Shaping Sound to See Sub-Surface Sicknesses

项目目标：利用脉冲激光和空间光调制器对声波进行图形化，从而开创高分辨率超声波。光学超声系统建模及优化设计。展示新的超声系统前所未有的分辨率和对组织不均匀性的耐受性。参与这个项目的学生将负责开发一种新型的医学超声扫描仪：它可以一次扫描整个身体，以前所未有的细节寻找异常和疾病的迹象。这个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的紊乱，以及在不需要接触病人的情况下监测病人，这只是其中的一些应用。该系统使用高功率激光产生复杂、详细的声波模式，并使用计算机视觉技术确保这些声波组合成我们想要的模式。这些模式可能会引导骨骼周围的声波，产生多个扫描光束，或者补偿头骨厚度的细微差异，从而在不影响空间分辨率的情况下实现大脑的超声成像和治疗。目的是在全身范围内创建高分辨率超声图像。这需要能够将投射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光束。这个项目的理想学生应该有计算机科学、工程学或物理科学的背景。该项目将结合光学、波前整形、机械/电气工程、计算机视觉/人工智能技术和声学等许多不同的技能（都可以在实验室中教授）。

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.