KR102622719B1 - portable ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and method for determining actual use time thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

In the method of determining the actual use time of a portable ultrasound diagnostic device according to the present invention, an ultrasonic pulse is irradiated to the inside of a test object, the echo signal reflected from the test object and returned is converted into an electrical signal, and the digital echo signal converted into a digital signal is converted into an electrical signal. Step of receiving input; calculating the total energy of the input digital echo signal; determining whether the portable ultrasound diagnostic device is in use using the calculated total energy; and calculating the actual usage time by accumulating the time when the portable ultrasound diagnostic device is determined to be in use.

Description

Portable ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and method for determining actual use time thereof}

The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic device, and more particularly, to a portable ultrasound diagnostic device and a method for determining the actual use time thereof.

Ultrasound diagnostic devices have non-invasive and non-destructive characteristics and are widely used in the medical field to obtain information inside an object. Ultrasound diagnostic systems are very important in the medical field because they can provide doctors with high-resolution images of the internal tissues of an object without the need for surgery to directly incise and observe the object.

An ultrasound diagnostic device is a system that irradiates ultrasound signals from the subject's body surface toward a target area in the body, extracts information from the reflected ultrasound signals, and obtains images of the soft tissue layer or blood flow in a non-invasive manner.

Compared to other imaging diagnostic devices such as And because it has the advantage of high safety because there is no radiation exposure such as

Recently, efforts have been made to implement ultrasound diagnosis devices as portable and to perform ultrasound diagnosis by connecting portable terminals such as smartphones or tablets and the ultrasound diagnosis device through wireless communication.

When using an ultrasonic diagnostic device, there is a difference between the time when the ultrasound diagnostic device is turned on and the time when the ultrasound diagnostic device is applied to a subject such as a patient to perform actual diagnosis. Typically, the time when the ultrasound diagnostic device is turned on is when the actual diagnosis is performed. It is considerably longer than time.

Meanwhile, for various purposes, such as charging a usage fee based on the usage time of the ultrasonic diagnostic device or predicting the lifespan of the ultrasonic diagnostic device, it is important to check the actual diagnosis performance time, that is, the actual usage time, rather than simply the time the device is turned on. may be requested. There may be a way to check whether an actual diagnosis is being performed by analyzing the ultrasound image displayed on the screen, but this requires using basic ultrasound image processing and a separate image processing technique, so this method increases the amount of calculation and reduces the quality of the ultrasound image. This may have a negative effect on output speed and quality.

Accordingly, the technical task to be achieved by the present invention is to provide a method for determining the actual use time of an ultrasound diagnostic device while minimizing the impact on performance, such as the output speed and quality of ultrasound images, and a portable ultrasound diagnostic device to which the method is applied.

The method of determining the actual use time of a portable ultrasound diagnostic device according to the present invention for solving the above technical problem is that an ultrasonic pulse is irradiated into the inside of the object to be inspected, and the echo signal reflected from the object to be inspected is converted into an electrical signal and converted into a digital signal. receiving a converted digital echo signal; calculating the total energy of the input digital echo signal; determining whether the portable ultrasound diagnostic device is in use using the calculated total energy; and calculating the actual usage time by accumulating the time when the portable ultrasound diagnostic device is determined to be in use.

In the step of determining whether the portable ultrasound diagnosis device is in use, it may be determined that the portable ultrasound diagnostic device is in use when the calculated total energy is greater than a predetermined reference value.

In calculating the total energy, the total energy may be calculated by summing the digital echo signals.

The method may be performed on the portable ultrasound diagnostic device.

The method may be performed in a portable terminal that receives ultrasound image data from the portable ultrasound diagnosis device and displays the ultrasound image on a display screen.

A portable ultrasonic diagnostic device according to the present invention for solving the above technical problem includes a transducer that generates an ultrasonic pulse to irradiate the inside of an object to be inspected and converts an echo signal reflected from the object to be examined into an electrical signal; an analog-to-digital converter that converts the echo signal from the transducer into a digital signal and outputs a digital echo signal; and calculating the total energy of the digital echo signal input from the analog-to-digital converter, using the calculated total energy to determine whether the portable ultrasound diagnostic device is in use, and determining that the portable ultrasound diagnostic device is in use. It is characterized by including a usage time calculation unit that calculates the actual usage time by accumulating the accumulated time.

The usage time calculator may determine that the portable ultrasound diagnostic device is in use when the calculated total energy is greater than a predetermined reference value.

The usage time calculator may calculate the total energy by summing the digital echo signals.

The portable ultrasound diagnosis device may further include a communication unit that transmits the calculated actual usage time to an external server.

According to the present invention described above, it is possible to determine the actual use time of an ultrasound diagnostic device while minimizing the impact on performance, such as the output speed and quality of ultrasound images.

Figure 1 shows a portable ultrasound diagnosis device and a portable terminal that interacts with it according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 2 shows the configuration of a portable ultrasound diagnostic device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 3 is a flowchart of a method for determining the actual use time of a portable ultrasound diagnostic device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the following description and the accompanying drawings, substantially the same components are denoted by the same symbols to avoid redundant description. Additionally, when describing the present invention, if it is determined that a detailed description of a related known function or configuration may unnecessarily obscure the gist of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Figure 1 shows a portable ultrasound diagnosis device and a portable terminal that interacts with it according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The portable ultrasound diagnostic device 100 includes an ultrasonic probe that transmits an ultrasonic signal to a subject and receives an ultrasonic echo signal reflected from the subject, and transmits ultrasonic image data (frame data) obtained from the ultrasonic echo signal to a portable terminal (200). ) and send it to The portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 includes a communication module for transmitting and receiving data to and from the portable terminal 200, and data transmission and reception between the portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 and the portable terminal 200 can use a wired or wireless communication method. there is. As a wired communication method, you can use a wired cable such as a USB cable, and as a wireless communication method, you can use Bluetooth, Wireless USB, Wireless LAN, WiFi, Zigbee, or IrDA, which is infrared communication. Methods such as (Infrared Data Association) can be used.

The mobile terminal 200 is a mobile user terminal and includes any type of terminal that has an operating system, can connect to the Internet, and can install various applications (application programs). For example, the mobile terminal 200 may be a laptop, a mobile phone, a Portable Media Player (PMP), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a Tablet PC, or a Smart Phone. An ultrasound diagnosis application that performs an ultrasound diagnosis function in conjunction with the portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 is installed in the portable terminal 200. The ultrasound diagnosis application receives ultrasound image data from the portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100, converts the received ultrasound image data into an ultrasound image suitable for the resolution of the display screen of the portable terminal 200, and displays it on the display screen.

Since the application installed on the mobile terminal 200 substantially controls the mobile terminal 200, such as executing various functions provided by the mobile terminal 200, the operation of the mobile terminal 200 described in this specification is performed through ultrasound diagnosis. It can be understood as an operation of an application, and the operation of an ultrasound diagnosis application can also be understood as an operation of the mobile terminal 200.

Figure 2 shows the configuration of a portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is composed of a transducer 110 and a main circuit unit 120.

The transducer 110 generates an ultrasonic pulse from an electrical pulse applied from the main circuit unit 120, irradiates the inside of the object to be inspected, and converts the echo signal reflected back from the object to an electrical signal to produce an ultrasonic pulse in the main circuit unit 120. Pass it to The transducer 110 may be made of a piezoelectric element array module or a micromachined capacitive ultrasonic probe. The piezoelectric element array module may be configured to have a large number of piezoelectric elements, for example 64, 128, or 192, arranged in an array. Piezoelectric ceramic (lead zirconate titanate, PZT), which has good electroacoustic conversion efficiency, can be used as the piezoelectric element. A voltage of +100V to -100V can be used as the voltage of the electric pulse to drive the piezoelectric element.

The main circuit unit 120 generates an electrical pulse to be applied to the transducer 110, generates frame data consisting of a plurality of scan line data from the echo signal received through the transducer 110, and generates the generated frame data. Transmitted to the mobile terminal 200.

Specifically, the main circuit unit 120 includes a transceiver unit 121, a pulse generator 122, an analog-to-digital converter 123, a beam forming unit 124, a data processing unit 126, a communication unit 127, and a usage time. It includes a calculation unit 128.

The transceiver 121 serves to transmit the electrical pulse generated in the pulse generator 122 to the transducer 110 and to transmit the echo signal received through the transducer 110 to the analog-to-digital converter 123. Do it. For example, the transceiver 121 may be composed of a switch that connects the TX circuit and the piezoelectric element array module when transmitting ultrasonic waves, and connects the RX circuit and the piezoelectric element array module when receiving echo.

The pulse generator 122 generates an electrical pulse to be applied to the transducer 110 to generate an ultrasonic pulse.

The analog-to-digital converter 123 converts the echo signal transmitted from the transceiver 121 into a digital signal and outputs the digital echo signal to the beamforming unit 124 and the usage time calculation unit 128.

The beamforming unit 124 performs TX beamforming and RX beamforming. TX beamforming refers to causing the pulse generator 122 to generate an appropriate electrical pulse using parameters corresponding to the transducer 110. For example, when transmitting ultrasonic waves, the energy of the ultrasonic waves is focused on a focus at a specific distance. If possible, the time of the electric pulse is delayed depending on the position of the piezoelectric element. RX beamforming refers to performing data conversion on a digital signal from the analog-to-digital converter 123 according to the transducer 110. For example, when receiving an echo signal, each piezoelectric element is converted according to the position and reception time of the piezoelectric element. The electrical signals coming from are time-delayed and the time-delayed signals are added to generate scan line data, and frame data that is a collection of multiple scan line data is generated. Frame data usually consists of echo data in the form of a matrix of size mㅧn (where m is the number of echo data per scan line and n is the number of scan lines constituting one frame), and each echo data is a brightness value. It usually has a value between 0 and 255.

The data processing unit 126 processes frame data generated by the beamforming unit 124 according to the setting values of various parameters so that clearer ultrasound images can be obtained. Representative examples of these parameters include gain, time gain compensation (TGC), gray map, dynamic range (DR), and contrast.

The communication unit 127 is a communication module for transmitting and receiving data with an external display device and can use a wired or wireless communication method. As a wired communication method, you can use a wired cable such as a USB cable, and as a wireless communication method, you can use Bluetooth, Wireless USB, Wireless LAN, WiFi, Zigbee, or IrDA, an infrared communication method. (Infrared Data Association) can be used. The communication unit 127 transmits the frame data processed through the data processing unit 126 to the mobile terminal 200. The mobile terminal 200 converts the received frame data to fit the display format of the mobile terminal 200, generates an ultrasound image, and displays the ultrasound image on the display screen.

The usage time calculation unit 128 calculates the total energy of the digital echo signal input from the analog-to-digital converter 123, and uses the calculated total energy to determine whether the portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 is in use, The actual usage time of the portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 is calculated by accumulating the time when the portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 is determined to be in use.

In general, the total energy of the analog signal x(t) from time t1 to time t2 can be calculated according to the following equation.

And the total energy during the sampling period n1≤n≤n2 of the digital signal x[n] can be calculated according to the following equation.

The echo signal converted into an electrical signal through the transducer 110 is an analog signal, and this echo signal is converted into a digital echo signal with a value of 0 to 255 through the analog-to-digital converter 123. Since the digital echo signal does not have a negative value, the usage time calculation unit 128 does not perform a square operation as in Equation 2 when calculating the total energy of the digital echo signal, but simply sums the digital echo signal to calculate the total energy. It can be calculated. That is, the usage time calculation unit 128 periodically and repeatedly (e.g., every 1 second) calculates the total energy during the sampling period n1≤n≤n2 of the digital echo signal x[n] (of the corresponding cycle) in the following equation: It can be calculated accordingly.

By calculating the total energy by summing the digital echo signals in this way, the amount of calculation can be greatly reduced compared to performing a square operation as in Equation 2. For example, when adding digital numbers, the CPU uses an adder once, while when multiplying 32-bit numbers, the CPU uses the adder 32 times and the shifter 32 times.

In addition, the process in which the usage time calculation unit 128 calculates the total energy by summing the digital echo signals is before the process in which the beamforming unit 124 and the data processing unit 126 generate scan line data and frame data to create an ultrasound image. Since this is done, it has little effect on the performance, such as the output speed and quality of the ultrasound image.

If the ultrasonic diagnostic device is in freeze mode and does not output an ultrasonic signal, there is no echo signal, so the total energy of the digital echo signal becomes '0'. In the air) state, the echo signal is very weak, so the total energy of the digital echo signal appears as a very small value. On the other hand, the inventor confirmed through experiments that when the ultrasound diagnostic device is brought into contact with the object to be examined and the diagnosis is actually performed, the total energy of the digital echo signal appears to be at least 5 to 10 times greater than that in the open air state. Therefore, a predetermined standard value of the total energy is defined in advance as a threshold (e.g., 2 to 3 times the open air state), and the usage time calculation unit 128 calculates the total energy of the digital echo signal in each cycle when the total energy is greater than this standard value. (or if it is greater than or equal to), it may be determined that the portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 is in use; otherwise, it may be determined that the portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 is not in use.

And the usage time calculation unit 128 accumulates the time for which the portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 is determined to be in use (from the time of first use of the portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 or the time of initialization of the usage time) and the portable ultrasound diagnosis device ( 100) actual usage time can be calculated.

The communication unit 127 transmits the actual usage time calculated through the usage time calculation unit 128 to the mobile terminal 200, and the mobile terminal 200 can display the actual usage time on the display screen according to the user's request. there is. Depending on the embodiment, when an external server that manages the usage time of the portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 for each user requests transmission of the actual usage time, the communication unit 127 transmits the actual usage time to the external server through a communication network. It can be transmitted to an external server through the mobile terminal 200.

Figure 3 is a flowchart of a method for determining the actual use time of a portable ultrasound diagnostic device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The method of determining the actual usage time of the portable ultrasound diagnostic device according to this embodiment may be performed in the aforementioned usage time calculation unit 128 of the portable ultrasound diagnostic device 100. Therefore, what has been described above regarding the usage time calculation unit 128 also applies to the method of determining the actual usage time of the portable ultrasound diagnostic device according to this embodiment.

Depending on the embodiment, the method of determining the actual use time of the portable ultrasound diagnosis device according to this embodiment may be performed on the portable terminal 200 (or an ultrasound diagnosis application installed therein) that interoperates with the portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100. . In this case, the portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 is not provided with a usage time calculation unit 128, and the communication unit 127 may transmit the digital echo signal output from the analog-to-digital converter 123 to the portable terminal 200. . Then, the mobile terminal 200 calculates the total energy of the digital echo signal, uses the calculated total energy to determine whether the portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 is in use, and determines that the portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 is in use. The actual use time of the portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 can be calculated by accumulating the determined time. Since the portable terminal 200 can also perform this processing with a very small amount of calculation, there is little effect on performance, such as the output speed and quality of the ultrasound image.

In step 310, a digital echo signal output from the analog-to-digital converter 123 is received.

In step 320, the total energy of the digital echo signal is calculated. At this time, the total energy can be calculated by summing the digital echo signals as shown in Equation 3 above.

In step 330, it is determined whether the total energy of the digital echo signal is greater than (or greater than or equal to) a predetermined reference value. If not, in step 340 it is determined that the portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 is not in use, and if so, in step 350 the portable ultrasound diagnostic device 100 is determined. It is determined that the diagnostic device 100 is in use.

Then, in step 360, the actual usage time is calculated by accumulating the time when the portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 is determined to be in use. Steps 310 to 350 as described above are performed periodically and repeatedly. For example, if performed at a 1-second interval, if it is determined that the portable ultrasound diagnosis device 100 is in use through step 350, in step 360, the previously calculated The actual usage time is updated by adding 1 second to the actual usage time.

Meanwhile, in step 370, if a request to transmit the actual usage time occurs according to a predetermined transmission cycle or by an external request, the actual usage time is transmitted to an external server in step 380.

Devices according to embodiments of the present invention include a processor, memory for storing and executing program data, permanent storage such as a disk drive, a communication port for communicating with an external device, a touch panel, keys, and buttons. It may include user interface devices such as the like. Methods implemented as software modules or algorithms may be stored on a computer-readable recording medium as computer-readable codes or program instructions executable on the processor. Here, computer-readable recording media include magnetic storage media (e.g., ROM (read-only memory), RAM (random-access memory), floppy disk, hard disk, etc.) and optical read media (e.g., CD-ROM). ), DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), etc. The computer-readable recording medium is distributed among computer systems connected to a network, so that computer-readable code can be stored and executed in a distributed manner. The media may be readable by a computer, stored in memory, and executed by a processor.

Embodiments of the invention may be represented by functional block configurations and various processing steps. These functional blocks or processing steps may be implemented in any number of hardware or/and software configurations that perform specific functions. For example, embodiments may include integrated circuit configurations such as memory, processing, logic, look-up tables, etc., capable of executing various functions under the control of one or more microprocessors or other control devices. can be hired. Similar to the fact that the components of the invention can be implemented as software programming or software elements, embodiments may include various algorithms implemented as combinations of data structures, processes, routines or other programming constructs, such as C, C++, , may be implemented in a programming or scripting language such as Java, assembler, etc. Functional aspects may be implemented as algorithms running on one or more processors. Additionally, embodiments may employ conventional technologies for electronic environment settings, signal processing, and/or data processing. Terms such as “mechanism,” “element,” “means,” and “configuration” may be used broadly and are not limited to mechanical and physical configurations. The term may include the meaning of a series of software routines in connection with a processor, etc.

Specific implementations described in the embodiments are examples and do not limit the scope of the embodiments in any way. For the sake of brevity of the specification, descriptions of conventional electronic components, control systems, software, and other functional aspects of the systems may be omitted. In addition, the connections or connection members of lines between components shown in the drawings exemplify functional connections and/or physical or circuit connections, and in actual devices, various functional connections or physical connections may be replaced or added. Can be represented as connections, or circuit connections. Additionally, if there is no specific mention such as “essential,” “important,” etc., it may not be a necessary component for the application of the present invention.

So far, the present invention has been examined focusing on its preferred embodiments. A person skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains will understand that the present invention may be implemented in a modified form without departing from the essential characteristics of the present invention. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments should be considered from an illustrative rather than a restrictive perspective. The scope of the present invention is indicated in the claims rather than the foregoing description, and all differences within the equivalent scope should be construed as being included in the present invention.

Claims (9)

In the method of determining the actual use time of a portable ultrasound diagnostic device,
A step of irradiating an ultrasonic pulse to the inside of the object to be inspected, converting the echo signal reflected from the object to be returned into an electrical signal, and receiving the converted digital echo signal into a digital signal;
calculating the total energy of the input digital echo signal;
determining whether the portable ultrasound diagnostic device is in use using the calculated total energy; and
Comprising a step of calculating the actual usage time by accumulating the time when the portable ultrasound diagnostic device is determined to be in use,
The step of determining whether the portable ultrasound diagnostic device is in use includes determining that the portable ultrasound diagnostic device is in use when the calculated total energy is greater than a predetermined reference value. delete According to paragraph 1,
The step of calculating the total energy is a method of determining the actual use time of a portable ultrasound diagnostic device, characterized in that the total energy is calculated by summing the digital echo signals. According to paragraph 1,
A method of determining an actual use time of a portable ultrasound diagnostic device, characterized in that the method is performed in the portable ultrasound diagnostic device. According to paragraph 1,
The method is performed in a portable terminal that receives ultrasound image data from the portable ultrasound diagnosis device and displays the ultrasound image on a display screen. In a portable ultrasound diagnostic device,
A transducer that generates an ultrasonic pulse to irradiate the inside of the object to be inspected and converts the echo signal reflected back from the object to be tested into an electrical signal;
an analog-to-digital converter that converts the echo signal from the transducer into a digital signal and outputs a digital echo signal; and
Calculate the total energy of the digital echo signal input from the analog-to-digital converter, determine whether the portable ultrasound diagnostic device is in use using the calculated total energy, and determine whether the portable ultrasound diagnostic device is in use. It includes a usage time calculation unit that calculates actual usage time by accumulating time,
A portable ultrasound diagnostic device, wherein the usage time calculator determines that the portable ultrasound diagnostic device is in use when the calculated total energy is greater than a predetermined reference value. delete According to clause 6,
A portable ultrasound diagnostic device, wherein the usage time calculator calculates the total energy by summing the digital echo signals. According to clause 6,
A portable ultrasound diagnostic device further comprising a communication unit that transmits the calculated actual usage time to an external server.

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