Project description
A new approach for high-quality ultrasound imaging
Ultrasound imaging has the potential to make medical diagnostics accessible to everyone, yet it struggles with a critical issue: achieving both high image quality and affordability. MRI provides excellent image resolution but at a high cost, limiting its accessibility. Low-cost ultrasound hardware could democratise access, but often compromises on image quality. To address both of these challenges, the ERC-funded CloudSound project shifts computational complexity to the cloud. CloudSound combines enhanced imaging quality with greater accessibility. This innovative approach uses a rate control strategy, adapted from the US-ACT project, to manage data transmission efficiently. The result is a game-changing system that makes high-quality ultrasound imaging both affordable and accessible.
Objective
Ultrasound (US) can revolutionize and democratize medical imaging if it offers: (1) access for everyone, and (2) excellent image quality, always. MRI offers (2) but is expensive and will thus not likely be able to provide (1). Low-cost US hardware will enable (1) in the future but is not expected to yield the needed breakthrough for (2). Any solution that addresses both will have a huge impact.
The biggest adversaries for US image quality stem from patient- and user-specific factors. I therefore strongly believe that achieving (2) requires closed-loop, goal-directed imaging through systems that actively pursue information gain, in-situ. My ERC stg project US-ACT develops this new closed-loop US paradigm, with deep generative models governing beliefs about anatomy and function. This, however, gives rise to a new dilemma: How to embrace high-performant, but complex, algorithms to achieve (2), while at the same time lowering cost to achieve (1)? Our recent result shows that US-ACT enables breaking the cost-complexity trade-off, through a new approach that is rooted in the closed-loop proposition itself.
I propose CloudSound, a fully cloud-native US imaging paradigm, unlocking access to virtually unlimited computational power, memory, and storage for raw US sensor data. We will move all the computational complexity away from the local device to a remote server. To achieve this with minimal latency and high frame rates, CloudSound introduces a new holistic rate control strategy for the entire transmit-receive scheme, based on algorithms developed in US-ACT. This will drive rate control of the full solution under a time-varying information bottleneck: the network channel.
Ultimately, CloudSound will disrupt ultrasound business models and unlock unprecedented image quality and ease of use, making advanced medical imaging affordable and globally accessible.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences basic medicine anatomy and morphology
- natural sciences physical sciences acoustics ultrasound
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept Grants
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) ERC-2024-POC
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5612 AE Eindhoven
Netherlands
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