Recognition in Ultrasound Videos: Where Am I?

A novel approach to the problem of locating and recognizing anatomical structures of interest in ultrasound (US) video is proposed. While addressing this challenge may be beneficial to US examinations in general, it is particularly useful in situations where portable US probes are used by less experienced personnel. The proposed solution is based on the hypothesis that, rather than their appearance in a single image, anatomical structures are most distinctively characterized by the variation of their appearance as the transducer moves. By drawing on recent advances in the non-linear modeling of video appearance and motion, using an extension of dynamic textures, successful location and recognition is demonstrated on two phantoms. We further analyze computational demands and preliminarily explore insensitivity to anatomic variations.