3D ULTRASOUND PROBE CALIBRATION WITHOUT A POSITION SENSOR
A.H. Gee, N.E Houghton, G.M. Treece and R.W. Prager
September 2004
We present a technique for 3D ultrasound probe calibration which does not require measurements from the position sensor. The principle of operation is that the beam is aligned with a set of coplanar wires strung across a rigid frame. The probe and frame are mounted on a precision-manufactured mechanical instrument which allows adjustment and measurement of their relative pose. Semi-automatic image processing facilitates alignment of the beam and wires to within a tolerance of around 200 microns, despite the considerable beam thickness. The calibration process requires just a single view and relatively little user expertise. In a series of experiments with different ultrasound probes, we demonstrate the technique's high accuracy and precision. The latter is partly due to the elimination of the position sensor, a significant source of measurement noise, from the end-user calibration process.
[3.5 MBytes PDF, 21 pages]
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