Using rotation for steerable needle detection in 3D color-Doppler ultrasound images

This paper demonstrates a new way to detect needles in 3D color-Doppler volumes of biological tissues. It uses rotation to generate vibrations of a needle using an existing robotic brachytherapy system. The results of our detection for color-Doppler and B-Mode ultrasound are compared to a needle location reference given by robot odometry and robot ultrasound calibration. Average errors between detection and reference are 5.8 mm on needle tip for B-Mode images and 2.17 mm for color-Doppler images. These results show that color-Doppler imaging leads to more robust needle detection in noisy environment with poor needle visibility or when needle interacts with other objects.