Radial basis function interpolation for freehand 3D ultrasound

Abstract

Freehand 3D ultrasound imaging produces a set of irregularly spaced B-scans, which are typically reconstructed on a regular grid for visualisation and data analysis. Most standard reconstruction algorithms are designed to minimise computational requirements and do not exploit the underlying shape of the data. We investigate whether approximation with splines holds any promise as a better reconstruction method. A radial basis function approximation method is implemented and compared with three standard methods. While the radial basis approach is computationally expensive, it produces accurate reconstructions without the kind of visible artifacts common with the standard methods.