Description
(2) Material and Methods
Currently three systems with rather different transducer aperture and ultrasound frequency range provided raw data sets for the USCT data base: KIT’s 3D Ultrasound Computer Tomography system (3D USCT), Delft Breast Ultrasound Scanner (DBUS) and Multimodal Ultrasound Breast Imaging System (MUBI). All data sets are provided with data access interface software. The source code is freely available and an issue tracker is provided at a \href{https://github.com/KIT-3DUSCT/3DUSCT-data-access-script}{Github repository}.
The materials of the USCT data base are provided using a free and open license, i.e. the BSD 3-clause license for code and data, allowing for free use and publication of results.
(3) Results
As a result of the joint initiative, a data base has been set up. In addition, a kick-off event for the USCT data base took place at the USCT data challenge at SPIE Medical Imaging 2017. The aim of this event was to bring together experts from the USCT community to identify best practices, as well as to establish specifications for interfaces and to carry out a first comparison of reconstructed images. Six posters were presented and three detailed field reports of groups applying their reconstruction methods to the provided data were submitted. The challenge hosted a two-hour panel discussion, where the panelists and the audience discussed the experiences on applying the currently available datasets and future directions.
(4) Discussion and Conclusion
We expect the data base to enable reproducible comparison of image reconstruction algorithms and USCT systems. It should establish user friendly and easy to use interfaces, standards and data formats between the different USCT systems and their reconstruction algorithms, software and data formats. Further challenges are planned, e.g. comparing the image quality and/or computational performance obtained by different algorithms. Finally, other groups are invited to join in and participate.
