KR20160028940A - Ultrasound probe and operating method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for operating an ultrasound probe wirelessly connected to an ultrasound image providing device through a communication channel comprises the following steps of: obtaining bandwidth information that relates to the communication channel; determining at least one of at least one parameter value associated with a quality of an ultrasound image and a transmission speed of a frame configuring the ultrasound image based on the bandwidth information; generating ultrasound image data that relates to a target object; and transmitting the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing device. The ultrasound image data is used to display an ultrasound image through the ultrasound image providing device.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to an ultrasound probe and an ultrasonic probe,

The present invention relates to an operation method of an ultrasonic probe and an ultrasonic probe. And more particularly, to an ultrasonic probe and an ultrasonic probe that adaptively transmit ultrasonic image data to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to a state of a communication channel.

The ultrasound system irradiates an ultrasound signal generated from a transducer of an ultrasound probe to a predetermined site in a target object and receives information of an echo signal reflected from a predetermined site inside the target object, Get the video. In particular, ultrasound systems are used for medical purposes such as observation of objects inside, detection of foreign objects, and measurement of injuries.

Such an ultrasound system is widely used because it has higher stability than X-ray diagnostic apparatuses, displays images in real time, and is safe because there is no radiation exposure.

In this case, when the user uses the ultrasonic probe to obtain an image of the object, the communication cable connecting the ultrasonic probe and the ultrasonic image providing device inconveniences the user. In order to improve the operability of the ultrasonic probe by solving such troublesomeness, an ultrasonic probe connected to the ultrasonic image providing apparatus by wireless communication is needed.

On the other hand, in an environment in which the ultrasonic image providing apparatus and the ultrasonic probe are wirelessly connected through a communication channel, the communication channel does not always maintain a constant state. For example, even if the ultrasonic image providing apparatus and the ultrasonic probe transmit / receive data in accordance with the initial bandwidth of the communication channel, the characteristics of the communication channel may vary depending on the environment. Accordingly, there is a demand for an operation method of an ultrasonic probe and an ultrasonic probe that adaptively transmit ultrasonic image data according to the state of a communication channel.

In addition, since the ultrasonic probe wirelessly connected to the ultrasound image providing device must be portable by the user, the ultrasound probe is limited in size and includes limited resources. Accordingly, there is a demand for an operation method of an ultrasonic probe and an ultrasonic probe that transmits ultrasonic image data to an ultrasonic image providing apparatus by minimizing power consumption in an environment where an ultrasonic image providing apparatus and an ultrasonic probe are connected wirelessly.

When the ultrasound probe is dependent on one ultrasound image providing apparatus, it is necessary to provide a plurality of ultrasound probes according to each ultrasound image providing apparatus, which is costly and difficult to manage. Therefore, an ultrasonic probe capable of communicating with a plurality of ultrasound image providing devices is required instead of being dependent on one ultrasound image providing device.

One embodiment of the present disclosure provides an operation method of an ultrasonic probe and an ultrasonic probe that adaptively transmit ultrasonic image data according to a state of a communication channel.

Another embodiment of the present disclosure provides an operation method of an ultrasonic probe and an ultrasonic probe that adaptively transmit ultrasonic image data according to user input.

Another embodiment of the present disclosure provides an operation method of an ultrasonic probe and an ultrasonic probe that adaptively transmit ultrasonic image data according to the characteristics of the ultrasonic image providing apparatus.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of operating an ultrasonic probe wirelessly connected to an ultrasound image providing apparatus through a communication channel, the method comprising: acquiring bandwidth information of the communication channel; Determining at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image based on the bandwidth information; Generating ultrasound image data relating to a target object based on the parameter value; And transmitting the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus.

In the method of operating the ultrasonic probe according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the ultrasonic probe includes an ultrasonic transmitting / receiving unit for transmitting an ultrasonic signal to the object and receiving an echo signal, and a signal processing unit for processing the echo signal And the generating of the ultrasound image data may control the ultrasound transmitting and receiving unit and the processing unit to generate the ultrasound image data based on the parameter value.

The at least one parameter related to the image quality of the ultrasound image may include at least one of a number of scan lines constituting the frame of the ultrasound image, The number of points, and the number of bits generated by quantizing the data obtained for the sampling point.

In the method of operating an ultrasonic probe according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the step of determining the at least one parameter value may include: determining, based on a reduction amount of the bandwidth, The number of sampling points to be set on the scan line, and the number of bits to be generated by quantizing the obtained data with respect to the sampling point. can do.

The method of operating an ultrasonic probe according to one embodiment of the present disclosure further comprises selecting one of a first mode and a second mode based on an application utilized by the ultrasonic probe, Comprising the steps of: adjusting the at least one parameter value based on a change in the bandwidth of the communication channel when the first mode is selected; And adjusting a transmission rate for transmitting the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus based on a change in the bandwidth of the communication channel when the second mode is selected.

A method for operating an ultrasonic probe according to an embodiment of the present disclosure further comprises mapping and storing one of the first mode and the second mode for each of a plurality of applications, The selecting of one of the second modes may include selecting a mode mapped to the application used by the ultrasonic probe and stored.

The method of operating an ultrasonic probe according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein the determining the at least one parameter value comprises: selecting one of a first mode and a second mode based on user input; Adjusting the at least one parameter value based on a change in the bandwidth of the communication channel when the first mode is selected; And adjusting a transmission rate for transmitting the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus based on a change in the bandwidth of the communication channel when the second mode is selected.

In the method of operating the ultrasonic probe according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the step of acquiring the bandwidth information of the communication channel includes transmitting a session formation request signal to the ultrasonic image providing apparatus; Receiving a session establishment confirmation signal from the ultrasound image providing apparatus; And extracting the bandwidth information from the session establishment acknowledgment signal.

In the method of operating the ultrasonic probe according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the transmitting of the ultrasonic image data may include transmitting the at least one parameter value and the ultrasonic image data together with the ultrasonic image data, And transmitting information related to at least one of a transmission rate to the apparatus to the ultrasound image providing apparatus, wherein the information related to at least one of the at least one parameter value and the transmission rate is transmitted to the ultrasound image providing apparatus And generating the ultrasound image from the ultrasound image data.

The method of operating an ultrasound probe according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein the determining of the at least one parameter value comprises: determining at least one parameter value and the ultrasound image data based on a user input, And adjusting the transmission rate to transmit to the device.

The ultrasonic probe may be connected to a plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses including the ultrasound image providing apparatus through different communication channels, The transmitting of the ultrasound image data to the image providing apparatus may include generating a plurality of transport streams by processing the ultrasound image data based on the characteristics of the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses, And transmitting each of the plurality of transport streams to the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses through the communication channels.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of operating an ultrasonic probe wirelessly connected to an ultrasound image providing apparatus through a communication channel, the method comprising: acquiring bandwidth information of the communication channel; Determining a transmission rate of a frame constituting an ultrasound image based on the bandwidth information; Generating ultrasound image data on the object; And transmitting the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus at the transmission rate.

The method of operating an ultrasonic probe according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein the determining the transmission rate comprises: if the bandwidth of the communication channel is narrowed, reducing the transmission rate based on the amount of reduction in bandwidth And a control unit.

In the method of operating the ultrasonic probe according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the step of transmitting the ultrasound image data may include the step of transmitting the ultrasound image data in order to reduce the transmission rate based on the decrease amount of the bandwidth, The data for the frame is divided and transmitted.

The ultrasonic probe may be connected to a plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses including the ultrasound image providing apparatus through different communication channels, The transmitting of the ultrasound image data to the image providing apparatus may include generating a plurality of transport streams by processing the ultrasound image data based on the characteristics of the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses, And transmitting each of the plurality of transport streams to the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses through the communication channels.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, an ultrasonic probe connected wirelessly with an ultrasound image providing apparatus through a communication channel includes an ultrasound transmitting / receiving unit for transmitting an ultrasound signal to an object and receiving an echo signal; A signal processing unit for processing the echo signal; And a controller configured to obtain bandwidth information of the communication channel, determine at least one parameter value related to an image quality of the ultrasound image based on the bandwidth information, and generate ultrasound image data based on the parameter value, A transmission / reception unit and the signal processing unit; And a communication unit for transmitting the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus. According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an ultrasound system, An ultrasonic transmission / reception unit for transmitting an ultrasonic signal to a target object and receiving an echo signal; A signal processing unit for processing the echo signal; And a control unit for controlling the ultrasonic transmitting and receiving unit and the signal processing unit to generate ultrasonic image data related to the object based on the bandwidth information of the communication channel and the transmission speed of the frame constituting the ultrasonic image based on the bandwidth information, A controller; And a communication unit for transmitting the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus at the transmission rate.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ultrasonic probe wirelessly connected to an ultrasound image providing apparatus, comprising: an ultrasound transmitting / receiving unit for transmitting an ultrasound signal to an object and receiving an echo signal; A signal processing unit for processing the echo signal; A control unit for determining at least one parameter value related to an image quality of an ultrasound image based on a user input and controlling the ultrasound transmitting and receiving unit and the signal processing unit to generate ultrasound image data related to a target object based on the parameter value; And a communication unit for transmitting the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus at a transmission rate determined based on the parameter value.

In the ultrasonic probe according to another embodiment of the present disclosure, at least one parameter related to the image quality of the ultrasound image includes at least one of the number of scan lines constituting the frame of the ultrasound image, the number of sampling points And a number of bits generated by quantizing the acquired data with respect to the sampling point, and the communication unit transmits the ultrasonic image data at a reduced transmission rate based on the decrease of the parameter value .

The ultrasonic probe according to another embodiment of the present disclosure may be connected to a plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses including the ultrasound image providing apparatus through different communication channels, And the communication unit transmits each of the plurality of transport streams to the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses through the communication channels based on the characteristics of the plurality of ultrasound image data, . ≪ / RTI >

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ultrasonic probe comprising: an ultrasonic transmission / reception unit for transmitting an ultrasonic signal to an object and receiving an echo signal; A signal processing unit for processing the echo signal; Determining a transmission rate at which the ultrasonic image data is to be transmitted based on the user input, determining at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasonic image based on the transmission rate, And controls the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit and the signal processing unit to generate the ultrasound transmission / reception unit and the signal processing unit. And a communication unit for transmitting the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus at the transmission rate.

In the ultrasonic probe according to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the control unit may reduce the parameter value based on the decrease in the transmission rate.

The ultrasonic probe according to another embodiment of the present disclosure may be connected to a plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses including the ultrasound image providing apparatus through different communication channels, And the communication unit transmits each of the plurality of transport streams to the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses through the communication channels based on the characteristics of the plurality of ultrasound image data, . ≪ / RTI >

1 is a block diagram for explaining a general ultrasonic system.
FIG. 2 illustrates an ultrasound system including an ultrasound probe and an ultrasound image providing apparatus according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG.
3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation method of an ultrasonic probe according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
4 is a diagram illustrating at least one parameter related to the image quality of an ultrasound image according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.
5 is a signal flow diagram illustrating a process of transmitting ultrasound image data generated based on a bandwidth of a communication channel from an ultrasound probe to an ultrasound image providing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation method of an ultrasonic probe according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.
7 is a flowchart illustrating an operation method of an ultrasonic probe according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an operation method of an ultrasonic probe according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.
9 is a view for explaining a method of transmitting ultrasound image data to a plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.
10 is a block diagram of an ultrasonic probe according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.
11 is a block diagram of an ultrasonic probe in accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure.
12 is a block diagram of an ultrasound system that may be applied to various embodiments of the present disclosure.
13 is a block diagram of a wireless ultrasound probe that may be applied to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, which will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. In order to clearly illustrate the present invention, parts not related to the description are omitted, and similar parts are denoted by like reference characters throughout the specification.

Throughout the specification, when a part is referred to as being "connected" to another part, it includes not only "directly connected" but also "electrically connected" with another part in between . Also, when an element is referred to as "comprising ", it means that it can include other elements as well, without departing from the other elements unless specifically stated otherwise.

In addition, the term " "... Module " or the like means a unit for processing at least one function or operation, which may be implemented in hardware or software, or a combination of hardware and software.

The term "ultrasound image " in the entire specification refers to an image of an object obtained using ultrasound. An " object " may be an inanimate object or an inanimate object to which an image is intended to be displayed. The object may be a part of the body. The object may include a liver, an organs such as a heart, a uterus, a brain, a breast, an abdomen, a fetus, and the like, and may include any one side of the body.

Throughout the specification, the term " user " may be, but is not limited to, a medical professional such as a doctor, nurse, clinician, sonographer,

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram for explaining a general ultrasonic system.

As shown in FIG. 1, a typical ultrasound system includes an ultrasound probe 10, an ultrasound probe 10, and an ultrasound image providing device 20 connected by a communication cable 15.

The ultrasound probe 10 transmits an ultrasound signal to a target object in accordance with a control signal transmitted from the ultrasound image providing device 20 and receives a response signal (or an ultrasound echo signal) reflected from the target object to form a receive signal. The ultrasonic probe 10 focuses the received signal to form ultrasound image data and transmits the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 20.

The ultrasound image providing apparatus 20 can form and display an ultrasound image using the ultrasound image data transmitted from the ultrasound probe 10.

The user may use the communication cable 15 connecting the ultrasonic probe 10 and the ultrasonic image providing apparatus 20 to obtain the ultrasonic image for the object using the ultrasonic probe 10 shown in FIG. And the operability of the ultrasonic probe 10 is deteriorated.

In addition, when the ultrasonic probe 10 is dependent on one diagnostic apparatus 20, a plurality of ultrasonic probes must be provided in accordance with each ultrasonic image providing apparatus, which is costly and difficult to manage. Therefore, a wireless ultrasonic probe capable of communicating with a plurality of diagnostic devices, rather than being dependent on one diagnostic device, is needed.

FIG. 2 illustrates an ultrasound system including an ultrasound probe and an ultrasound image providing apparatus according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG.

2, the ultrasound probe 100 and the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure may be wirelessly connected.

The ultrasound probe 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure may be wirelessly connected to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 through a communication channel and may generate ultrasound image data and transmit the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 have.

Here, the "ultrasound image providing device 200" refers to a device that is connected to the ultrasound probe 100 in a wireless manner and provides an ultrasound image to a user using ultrasound image data received from the ultrasound probe 100 it means.

The ultrasound image providing apparatus can be implemented not only in a cart form but also in a portable form. The portable ultrasound image providing apparatus can be used in a picture viewer and communication system (PACS) viewer, a hand-carried cardiac ultrasound (HCU) smart phones, laptop computers, PDAs, tablet PCs, and the like.

In addition, the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure can control the ultrasound probe 100 to transmit an ultrasound signal to a target object, receive a response signal reflected from the target object, and form a receive signal have. The ultrasound probe 100 may form ultrasound image data by focusing the received signal based on the control signal received from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 and may transmit the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200.

However, the ultrasound probe 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiment controlled by the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, and the ultrasound probe 100 may transmit ultrasound signals to the target object, And a control unit 130 for controlling the respective components of the ultrasonic probe 100 so as to receive a response signal reflected from the ultrasonic probe 100 and form a reception signal. The control unit 130 included in the ultrasonic probe 100 can control the ultrasonic probe 100 to form the ultrasonic image data by focusing the received signal by the ultrasonic probe 100 and transmit the ultrasonic image data to the ultrasonic image providing apparatus 200 have.

The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may be an apparatus for generating an ultrasound image by processing the ultrasound image data received from the ultrasound probe 100 and displaying the generated image, or simply implementing an image display function without a separate image processing function Device. That is, the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may include a display device that receives an image from the ultrasound probe 100 and displays the received image on a screen without any additional processing.

Meanwhile, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure can transmit the transmission data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 in the 60 GHz frequency band. A plurality of transducers included in the ultrasonic probe 100 convert the response signal reflected from the object into an electrical signal. In order to wirelessly transmit an electrical signal in which a response signal with acoustic energy is converted, a high bandwidth of several units is required. Further, when transmitting the ultrasound image data from the ultrasound probe 100 to the ultrasound image providing device 200, interference with other wireless electronic devices should not occur.

Accordingly, the ultrasound probe 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure can transmit ultrasound image data using a wireless communication method using a millimeter wave (mmWave). For example, a wireless communication method according to the WiGig standard of Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WGA) can be used. However, the ultrasound probe 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiment in which the transmission data is transmitted to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 in the 60 GHz frequency band, Methods, such as wireless LAN, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, zigbee, Wi-Fi Direct, ultra wideband (UWB) ), BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), NFC (Near Field Communication), etc.) to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200.

The ultrasound probe 100 may transmit status information data of the ultrasound probe 100 and ultrasound image data of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 100 using a communication channel (for example, Bluetooth) different from the communication channel using the 60 GHz frequency band for transmitting the ultrasound image data. To the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, control data for the ultrasound system 200. The ultrasonic image providing apparatus 200 can transmit a control signal to the ultrasonic probe 100 using a communication channel which is separate from the communication channel using the 60 GHz frequency band for receiving the ultrasonic image data from the ultrasonic probe 100 have.

Meanwhile, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure can adjust the image quality of the ultrasound image data transmitted to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. The image quality of the ultrasound image data may mean the image quality of the ultrasound image generated by reconstructing the ultrasound image data. The image quality of the ultrasound image transmitted from the ultrasound probe 100 to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 in real time can be increased in proportion to the amount of data constituting one frame. The frame may be one of a plurality of still images constituting a real-time ultrasound image.

The ultrasonic probe 100 may adjust at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image data. The ultrasonic probe 100 may transmit the ultrasonic signal to the object based on the adjusted parameter value, receive the echo signal, and generate the ultrasonic image data from the echo signal.

For example, at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image data may be obtained from the number of scan lines constituting one frame of the ultrasound image, the number of sampling points set on the scan line, And the number of bits generated by quantizing the data.

In addition, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to the various embodiments of the present disclosure can adjust the transmission rate for transmitting the ultrasonic image data to the ultrasonic image providing apparatus 200. The transmission speed of the ultrasound image data may be determined by at least one of a data amount and a frame rate of one of a plurality of frames constituting the ultrasound image, that is, the number of frames transmitted per unit time. Alternatively, the transmission rate of the ultrasound image data may mean the amount of data transmitted per unit time.

As described above, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure can adjust at least one of the image quality of the ultrasonic image data and the transmission speed of the ultrasonic image data. For example, the ultrasonic probe 100 can adjust at least one of the image quality of the ultrasound image data and the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data according to the state of the communication channel. Alternatively, the ultrasonic probe 100 may adjust at least one of the image quality of the ultrasound image data and the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data based on the user input. Alternatively, the ultrasound probe 100 may adjust at least one of the image quality of the ultrasound image data and the ultrasound image data transmission speed according to the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 wirelessly connected to the ultrasound probe 100.

Hereinafter, a method of adjusting at least one of the image quality of ultrasound image data and the ultrasound image data transmission speed according to the state of a communication channel of the ultrasound probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail.

1, when the ultrasonic probe 10 is connected to the ultrasonic image providing apparatus 20 by wire, the same data transmission rate can be maintained between the ultrasonic probe 10 and the ultrasonic image providing apparatus 20 have. Accordingly, when transmitting the ultrasound image data from the ultrasound probe 10 to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 20, a constant frame rate and image quality can be maintained.

2, when the ultrasonic probe 100 is wirelessly connected to the ultrasonic image providing apparatus 20, the communication channel between the ultrasonic image providing apparatus 200 and the ultrasonic probe 100 may be changed according to the surrounding environment, The characteristics may vary. That is, as the bandwidth of the communication channel connecting the ultrasonic probe 100 and the ultrasonic image providing apparatus 20 is changed, the data transmission speed between the ultrasonic probe 100 and the ultrasonic image providing apparatus 200 may be changed. Accordingly, when the ultrasonic probe 100 wirelessly transmits the ultrasonic image data to the ultrasonic image providing apparatus 200, it is difficult to maintain a constant frame rate and image quality.

One embodiment of the present disclosure recognizes such a problem and provides an operation method of an ultrasonic probe and an ultrasonic probe that adaptively transmit ultrasonic image data according to a state of a communication channel. A specific operation method of the ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to FIG.

3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation method of an ultrasonic probe according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

In step S310, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can acquire bandwidth information of a communication channel. The ultrasound probe 100 may be wirelessly connected to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 through a communication channel.

The communication channel is a communication channel of a broadcast radio wave and means a frequency band previously allocated for radio communication. The ultrasonic probe 100 and the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 can transmit and receive data through a communication channel. The data transmission rate between the ultrasonic probe 100 and the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 is proportional to the frequency range of the signal used for data transmission. At this time, the frequency range of the signal used for data transmission is called the bandwidth of the communication channel.

The ultrasonic probe 100 may be controlled by a control signal received from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 connected to the ultrasonic probe 100. Although the ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can be connected to a plurality of ultrasound image providing devices, the ultrasound probe 100 may be temporarily stored in the ultrasound image providing device 200 Can be subordinate. Alternatively, the ultrasound probe 100 may be connected to a plurality of ultrasound image providing devices including the ultrasound image providing device 200 through different communication channels.

The predetermined operation of the user is to select an ultrasound image providing apparatus to be connected to or contact with the diagnostic apparatus or to connect the ultrasound probe 100 to the ultrasound probe 100 through the ultrasound probe 100, And selecting to connect with the ultrasonic probe 100 through the providing device 200. [

The fact that the ultrasonic probe 100 is temporarily dependent on the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 means that the ultrasound probe 100 is wirelessly connected to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 to transmit and receive data . The fact that the ultrasonic probe 100 and the ultrasonic image providing apparatus 200 are wirelessly connected means that the ultrasonic probe 100 and the ultrasonic image providing apparatus 200 are paired to form a session .

The term " session " may mean a logical connection for communication between the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 and the ultrasonic probe 100. In order to form a session, a process of recognizing each other through message exchange between the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 and the ultrasonic probe 100 may be required.

In order to form a session with the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, the ultrasound probe 100 transmits a session establishment request signal to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 and receives a session establishment confirmation signal from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 can do.

The ultrasonic probe 100 can acquire the bandwidth information of the communication channel from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. [

The ultrasonic probe 100 may acquire bandwidth information of a communication channel through a session formed between the ultrasonic image providing apparatus 200 and the ultrasonic probe 100. The ultrasonic probe 100 may acquire information on the bandwidth of the communication channel in the process of exchanging messages with the ultrasonic image providing apparatus 200 for forming a session. For example, the ultrasound probe 100 may extract bandwidth information from the session establishment confirmation signal received from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. [ Alternatively, the ultrasound probe 100 may acquire information on the bandwidth of the communication channel after a predetermined time or at predetermined time intervals after establishing a session with the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200.

The information on the bandwidth of the communication channel may include, for example, the bandwidth value of the communication channel itself, information on the operation state of the ultrasonic probe 100, information on the operation state of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, A test packet for measurement, and the like. The ultrasonic probe 100 can acquire the bandwidth information of the communication channel by receiving the test packet from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 and analyzing the test packet.

Alternatively, the information on the bandwidth of the communication channel includes at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image determined based on the bandwidth of the communication channel, and the transmission rate of the frame configuring the ultrasound image can do. The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 can transmit information on the bandwidth of the communication channel to the ultrasonic probe 100 by using a communication channel that is separate from the communication channel using the 60 GHz frequency band.

In step S320, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure determines at least one of at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image and a transmission speed of a frame configuring the ultrasound image, based on the bandwidth information .

The ultrasonic probe 100 can determine the bandwidth of the communication channel based on the bandwidth information obtained in step S310.

For example, the ultrasonic probe 100 receives test data from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 and divides the size of the test data by the time required to complete the transfer of the test data, thereby calculating the size of the data transmitted per unit time Can be calculated. The ultrasonic probe 100 can determine the bandwidth of the communication channel based on the size of the data transmitted per unit time.

As another example, the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may detect the bandwidth value of the communication channel and transmit the detected bandwidth value to the ultrasound probe 100. [ The bandwidth information received by the ultrasound probe 100 from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may include the bandwidth value of the communication channel. The ultrasonic probe 100 can extract the bandwidth value from the bandwidth information.

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can determine at least one of at least one parameter value related to an image quality of an ultrasound image and a transmission rate of a frame configuring the ultrasound image based on the bandwidth information. For example, the ultrasonic probe 100 may determine at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image based on the bandwidth information, and determine the transmission rate based on a predetermined default value or a user input. Alternatively, the ultrasonic probe 100 may determine the transmission speed of a frame constituting the ultrasound image based on the bandwidth information, and determine at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image based on a predetermined default value or a user input .

For example, at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image may be obtained by quantizing the acquired data with respect to the number of scan lines constituting the frame of the ultrasound image, the number of sampling points set on the scan line, And the number of bits generated by the number of bits.

The frame constituting the ultrasound image may be one of a plurality of still images constituting the real-time ultrasound image. The transmission rate of a frame constituting an ultrasound image may be the number of frames transmitted per unit time.

For example, the ultrasonic probe 100 may compare the bandwidth of the communication channel between the ultrasonic probe 100 and the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 to the reference bandwidth, and determine, based on the comparison result, at least one And a transmission rate of a frame constituting the ultrasound image. The reference bandwidth may be a predetermined value or a value set by the user. Alternatively, the previously measured bandwidth may be determined as the reference bandwidth, and at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image and the transmission rate of the frame constituting the ultrasound image may be determined each time a bandwidth change occurs.

As an example, the ultrasonic probe 100 may reduce the transmission rate of a frame based on the amount of reduction in bandwidth when the bandwidth of the communication channel becomes narrower than the reference bandwidth.

As another example, when the bandwidth of the communication channel is narrowed, the ultrasonic probe 100 determines the number of scan lines constituting the frame of the ultrasound image, the number of sampling points set on the scan line, And at least one of the number of bits generated by quantizing the acquired data for the sampling point.

The ultrasonic probe 100 may determine and store at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image and the transmission rate of the frame that constitutes the ultrasound image according to the bandwidth of the communication channel. The ultrasonic probe 100 can store the experimentally optimized parameter values and the transmission rate of the frame with each of a plurality of bandwidths. The ultrasonic probe 100 measures the bandwidth of the communication channel, searches for the previously stored data based on the bandwidth of the newly measured communication channel, and detects at least one parameter value retrieved from the data and the transmission rate of the frame constituting the ultrasonic image Can be determined as a parameter suitable for the bandwidth of the newly measured communication channel and as a transmission rate.

In addition, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can determine whether to change the image quality of the ultrasound image or the transmission rate of the frame based on the bandwidth change of the communication channel. Which of the image quality of the ultrasound image and the transmission speed of the frame is more important can be selected according to the application or can be selected by the user.

For example, when the image quality of the ultrasound image is operated in an image mode (for example, B mode) for diagnosis of disease, the ultrasound probe 100 maintains the image quality of the ultrasound image even if the bandwidth of the communication channel changes May be required. Therefore, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to the embodiment of the present disclosure can maintain the image quality of the ultrasound image by changing the transmission speed of the frame based on the bandwidth change of the communication channel.

On the other hand, when the ultrasonic probe 100 operates in a video mode (for example, a Doppler mode or an elastic mode) in which it is more important to maintain the transmission rate of the frame than the image quality of the ultrasound image for diagnosing diseases, It may be required to maintain a constant frame transmission rate. Therefore, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to the embodiment of the present disclosure can maintain the transmission rate of the frame by changing the parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image based on the bandwidth change of the communication channel.

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can determine which of the image quality of the ultrasound image and the transmission speed of the frame is more important based on the application used by the ultrasonic probe 100. [

An application may include all application software used to acquire ultrasound image data from the ultrasound probe 100 and to process the ultrasound image data in the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. [

For example, the ultrasound probe 100 may be configured to use different applications depending on a diagnosis part for acquiring ultrasound image data or a diagnostic part where acquired ultrasound image data is used. For example, diagnosis includes OB (OBstetrics), GYN (Gynecology, gynecology), PD (PeDiatrics, pediatrics), CS (ChestSurgery, thoracic surgery), RD (Radiology, Radiology), NS (NeuroSurgery, , Abdomen (abdomen), and the like.

For example, when the ultrasonic probe 100 uses an application in which it is more important to maintain the transmission speed of the frame than the image quality of the ultrasound image for diagnosing diseases (for example, an application for scanning a moving heart image , The ultrasonic probe 100 can maintain a constant frame transmission rate by adjusting the image quality of the ultrasound image according to the change of the bandwidth of the communication channel. Alternatively, when the ultrasonic probe 100 uses an application in which it is more important to maintain the image quality of the ultrasound image than the transmission speed of the frame for diagnosis of disease (for example, when an application for scanning a small- ), The ultrasonic probe 100 can maintain the image quality of the ultrasound image by adjusting the transmission speed of the frame in accordance with the change of the bandwidth of the communication channel.

Therefore, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to the embodiment of the present disclosure can maintain the transmission rate of the frame by changing the parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image based on the bandwidth change of the communication channel.

Alternatively, the ultrasound probe 100 may be configured to use different applications depending on the mode of the ultrasound image to be generated from the ultrasound image data. For example, the mode of the ultrasound image may include an A mode (amplitude mode), a B mode (brightness mode), an M mode (motion mode), a Doppler mode, and the like.

The ultrasonic probe 100 can automatically and manually select and use a predetermined application from a plurality of applications based on at least one of diagnosis, diagnosis, and image mode.

The ultrasound probe 100 can determine, based on the selected application, which of the image quality of the ultrasound image and the transmission speed of the frame is more important.

The ultrasonic probe 100 may map and store one of the first mode and the second mode for each of a plurality of applications. The first mode is a mode in which the transmission speed of the frame is important, and the second mode is a mode in which the image quality of the ultrasound image is important.

The ultrasonic probe 100 can select a stored mode mapped to the application based on the application used by the ultrasonic probe.

The ultrasonic probe 100 can select one of the first mode and the second mode based on the application used by the ultrasonic probe. When the first mode is selected, the ultrasonic probe 100 can adjust at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image based on the change in the bandwidth of the communication channel. When the second mode is selected, the ultrasonic probe 100 can adjust the transmission rate of the frame based on the change in the bandwidth of the communication channel.

Alternatively, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can determine which of the image quality of the ultrasound image and the transmission speed of the frame is more important based on the user input.

The ultrasonic probe 100 may receive a user input as to whether to operate in a first mode or a second mode. The ultrasonic probe 100 can select one of the first mode and the second mode based on the user input.

However, the ultrasonic probe 100 of the present disclosure does not operate in the first mode and the second mode described above. The ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may include at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image and a parameter value related to the quality of the ultrasound image, Can be adjusted.

The apparatus 200 for providing an ultrasound image according to an embodiment of the present invention detects a bandwidth value of a communication channel and configures at least one parameter value and an ultrasound image related to the image quality of the ultrasound image based on the bandwidth value At least one of the transmission speeds of the frames can be determined.

The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may transmit to the ultrasound probe 100 a control signal including at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image and a transmission speed of a frame configuring the ultrasound image. The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 can transmit a control signal to the ultrasonic probe 100 by using a communication channel that is separate from the communication channel using the 60 GHz frequency band.

Based on the control signal received from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, the ultrasound probe 100 can determine at least one of at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image and a transmission rate of a frame configuring the ultrasound image have.

In step S330, the ultrasound probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may generate ultrasound image data on a target object based on at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image.

The ultrasonic probe 100 may include an ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 110 for transmitting an ultrasonic signal to an object and receiving an echo signal, and a signal processing unit 120 for processing an echo signal. The signal processing unit 120 can generate ultrasound image data using the echo signal. The ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can control the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 110 and the signal processing unit 120 based on at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasonic image.

For example, the ultrasonic probe 100 may generate ultrasonic image data on the object based on the parameter value determined in step S320. Alternatively, the ultrasonic probe 100 may generate ultrasound image data on the object based on a parameter value predetermined based on a user input or predetermined based on a default value.

4 is a diagram for explaining at least one parameter related to an image quality of an ultrasound image according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

4, the ultrasonic probe 100 sequentially transmits ultrasound signals to a plurality of scan lines 421, 422, 423, and 424 set in the object 5, The ultrasound image data for each scan line can be obtained based on the echo signal received in response to the echo signal. At this time, the ultrasonic probe 100 acquires data on a plurality of sampling points set on the scan line from the echo signal, and combines data on a plurality of sampling points to generate ultrasound image data for the scan line have. 4, the ultrasonic probe 100 includes data for a plurality of sampling points 431-1, 431-2, 431-3, and 431-4 set on the scan line 421, And generate ultrasound image data for the scan line 421 by combining data for a plurality of sampling points.

The ultrasound probe 100 includes at least one of the number of scan lines constituting the frame of the ultrasound image, the number of sampling points set on the scan line, and the number of bits generated by quantizing the acquired data with respect to the sampling point Can be adjusted. The ultrasonic probe 100 can adjust the total data amount of the generated ultrasound image data by adjusting at least one parameter values related to the image quality of the ultrasound image.

In addition, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can increase or decrease the data amount of the ultrasound image data by performing additional signal processing on the ultrasound image data.

For example, the ultrasonic probe 100 calculates the number of scan lines constituting the frame of the ultrasound image, the number of sampling points set on the scan line, and the data obtained for the sampling point based on the change in the bandwidth At least one of the number of bits generated by quantization can be adjusted. The ultrasonic probe 100 can adjust the total data amount of the generated ultrasound image data by adjusting at least one parameter values related to the image quality of the ultrasound image. In addition, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can increase or decrease the data amount of the ultrasound image data by performing additional signal processing on the ultrasound image data based on the bandwidth of the communication channel .

In step S340, the ultrasound probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can transmit ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. [

The ultrasound image data generated by the ultrasound probe 100 may be used to display an ultrasound image through the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200.

The ultrasonic probe 100 can transmit ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 at a predetermined transmission rate. For example, the ultrasonic probe 100 may transmit ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 at a transmission rate determined in step S320. Or the ultrasonic probe 100 may generate ultrasonic image data relating to a target object based on a parameter value predetermined based on a user input or predetermined based on a default value.

The ultrasonic probe 100 can adjust the transmission speed of the frame constituting the ultrasonic image based on the change in the bandwidth. When the bandwidth of the communication channel is narrowed, the ultrasonic probe 100 can maintain the image quality of the ultrasound image by reducing the transmission speed of the frame constituting the ultrasound image.

The ultrasonic probe 100 may transmit data for each frame included in the ultrasound image data in order to reduce the transmission rate of the frame. For example, the ultrasonic probe 100 transmits data for even-numbered scan lines among a plurality of scan lines constituting a frame of an ultrasound image, and transmits data for odd-numbered scan lines later, Can be reduced to 1/2. However, the present disclosure is not limited to this, and the ultrasonic probe 100 may transmit data for each frame included in the ultrasound image data in various ways.

Meanwhile, the ultrasonic probe 100 may transmit, together with the ultrasound image data, information related to at least one of the parameter values determined in step S320 and the transmission rate of the frame to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. [ The information transmitted to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may be used to generate an ultrasound image from the ultrasound image data in the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200.

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can be connected to a plurality of ultrasound image providing devices through different communication channels. At this time, the ultrasonic probe 100 can generate a plurality of transport streams by processing the ultrasound image data based on the characteristics of the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses.

The ultrasound probe 100 may acquire information on characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 connected to the ultrasound probe 100.

The information on the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 includes information such as a type of data configured to be processed by the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, a wireless communication system configured to be used by the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, A transmission speed through a communication channel between the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 and the ultrasound probe 100, a type of a communication channel, a version of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, an ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 Or an identifier of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. However, the present invention is not limited thereto. The information on the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may include, for example, the function information of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 such as the quality of the ultrasound image that can be displayed by the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 have.

The ultrasonic probe 100 may acquire information on the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 through a session formed between the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 and the ultrasound probe 100. The ultrasound probe 100 may acquire information on the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 in a message exchanging process for forming a session with the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200.

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can generate a plurality of transport streams by acquiring the characteristics of a plurality of ultrasound image providing devices and processing the ultrasound image data based on the acquired characteristics .

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure performs additional signal processing on the ultrasound image data based on the characteristics of the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses to increase or decrease the data amount of the ultrasound image data .

The ultrasound probe 100 may be configured to transmit ultrasonic image data such that ultrasound images generated from a plurality of transport streams have different resolutions based on characteristics of communication channels to which the plurality of ultrasound image providing devices and the ultrasound probe 100 are connected, To generate a plurality of transport streams.

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can transmit each of a plurality of transport streams to a plurality of ultrasound image providing devices through communication channels. The ultrasonic probe 100 can transmit ultrasound image data of different image quality to a plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses connected to the ultrasound probe 100 through different communication channels (i.e., using different wireless communication methods) have.

With regard to a specific method in which the ultrasonic probe 100 transmits a plurality of transport streams to a plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses, the following description with reference to FIG. 8 can be applied. Duplicate description is omitted.

As described above, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure has at least the following characteristics: the characteristics of the communication channel deteriorate and the amount of data that can be transmitted per unit time decreases (i.e., the bandwidth decreases) It is possible to reduce the value of one parameter or change the transmission speed of the frame constituting the ultrasound image.

When the transmission speed of a frame received from the ultrasound probe 100 decreases or the image quality of an ultrasound image generated by using the received ultrasound image data deteriorates, the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 transmits the received ultrasound image data Additional processing can be performed. The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 can prevent degradation of the quality of the ultrasound image provided to the user by performing additional processing. For example, the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may perform additional processing such as frame averaging, frame interlacing, and interpolation.

5 is a signal flow diagram illustrating a process of transmitting ultrasound image data generated based on a bandwidth of a communication channel from an ultrasound probe to an ultrasound image providing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

In step S510, the ultrasound probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may transmit a session formation request signal to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 to form a session with the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. [ The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 receiving the session formation request signal can reply to the ultrasound probe 100 that the session establishment request has been received. In step S520, the ultrasonic probe 100 can receive a session establishment confirmation signal from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. [

The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 that has confirmed the session formation request signal from the ultrasound probe 100 can transmit the test packets to the ultrasound probe 100 together with the session formation confirmation signal in step S530.

In step S540, the ultrasonic probe 100 may measure the bandwidth of the communication channel between the ultrasonic image providing apparatus 200 and the ultrasonic probe 100 in response to the test packets. For example, the sizes of the test packets transmitted from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 are set to be the same size, and the transmission intervals of the test packets may be set in advance. The ultrasonic probe 100 receiving the test packets can measure the bandwidth by dividing the data size of the test packet by the transmission interval of the test packets.

In step S550, the ultrasonic probe 100 can generate ultrasonic image data based on the measured bandwidth. In step S560, the ultrasonic probe 100 can transmit the generated ultrasonic image data to the ultrasonic image providing apparatus 200. [ At this time, the ultrasonic probe 100 can transmit the additional information together with the ultrasonic image data. The additional information may include information that the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 can use to generate an ultrasound image from the ultrasound image data. For example, the additional information may include a parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image determined based on the bandwidth measured in the ultrasound probe 100, or a transmission rate of a frame configuring the ultrasound image.

In step S580, the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 can generate the ultrasound image by processing the ultrasound image data based on the additional information. The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may generate an ultrasound image by performing an additional process on the ultrasound image data based on the additional information. However, the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 according to the embodiment of the present disclosure is not limited to processing the ultrasound image data based on the received additional information. The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 performs additional processing on the ultrasound data by actively detecting a change in the bandwidth of the communication channel without receiving any additional information from the ultrasound probe 100, Can be prevented.

The ultrasound image data received from the ultrasound probe 100 may have a reduced amount of data based on the bandwidth of the channel. That is, when the bandwidth of the communication channel is narrowed and the data rate is reduced, the ultrasonic probe 100 can transmit ultrasound image data whose image quality is degraded to maintain the transmission rate of the frame. The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 can determine and perform additional processing for improving the image quality of the received ultrasound image data based on the additional information. Alternatively, when the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 receives the ultrasound image data whose transmission rate of the frame is reduced, the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may perform the additional processing on the ultrasound image data so that the frames constituting the ultrasound image are not interrupted have.

In operation S590, the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may display the generated ultrasound image.

As described above, according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the ultrasonic probe 100 can adjust at least one of the image quality of the ultrasonic image data and the transmission speed of the ultrasonic image data based on the state of the communication channel. The ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can change a transmission rate of a frame or change a parameter value related to an image quality of an ultrasound image based on a change in a band or a communication channel. Therefore, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can maintain the transmission speed of the frame, or maintain the transmission speed of the ultrasonic probe 100 when the state of the communication channel deteriorates (i.e., the bandwidth of the communication channel becomes narrower than the reference bandwidth) The image quality of the image can be maintained.

Meanwhile, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure can adjust at least one of the image quality of the ultrasound image data and the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data based on the user input. Hereinafter, a method of operating the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. FIG.

6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation method of an ultrasonic probe according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

In step S610, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure may determine at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image, based on the user input.

For example, a user input for determining at least one parameter value associated with an image quality of an ultrasound image may be an instruction to change at least one parameter value associated with the image quality of the ultrasound image, or may be the parameter value itself. Alternatively, the user input for determining at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image may be a user input for determining the image quality of the ultrasound image displayed through the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 as one of high image quality, general image quality, ≪ / RTI > The user input for determining at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image is a function of determining the image quality of the ultrasound image displayed through the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 as one of representative values represented by high image quality, And may include user input for determining. Alternatively, a user input for determining at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image may include a user input for selecting an application for use by the ultrasound probe 100. [

At least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image is determined by the number of scan lines constituting the frame of the ultrasound image, the number of sampling points set on the scan line, and the bits generated by quantizing the acquired data with respect to the sampling point The number of which is at least one.

For example, when the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure receives a user input that deteriorates the image quality of the ultrasound image more than the reference image quality, the ultrasound probe 100 forms a frame of the ultrasound image At least one of the number of scan lines, the number of sampling points set on the scan line, and the number of bits generated by quantizing the obtained data with respect to the sampling point. The reference image quality may be a predetermined value or a value set by the user.

As an example, the ultrasound probe 100 may include a user input 160 and may receive user input through the user input 160 to determine at least one parameter value associated with the quality of the ultrasound image.

The ultrasound probe 100 may determine and store parameter values related to the image quality of the ultrasound image according to various user inputs. The ultrasonic probe 100 may store experimentally optimized parameter values by mapping them to user inputs. The ultrasound probe 100 may retrieve previously stored data based on user input and retrieve at least one parameter value corresponding to the user input from the data when the user input is received.

As another example, the ultrasonic probe 100 may receive a user input from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. [ The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may receive a user input and transmit a control signal including information on the received user input to the ultrasound probe 100. [ The ultrasonic probe 100 may determine at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image based on the control signal received from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. [ The ultrasonic probe 100 extracts information on a user input from the received control signal, searches for previously stored data based on the extracted user input, and retrieves at least one parameter value corresponding to the user input from the data .

As another example, the ultrasound probe 100 may receive from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 information on at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image determined based on the user input. The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may receive a user input and transmit a control signal to the ultrasound probe 100 including information on at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image determined based on the user input. The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 can transmit a control signal to the ultrasonic probe 100 by using a communication channel that is separate from the communication channel using the 60 GHz frequency band. The ultrasonic probe 100 may determine at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image based on the control signal received from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. [

In step S620, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure may generate ultrasound image data on the object based on the parameter value determined in step S610.

The ultrasonic probe 100 may include an ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 110 for transmitting an ultrasonic signal to an object and receiving an echo signal, and a signal processing unit 120 for processing an echo signal. The signal processing unit 120 can generate ultrasound image data using the echo signal.

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure can control the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 110 and the signal processing unit 120 based on the parameter value determined in step S610. The description of FIG. 4 can be applied to the ultrasound probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure in generating ultrasound image data on the object based on the parameter values determined in step S610. Duplicate content is omitted.

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure is configured to calculate, based on a user input, the number of scan lines constituting a frame of an ultrasound image, the number of sampling points set on the scan line, And at least one of the number of bits generated by quantizing the obtained data. The ultrasonic probe 100 can adjust the total data amount of the generated ultrasound image data by adjusting at least one parameter values related to the image quality of the ultrasound image. In addition, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure can increase or decrease the data amount of the ultrasound image data by performing additional signal processing based on the user input.

In step S630, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure may transmit ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 at a transmission rate determined based on the parameter value determined in step S610.

For example, when at least one parameter value that deteriorates the image quality of the ultrasound image is determined, the ultrasound probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure can reduce the transmission rate of the ultrasound image data. The transmission speed of the ultrasound image data may mean the amount of data transmitted per unit time.

As an example, the ultrasonic probe 100 can determine the transmission rate of the ultrasonic image data based on the parameter value determined in step S610.

The ultrasonic probe 100 may determine and store the transmission rates of the ultrasound image data according to parameter values related to the image quality of the ultrasound image. The ultrasonic probe 100 can store an experimentally optimized transmission rate by mapping it to a parameter value. When at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image is determined in step S610, the ultrasound probe 100 searches for the previously stored data based on the determined parameter value and retrieves the transmission rate corresponding to the parameter value from the data .

As another example, the ultrasonic probe 100 may receive from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 information on the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data determined based on the parameter value determined in step S610. The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may determine at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image based on the parameter value determined in step S610. The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may transmit a control signal including information on the determined parameter value to the ultrasound probe 100. [ The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 can transmit a control signal to the ultrasonic probe 100 by using a communication channel that is separate from the communication channel using the 60 GHz frequency band. The ultrasound probe 100 may extract information on the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data from the control signal received from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. [

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the ultrasonic probe 100 determines a parameter value related to an image quality of the ultrasound image data based on a user input, and determines an ultrasound image The ultrasound image data can be transmitted to the providing apparatus 200.

The ultrasound image data generated by the ultrasound probe 100 may be used to display an ultrasound image through the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200.

Meanwhile, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure can be connected to a plurality of ultrasound image providing devices through different communication channels. At this time, the ultrasonic probe 100 can generate a plurality of transport streams by processing the ultrasound image data based on the characteristics of the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses.

The ultrasound probe 100 may acquire information on characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 connected to the ultrasound probe 100.

The information on the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 includes information such as a type of data configured to be processed by the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, a wireless communication system configured to be used by the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, A transmission speed through a communication channel between the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 and the ultrasound probe 100, a type of a communication channel, a version of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, an ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 Or an identifier of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. However, the present invention is not limited thereto. The information on the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may include, for example, the function information of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 such as the quality of the ultrasound image that can be displayed by the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 have.

The ultrasonic probe 100 may acquire information on the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 through a session formed between the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 and the ultrasound probe 100. The ultrasound probe 100 may acquire information on the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 in a message exchanging process for forming a session with the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200.

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure can generate a plurality of transport streams by acquiring the characteristics of a plurality of ultrasound image providing devices and processing the ultrasound image data based on the acquired characteristics have.

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure performs additional signal processing on the ultrasound image data based on the characteristics of the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses to increase the data amount of the ultrasound image data .

The ultrasound probe 100 may be configured to transmit ultrasonic image data such that ultrasound images generated from a plurality of transport streams have different resolutions based on characteristics of communication channels to which the plurality of ultrasound image providing devices and the ultrasound probe 100 are connected, To generate a plurality of transport streams.

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure can transmit each of a plurality of transport streams to a plurality of ultrasound image providing devices through communication channels. The ultrasonic probe 100 can transmit ultrasound image data of different image quality to a plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses connected to the ultrasound probe 100 through different communication channels (i.e., using different wireless communication methods) have.

With regard to a specific method in which the ultrasonic probe 100 transmits a plurality of transport streams to a plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses, the following description with reference to FIG. 8 can be applied. Duplicate description is omitted.

As described above, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure can change the transmission rate of the ultrasonic image data based on a change in the parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasonic image data.

For example, when at least one parameter value for deteriorating the image quality of the ultrasound image is determined, the ultrasound probe 100 can reduce the transmission rate of the ultrasound image data according to the determined parameter value. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, as the image quality of the ultrasound image data transmitted from the ultrasound probe 100 to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 deteriorates based on user input, the amount of data of the ultrasound image data is reduced.

The ultrasonic probe 100 reduces the transmission rate of the ultrasound image data as the amount of data of the ultrasound image data to be transmitted decreases so that the bandwidth of the communication channel connecting the ultrasound probe 100 and the ultrasound image providing apparatus 20 Can be narrowed down.

When the transmission rate of the ultrasound image data is reduced as the amount of data of the ultrasound image data decreases, the amount of power consumed by the ultrasonic probe 100 can be reduced by reducing the power of transmitting the data wirelessly. Alternatively, the ultrasonic probe 100 using a plurality of antennas to wirelessly transmit data may not use (deactivate) a plurality of antennas when the transmission speed of the ultrasonic image data is reduced, Can be reduced. Therefore, according to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the ultrasonic probe 100 can reduce the amount of power consumed by the ultrasonic probe 100 by transmitting data by reducing the transmission speed of the ultrasonic image data.

6 shows an example in which the ultrasonic probe 100 adjusts the image quality of the ultrasound image data based on a user input. However, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure is not limited to the example shown in Fig. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure can adjust the transmission speed of ultrasonic image data based on user input.

7 is a flowchart illustrating an operation method of an ultrasonic probe according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

In step S710, the ultrasound probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can determine a transmission rate at which ultrasound image data is to be transmitted to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 based on a user input.

For example, the user input for determining the transmission rate of the ultrasound image data may be the ultrasound image data transmission rate value itself. Alternatively, the user input for determining the transmission rate of the ultrasound image data may include a user input for determining the transmission rate as one of high speed, normal speed or low speed. Alternatively, the user input for determining the transmission rate of the ultrasound image data may be a user input for selecting an application to be used by the ultrasound probe 100 or a user input for selecting an application to be used for communication with the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 Lt; RTI ID = 0.0 > a < / RTI >

The transmission speed of the ultrasound image data may be determined by at least one of a data amount and a frame rate of one of a plurality of frames constituting the ultrasound image, that is, the number of frames transmitted per unit time. Alternatively, the transmission rate of the ultrasound image data may mean the amount of data transmitted per unit time.

As an example, the ultrasound probe 100 may include a user input unit 160 and may receive a user input for determining the transmission rate of the ultrasound image data through the user input unit 160. [

The ultrasound probe 100 may determine and store the transmission rates of the ultrasound image data according to various user inputs. The ultrasonic probe 100 can store an experimentally optimized transmission rate by mapping it to a user input. Ultrasonic probe 100 may retrieve pre-stored data based on user input and retrieve a transmission rate corresponding to user input from the data when a user input is received.

As another example, the ultrasonic probe 100 may receive a user input from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. [ The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may receive a user input and transmit a control signal including information on the received user input to the ultrasound probe 100. [ The ultrasonic probe 100 can determine the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data based on the control signal received from the ultrasound image providing device 200. The ultrasonic probe 100 may extract information on a user input from the received control signal, search for previously stored data based on the extracted user input, and retrieve a transmission rate corresponding to the user input from the data.

As another example, the ultrasonic probe 100 may receive information on the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data determined based on the user input from the ultrasound image providing device 200. [ The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may receive a user input and transmit a control signal including information on the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data determined based on the user input to the ultrasound probe 100. [ The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 can transmit a control signal to the ultrasonic probe 100 by using a communication channel that is separate from the communication channel using the 60 GHz frequency band. The ultrasonic probe 100 can determine the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data based on the control signal received from the ultrasound image providing device 200.

In step S720, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may determine at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image, based on the transmission rate determined in step S710.

At least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image is determined by the number of scan lines constituting the frame of the ultrasound image, the number of sampling points set on the scan line, and the bits generated by quantizing the acquired data with respect to the sampling point The number of which is at least one.

For example, when the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data decreases, the number of scan lines constituting the frame of the ultrasound image, the number of sampling lines set on the scan line, The number of points, and the number of bits generated by quantizing the acquired data for the sampling point.

As an example, the ultrasonic probe 100 may determine and store parameter values related to the image quality of the ultrasound image according to various transmission rates. The ultrasonic probe 100 can store experimentally optimized parameter values by mapping them with the transmission rate. When the transmission rate is determined in step S710, the ultrasonic probe 100 may search for the previously stored data based on the determined transmission rate, and retrieve at least one parameter value corresponding to the transmission rate from the data.

As another example, the ultrasound probe 100 may receive from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 information on at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image determined based on the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data. The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may transmit to the ultrasound probe 100 a control signal including information on at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image determined based on the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data. The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 can transmit a control signal to the ultrasonic probe 100 by using a communication channel that is separate from the communication channel using the 60 GHz frequency band. The ultrasonic probe 100 may determine at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image based on the control signal received from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. [

In step S730, the ultrasound probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may generate ultrasound image data on the object based on the parameter value determined in step S720.

The ultrasonic probe 100 may include an ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 110 for transmitting an ultrasonic signal to an object and receiving an echo signal, and a signal processing unit 120 for processing an echo signal. The signal processing unit 120 can generate ultrasound image data using the echo signal.

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can control the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 110 and the signal processing unit 120 based on the parameter value determined in step S720. The description of FIG. 4 can be applied to the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure in generating ultrasound image data on the object based on the parameter value determined in step S720. Duplicate content is omitted.

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure determines the number of scan lines constituting a frame of an ultrasound image, the number of sampling points set on the scan line, And the number of bits generated by quantizing the acquired data for the sampling point. The ultrasonic probe 100 can adjust the total data amount of the generated ultrasound image data by adjusting at least one parameter values related to the image quality of the ultrasound image. In addition, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure can increase or decrease the data amount of the ultrasound image data by performing additional signal processing based on the user input.

In step S740, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure can transmit ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 at the transmission rate determined in step S710.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the ultrasonic probe 100 determines the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data based on the user input, and converts the ultrasound image data generated using the parameter value adjusted according to the determined transmission speed into ultrasound image data To the image providing apparatus 200.

The ultrasound image data generated by the ultrasound probe 100 may be used to display an ultrasound image through the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200.

Meanwhile, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure can be connected to a plurality of ultrasound image providing devices through different communication channels. At this time, the ultrasonic probe 100 can generate a plurality of transport streams by processing the ultrasound image data based on the characteristics of the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses.

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure can generate a plurality of transport streams by acquiring the characteristics of a plurality of ultrasound image providing devices and processing the ultrasound image data based on the acquired characteristics have.

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure performs additional signal processing on the ultrasound image data based on the characteristics of the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses to increase the data amount of the ultrasound image data .

The ultrasound probe 100 may be configured to transmit ultrasonic image data such that ultrasound images generated from a plurality of transport streams have different resolutions based on characteristics of communication channels to which the plurality of ultrasound image providing devices and the ultrasound probe 100 are connected, To generate a plurality of transport streams.

With regard to a specific method in which the ultrasonic probe 100 transmits a plurality of transport streams to a plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses, the following description with reference to FIG. 8 can be applied. Duplicate description is omitted.

As described above, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure can change the parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image data based on the change in the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data.

For example, the ultrasonic probe 100 can determine parameter values related to the image quality of the ultrasound image data so that the data amount of the ultrasound image data is reduced when the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data is reduced based on the user input. The ultrasonic probe 100 can deteriorate the image quality of the ultrasound image data according to the determined parameter value. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, as the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data based on the user input is reduced, the amount of data transmitted per unit time from the ultrasound probe 100 to the ultrasound image providing device 200 is reduced . As the amount of data per unit time that can be transmitted to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 decreases, the ultrasound probe 100 deteriorates the image quality of the ultrasound image data, thereby maintaining the frame rate of the ultrasound image.

Therefore, according to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the ultrasonic probe 100 can maintain the frame rate of the ultrasonic image data constant even if the transmission speed is adjusted based on the user input. The ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure may be usefully used when an application that is important to maintain a frame rate is used (for example, when an application for scanning a motion-rich heart image is used) .

On the other hand, when the ultrasound probe is dependent on one ultrasound image providing apparatus, it is necessary to provide a plurality of ultrasound probes according to each ultrasound image providing apparatus, which is costly and difficult to manage. Accordingly, there is a need for an ultrasound probe capable of communicating with a plurality of ultrasound image providing devices, rather than being dependent on one ultrasound image providing device. The characteristics and / or specifications of the plurality of ultrasound image providing devices connectable to the ultrasound probe may be different. Therefore, there is a demand for an operation method of an ultrasonic probe and an ultrasonic probe that transmit appropriate ultrasonic image data according to the characteristics and / or specifications of the ultrasonic image providing apparatus connected to the ultrasonic probe.

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure is configured to transmit the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound probe 100 based on the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 wirelessly connected to the ultrasound probe 100, At least one can be adjusted.

8 is a flowchart illustrating an operation method of an ultrasonic probe wirelessly connected to a plurality of ultrasound image providing devices through different communication channels according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

In step S810, the ultrasound probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure may generate ultrasound image data on a target object by transmitting an ultrasound signal to the target object and receiving an echo signal.

In step S820, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure may generate a plurality of transport streams by processing the ultrasound image data based on the characteristics of the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses.

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present invention can be wirelessly connected to a plurality of ultrasound image providing devices through different communication channels.

Ultrasonic probe 100 may be used in various wireless communication methods (e.g., wireless LAN, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, zigbee, Wi-Fi Direct, ultra wideband (UWB) , An infrared data association (IrDA), a Bluetooth low energy (BLE), a near field communication (NFC), or the like) to wirelessly communicate with the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200.

The ultrasonic probe 100 may be wirelessly connected to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 by a predetermined operation of the user. The predetermined operation of the user is to select the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 to be connected to or contact with the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 or via the ultrasound probe 100, And selecting the ultrasonic probe 100 to be connected to the ultrasonic probe 100 through the ultrasonic image providing device 200.

The fact that the ultrasonic probe 100 is wirelessly connected to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 means that the ultrasound probe 100 and the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 are paired to form a session . The term " session " may mean a logical connection for communication between the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 and the ultrasonic probe 100. In order to form a session, a process of recognizing each other through message exchange between the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 and the ultrasonic probe 100 may be required.

The ultrasound probe 100 may acquire information on characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 connected to the ultrasound probe 100.

The information on the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 includes information such as a type of data configured to be processed by the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, a wireless communication system configured to be used by the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, A transmission speed through a communication channel between the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 and the ultrasound probe 100, a type of a communication channel, a version of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, an ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 Or an identifier of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. However, the present invention is not limited thereto. The information on the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may include, for example, the function information of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 such as the quality of the ultrasound image that can be displayed by the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 have.

The ultrasonic probe 100 may acquire information on the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 through a session formed between the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 and the ultrasound probe 100. The ultrasound probe 100 may acquire information on the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 in a message exchanging process for forming a session with the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200.

The ultrasonic probe 100 may receive information on the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 connected to the ultrasound probe 100. [

The ultrasound probe 100 may request the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 to transmit information on the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. [ The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may transmit information about the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 to the ultrasound probe 100 in response to the received request.

For example, the ultrasonic probe 100 may be configured so that the type of data to be processed by the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, the wireless communication method to be used by the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, The type of the communication channel to be used by the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, and the like.

Alternatively, the ultrasound probe 100 may receive information related to the capability of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. For example, the ultrasound probe 100 may include all kinds of data that can be processed by the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, all wireless communication methods that the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 can support, 200, and the communication channel that the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 can support.

The ultrasound probe 100 may determine the type of data best suited for the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, the wireless communication method most suitable for the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, the optimal bandwidth for the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200, , And can select at least one of the communication channels most suitable for the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. For example, the ultrasonic probe 100 can select a communication method, a communication channel, or a type of data that enables the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 to provide the ultrasound image to the user at the highest resolution or the highest frame rate have.

As another example, the ultrasound probe 100 can acquire only the identifier of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 connected to the ultrasound probe 100. The ultrasonic probe 100 can acquire information on the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 by searching information stored in the ultrasound probe 100 based on the obtained identifier.

On the other hand, the ultrasonic probe 100 can acquire information on the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 based on user input. For example, the ultrasound probe 100 may acquire information on a communication channel connecting the ultrasound probe 100 and the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 from a user input.

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure is configured to acquire characteristics of a plurality of ultrasound image providing devices and to generate a plurality of transport streams by processing the ultrasound image data based on the acquired characteristics .

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure performs additional signal processing on the ultrasound image data based on the characteristics of the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses to increase the data amount of the ultrasound image data Or reduction.

The ultrasound probe 100 may be configured to transmit ultrasonic image data such that ultrasound images generated from a plurality of transport streams have different resolutions based on characteristics of communication channels to which the plurality of ultrasound image providing devices and the ultrasound probe 100 are connected, To generate a plurality of transport streams. For example, as the bandwidth of a communication channel to which the ultrasound image providing apparatus and the ultrasonic probe 100 are connected (that is, the amount of data that can be transmitted per unit time through the communication channel is reduced ), Ultrasound image data can be processed to have a lower resolution. The ultrasonic probe 100 may generate a transport stream including the processed ultrasonic image data.

In step S830, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure may transmit each of the plurality of transport streams generated in step S820 to the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses. The transport stream transmitted from the ultrasound probe 100 may be used to display an ultrasound image through the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200.

Further, the ultrasonic probe 100 can adjust the transmission speed of each transport stream based on the characteristics of the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses.

9 is a view for explaining a method of transmitting ultrasound image data to a plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

9, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure includes a plurality of ultrasound image providing devices 200-1, 200-2, and 200-3, . The plurality of ultrasound image providing devices 200-1, 200-2, and 200-3 are respectively connected to the cart type ultrasound diagnostic device 200-1, the tablet PC 200-2, and the smart phone 200-3 . Each of the ultrasound image providing apparatuses shown in FIG. 9 may have different characteristics and / or specifications of the ultrasound image providing apparatus. Further, the wireless communication systems used by the respective ultrasound image providing apparatuses may be different. As shown in FIG. 9, the wireless communication method used by the plurality of ultrasound image providing devices 200-1, 200-2, and 200-3 may include 60G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and the like.

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure may be provided with a plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses connected to the ultrasound probe 100 through different communication channels (i.e., using different wireless communication methods) Ultrasound image data of different image qualities can be transmitted.

As shown in FIG. 9, the ultrasonic probe 100 may be wirelessly connected to the cart ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 200-1 in a frequency band of 60 GHz. The ultrasonic probe 100 can transmit the ultrasonic image data of high image quality to the cart ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 200-1 based on the characteristics of the cart ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 200-1. For example, the ultrasonic probe 100 can transmit raw data generated using an echo signal acquired from a target object to the cart-type ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 200-1. The cart-type ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 200-1 can process received raster data. The ultrasonic probe 100 can transmit the raster data to the cart ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 200-1 and allow the cart ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 200-1 to process the raster data in various forms

The ultrasonic probe 100 may be connected to the tablet PC 200-2 in a Wi-Fi manner. The ultrasonic probe 100 transmits ultrasound image data (for example, ultrasound image data of relatively low image quality) subjected to post-processing based on the characteristics of the tablet PC 200-2 to the tablet PC 200-2 Can be transmitted. The ultrasonic probe 100 can transmit data having a resolution suitable for the tablet PC 200-2 to the tablet PC 200-2 by performing additional processing on the raster data.

The ultrasonic probe 100 may be connected to the smartphone 200-3 in a Bluetooth manner. The ultrasonic probe 100 can transmit ultrasound image data having a very low frame rate to the smartphone 200-3 based on the characteristics of the smartphone 200-3. For example, the ultrasonic probe 100 can transmit ultrasound image data having a very low frame rate to the smartphone 200-3 by performing additional processing on raw data. Alternatively, the ultrasonic probe 100 can transmit only the still image to the smartphone 200-3. At this time, the ultrasound image data or the still image transmitted to the smart phone 200-3 may be data that has undergone additional processing so as to have a very low resolution.

As described above, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure has an advantage that it is possible to transmit ultrasound image data of different image qualities to a plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses at different transmission rates .

10 and 11 are block diagrams of ultrasonic probes according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Each component of the ultrasound probe 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure can be configured to perform each step of the method of operation of the ultrasound probe 100 shown in Figures 3, 6 to 8. Therefore, it is understood that the contents described above with respect to the operation method of the ultrasonic probe shown in FIGS. 3 and 6 to 8 are applied to the ultrasonic probe 100 of FIGS. 10 and 11, even though omitted from the following description.

10, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure includes an ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 110, a signal processing unit 120, a control unit 130, and a communication unit 140.

The ultrasonic probe 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure may be wirelessly connected to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 through a communication channel. In addition, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure can be connected to a plurality of ultrasound image providing devices through different communication channels (i.e., using different wireless communication methods). The ultrasound probe 100 may simultaneously or sequentially transmit image data for a target object to a plurality of ultrasound image providing devices through different communication channels.

The ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 110 can transmit an ultrasonic signal to a target object and receive an echo signal.

The ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 110 may generate a pulse for forming a transmission ultrasonic wave in accordance with a predetermined pulse repetition frequency (PRF). The ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 110 may apply a delay time to the pulse to determine the transmission directionality. Each of the pulses to which the delay time is applied may correspond to each of a plurality of piezoelectric vibrators included in the transducer. The ultrasonic transmission and reception unit 110 can transmit an ultrasonic signal to a target object by applying pulses corresponding to a plurality of piezoelectric vibrators at a timing corresponding to each pulse to which the delay time is applied.

The signal processing unit 120 can generate the ultrasound image data by processing the echo signal received by the ultrasound transmitting / receiving unit 110. [ The signal processing unit 120 amplifies the echo signal for each channel and can analog-to-digital convert the amplified response signal. The signal processing unit 120 may apply the delay time for determining the reception directivity to the digitally converted response signal. The signal processing unit 120 may generate the ultrasound image data by summing the echo signals to which the delay time is applied.

The ultrasound image data may be used to display an ultrasound image through the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. The ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 can generate and display an ultrasound image using the ultrasound image data received from the ultrasound probe 100. The ultrasound image displayed through the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 may be a gray scale ultrasound image obtained by scanning an object according to an A mode (amplitude mode), a B mode (brightness mode), and an M mode Not only the image but also the motion of the object can be represented by the Doppler image. The Doppler image may include a blood flow Doppler image (also referred to as a color Doppler image) representing blood flow, a tissue Doppler image representing tissue motion, and a spectral Doppler image representing a moving velocity of the object as a waveform have.

The control unit 130 can control the operation of the ultrasonic probe 100 as a whole. The control unit 130 can control the operation between the ultrasonic probe 100 and the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 by controlling the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 110, the signal processing unit 120, and the communication unit 140 .

The control unit 130 may determine at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image data and a transmission rate of the ultrasound image data.

At least one parameter related to the image quality of the ultrasound image is determined by the number of scan lines constituting the frame of the ultrasound image, the number of sampling points set on the scan line, and the number of bits generated by quantizing the obtained data with respect to the sampling point And / or < / RTI >

As an example, the control unit 130 may adjust at least one of the image quality of the ultrasound image data and the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data according to the state of the communication channel.

For example, when the bandwidth of the communication channel is narrowed, the control unit 130 may adjust at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image based on the decrease amount of the bandwidth. The control unit 130 can control the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 110 and the signal processing unit 120 so as to generate the ultrasonic image data on the object based on the determined parameter value.

Alternatively, when the bandwidth of the communication channel becomes narrow, the control unit 130 may reduce the frame transmission rate based on the amount of reduction in bandwidth. The control unit 130 may control the communication unit 140 to divide and transmit data for each frame included in the ultrasound image data in order to reduce the transmission rate of the frame.

On the other hand, the control unit 130 can select one of the first mode and the second mode based on the application used by the ultrasonic probe 100. [ The ultrasonic probe 100 may adjust the at least one parameter value based on a change in the bandwidth of the communication channel when the first mode is selected. When the second mode is selected, the ultrasonic probe 100 can adjust the transmission speed of the frame based on the change in the bandwidth of the communication channel.

As another example, the control unit 130 may adjust at least one of the image quality of the ultrasound image data and the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data based on the user input.

The control unit 130 may determine at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image based on the user input. The control unit 130 can control the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 110 and the signal processing unit 120 so as to generate the ultrasonic image data on the object based on the determined parameter value.

The control unit 130 can determine the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data based on the determined parameter value. When at least one parameter value for deteriorating the image quality of the ultrasound image is determined, the control unit 130 can reduce the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data.

Alternatively, the control unit 130 can determine the transmission speed at which the ultrasonic image data is to be transmitted based on the user input. The control unit 130 may determine at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image based on the transmission rate. The control unit 130 can control the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 110 and the signal processing unit 120 so as to generate the ultrasonic image data on the object based on the determined parameter value.

The control unit 130 may determine at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image based on the determined transmission rate. When the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data decreases, the control unit 130 quantizes the acquired data with respect to the number of scan lines constituting the frame of the ultrasound image, the number of sampling points set on the scan line, Thereby reducing at least one of the number of generated bits.

As another example, the control unit 130 may adjust at least one of the image quality of the ultrasound image data and the ultrasound image data transmission speed according to the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 wirelessly connected to the ultrasound probe 100 .

Alternatively, the control unit 130 may generate a plurality of transport streams by processing the ultrasound image data based on the characteristics of the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses. For example, based on the characteristics of the communication channels to which the plurality of ultrasound image providing devices and the ultrasound probe 100 are connected, the control unit 130 may control the ultrasound images generated from the plurality of transport streams to have different resolutions Processing the ultrasound image data, and generating a plurality of transport streams including the processed ultrasound image data.

The communication unit 140 may transmit the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 at a transmission rate of the frame determined by the controller 130. The ultrasound image data may be used to display an ultrasound image through the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. The communication unit 140 may perform wired or wireless communication with the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. The communication unit 140 may receive a control signal for controlling the ultrasonic probe 100, which is received from the ultrasonic image providing apparatus 200.

The communication unit 140 may transmit a session formation request signal to the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200 and receive a session establishment confirmation signal from the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200. [ The session establishment acknowledgment signal may include bandwidth information.

The communication unit 140 may transmit, together with the ultrasound image data, information related to at least one of the parameter value and the transmission rate to the ultrasound image providing apparatus. Information related to at least one of the parameter value and the transmission rate may be used to generate an ultrasound image from the ultrasound image data in the ultrasound image providing apparatus 200.

Also, the communication unit 140 can be connected to the network by wire or wireless, and can communicate with an external device or a server. The communication unit 140 can exchange data with other medical devices in a hospital server or a hospital connected through a PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System). In addition, the communication unit 140 may perform data communication according to a DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) standard.

The communication unit 140 can transmit and receive data related to diagnosis of a target object such as an ultrasound image, ultrasound data, and Doppler data of a target object through a network, and can transmit and receive medical images captured by other medical devices such as CT, MRI, and X-ray . Further, the communication unit 140 may receive information on the diagnosis history of the patient, the treatment schedule, and the like from the server and may utilize the information for diagnosis of the target object. Furthermore, the communication unit 140 may perform data communication with not only a server or a medical device in a hospital but also a doctor or a customer's portable terminal.

The local communication technologies that can be used by the communication unit 140 include wireless LAN, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, zigbee, Wi-Fi Direct, UWB, IrDA, Infrared Data Association), BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), NFC (Near Field Communication), and the like.

When the ultrasound probe 100 is wirelessly connected to a plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses via different communication channels, the communication unit 140 transmits a plurality of ultrasound images to the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses through communication channels can do. At this time, the plurality of transport streams may be generated by the controller 130 processing the ultrasound image data based on the characteristics of the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses.

11, the ultrasonic probe 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure may further include a storage unit 150, a user input unit 160, and an output unit 170 .

The storage unit 150 stores various pieces of information to be processed by the ultrasonic probe 100. For example, the storage unit 150 may store medical data related to diagnosis of a target object such as input / output ultrasound image data and ultrasound image, and may store an algorithm or a program executed in the ultrasound probe 100.

The storage unit 150 may be implemented by various types of storage media such as a flash memory, a hard disk, and an EEPROM. In addition, the ultrasonic probe 100 may operate a web storage or a cloud server that performs a storage function of the storage unit 150 on the web.

Also, the storage unit 150 may store one of the first mode and the second mode for each of the plurality of applications. The control unit 130 can select a mode stored in the first mode and the second mode, which are mapped to the application used by the ultrasonic probe 100.

In addition, the storage unit 150 may store parameter values associated with the image quality of the ultrasound image with respect to various user inputs. The control unit 130 searches for data stored in advance based on the user input and retrieves at least one parameter value corresponding to the user input from the data.

The storage unit 150 may store transmission rates of the ultrasound image data by mapping the parameter values related to the image quality of the ultrasound image. When at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image is determined, the control unit 130 searches the previously stored data based on the determined parameter value and retrieves the transmission rate corresponding to the parameter value from the data.

Also, the storage unit 150 may map transmission rates of the ultrasound image data to various user inputs and store the same. The control unit 130 can retrieve the data stored in advance based on the user input and retrieve the transmission rate of the ultrasound image data corresponding to the user input from the data.

The storage unit 150 may store parameter values related to the image quality of the ultrasound image with respect to transmission rates of the ultrasound image data. When the transmission speed of the ultrasound image data is determined, the control unit 130 searches for previously stored data based on the determined transmission speed, and retrieves at least one parameter value corresponding to the transmission speed from the data.

The storage unit 150 may store information on the characteristics of a plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses that can be connected to the ultrasound probe 100. The storage unit 150 may store the information about the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus with respect to the transmission rate of the ultrasound image data and parameter values related to the image quality of the ultrasound image data. The control unit 130 may search the previously stored data based on the information about the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus and retrieve the transfer rate and parameter values suitable for the ultrasound image providing apparatus from the data.

Alternatively, the storage unit 150 may store information on how to process the ultrasound image data in order to generate a transport stream to be transmitted to the ultrasound image providing apparatus, by mapping the information on the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus. For example, the storage unit 150 may store the resolution of the ultrasound image generated from the transport stream received from the ultrasound image providing apparatus by mapping the information with the information about the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus. The control unit 130 may search the previously stored data based on the information about the characteristics of the ultrasound image providing apparatus and process the ultrasound image data based on the retrieved data to generate a transport stream suitable for the ultrasound image providing apparatus.

The user input unit 160 refers to a means for receiving data for controlling the ultrasonic probe 100.

The user input unit 160 may receive a user input for selecting which of the image quality of the ultrasound image and the transmission rate of the frame is more important. The control unit 130 can select one of the first mode and the second mode based on the user input received from the user input unit 160. [ The user input unit 160 adjusts the at least one parameter value based on the change in the bandwidth of the communication channel when the first mode is selected and the user input unit 160 adjusts the at least one parameter value based on the change in the bandwidth of the communication channel So that the transmission speed can be adjusted.

Alternatively, the user input unit 160 may receive a user input for determining at least one of at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image data and a transmission rate of the ultrasound image data.

The user input unit 160 may include a hardware configuration such as a keypad, a touch panel, a touch screen, a trackball, a jog switch, and the like. The user input unit 160 may include an electrocardiogram measurement module, a breath measurement module, a speech recognition sensor, A fingerprint recognition sensor, an iris recognition sensor, a depth sensor, a distance sensor, and the like.

The output unit 170 can output various information to be processed by the ultrasonic probe 100. For example, the output unit 170 may output various information processed by the ultrasonic probe 100 in the form of sound, light, vibration, images, characters, and the like. For example, the output unit 170 can display various information processed by the ultrasonic probe 100 on the screen. A UI (User Interface) or a GUI (Graphic User Interface) associated with the function setting of the output unit 170 and the ultrasonic probe 100 may be displayed on the screen.

12 is a block diagram illustrating an ultrasound system to which an ultrasound probe and an ultrasound image providing apparatus according to various embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied.

The method of operation of the ultrasonic probe according to various embodiments of the present disclosure may be performed by the ultrasonic system 1000 shown in FIG. 12, and may include an ultrasonic probe 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure, The device 200 may be included in the ultrasound system 1000 shown in FIG.

The ultrasonic probe 100 and the ultrasonic image providing apparatus 200 of FIG. 10 can perform a part or all of the functions performed by the ultrasonic system 1000 of FIG. The ultrasonic transmission and reception unit 110, the signal processing unit 120 and the control unit 130 of FIG. 10 are connected to the probe 1020, the ultrasonic transmission and reception unit 1100, the image processing unit 1200, and the control unit 1600 of FIG. And may perform part or all of the functions performed by the probe 1020, the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 1100, the image processing unit 1200, and the control unit 1600 shown in FIG. 12 .

An ultrasound system 1000 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure includes a probe 1020, an ultrasound transceiver 1100, an image processor 1200, a communication unit 1300, a memory 1400, an input device 1500, And may include a controller 1600, and the various configurations described above may be connected to each other via a bus 700. [

The transmission unit 1110 supplies a driving signal to the probe 1020 and includes a pulse generation unit 1112, a transmission delay unit 1114, and a pulsar 1116. The pulse generation unit 1112 generates a pulse 1 pulse for forming a transmission ultrasonic wave in accordance with a predetermined pulse repetition frequency (PRF), and the transmission delay unit 1114 determines a transmission directionality (1delay time) is applied to the pulse. Each pulse to which the delay time is applied corresponds to a plurality of piezoelectric vibrators included in the probe 1020, respectively. The pulser 1116 applies a driving signal (or a driving pulse) to the probe 1020 at a timing corresponding to each pulse to which the delay time is applied.

The receiving unit 1120 processes the echo signals received from the probe 1020 to generate ultrasonic data and includes an amplifier 1122, an ADC (Analog Digital Converter) 1124, a receiving delay unit 1126, And a summing unit 1128. [ The amplifier 1122 amplifies the echo signal for each channel, and the ADC 1124 converts the amplified echo signal analog-to-digital. The reception delay unit 1126 applies the delay time for determining the reception directionality to the digitally converted echo signal and the summation unit 1128 sums the echo signals processed by the reception delay unit 1126 And generates ultrasonic data.

The image processing unit 1200 generates and displays an ultrasound image through a scan conversion process on the ultrasound data generated by the ultrasound transmission / reception unit 1100.

The B mode processing unit 1212 extracts and processes the B mode component from the ultrasonic data. The image generating unit 1220 can generate an ultrasound image in which the intensity of the signal is expressed in brightness based on the B mode component extracted by the B mode processing unit 1212. [

Similarly, the Doppler processing unit 1214 extracts a Doppler component from the ultrasound data, and the image generating unit 1220 can generate a Doppler image that expresses the motion of the object in a color or a waveform based on the extracted Doppler component.

The image generating unit 1220 may generate a 3-dimensional ultrasound image through a volume rendering process for volume data, and may also generate an elastic image that imposes a degree of deformation of the object 1010 according to the pressure It is possible. Further, the image generating unit 1220 may display various kinds of additional information on the ultrasound image in text and graphics. Meanwhile, the generated ultrasound image may be stored in the memory 1400.

The communication unit 1300 is connected to the network 1030 by wire or wireless, and communicates with an external device or a server. The communication unit 1300 can exchange data with other medical devices in the hospital server or the hospital connected through the PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System). In addition, the communication unit 1300 can communicate data according to the DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) standard.

The communication unit 1300 can transmit and receive data related to diagnosis of a target object such as an ultrasound image, ultrasound data, and Doppler data of a target object via the network 1030, and can transmit medical images captured by other medical devices such as CT, MRI, It can also send and receive. Further, the communication unit 1300 may receive information on the diagnosis history of the patient, the treatment schedule, and the like from the server and may use the diagnosis information to diagnose the target. Further, the communication unit 1300 may perform data communication with not only a server or a medical device in a hospital, but also a doctor or a portable terminal of a patient.

The communication unit 1300 may be connected to the network 1030 by wire or wirelessly to exchange data with the server 1032, the medical device 1034, or the portable terminal 1036. The communication unit 1300 may include one or more components that enable communication with an external device and may include, for example, a local communication module 1310, a wired communication module 1320, and a mobile communication module 1330 .

The short-range communication module 1310 refers to a module for short-range communication within a predetermined distance. The local area communication technology according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a wireless LAN, a Wi-Fi, a Bluetooth, a zigbee, a Wi-Fi Direct, an ultra wideband (UWB) IrDA, Infrared Data Association), BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), NFC (Near Field Communication), and the like.

The wired communication module 1320 refers to a module for communication using an electrical signal or an optical signal. In the wired communication technology according to an embodiment, a pair cable, a coaxial cable, an optical fiber cable, an Ethernet (1ethernet) cable May be included.

The mobile communication module 1330 transmits and receives radio signals to at least one of a base station, an external terminal, and a server on a mobile communication network. Here, the wireless signal may include various types of data depending on a voice call signal, a video call signal, or a text / multimedia message transmission / reception.

The memory 1400 stores various kinds of information to be processed in the ultrasound system 1000. For example, the memory 1400 may store medical data related to diagnosis of a target object such as input / output ultrasound data and ultrasound images, and may store an algorithm or a program executed in the ultrasound system 1000.

The memory 1400 may be implemented as various types of storage media such as a flash memory, a hard disk, and an EEPROM. Also, the ultrasound system 1000 may operate a web storage or a cloud server that performs a storage function of the memory 1400 on the web.

The input unit 1500 means means for receiving data for controlling the ultrasound system 1000 from a user. The input unit 1500 may include a hardware configuration such as a keypad, a mouse, a touch panel, a touch screen, a trackball, a jog switch, and the like. The input unit 1500 may include an electrocardiogram measurement module, a respiration measurement module, A fingerprint recognition sensor, an iris recognition sensor, a depth sensor, a distance sensor, and the like.

The control unit 1600 controls the operation of the ultrasound system value 1000 as a whole. That is, the control unit 1600 controls the operation between the probe 1020, the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 1100, the image processing unit 1200, the communication unit 1300, the memory 1400, and the input device 1500 shown in FIG. can do.

Some or all of the probe 1020, the ultrasonic transmission and reception unit 1100, the image processing unit 1200, the communication unit 1300, the memory 1400, the input device 1500 and the control unit 1600 can be operated by a software module However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and some of the above-described configurations may be operated by hardware. At least some of the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 1100, the image processing unit 1200, and the communication unit 1300 may be included in the control unit 1600, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

13 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a wireless ultrasonic probe 2000 that can be applied to the ultrasonic probe 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

The wireless ultrasonic probe 2000 includes a plurality of transducers and may include some or all of the components of the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 1100 of FIG. 12 according to the implementation. The ultrasonic transmission and reception unit 110 and the signal processing unit 120 of the ultrasonic probe 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure may include the transducer 2200 and the transmission unit 2100 included in the transmission unit 2100 and the reception unit 2300 And may perform some or all of the functions performed by the transducer 2200, the transmitter 2100, and the receiver 2300 of FIG.

13 includes a transmitting unit 2100, a transducer 2200, and a receiving unit 2300. The configuration of each of the wireless probes 2000 is described with reference to FIG. 12, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted. Meanwhile, the wireless probe 2000 may selectively include a reception delay unit 2330 and a summation unit 2340 according to the implementation.

The wireless probe 2000 can transmit an ultrasonic signal to a target object 5, receive an echo signal, generate ultrasonic image data, and wirelessly transmit the generated ultrasonic image data to the ultrasonic system 1000 of FIG.

One embodiment of the present invention may also be embodied in the form of a recording medium including instructions executable by a computer, such as program modules, being executed by a computer. Computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. In addition, the computer-readable medium may include both computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes both volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Communication media typically includes any information delivery media, including computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave, or other transport mechanism.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing description of the present invention is for illustrative purposes only and that those of ordinary skill in the art can readily understand that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics of the present invention. will be. It is therefore to be understood that the above-described embodiments are illustrative in all aspects and not restrictive. For example, each component described as a single entity may be distributed and implemented, and components described as being distributed may also be implemented in a combined form.

The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims rather than the detailed description and all changes or modifications derived from the meaning and scope of the claims and their equivalents are to be construed as being included within the scope of the present invention do.

Claims (23)

A method of operating an ultrasonic probe connected wirelessly with an ultrasound image providing apparatus through a communication channel,
Obtaining bandwidth information of the communication channel;
Determining at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasound image based on the bandwidth information;
Generating ultrasound image data relating to a target object based on the parameter value; And
And transmitting the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the ultrasonic probe includes an ultrasonic transmission / reception unit for transmitting an ultrasonic signal to the object and receiving an echo signal, and a signal processing unit for processing the echo signal,
Wherein the generating the ultrasound image data comprises:
And controls the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit and the processing unit to generate the ultrasonic image data based on the parameter value. The method according to claim 1,
At least one parameter related to an image quality of the ultrasound image,
A number of sampling points set on a scan line, and a number of bits generated by quantizing data obtained with respect to a sampling point, wherein the number of the scan lines constituting the frame of the ultrasound image, the number of sampling points set on the scan line, Way. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein determining the at least one parameter value comprises:
Wherein when the bandwidth of the communication channel is narrowed, based on the amount of decrease in the bandwidth, the number of sampling lines set on the scan line, the number of sampling points set on the scan line, And decreasing at least one of the number of bits generated by quantizing the number of bits. The method according to claim 1,
Further comprising selecting one of a first mode and a second mode based on an application used by the ultrasonic probe,
Wherein determining the at least one parameter value comprises:
Adjusting the at least one parameter value based on a change in the bandwidth of the communication channel when the first mode is selected; And
And adjusting a transmission rate for transmitting the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus based on a change in the bandwidth of the communication channel when the second mode is selected. 6. The method of claim 5,
Further comprising mapping and storing one of the first mode and the second mode for each of a plurality of applications,
Wherein the step of selecting one of the first mode and the second mode comprises:
And selecting a mode mapped to an application used by the ultrasonic probe to store the ultrasonic probe. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein determining the at least one parameter value comprises:
Selecting one of a first mode and a second mode based on user input;
Adjusting the at least one parameter value based on a change in the bandwidth of the communication channel when the first mode is selected; And
And adjusting a transmission rate for transmitting the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus based on a change in the bandwidth of the communication channel when the second mode is selected. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the step of acquiring bandwidth information of the communication channel comprises:
Transmitting a session formation request signal to the ultrasound image providing apparatus;
Receiving a session establishment confirmation signal from the ultrasound image providing apparatus; And
And extracting the bandwidth information from the session establishment acknowledgment signal. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the transmitting the ultrasound image data comprises:
Transmitting to the ultrasound image providing apparatus at least one parameter value and at least one of a transmission rate for transmitting the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus together with the ultrasound image data,
Wherein the information related to at least one of the at least one parameter value and the transmission rate is used for generating the ultrasound image from the ultrasound image data in the ultrasound image providing apparatus. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein determining the at least one parameter value comprises:
Adjusting at least one parameter value based on a user input and a transmission rate for transmitting the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus. The method according to claim 1,
The ultrasonic probe includes:
A plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses including the ultrasound image providing apparatus are connectable through different communication channels,
Wherein the step of transmitting the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus comprises:
Generating a plurality of transport streams by processing the ultrasound image data based on the characteristics of the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses; And
And transmitting each of the plurality of transport streams to the plurality of ultrasound image providing devices through the communication channels. A method of operating an ultrasonic probe connected wirelessly with an ultrasound image providing apparatus through a communication channel,
Obtaining bandwidth information of the communication channel;
Determining a transmission rate of a frame constituting an ultrasound image based on the bandwidth information;
Generating ultrasound image data on a target object; And
And transmitting the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus at the transmission rate. 13. The method of claim 12,
Wherein the determining the transmission rate comprises:
And decreasing the transmission rate based on the decrease amount of the bandwidth when the bandwidth of the communication channel becomes narrower. 14. The method of claim 13,
Wherein the transmitting the ultrasound image data comprises:
And dividing and transmitting the data for each frame included in the ultrasound image data to reduce the transmission rate based on the decrease amount of the bandwidth. 13. The method of claim 12,
The ultrasonic probe includes:
A plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses including the ultrasound image providing apparatus are connectable through different communication channels,
Wherein the step of transmitting the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus comprises:
Generating a plurality of transport streams by processing the ultrasound image data based on the characteristics of the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses; And
And transmitting each of the plurality of transport streams to the plurality of ultrasound image providing devices through the communication channels. An ultrasonic probe wirelessly connected to an ultrasound image providing apparatus through a communication channel,
An ultrasonic transmission / reception unit for transmitting an ultrasonic signal to a target object and receiving an echo signal;
A signal processing unit for processing the echo signal;
And a controller configured to obtain bandwidth information of the communication channel, determine at least one parameter value related to an image quality of the ultrasound image based on the bandwidth information, and generate ultrasound image data based on the parameter value, A transmission / reception unit and the signal processing unit; And
And a communication unit for transmitting the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus. An ultrasonic probe wirelessly connected to an ultrasound image providing apparatus through a communication channel,
An ultrasonic transmission / reception unit for transmitting an ultrasonic signal to a target object and receiving an echo signal;
A signal processing unit for processing the echo signal;
And a control unit for controlling the ultrasonic transmitting and receiving unit and the signal processing unit to generate ultrasonic image data related to the object based on the bandwidth information of the communication channel and the transmission speed of the frame constituting the ultrasonic image based on the bandwidth information, A controller; And
And transmits the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus at the transmission rate. An ultrasonic probe wirelessly connected to an ultrasound image providing apparatus,
An ultrasonic transmission / reception unit for transmitting an ultrasonic signal to a target object and receiving an echo signal;
A signal processing unit for processing the echo signal;
A control unit for determining at least one parameter value related to an image quality of an ultrasound image based on a user input and controlling the ultrasound transmitting and receiving unit and the signal processing unit to generate ultrasound image data related to a target object based on the parameter value; And
And transmits the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus at a transmission rate determined based on the parameter value. 19. The method of claim 18,
At least one parameter related to an image quality of the ultrasound image,
At least one of the number of scan lines constituting the frame of the ultrasound image, the number of sampling points set on the scan line, and the number of bits generated by quantizing the acquired data with respect to the sampling point,
Wherein,
And transmits the ultrasound image data at a reduced transmission rate based on the decrease of the parameter value. 19. The method of claim 18,
The ultrasonic probe includes:
A plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses including the ultrasound image providing apparatus are connectable through different communication channels,
Wherein,
Generating a plurality of transport streams by processing the ultrasound image data based on the characteristics of the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses,
Wherein,
And transmits each of the plurality of transport streams to the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses through the communication channels. An ultrasonic probe wirelessly connected to an ultrasound image providing apparatus,
An ultrasonic transmission / reception unit for transmitting an ultrasonic signal to a target object and receiving an echo signal;
A signal processing unit for processing the echo signal;
Determining a transmission rate at which the ultrasonic image data is to be transmitted based on the user input, determining at least one parameter value related to the image quality of the ultrasonic image based on the transmission rate, And controls the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit and the signal processing unit to generate the ultrasound transmission / reception unit and the signal processing unit. And
And transmits the ultrasound image data to the ultrasound image providing apparatus at the transmission rate. 22. The method of claim 21,
Wherein,
And decreases the parameter value based on the decrease of the transmission rate. 22. The method of claim 21,
The ultrasonic probe includes:
A plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses including the ultrasound image providing apparatus are connectable through different communication channels,
Wherein,
Generating a plurality of transport streams by processing the ultrasound image data based on the characteristics of the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses,
Wherein,
And transmits each of the plurality of transport streams to the plurality of ultrasound image providing apparatuses through the communication channels.

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