Ultrasound probe with integrated electronics
US6969352B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 11, 2002 |
| Grant date | Nov 29, 2005 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 16, 2022 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01S15/8979
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A hand-held ultrasound system includes integrated electronics within an ergonomic housing. The electronics includes control circuitry, beamforming and circuitry transducer drive circuitry. The electronics communicate with a host computer using an industry standard high speed serial bus. The ultrasonic imaging system is operable on a standard, commercially available, user computing device without specific hardware modifications, and is adapted to interface with an external application without modification to the ultrasonic imaging system to allow a user to gather ultrasonic data on a standard user computing device such as a PC, and employ the data so gathered via an independent external application without requiring a custom system, expensive hardware modifications, or system rebuilds. An integrated interface program allows such ultrasonic data to be invoked by a variety of such external applications having access to the integrated interface program via a standard, predetermined platform such as visual basic or c++.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.