JPH06304173A - Ultrasonic diagnostic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make the device main body more compact and light in weight and to speedily perform the movement of a cursor and mode switching or the like to be used at the time of specifying the contour of a testee and obtaining the area. CONSTITUTION:The voltage is supplied from a control circuit 7 to a transparent tablet plate 10 arranged on a monitor 9. When a stylus pen 11 is made into contact with any position on the tablet 10, the electric field which is made by the voltage becomes a position detection signal is detected by a position detection circuit 8. With the detection signal, the cursor or the like is displayed on a monitor and the mode switching is performed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for displaying a biological information image in a subject on a screen by a reflection echo obtained by emitting an ultrasonic beam to the subject.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus used in the medical field, for example, the tomographic data of the heart is displayed on a monitor in real time, the blood flow velocity at a specific site is measured by the pulse Doppler method, and this distribution is similarly monitored. To be displayed.

In this type of ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, there are cases where it is desired to obtain the area of a region of interest such as a specific lesion or organ displayed in a still image of the obtained tomographic data. Further, in some cases, it is desired to measure the length of a specific portion in a moving image of tomographic data of a specific lesion or organ.

In such a case, conventionally, a position signal is generated by a trackball or a joystick, and a cursor is displayed at a position designated based on the obtained position signal. Then, by operating the trackball or joystick, the cursor is traced along the contour of the region of interest on the screen to specify the contour to obtain the area, or the cursor is moved to two points to measure the distance between the two points. It is carried out.

Further, when the modes such as the tomographic mode, the Doppler mode and the M mode are switched and the focal length of the ultrasonic probe is set, the setting is made by operating the keys of the keyboard of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. And so on.

On the other hand, in order to realize a portable ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, it is necessary to make it as compact as possible. For that reason, the trackball or joystick is conventionally omitted, and instead of the trackball or joystick, a keyboard key is used. The cursor is moved to find the area and the distance between two points is measured.

[0007]

However, in order to move the cursor with the keys of the keyboard, the cursor moving key must be pressed frequently, which is not only very complicated but also the movement and setting of the cursor. Will be very slow.

Further, a keyboard having a key for moving a cursor, a key for switching modes such as a tomographic mode, a Doppler mode and an M mode and setting a focal length of an ultrasonic probe is required. In addition, it cannot be further miniaturized and portable. The present invention was devised in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of omitting a keyboard, achieving a further reduction in size and weight, and rapidly moving a cursor or the like. Is intended to provide.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention provides biological information in a subject by a reflection echo obtained by emitting an ultrasonic beam to the subject. It is characterized in that a transparent tablet board is arranged on the screen for displaying the character / symbol information and a position designator for designating an arbitrary position on the screen is provided.

[0010]

According to the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention, when an arbitrary position on the screen is designated by the position designator for moving the cursor, switching modes, etc., the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is arranged on the screen. A detection signal is given from the transparent tablet plate to the position designator or from the position designator to the transparent tablet plate, and this detection signal is detected by the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus main body.

Further, since the tablet plate arranged on the screen is transparent, the contents displayed on the screen can be recognized through the tablet plate even when an arbitrary point on the screen is designated by the position designator. .

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. In FIG. 1, the probe 1 is composed of a large number of micro-vibrators, and is for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from an object such as a living body to obtain ultrasonic wave information. The transmission / reception circuit 2 to which the probe 1 is connected includes a high-frequency pulse oscillator for transmitting an ultrasonic beam, a receiver for receiving and processing reflected echoes, a delay circuit for performing electronic scanning, a delay amount selection circuit, and the like. It is configured. The transmission / reception circuit 2 also includes a waveform shaping processing circuit, a detection circuit, and the like for obtaining the tomographic data of the living body.

The controller 4 controls the DSC (digital scan converter) 3 to write the digitally converted ultrasonic image data from the transmission / reception circuit 2 into the DSC 3. DS
At C3, data is output based on the synchronization signal created by the control unit 4 so as to synchronize the ultrasonic image with the television signal of the monitor 9. The combining unit 6 is connected to the DSC 3. The synthesizing unit 6 synthesizes the cursor signal, the character / symbol information and the like output from the character memory 5 with the ultrasonic image data. A monitor 9 is connected to the combining unit 6 to display the combined image.

On the other hand, a transparent tablet plate 10 is arranged on the surface of the monitor 9, and a control circuit 7 is connected to the transparent tablet plate 10. A stylus pen 11 is provided as a position designator for designating an arbitrary position on the transparent tablet plate 10, and the stylus pen 11 is connected to the position detection circuit 8. The position detection circuit 8 includes an amplifier for amplifying the output signal from the stylus pen 11, a filter for detecting a specific frequency component, and the like.

The control unit 4 is a microcomputer,
It is composed of memories such as RAM and ROM and various I / O interfaces.

Next, an enlarged view of the relationship among the transparent tablet plate 10, the stylus pen 11 and the control circuit 7 arranged on the monitor 9 is shown in FIG. Since the transparent tablet plate 10 is configured by arranging a transparent tablet plate for position detection in the X direction and a transparent tablet plate for position detection in the Y direction at right angles, a transparent tablet plate in the X direction is shown as an example. However, the transparent tablet plate in the X direction and the transparent tablet plate in the Y direction are the same.

The X-direction transparent tablet plate is a transparent conductive glass 12 on which transparent electrodes 13 such as an ITO film are formed in a stripe shape, and is formed at a rate of, for example, 10 lines per 1 mm.

The transparent electrodes 13 and the terminals of the shift register 14 in the control circuit 7 are connected to each other. The shift register 14 receives a predetermined voltage Vc as an input, and uses the shift clock supplied from the control unit 4 to transmit the transparent electrode 1
A predetermined voltage Vc is sequentially applied to the terminal connected to 3 from the left end to the right end.

That is, the voltage Vc is output to the terminal S ₁ of the shift register 14 at the rising edge of the first clock, the voltage Vc is output to the terminal S ₂ at the rising edge of the next clock, and the voltage Vc is output to the terminal S _1. Is not supplied and becomes the GND level. Further, at the next rising edge of the clock, the voltage Vc is output to the terminal S ₃ and the voltage Vc is not supplied to the terminal S _2, and the voltage becomes GND level. This operation is repeated many times from S ₁ to S _n .

In this way, by sequentially applying voltage to the transparent electrode, the stylus pen 11 produces the largest electric field when a voltage is applied to the transparent electrode immediately below the stylus pen 11 pointing. Since it is detected, if the position detection circuit 8 detects which clock of the shift clock the detection electric field is synchronized with, the stylus pen 11 is placed at any position in the X direction on the transparent tablet plate. I know if there is.

Although the X direction has been described above, the same configuration is also applied to the Y direction. By arranging the transparent tablet plates in each of these directions orthogonally, the stylus pen 11 is placed on the X, You can know the Y coordinate.

Therefore, for example, when it is desired to move the cursor to an arbitrary point on the screen, the stylus pen 11
If you touch that point on the transparent tablet board 10,
The X and Y coordinates of the stylus pen 11 are immediately detected by the position detection circuit 8, and this position data is transmitted to the control unit 4. Therefore, when the stylus pen 11 is moved along the ROI, the control unit 4 calculates the area and length of the ROI surrounded by the cursor based on each position data.

On the other hand, the control unit 4 sends a cursor signal to the character memory 5 according to the position data, and the character memory 5 outputs the cursor signal in synchronization with the television signal. Then, it is combined with the ultrasonic image data by the combining unit 6 and displayed on the monitor 9, so that the stylus pen 1
The cursor is displayed in response to the movement of 1.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the shift register is always driven to sequentially apply the voltage to each transparent electrode of the transparent tablet plate. However, a switch is provided on the stylus pen to change the position of the cursor. When a switch provided on the pen is pressed, the voltage is sequentially supplied from the shift register to each transparent electrode of the transparent tablet plate, the position signal is detected by the stylus pen, and after the detection, the switch is released. By stopping the voltage supply to each transparent electrode, the power consumption can be further saved.

By the way, in the above-described embodiment, the position of the stylus pen is detected by sequentially applying a voltage to each transparent electrode of the transparent tablet plate and detecting this voltage with the stylus pen. Is provided
Each transparent electrode of the transparent tablet plate is used as a sense coil, a magnetic force is generated from the stylus pen excitation coil, and the stylus position is detected by detecting the voltage due to electromagnetic induction with the sense coil on the transparent tablet plate side. Is also good.

Further, it is possible to display on the monitor all the menus required for switching the modes such as the tomographic mode, the Doppler mode and the M mode and other ultrasonic diagnostics, and select various items with the stylus pen to set various settings. It can also be made possible, and a keyboard and the like are not required, so that further downsizing can be achieved.

[0027]

As described above, according to the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention, the cursor position can be changed and the mode can be switched simply by moving the stylus pen on the monitor, so that the keyboard is omitted. Therefore, the size and weight can be further reduced, and the cursor can be moved quickly.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing details of a transparent tablet plate and a control circuit of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for displaying biological information and character / symbol information in the subject on a screen by a reflection echo obtained by emitting an ultrasonic beam to the subject, the ultrasonic diagnostic device being arranged on the screen. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising a transparent tablet plate and a position designator for designating an arbitrary position on the screen.