WIRELESS ULTRASOUND ARCHITECTURES
An ultrasound probe is provided including one or more ultrasound transducers configured to perform ultrasound imaging, a first logic unit configured to receive ultrasound data from the one or more ultrasound transducers, and a second logic unit coupled to the first logic unit and configured to transmit the ultrasound data wirelessly via a radio module. An ultrasound device is provided configured for removably coupling to an auxiliary module to transmit ultrasound wirelessly via the auxiliary module.
1 . An ultrasound device, comprising:
one or more ultrasound transducers configured to perform ultrasound imaging;
a first logic unit configured to receive ultrasound data from the one or more ultrasound transducers; and
a second logic unit coupled to the first logic unit and configured to transmit the ultrasound data wirelessly via a radio module.
2 . The ultrasound device of claim 1 , wherein the first logic unit comprises a first group of digital logic gates.
3 . The ultrasound device of claim 2 , wherein the first group of digital logic gates comprises a field programmable gate array (FPGA).
4 . The ultrasound device of claim 2 , wherein the first group of digital logic gates comprises an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).
5 . The ultrasound device of claim 1 , wherein the first logic unit and the second logic unit are configured to communicate using a general programmable interface (GPIF) protocol.
6 . The ultrasound device of claim 2 , wherein the second logic unit comprises a second group of digital logic gates.
7 . The ultrasound device of claim 6 , wherein the second group of digital logic gates comprises a processor.
8 . The ultrasound device of claim 7 , wherein the processor comprises a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor.
9 . The ultrasound device of claim 8 , wherein the RISC processor comprises an advanced RISC machine (ARM) processor.
10 . The ultrasound device of claim 7 , wherein the processor is configured to run an operating system.
11 . The ultrasound device of claim 10 , wherein the operating system is unix-based.
12 . The ultrasound device of claim 7 , wherein the processor is configured to manage wireless networking protocols for transmitting the ultrasound data wirelessly via the radio module.
13 . The ultrasound device of claim 1 , wherein the radio module includes a WiFi module.
14 . The ultrasound device of claim 1 , further comprising a memory module coupled to the second logic unit.