A real-time medical ultrasound simulator based on a generative adversarial network model

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

8-26-2019

Department

Department of Biomedical Engineering

Abstract

This paper presents an artificial intelligence-based ultrasound simulator suitable for medical simulation and clinical training. Particularly, we propose a machine learning approach to realistically simulate ultrasound images based on generative adversarial networks (GANs). Using B-mode ultrasound images simulated by a known ultrasound simulator, Field II, an "image-to-image" ultrasound simulator was trained. Then, through evaluations, we found that the GAN-based simulator can generate B-mode images following Rayleigh scattering. Our preliminary study demonstrated that ultrasound B-mode images from anatomies inferred from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data were feasible. While some image blurring was observed, ultrasound B- mode images obtained were both visually and quantitatively comparable to those obtained using the Field II simulator. It is also important to note that the GAN-based ultrasound simulator was computationally efficient and could achieve a frame rate of 15 frames/second using a regular laptop computer. In the future, the proposed GAN-based simulator will be used to synthesize more realistic looking ultrasound images with artifacts such as shadowing.

Publisher's Statement

©2019 IEEE. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICIP.2019.8803570

Publication Title

2019 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP)

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