Smartphone-based portable ultrasound imaging system: Prototype implementation and evaluation

In this paper, we present a smart US imaging system (SMUS) based on an android-OS smartphone, which can provide maximally optimized efficacy in terms of weight and size in point-of-care diagnostic applications. The proposed SMUS consists of the smartphone (Galaxy S5 LTE-A, Samsung., Korea) and a 16-channel probe system. The probe system contains analog and digital front-ends, which conducts beamforming and mid-processing procedures. Otherwise, the smartphone performs the back-end processing including envelope detection, log compression, 2D image filtering, digital scan conversion, and image display with custom-made graphical user interface (GUI). Note that the probe system and smartphone are interconnected by the USB 3.0 protocol. As a result, the developed SMUS can provide real-time B-mode image with the sufficient frame rate (i.e., 58 fps), battery run-time for point-of-care diagnosis (i.e., 54 min), and 35.0°C of transducer surface temperature during B-mode imaging, which satisfies the temperature standards for the safety and effectiveness of medical electrical equipment, IEC 60601-1 (i.e., 43°C).