A Low-Cost System Concept for Initial Sonography Training

In this paper a concept of a low-cost system for initial training of sonography specialists is presented. The system consists of a 6 DOF haptic device equipped with force feedback, body phantom and a special software. The haptic device is intended to help in learning and improving basic motions used during ultrasound scanning. The body phantom is necessary to imitate a real human body and simulate pathologies. Several different technologies for body phantom manufacturing were proposed and tested with ultrasound scanner. The comparison with real human body scan allowed choosing the most suitable manufacturing approaches for further development.