Mobile ultrasonic signal processing system using Android smartphone

This study introduces a mobile ultrasonic signal processing (MUSP) system using an Android smartphone for remote ultrasonic testing and imaging applications. The Android smartphone has multiple wireless data communication options such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and cellular data networks. The smartphone receives the ultrasonic data using the Bluetooth connection from a data acquisition and communication unit (DACU). With the help of Android Native Development Kit (NDK) libraries, we developed two signal processing algorithms in C programming language which are processed by the Android smartphone to explore the smartphone computing capability for ultrasonic testing applications. Split Spectrum Processing (SSP) and Chirplet Signal Decomposition (CSD) algorithms are considered for benchmarking and signal analysis. The analyzed data is displayed in real-time on the smartphone screen and streamed to a central location via Wi-Fi or cellular data networks for storage and further data analysis. A Java programmed server application is implemented to communicate with the Android application over the Internet in order to display and save the retrieved signal data. This system brings the ability to analyze ultrasonic signals remotely and to transfer ultrasound data from one end to the other for extensive signal ultrasonic imaging at a central location. The accessibility of the ultrasonic data at the central location allows experts to review ultrasonic information and make decision about the state of the health of structures and critical components under test.