System, method and apparatus for magnetic tracking of ultrasound probe and generation of 3D visualization thereof

A magnetic based tracking system, comprising:

• a reference device including a magnetometer, wherein the reference device is configured to detect a magnetic field and capture a first set of timestamps for a set of magnetic field strengths of the magnetic field detected over time;
• an ultrasound probe configured to capture ultrasound images and a second set of timestamps for each of the ultrasound images, wherein the ultrasound probe includes a reference magnet configured to generate the magnetic field, wherein the reference device and the ultrasound probe are configured to operate external to a patient body;
• and
• a console including a processor and non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon logic that, when executed by the processor, is configured to perform operations including:
• receiving (i) the ultrasound images and the second set of timestamps from the ultrasound probe, and (ii) the set of magnetic field strengths and the first set of timestamps from the reference device;
• pairing the ultrasound images with the set of magnetic field strengths resulting in ultrasound image-magnetic field strength pairings thereby tracking a positioning of the ultrasound probe in relation to the reference magnet, wherein each ultrasound image-magnetic field strength pairing includes a first ultrasound image having a first timestamp and a first magnetic field strength having a second timestamp, wherein the first timestamp corresponds to a same time as the second timestamp;
• and
• generating a 3D visualization of a portion of the patient body from the ultrasound images by (i) aligning each of the ultrasound images in accordance with the ultrasound image-magnetic field strength pairings and (ii) stitching the ultrasound images together.