Open AccessCardiac ultrasonography over 4G wireless networks using a tele‐operated robot
Author(s) -
Avgousti Sotiris,
Panayides Andreas S.,
Jossif Antonis P.,
Christoforou Eftychios G.,
Vieyres Pierre,
Novales Cyril,
Voskarides Sotos,
Pattichis Constantinos S.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
healthcare technology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.45
H-Index - 19
ISSN - 2053-3713
DOI - 10.1049/htl.2016.0043
Subject(s) - computer science , video quality , wireless , coding (social sciences) , robot , context (archaeology) , telemedicine , artificial intelligence , computer vision , real time computing , telecommunications , engineering , metric (unit) , paleontology , operations management , statistics , health care , mathematics , economics , biology , economic growth
This Letter proposes an end‐to‐end mobile tele‐echography platform using a portable robot for remote cardiac ultrasonography. Performance evaluation investigates the capacity of long‐term evolution (LTE) wireless networks to facilitate responsive robot tele‐manipulation and real‐time ultrasound video streaming that qualifies for clinical practice. Within this context, a thorough video coding standards comparison for cardiac ultrasound applications is performed, using a data set of ten ultrasound videos. Both objective and subjective (clinical) video quality assessment demonstrate that H.264/AVC and high efficiency video coding standards can achieve diagnostically‐lossless video quality at bitrates well within the LTE supported data rates. Most importantly, reduced latencies experienced throughout the live tele‐echography sessions allow the medical expert to remotely operate the robot in a responsive manner, using the wirelessly communicated cardiac ultrasound video to reach a diagnosis. Based on preliminary results documented in this Letter, the proposed robotised tele‐echography platform can provide for reliable, remote diagnosis, achieving comparable quality of experience levels with in‐hospital ultrasound examinations.