Patent Application
20130137989
This application claims foreign priority benefits under 35 U.S.C. §119 to co-pending Chinese Patent Application No. 201110405502.9, filed Nov. 30, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as part of the present disclosure.
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to the field of ultrasound detection and, more particularly, to an ultrasound probe and a corresponding ultrasound detection system.
Ultrasound detection is a customary detection means in the modern medical field. The existing ultrasound medical equipment consist of an ultrasound mainframe (or “console”) and a probe.
In the traditional application field of ultrasound scanning, a user usually uses an operation panel (such as keyboard, trackball or touch panel) to control a user interface, thereby controlling an ultrasound scanning application flow, for example, switching the B Mode (Black and White Mode) to CF Mode (Color Flow Mode), function of adjusting the emission frequency, or freezing and unfreezing, etc.
At present, some novel ultrasound probes have one or two buttons on their heads. These buttons enable a user to control the user interface in another manner, yet the function is quite simple. For example, in a probe system with one button, the button is only defined to have one fixed function, such as freezing or defreezing, and a user can only use the button to perform the fixed action. However, in different applications, a user wants to use the button to perform some other functions, such as printing, saving images, and etc. In addition, in those probe systems with two buttons, the two buttons, in most cases, are defined to perform the functions of button traversal browse and confirmation in all the clinical applications, such as go forward, go backward, enter/ok, cancel, and etc. This simple solution is not suitable for some complicated conditions. The default selected key is at the top left corner of the user interface. If a user wants to change the default selected key to one's desired key, such as “proceed downward” or “proceed upward”, the user should single click or double click the button over and over again to carry out traversal navigation one by one to move selection key by key till the selection reaches the user's target key. Such an application is neither user-friendly nor convenient.
Thus, there exist the following problems in the art, i.e., how to bring the functions of a probe button into full play, how to enable a probe button to redefine its click and press function as the user's most desired function automatically according to different clinical application modes.
It is a purpose of the present invention to solve these problems.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an ultrasound probe. The ultrasound probe comprises at least one button, wherein at least one function of the at least one button is defined by a user based on different applications.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an ultrasound detection system. The ultrasound detection system comprises an ultrasound probe comprising at least one button, wherein at least one function of the at least one button is defined by a user based on different applications, and a user interface for the user to define the at least one function of the at least one button, and for making interactive responses.
The above and other purposes and characteristics of the present invention would become obvious through the following detailed description made with reference to the figures, where like reference numbers are used to denote the same or similar parts, wherein:
One or more embodiments of the present invention provide an ultrasound probe comprising at least one button, the function of which can be defined by a user based on different applications.
A surgical operation can be used, for example, to explain
A NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) probe can be used, for example, to explain the operational principle of a probe according to an embodiment of the present invention with reference to
A method 400 begins with turning the power of the machine on 410. In an embodiment, a user powers the machine on.
A user logs on 420. In an embodiment, different surgeons have different user names and passwords.
After logging on, the probe button is in common browse mode (for all the users) by default 430. At this point, the user interface displays the default home page. The user can change or adjust the definitions of the most customary functions of the two buttons on the probe in different ultrasound scanning application modes. In addition, from here, the user can use the buttons 21 and 22 to traverse operations one by one, and select and enter a target clinical application page or predetermined page. In an embodiment, different ultrasound scanning application modes are selected to enter through the common browse mode 440.
After entering a specific application, pressing the buttons 21 and 22 simultaneously redefines the default function of the buttons 21 and 22 as the user's most desired function instead of the common function of browsing the user interface through button pressing. In an embodiment, a customary corresponding function of a probe button already configured by a surgeon is loaded according to a user name 450. The ultrasound mode is initiated 460; meanwhile, the most customary function defined for a specific probe button is used to carry out clinical operations. For example, if a user enters “superficial quick scanning” mode, single click of the button 21 would be changed from “go forward” to “gain increase”, and single click of the button 22 from “enter/ok” to “gain decrease”. Thus, as long as the user enters this application mode, the user can use the probe buttons to adjust the gain level directly, without pressing “go forward” again and again to navigate the select key to gain adjusting function key. This is very convenient to the user.
After adjusting the gain to the proper level, the user only needs to single click the button 21 and the button 22 (the cancel function) simultaneously to return to standard default functions of the buttons 21 and 22, i.e., “go forward”, “go backward”, and “enter/ok” functions in other common modes, as shown by the arrow from block 460 to block 430 in
For some other applications, such as CF mode, simultaneous single click of the buttons 21 and 22 can be redefined as “frequency increase” and “frequency decrease”. Likewise, after obtaining the desired frequency, single clicks the buttons 21 and 22 simultaneously to exit the redefinition mode, and return to the standard function of browsing the user interface through button pressing.
For those non-clinical applications, such as “patient management”, single click of the button 21 can be redefined as “next patient”, single click of the button 22 “return”, double click of the button 21 “output”, and double click of the button 22 can return to the function of browsing the user interface through button pressing.
In some embodiments, two or more buttons can be integrated together so that they look like a single button in appearance.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, for a probe that has only one button, the function of the button can also be redefined based on different application modes. For example, when entering B Mode, the button is redefined to perform the freezing/defreezing function, double click of the button can also be redefined as “gain increase”, single click “gain decrease”, and long press is redefined to return to the standard operations.
For the purpose of more flexibility in user's selections, there may be a predetermined page available to a user on the user interface so that the user can personalize the configuration of different clicks of these buttons to perform the user's most desired function. As a result, the user can use the probe buttons most effectively.
It should be noted that
Table 1 shows examples of the most customary functions defined by default of the buttons 21 and 22 of the ultrasound probe 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Table 2 shows examples of functions of buttons 21 and 22 in the common browse mode.
It should be noted that Table 1 and Table 2 are exemplary rather than restrictive. In practice, manufacturers and users can design different button functions based on different applications.
An embodiment of the present invention further provides an ultrasound detection system comprising the ultrasound probe according to an embodiment of the present invention and a user interface, wherein the user interface is for a user to define the function of the at least one button and for making interactive responses.
The ultrasound probe according to the an embodiment of the present invention can automatically redefine and change functions of button clicking based on a clinical application mode in use to satisfy needs of more complicated diagnostic conditions. The user interface according to embodiments the present invention enables the user to configure functions of a button based on different applications, thereby providing more flexibility and convenience for the user.
Although the NICU probe is described as an example above, it should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the NICU probe but can be applied to all the ultrasound probes.
It should be noted that the above embodiments are merely exemplary rather than restrictive. Without deviating from the scope of the attached claims, ones skilled in the art could design a great number of alternative embodiments. The adopted verb “comprise” does not exclude elements and steps other than those recorded in the claims or description. Prior to element, the expression “a/an” does not exclude the existence of more than one element of such. In the claims, any bracketed reference numbers should not be understood as limitations to the claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201110405502.9 | Nov 2011 | CN | national |
