Streamoscope: A Low-Cost, Open-Source, USB-3-Capable Streaming Data Acquisition System for Low-Field MRI

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a powerful, safe imaging technique based on using magnetism to provide contrast between soft tissues. Portable, low-field MRI is a growing area that has already demonstrated value in both educational and clinical domains. Low-field MRI systems need to acquire data with sample rates in the tens of megahertz, which can make the data acquisition system the bulk of the overall cost of low-cost systems. This work presents the Streamoscope: an open-source data acquisition system designed for low-field MRI that streams two 14-bit resolution channels at 60 megasamples per second over USB-3 into Python. It is approximately $300 in parts, about a quarter of the price of the cheapest data acquisition system on the market that would work in our case study. The Streamoscope can stream full-sample-rate raw MRI data into a computer to be processed in Python, enabling real time imaging. The system has been validated by generating 2D images of a phantom on a system with an 8 MHz Larmor frequency.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

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

2024

Author dc:creator

• Feld, Joseph W.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• White, Jacob K.

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
• Copyright retained by author(s)

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/157183

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/157183