ITEE Innovation Expo 2008 : Project Details

Portable Ultrasound Imaging System: Development and Medical Applications

ÿþSnoring and obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) are conditions that prevent people from being able to breathe correctly during sleep. Sleep disorders are a major cause of other health issues and lack of productivity in the workspace. The current diagnosis of OSA requires multiple devices to be hooked up to a sleeping patient in a hospital.

Using a portable ultrasound device, measurements on a sleeping patient could be taken for brief periods to determine the location and severity of the snoring or sleep apnoea. The device could be used as part of an at home diagnosis.

Current ultrasound devices often use many expensive transducer elements and require a great deal of computing power to process the incoming information. This device will use a single channel to lower the cost and the data output of the device such that it can be made portable. The research is not intended to directly compete with high quality medical scanners but instead to compliment them as a cheaper alternative where high precision is not required.

The design of such a device for medical use could easily be modified such that it could measure other areas of the body for various purposes. An investigation of possible alternative uses will be given including non-medical uses. Various design alternatives including different software processing will be shown to give a clear outline for developing similar devices in the future.

An in depth detail of ultrasound transducers, circuitry and software processing is presented including a design for the selected application.