Software-based hand-held ultrasound color Doppler imaging system

Due to improved portability and patient acceptability, a recently-developed hand-held ultrasound machine has been tested in various emerging clinical applications, e.g., ambulatory healthcare. For miniaturization, in a hand-held ultrasound machine, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) have been widely used. However, since the clinical utility of a hand-held ultrasound machine is continuously evolving, it would be appropriate to have improved functional flexibility, especially in mid and back-end processing. In this paper, we present a software-based hand-held ultrasound system where a single digital signal processor (DSP) is utilized to support color Doppler imaging in real time.