Ultrasound Simulator Software

An Innovative tool for Verification of Programming Protocols

The purchase of every Vantage NXT system includes a hardware license to operate the system, as well as five additional Simulator licenses that can be installed on other computers used by lab members.

The Verasonics Simulator software tool enables users to develop and test MATLAB-based programming structures, even without being connected to the acquisition system, allowing multiple users to work in parallel. The Simulator supports visualization of the sequence of events and data acquired from RF to IQ to image data, including 3D images, on any number of channels, even more than are available on the acquisition hardware system.

The Verasonics Simulator software is able to interact with all the Verasonics software utilities and tools, including, for example, showTXPD, showPData, showTrans, showGeometry, and the EventAnalysisTool. These tools can be useful for debugging a script; in fact, Verasonics’ Technical Support team often analyzes customers’ questions by first starting with the simulator. In addition, to develop a new script, Verasonics’ scientists often start with the Simulator, which allows them to do most of the development that does not require hardware (DMA, triggers, analog inputs).

The simulator illustrates basic physics (interaction of sound waves with simple media), and even though it can be described as “more qualitative than quantitative”, it is useful for many programming processes. Even those applications for which the development of scripts might seem to be limited by the 20-cycle waveform (such as Arb Wave, Extended Transmit, HIFU) can still benefit from the depiction of the sound beam profile, sequence of events, and ability to identify and correct programming errors.

The instructions for updating licenses can be found in the User Manual. It instructs the user to run ‘systemInfo’ on the Host Controller that is connected to the Verasonics system and send the resulting systemInfo.txt file to [email protected]. The same process is followed for a Simulator license, except that it must be done on the computer with which the user desires to run the simulator. See the Software Installation Instructions PDF for reference.

Customers’ Comments

The primary reason I use this software is that the Verasonics scanner is the primary ultrasound machine I use for research, and the ability to take a customized acquisition script and easily perform a simulation using the same parameters is invaluable.

I use the software several days a week to generate randomized speckle patterns and apply backscatter coefficient functions to simulate the effects of scatterer size. We use this RF data for the purposes of improving sensitivity for quantitative ultrasound analysis techniques. Another application is the simulation of lines over background speckle for the purpose of analyzing orientation and performing texture analysis.

Joshua Hanson, College Station, Texas (Ken Hoyt lab)
We definitely use the simulator and find it highly useful. I mean, in a way, it’s like asking “Do you use power steering and find it useful?” Sure, we could get by without it, but it would be a major step backwards.  We particularly like the fact that it is easy, provides real-time information, and the “what you see is what you get” aspect, which helps with programming.
Robert Wodnicki, PhD, EchoSono LLC
I use it when I’m trying to develop a program — it’s a good first pass of something that may work before using it on the real device and system.  I like how it’s basically just like using the system itself.  I have also used it to look at how the aperture and other parameters may affect what the resulting image looks like.
Serena Wong , Sunnyvale, CA
My lab uses simulation mode before running our custom sequences on the system. This helps us verify useful information such as the expected data size and calculated parameter values. It also helps us verify the logic of the sequences and allows us to debug in conjunction with the Event Analysis Tool. We can fully test custom process code, including data saving routines, and the expected processing time.

We can even do this while not sitting at a physical system, allowing us to better share resources in the lab.

Nick Bottenus, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Boulder