title: Improvement of freehand ultrasound calibration accuracy using the elevation beamwidth profile.
abstract: This article presents a novel approach that incorporates an ultrasound slice-thickness profile into a filtered, weighted-least-square framework to improve the reconstruction accuracy of a real-time freehand calibration system. An important part of the system is a slice-thickness calibration device that aids in the extraction of the slice thickness across a wide range of imaging depths. Extensive experiments were conducted on a 10,000-image dataset to evaluate the effects of the framework on the calibration accuracy. The results showed that three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction errors were significantly reduced in every experiment (p < 0.001). Real-time testing showed that the proposed method worked effectively with a small number of input images, suggesting great potential for intraoperative use where only a limited number of data may be available. This new framework can enable efficient quality control of calibration accuracy in real-time operating-room use.
authors.affiliation: School of Computing, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Thomas Kuiran
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Randy E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Ellis
authors.forename: Purang
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Abolmaesumi
mesh_terms: D002138:Calibration; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000592:standards*; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D009873:Operating Rooms; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000592:standards*