Infrared based clinical landmark determination for ultrasound image acquisition

A system that determines the correct position of the umbilicus enables the automatic ultrasound diagnosis of the human abdomen. The customization of the diagnosis procedure using personalized scanning is important when it comes to more precise and predictable medical treatment. The setup used here is based on a combination of three linear motors controlled by an ATmega328 microcontroller using real-time data of an IR sensor as feedback information. For testing purposes 1527 ultrasound image data resulting from 10 subjects and approximately 2,000,000 voltage values for every scan sequence with duration of 30 seconds were analyzed. Results show that with a motor resolution of 8000 pulses per rotation and a frequency of 50,000 Hz all ultrasound examination sequences starting from the initial motor constellation point X0, Y0 and Z0 lead to an accuracy of umbilicus localization being 95.9% for the X-plane and 98.4% for the Y-plane.