ADUMS aims to define and develop an advanced 4D (3D-Spatial + 1D-Temporal)
ultrasound system technology with high-image resolution capabilities.
Technology is applicable in a variety of next generation system
applications including a) Wireless communications echo cancellation
and signal distribution by directional antennas, b) Volumetric ultrasound
for medical imaging, c) 3D underwater sonar camera for divers, mine
hunting, underwater inspection, d) 3D non-destructive quality inspection
of materials. The differentiation between these systems is in the
frequency regime that defines the application area and the array
configuration in terms of sensor spacing and sensor technology.
The proposed effort is based on the results of the EC-IST projects:
"MITTUG", "TeleInVivo" and "mAgic"
and will focus on the definition of a next generation fully digital
ultrasound system technology that includes the development of an
advanced 3D adaptive-synthetic aperture beamfoming ultrasound signal
processing structure with unique 3D ultrasound visualization technology
and a computing architecture development as an embedded system for
linear and planar phased array ultrasound probes.
Projects Objectives
The ADUMS project aims to define and develop an advanced 4D (3D-Spatial
+ 1D-Temporal) ultrasound system technology that will be based on
3D adaptive beamforming to provide high-image resolution capabilities.
3D adaptive beamforming is applicable in a variety of next generation
system applications. Although in all the relevant applications the
signal processing technology is conceptually identical, the differentiation
between these systems is in their employed frequency regime that
defines the application area and the array configuration in terms
of sensor spacing and sensor technology.
- Wireless communication frequency regime for echo cancellation
and signal distribution by directional antennas,
- Volumetric ultrasound frequency regime for medical imaging,
- Sonar high-frequency regime for 3D underwater camera for divers,
mine hunting, underwater inspection,
- Acoustic frequency regime for 3D tomography visualization, non-destructive
quality inspection of materials.
In particular, the proposed developments of the ADUMS project consortium
will be divided into two major areas that would include development
of ultrasound linear adaptive phased array technology by the European
partners and planar phased array technology by the North American
partners. More specifically:
- The development of 3D adaptive & synthetic aperture techniques.
- Development of the relevant hardware for a fully digital ultrasound
system technology.
- Integration and concept demonstration of proposed developments
with the ultrasound system functionality of the European Industrial
Partner Esaote, a leading ultrasound system manufacturer.
- Market analysis, planning and market exploitation of project
developments.
Benefits
Our solution provides a next generation fully digital 3D/4D ultrasound
system technology as an integrated solution for cardiac and abdominal
imaging applications, which are revolutionizing the diagnostic capabilities
of imaging systems. The expected benefits include
- For the patient:
Significant reductions in time spend for diagnosis and improvements
in treatment and therapeutic success rate because of improved
high quality imaging.
- For the medical professionals and organizations:
Increasing clinical efficiency by increasing the patient throughput,
reduce redundancy of measurements, price and availability of imaging
devices, and overall treatment cost while in the same time improves
the clinical treatment result greatly beneficial for both, the
patient and the health-care system.
- Economic Benefits:
Making a modern and aggressively increasing 3D/4D ultrasound system
market feasible to more centres in both, price and ease of use
(subjective feeling of security for the applying physician), thereby
offering a boost in increasing the number of customers for such
systems world-wide.
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