Real-time ultrasonic imaging for multi-layered objects with synthetic aperture focusing technique

In this paper, an ultrasonic motion trajectory method is introduced for ultrasonic imaging of multi-layered objects, based on re-interpreting the traditional SAFT in a forward pattern. It adopts scan conversion approaches of lines and circles developed in raster graphics in SAFT so as to avoid the iterative computations in the traditional ultrasonic SAFT with ray tracing. Since this method is suitable for parallel implementation, a GPU-accelerated ultrasonic motion trajectory algorithm is also implemented with CUDA to achieve real-time ultrasonic imaging. Experiments show that the presented motion trajectory method is the most efficient approach for ultrasonic imaging of multi-layered objects among the existing reconstruction techniques, such as the phase shift migration and the traditional method that combines synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT) with ray tracing techniques. This new method speeds up the ultrasonic imaging procedure of multi-layer objects by two orders of magnitude with better effects than the traditional method.