title: A review of calibration techniques for freehand 3-D ultrasound systems.
abstract: Three-dimensional (3-D) ultrasound (US) is an emerging new technology with numerous clinical applications. Ultrasound probe calibration is an obligatory step to build 3-D volumes from 2-D images acquired in a freehand US system. The role of calibration is to find the mathematical transformation that converts the 2-D coordinates of pixels in the US image into 3-D coordinates in the frame of reference of a position sensor attached to the US probe. This article is a comprehensive review of what has been published in the field of US probe calibration for 3-D US. The article covers the topics of tracking technologies, US image acquisition, phantom design, speed of sound issues, feature extraction, least-squares minimization, temporal calibration, calibration evaluation techniques and phantom comparisons. The calibration phantoms and methods have also been classified in tables to give a better overview of the existing methods.
authors.affiliation: Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QUE, Canada. laurence@bic.mni.mcgill.ca
authors.forename: Laurence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mercier
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Langø
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lindseth
authors.forename: Louis D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Collins
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D002138:Calibration / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013995:Time; D014465:Ultrasonics; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods