A dream for realization of high-speed, 3D volume image by lens-focused method

Abstract The technology of 3D volume image is progressing splendidly in the field of ultrasonic medical diagnosis in recent years. It will become still more important to understand the whole image of fatal part by 3D image. However, the volume updating time now requires several seconds for a one-volume scan, and still insufficient for monitoring true, real-time motion of the fatal part. A new technical innovation is required to realize this. The lens-focused method is described in this paper to realize the improvement in the volume updating speed. The author had been engaged in the development of imaging sonar and completed a sonar which used the lens-focused method last year. It succeeded in obtaining a 128×96 pixel frontal image by 15 frames/s of image updating speed in water. This paper shows that the lens system is able to be the key for high-speed, high-resolution and high-quality, 3D volume image. In order to apply this method to the field of medical diagnosis, a trial design of the lens system was performed. Consequently, it is shown that 1.2 mm resolution is obtained at 120 mm in front of the lens surface at a frequency of 5 MHz. The lens-focused method is desired to contribute to the realization of high-speed, 3D, real-time diagnostic equipment.