METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CALCULATING THE CONTACT POSITION OF AN ULTRASOUND PROBE ON A HEAD

A data processing method for calculating the contact position of a medical ultrasound transceiver on the head of a patient, comprising the steps of: a) acquiring ROI data which represent a region of interest (ROI) corresponding to at least a part of a vessel in a vascular structure; b) acquiring contact region data which represent a contact region for the ultrasound transceiver on the head, wherein the contact region corresponds to one or more acoustic windows; c) determining at least one target point in the region of interest; d) determining at least two entry points on the contact region; e) calculating a set of lines which comprises the lines between the two points of each respective possible pair consisting of one entry point and one target point; f) eliminating lines which pass through a bony structure other than the bone immediately beneath the contact region; g) calculating a score for each of the remaining lines; and h) selecting the entry point of the line with the highest score as the contact position of the ultrasound transceiver.