Robert C. Waag
Dept. of Electrical Eng. & Radiology, Univ. of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627
Visualizations are used to show calculations of ultrasonic measurement system weight in scattering experiments, focal plane time history and point spread functions produced by beamforming algorithms, and scattered pressure and internal stress in a kidney stone model during lithotripsy. Knowledge of measurement system characteristics, especially the resolution, allows the design of scattering experiments for the determination of intrinsic parameters such as average differential scattering cross section or the power spectrum of medium variations. Depictions of focal plane time history and point spread functions that result from focusing algorithms in which wave front distortion is compensated, permit evaluation of algorithm performance. Simultaneous display of scattered pressure and internal stress in a kidney stone model following illumination by a plane-wave pulse elucidates the temporal buildup and reverberant decay of stress in a kidney stone during lithotripsy and shows scattering characteristics that may provide information about kidney stone disintegration. In each of these applications, visualization provides insight not readily obtained in other ways from the basic data.