nm is best for detecting apple defect. When applied for online apple defect inspection, over 98% of good apple detection rate is achieved. However, commercially available apple sorting and inspection machines cannot effectively solve the stem-calyx problems involved in automatic apple defects detection. In this study, a dual-spectrum NIR/MIR sensing method is applied. This technique can effectively distinguish true defects from stems and calyxes, which leads to a potential solution of the problem. The results of this study will advance the technology in fruit safety and quality inspection and improve the cost-effectiveness of fruit packing processes

Fpga-based Real-time Digital Beamformer For Ultrasonic Elastography

This paper presents the development of a 64-channel Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based digital beamformer for real-time ultrasonic elastography imaging. The hardware architecture is controlled by Altera Cyclone III FPGA ICs (EP3C16Q240, Altera Corporation) and allows flexibility for programmable aperture windowing, multiple transmit focusing phase adjustment, amplitude apodization, and dynamic receive focusing. Individual channel delays are applied using a first in first out (FIFO) structure and efficient interpolation scheme with FIR filter. A DaVinci digital video processor board (TMS320C6455 DSK, Texas Instruments Inc.) is used as the interface for image display. The system can handle up to 256-element linear array transducers and preliminary results demonstrated that real-time elastogram with fine anatomical structures can be obtained using a wire phantom with equivalent mechanical and acoustic properties of biological tissue. © 2011 IEEE.370Garra, B.S., Cespedes, E.I., Ophir, J., Spratt, S.R., Zuurbier, R.A., Magnant, C.M., Pennanen, M.F., Elastography of beast lesions: Initial clinical results (1997) Radiology, 202, pp. 79-86Silkdar, S., Managuli, R., Gong, L., Shamdasani, V., Mitake, T., Hayashi, T., Kim, Y., A single mediaprocessor-based programmable ultrasound system (2003) IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine, 7, pp. 64-70Kim, Y., Kim, J.H., Basoglu, C., Winter, T.C., Programmable ultrasound imaging using multimedia technologies: A next-generation ultrasound machine (1997) IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine, 1, pp. 19-29Zhu, Q.L., Jiang, Y.X., Liu, J.B., Liu, H., Sun, Q., Dai, Q., Chen, X., Real-time ultrasound elastography: Its potencial role in assessment of breast lesions (2008) Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, 34, pp. 1232-1238Neves, L.P., Jiang, J., Hall, T.J., Carneiro, A.A.O., Acoustic elastography under dynamic compression using one-dimensional track motion (2007) 29th IEEE EMBS Annual International Conference of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, pp. 83-8

Multichannel Arbitrary Waveform Beamformer Transmitter For Experimental Research Activities Of Ultrasound [beamformer De Transmissão Multicanal De Forma De Onda Arbitrária Para Atividades De Pesquisa Experimental Do Ultrassom]

This paper presents the development of a digital beamformer transmitter system for generation of arbitrary ultrasound waveforms, specifically designed for research purposes. The proposed architecture has 8 independent excitation channels and uses an FPGA device (Field Programmable Gated Array) for electronic control channel generation of ultrasonic acoustic beam transmission. The system allows operation in pulse-echo mode, with pulse repetition rate of excitation between 62.5 Hz and 8 kHz, or single pulse, center frequency between 500 kHz and 20 MHz, excitation voltage between -100 and +100 V, and individual control of amplitude apodization, phase angle and time delay trigger. The mathematical method for determining the digital signals of excitation is presented and validated through practical results for waveform generation with Gaussian profile and center frequency of 20 MHz, in a load formed by a 220 pF capacitor in parallel with a resistor of 1 kΩ. The results show that the proposed flexible and fully programmable architecture, can support the development of new algorithms and sophisticated processing techniques of the transmission beamformer.236667678(2010) Cyclone III Device Handbook I-II. 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