Wireless communication of real-time ultrasound data and control

The Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to grow to 26 billion connected devices by 2020, plus the PC, smart phone, and tablet segment that includes mobile Health (mHealth) connected devices is projected to account for another 7.3 billion units by 2020. This paper explores some of the real-time constraints on the data-flow and control of a wireless connected ultrasound machine. The paper will define an ultrasound server and the capabilities necessary for real-time use of the device. The concept of an ultrasound server wirelessly (or over any network) connected to multiple lightweight clients on devices like an iPad, iPhone, or Android-based tablet, smartphone and other network-attached displays (i.e., Google Glass) is explored. Latency in the ultrasound data stream is one of the key areas to measure and to focus on keeping as small as possible (<30ms) so that the ultrasound operator can see what is at the probe at that moment, instead of where the probe was a short period earlier. By keeping the latency less than 30ms, the operator will feel like the data he sees on the wireless connected devices is running in real-time with the operator. The second parameter is the management of bandwidth. At minimum we need to be able to see 20 frames-per- second. It is possible to achieve ultrasound in triplex mode at >20 frames-per-second on a properly configured wireless network. The ultrasound server needs to be designed to accept multiple ultrasound data clients and multiple control clients. A description of the server and some of its key features will be described.