Probe trajectory interpolation for 3D reconstruction of freehand ultrasound

Three-dimensional (3D) freehand ultrasound uses the acquisition of non-parallel B-scans localized in 3D by a tracking system (optic, mechanical or magnetic). Using the positions of the irregularly spaced B-scans, a regular 3D lattice volume can be reconstructed, to which conventional 3D computer vision algorithms (registration and segmentation) can be applied. This paper presents a new 3D reconstruction method which explicitly accounts for the probe trajectory. Experiments were conducted on phantom and intra-operative datasets using various probe motion types and varied slice-to-slice B-scan distances. Results suggest that this technique improves on classical methods at the expense of computational time.