A Wearable Ultrasound Sensing System for Measuring Hardness of Soft Tissues

Hand palpation is a widely used method in clinical practice to estimate the hardness of soft tissues, but the results of this method are quite subjective. Therefore, it is necessary to develop some objective tools to assess the hardness of soft tissues. We present a wearable ultrasound sensor for measuring the hardness of soft tissues. This wearable sensor utilizes an ultrasound transducer to indent the tissue, applying pressure to the transducer by inflating an airbag located above the transducer. By analyzing the ultrasound signals, we can distinguish the deformation differences of soft tissues under the same pressure, which allows us to assess the hardness of the soft tissues. The experimental results indicate that our wearable ultrasound sensor can distinguish the hardness differences of the biceps during relaxation and exertion. In the preliminary experiments conducted on a human arm model, we identified the differences in hardness before and after embedding a foreign object into the arm model, which demonstrates the potential of this sensor in detecting internal soft tissue lesions.