Shaping Sound to See Sub-Surface Sicknesses

项目目标：通过使用脉冲激光器和空间光调制器对声波进行图案化，开创高分辨率超声。光学超声系统的建模与优化设计。展示新的超声波系统前所未有的分辨率和对组织不均匀性的耐受性。参与该项目的学生将负责开发一种新型的医学超声波扫描仪：一种可以一次扫描全身的扫描仪，以前所未有的细节寻找异常和疾病的迹象。这种新系统可以用来发现恶性肿瘤，精确地将药物输送到大脑，以迄今为止不可能的分辨率观察血液流动中的紊乱，并在不需要接触病人的情况下监测病人，仅举几例应用。该系统使用高功率激光来产生复杂而详细的声波模式，使用计算机视觉技术来确保这些波联合收割机组合成我们想要的模式。这些模式可以引导声波绕过骨骼，产生多个扫描波束，或者补偿颅骨厚度的细微差异，从而在不影响空间分辨率的情况下实现大脑中的超声成像和治疗。其目的是在整个身体中创建高分辨率的超声图像。这就需要能够将投射的光引导到不同的位置，适应声速的细微变化（否则会扭曲和降低高分辨率超声图像），并在被成像的器官深处产生紧密聚焦的超声波束。这个项目的理想学生应该有计算机科学，工程或物理科学的背景。该项目将结合联合收割机在光学，波前整形，机械/电气工程，计算机视觉/人工智能技术和声学许多不同的技能（都可以在实验室教）。

Aims of the Project:Pioneer high-resolution ultrasound by patterning acoustic waves using pulsed lasers and spatial light modulators. Modelling the optical ultrasound system and optimizing the design. Demonstrate the new ultrasound system's unprecedented resolution and tolerance to tissue inhomogeneities.The tudent working on this project will be responsible for the development of a new type of medical ultrasound scanner: one which can scan the whole body at once, looking for abnormalities and signs of disease in unprecedented detail. This new system can be used to find malignant tumours, precisely deliver drugs to the brain, observe disorders in blood flow at hitherto-impossible resolution, and monitor patients without the need to touch them, to name but a few applications.The system uses high-powered lasers to create sound waves in complicated, detailed patterns, using computer vision techniques to make sure these waves combine to make the pattern we want. These patterns might steer the sound wave around bones, produce multiple scanning beams, or compensate for subtle differences in the thickness of the skull to enable ultrasound imaging and therapy in the brain without compromising spatial resolution. The purpose is to create high-resolution ultrasound images throughout the whole body. This requires the ability to steer the projected light to different locations, adapt to subtle variations in the speed of sound (which would otherwise distort and degrade a high-resolution ultrasound image), and create tightly-focussed ultrasound beams deep within the organ being imaged.The ideal student on this project would have a background in computer science, engineering or the physical sciences. The project will combine lots of different skills (which can all be taught in the lab) in optics, wavefront shaping, mechanical / electrical engineering, computer vision / AI techniques and acoustics.