Rapid calibration for 3-D freehand ultrasound.

3-D freehand ultrasound is a new imaging technique that is rapidly finding clinical applications. A position-sensing device is attached to a conventional ultrasound probe so that, as B-scans are acquired, they can be labelled with their relative positions and orientations. This allows a 3-D data set to be constructed from the B-scans. A key requirement of all freehand imaging systems is calibration; that is, determining the position and orientation of the B-scan with respect to the position sensor. This is typically a lengthy and tedious process that may need repeating every time a sensor is mounted on a probe. This paper describes a new calibration technique that takes only a few minutes to perform and produces results that compare favourably (in terms of both accuracy and precision) with previously published alternatives.