The InViVo family


Partner/Customer - Description - Contact - Press - Relevant links

 


Partner / Customer :


Description
Under the common name InViVo (Interactive Visualizer for Volume data) we describe a common family of currently four independent software systems as indicated in the drawing below:
  • InViVo-Scan
  • InViVo-Rad, InViVo-3DUS and InViVo-Vis
  • InViVo-Plus
  • InViVo-Tele


1) InViVo-Scan
This is a system allowing the upgrade of virtually any existing conventional (2D) ultrasound system to full 3D-capabilities. InViVo-Scan employs exclusively external components and hence does not require any manipulation of the existing hardware and software configuration. After the upgrade the ultrasound equipment can be operated in both, 2D as well as 3D mode almost simultaneously. Switching from the 2D to the 3D mode requires only a mouse-click. As a result, the familiar 2D examination procedure remains unchanged, and the physician can switch on the 3D mode only there when this is necessary.
The system architecture is illustrated in the figure below.


The upgrade requires the employment of two external components:

- A 6-degrees-of-freedom (6DOF) tracking system for the transducer. Such a tracking system is mounted on the transducer and follows very precisely its position and orientation in 3D space. Thus, each 2D image is associated with a corresponding position and orientation coordinates. The physician can now move the transducer free-hand over the region under examination. In the market there exist several different types of 6DOF tracking systems: mechanical arms, electromagnetic trackers, camera-based trackers (infrared or visible light). In the current version we support the electromagnetic tracker. However, the open system architecture allows the usage of anyone of the other trackers as well.
- A image digitalization and volume rendering system. This component consist from a frame grabber, a workstation or PC with sufficient memory and processor power, a serial interface and the usual peripheral devices (monitor, mouse, printer etc.). The video output of the 2D ultrasound machine is connected to the frame grabber and the 6DOF tracker to the serial input. Every 2D image presented on the ultrasound screen is digitized in real-time and stored together with its corresponding tracker coordinates in the memory. After finishing the scanning procedure, all acquired 2D slices are combined into a 3D volume sample of the examined area. This volume dataset is then further processed by means of the InViVo-3DUS module (see below).

Our solution provides significant improvements to previous implementations based on the same principle.

- We solved the crucial calibration problem in a very effective way. Our new calibration procedure is easy to understand, straight-forward, requires no phantom or other special equipment and can be performed within short time. Once calibrated, the transducer and/or the antena cn be moved in any arbirtrary way without requiring recalibration. Therefore a calibration can be performed from a technician as well as the end-user of the system at any time.
- The acquisition is selfcalibrating with reference to the first acquired slice. This means that after installation one can move all components -- ultrasound device, tracker source (camera, electromagnetic antenna, mechanical arm etc.), patient, bed etc. -- to any location desirable without the need of a new calibration. This allows the assembly of mobile stations to be used outdoors immediately, e.g. with emergency teams, rescue missions, rural areas, etc.
- Our system is compatible to any existing 6DOF tracking system. In addition to the Polhemus Fastrack currently supported, we will offer also IR-tracking and mechanical arm before summer. Other trackers can also be supported.
- By changing the mounting method of the Polhemus tracker we have been able to significantly reduce the influence of electromagnetic fields, metallic objects etc. on the accuracy of the scan.
- The movement of the transducer can be arbitrary: one can translate, rotate, tilt the transducer in any desirable or arbitrary way, even within the same scan.
- The software optimizes the slice-to-volume re-sampling procedure by filtering multiple entries, using the optimal pixels for a given location, as well as "filling the gaps" in areas where no scan has been performed using a "smart interpolation" of the neighbor slices.

InViVo-Scan is available on SUN Sparc (any model) equipped with SUNVideo board under SunOs 5.1.x (Solaris), as well as on Power PC workstations (Parsytec, IBM etc.) under AIX. A PC-based version under Windows NT is in preparation.

2) InViVo-Rad, InViVo-3DUS and InViVo-Vis
Datailed information InViVo-Vis, Rad, 3DUS
The volume visualization capabilities of InViVo form the kernel of the complete family. The volume visualizer is available in 3 different versions to meet the demands in different areas:
- The volume visualization capabilities of InViVo form the kernel of the complete family. The volume visualizer is available in 3 different versions to meet the demands in different areas:
Download Technical Description (postscript)
- InViVo-3DUS is specialized for 3D-ultrasound applications. In addition to InViVo-Rad, it offers custom-made, specialized build-in filters for processing ultrasonic data, such as on-line smoothing, vessel visualization, surface reconstruction etc.
Download Technical Description (postscript)
- InViVo-Vis is a general purpose volume renderer for scientific visualization. The capabilities are similar to those listed above, however the medical modules (DICOM, ultrasound processing etc.) are not included.
Download Technical Description (postscript)
All three packages listed above are already available, including manuals

3) InViVo-Plus
The remaining two modules InViVo-Plus and InViVo-Tele are extensions of the InViVo system. Although some routines already exist, these modules are not yet implemented. In this module we plan to implement image processing, image segmentation and computer vision procedures for the evaluation and diagnostic support of 2D and 3D medical data. Although several basic functionality are already available together with the corresponding InViVo versions (CT segmentation, 3D-Ultrasound filtering etc.), the functionality of this package will support several fundamental functionalities not yet available in the existing versions. As examples of such functionalities one can mention:
- Speckle suppressing for 2D and 3D ultrasonic datasets
- Volumetry of tumors, cysts, organs etc.
- Support for liver tissue diagnosis
- Automatic segmentation of arteries and other vessels
- Vessel volume measurements, plaque estimation
- Tools for diagnosis support of fetal examinations (automatic extraction and measurement of biometric parameters, comparison with the regular values)
- Model-based-segmentation in 2D and 3D, matching of a dataset with an electronic anatomic atlas
- etc.
We currently define the architecture and specify the functionality of this module. We plan to start implementations later this year.

4) InViVo-Tele
In this component we made all InViVo functionality available over a telecommunication channel. Typical application areas here are tele-radiology, remote expert consultation, access to remote databases, medical tele-conferencing etc. In order to achieve this target we have to allow for remote manipulation of all InViVo parameters over a telecommunication channel. The principle we follow here is to duplicate the data by transmitting them off-line to both sizes of the consultation and transmit only the control signals over the channel during on-line operation. As a result, the system will show The same performance on both sizes of the channel. Time-consuming on-line transmissions of images are not any more necessary. Therefore the system will show high-end performance although operated over a narrow-band, ordinary telephone line.

Links relevant to InViVo

4th International Congress on the Internet and Medicine (MedNet99)
 
 

Contact:
Dr. Ing. Georgios Sakas
 
 

Press :
  • Research News (Nr.5-2007)
    "Inexpensive access to 3-D ultrasound" (english - german)
 
 

Links relevant to 3D Ultrasound

3D-Ultra ESPRIT Project
Datailed information InViVo-Vis, Rad, 3DUS
International 3D Ultrasound Page

 
 

Medical Technology and Application (PDF, 2.79 MB)
Awards
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