Augmented Reality for Ultrasound Imaging

Scott, Ian; Barsoum, Mary; Lombardi, Sarah

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Augmented Reality for Ultrasound Imaging

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Ultrasound imaging is a widely used method to painlessly visualize internal structures of the human body through the propagation and reflection of inaudible sound waves. Currently, a sonographer must position and orient the probe correctly on the patient, while looking away at a separate monitor. This ultrasound imaging practice requires high level hand-eye coordination and the ability to conceptualize the 2D screen images into the patient’s 3D anatomy. This kind of skill set can take up to two years to develop. The goal of this project is to use augmented reality (AR) to visualize ultrasound images over a patient's respective anatomy, in correlation with the ultrasound probe. We aimed to use the Microsoft Hololens 2 AR headset to display the ultrasound images gathered by a Clarius ultrasound probe in real time on the patient’s respective anatomy. The team successfully gathered ultrasound images and position data in real-time. However, due to networking issues, real-time streaming of both the data simultaneously onto the Microsoft Hololens 2 could not be accomplished. In its current state, a single ultrasound image can be moved with real time transformation data over the patient's anatomy, respectively. Future extensions include resolving the WiFi connectivity challenge, as well as calibrating the transformation data and the positioning of the ultrasound image on the patient’s anatomy.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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