An ultrasonic sensing and indentation apparatus for assessment of tissue geometry and mechanical properties

Measuring the distance from the skin to the bone and soft tissue mechanical properties is important to custom designing prosthetic sockets for amputee patients using a computer aided method. The current state-of-the-art method to obtain such information is via MRI scans. However, MRI scans are expensive, not widely accessible, and may not be as accurate if there is a time gap between when the MRI scan is taken and when the design process takes place. In this thesis, I designed and implemented a hand-held apparatus which measures both the skin-to-bone depth and soft tissue mechanical properties. With a PC interface, this method involves gathering and processing data from an ultrasound transducer, a force sensor, and an accelerometer. The procedure of use involves rotating the apparatus around the limb while maintaining a light contact to acquire skin-to-bone depth, and indenting the apparatus into the limb to acquire soft tissue mechanical properties. Here I show that a miniaturized apparatus as such can measure tissue boundaries and tissue indentation with sub-millimeter precision and out performs a commercial ultrasound imaging system in my case study, which makes custom computer prosthetic socket design easier, more affordable, and more accessible.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Liu, Zixi, M. Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Hugh M. Herr.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/119592

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/119592