Radial Radon transform dedicated to micro-object localization from radio frequency ultrasound signal

In this paper we describe a method for automatic electrode localization in soft tissue from a radiofrequency signal. The method exploits a property of the Radon transform (RT) that allows us to localize a line-segment in 3D data. The method directly processes the radiofrequency (RF) signal provided by the ultrasound (US) probe. Thus, there is no need for ultrasound image reconstruction. The method is able to detect line-segments that are discontinuous. The low computational cost allows us to process data in real-time. The algorithm was tested on a radiofrequency signal acquired by scanning a phantom containing a thin metal electrode of 150 /spl mu/m in diameter. The experiments show that the developed technique is capable of reliably finding an arbitrarily positioned line-segment in a 3D image.