SLSC Beamforming Code Now Available on UltraSound Toolbox

The UltraSound Toolbox (USTB) is a free MATLAB toolbox for processing ultrasonic signals. The primary purpose of the USTB is to facilitate the comparison of imaging techniques and the dissemination of research results. The PULSE Lab is proud to collaborate on this effort to deliver SLSC beamforming to the broader ultrasound community. An example using the SLSC algorithm on a CIRS phantom and on human heart data was added today, as described here: http://www.ustb.no/examples/advanced-beamforming/short-lag-spatial-coherence-slsc/. The heart and phantom datasets and the SLSC code are now freely available to use. Additional datasets and beamforming code can be found by perusing the USTB website.

Congrats to Ole Marius Hoel Rindal (our visiting student from the University of Oslo) for putting in the work required to pull this together!

USTB Announcement

Margaret Allard Receives Best Presentation Award

Congratulations to PULSE Lab undergraduate student Margaret Allard who received the best presentation award from the NSF REU program in Computational Sensing and Medical Robotics. Her presentation was entitled Identifying Optimal da Vinci Tool Orientations for Photoacoustic Guided Hysterectomies. Prof. Jerry Prince presented Margaret with this award.

This award was shared by Margaret Allard and Mindy Wagenmaker.

JHU ECE Department Announcement

JBO Paper Accepted

Our paper entitled Photoacoustic-based approach to surgical guidance performed with and without a da Vinci robot was accepted for publication in the Journal of Biomedical Optics (JBO) Special Section on Translational Biophotonics.

Congrats to undergraduates Neeraj Gandhi and Margaret Allard!

This work was completed in partnership with the NSF REU in Computational Sensing and Medical Robotics along with collaborators Sungmin Kim and Peter Kazanzides, and it is the first to integrate photoacoustic imaging with the da Vinci surgical robot. It was also featured on the journal homepage.

ECE Department Announcement

BioOptics World Article

Three Abstracts Accepted to IEEE IUS 2017

Three PULSE Lab abstracts were accepted for presentation during the 2017 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS) to be held on September 6-9, 2017 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington D.C., USA.

  1. “Theoretical Application of Short-Lag Spatial Coherence to Photoacoustic Imaging” to be presented by Michelle Graham in the MBB: Non linear and coherence imaging poster session, 3-4 pm on Thursday, September 7, 2017. (Abstract ID: 1526)
  2. “Photoacoustic Visual Servoing of Needle Tips to Improve Biopsy Targeting in Obese Patients” to be presented by Joshua Shubert in the MPA: Technical Developments in Photoacoustic Imaging poster session, 3-4 pm  on Friday, September 8, 2017. (Abstract ID: 1088)
  3. “Identification and removal of reflection artifacts in photoacoustic images using convolutional neural networks” to be presented by Derek Allman in the MIM: Machine learning poster session, 9:30-10:30 am on Saturday, September 9, 2017. (Abstract ID: 1523)

Congrats to Michelle, Josh, and Derek!

Symposium website: http://ewh.ieee.org/conf/ius/2017/

Four PULSE Lab Presentations at UITC 2017

PULSE Lab members presented the following four talks at the International Symposium on Ultrasonic Imaging and Tissue Characterization, June 5-7, 2017:

  1. Principal component short-lag spatial coherence imaging (PC-SLSC), Arun Asokan Nair, Trac D. Tran and Muyinatu A. Lediju Bell
  2. Photoacoustic-based visual servoing of needle tips to improve surgery on obese patients, Joshua Shubert and Muyinatu Bell
  3. Theoretical application of short-lag spatial coherence to photoacoustic imaging, Michelle Graham and Muyinatu Lediju Bell
  4. Evaluation of a convolutional neural network for identifying reflection artifacts in photoacoustic imaging, Derek M. Allman, Austin Reiter and Muyinatu A. Lediju Bell

Michelle (left) and Derek (right) giving their first PULSE Lab research presentations:

Symposium website: http://uitc-symposium.org/

IEEE ISCAS 2017 Special Session: Innovations In Acoustics

Prof. Bell will co-chair the IEEE ISCAS 2017 Special Session entitled “Innovations In Acoustics”. This session will be held on May 29, 2017 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront in Baltimore, MD, and it provides unique access to acoustic researchers from various academic departments across Johns Hopkins University. This special session will cover acoustics on various levels, starting from background noise suppression in an electronic stethoscope, to bat echolocation processing to ultrasonic medical imaging and acoustic beamforming. It includes an invited talk from the father of microphone technology, Prof. Jim West, a National Medal of Technology and Innovation winner, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a recipient of countless additional high honors. The session also includes a technical talk from a local ultrasound imaging start-up company (Sonavex, Inc.) formed based on ideas born here in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins University, which uniquely supports the conference theme “from Dreams to Innovation”.

Session Details

NIH R00 Grant Awarded

The PULSE Lab received the 2nd phase of Dr. Bell’s NIH K99/R00 award to support our project entitled “Coherence-Based Photoacoustic Image Guidance of Transsphenoidal Surgeries”. This work is motivated by the clinical challenges surrounding the removal of pituitary tumors using the minimally invasive endonasal transsphenoidal approach, which incurs the deadly risk of causing injury to the internal carotid arteries. We propose to eliminate this risk by developing a sophisticated photoacoustic imaging system that visualizes blood vessels located behind bone during the surgical operation. This photoacoustic imaging system will be equipped with our novel coherence-based beamformers and our specialized light delivery systems.

JHU ECE Announcement

Invited Seminars by Prof. Bell in March 2017

Prof. Bell will give the following invited seminar in March 2017:

Johns Hopkins BME Seminar Series
Monday, March 6, 2017
1:30 pm
Traylor 707-09 School of Medicine Campus
(video conferenced to Clark 110)
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University of Southern California BME Seminar Series
Friday, March 10, 2017
2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
Denney Research Center (DRB 146)
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Prof. Bell featured in JHU Magazine


Prof. Bell is featured in the Impact section of the winter issue of the JHU Engineering magazine. The article, entitled Clearer Vision for Surgeons, focuses on our lab’s latest venture to integrate photoacoustic imaging with a daVinci surgical robot in collaboration with researchers in the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics.

Three Abstracts Accepted to SPIE Photonics West

Three abstracts from the PULSE Lab were accepted to SPIE Photonics West, which will take place January 28 – February 2, 2017 in San Francisco, California:

  • Paper 10064-18: A machine learning approach to identifying point source locations in photoacoustic data (29 January 2017 • 5:30 – 7:30 PM)
  • Paper 10064-101: Optimizing light delivery for a photoacoustic surgical system (29 January 2017 • 3:00 – 3:15 PM)
  • Paper 10064-125: Accuracy of a novel photoacoustic-based approach to surgical guidance performed with and without a da Vinci robot (29 January 2017 • 5:30 – 7:30 PM)

SPIE Newsroom Announcement

SPIE Press

Full Conference Program