Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Int J Comput Assist Radiol Surg. 2019 Jul;14(7):1107-1115. doi: 10.1007/s11548-019-01964-8. Epub 2019 Apr 11.
Conventional ultrasound (US) machines employ a physical control panel (PCP) as the primary user interface for machine control. This panel is adjacent to the main machine display that requires the operator's constant attention. The switch of attention to the control panel can lead to interruptions in the flow of the medical examination. Some ultraportable machines also lack many physical controls. Furthermore, the need to both control the US machine and observe the US image may lead the practitioners to adopt unergonomic postures and repetitive motions that can lead to work-related injuries. Therefore, there is a need for a more efficient human-computer interaction method on US machines.
To tackle some of the limitations with the PCP, we propose to merge the PCP into the main screen of the US machines. We propose to use gaze tracking and a handheld controller so that machine control can be achieved via a multimodal human-computer interaction (HCI) method that does not require one to touch the screen or look away from the US image. As a first step, a pop-up menu and measurement tool were designed on top of the US image based on gaze position for efficient machine control.
A comparative study was performed on the BK Medical SonixTOUCH US machine. Participants were asked to complete the task of measuring the area of an ellipse-shaped tumor in a phantom using our gaze-supported HCI method as well as the traditional method. The user study indicates that the task completion time can be reduced by [Formula: see text] when using our gaze-supported HCI, while no extra workload is imposed on the operators.
Our preliminary study suggests that, when combined with a simple handheld controller, eye gaze tracking can be integrated into the US machine HCI for more efficient machine control.
传统超声（US）设备采用物理控制面板（PCP）作为机器控制的主要用户界面。该面板紧邻主机器显示器，需要操作人员时刻关注。将注意力切换到控制面板可能会中断医疗检查的流程。一些超便携机器也缺乏许多物理控制。此外，控制 US 机器和观察 US 图像的需求可能会导致从业者采用不舒适的姿势和重复性动作，从而导致与工作相关的伤害。因此，US 机器需要更有效的人机交互方法。
为了解决 PCP 的一些限制，我们建议将 PCP 合并到 US 机器的主屏幕中。我们建议使用视线跟踪和手持控制器，以便通过不需要触摸屏幕或从 US 图像上移开视线的多模态人机交互（HCI）方法来实现机器控制。作为第一步，根据视线位置在 US 图像上方设计了弹出菜单和测量工具，以实现高效的机器控制。
在 BK Medical SonixTOUCH US 机器上进行了对比研究。要求参与者使用我们的视线支持 HCI 方法以及传统方法完成测量幻影中椭圆形肿瘤面积的任务。用户研究表明，使用我们的视线支持 HCI 可以将任务完成时间减少[公式：见正文]，而不会给操作人员带来额外的工作负担。
我们的初步研究表明，当与简单的手持控制器结合使用时，眼动追踪可以集成到 US 机器 HCI 中，以实现更高效的机器控制。
