System, Method and Apparatus for Magnetic Tracking of Ultrasound Probe and Generation of 3D Visualization Thereof

A magnetic based tracking system for tracking an ultrasound probe to create a three-dimensional (3D) visualization, the system comprising:

• a reference device including a magnetometer that detects a magnetic field generated by a reference magnet and creates a timestamp for a magnetic field strength reading;
• an ultrasound probe including an ultrasound acoustic transducer or acoustic array that acquires ultrasound images and creates a timestamp for each specific ultrasound image, and a reference magnet configured to generate a magnetic field;
• and
• a console including a processor and non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of logic modules that, when executed by the processor, are configured to perform operations including:
• receiving a plurality of ultrasound images and detected magnetic field strengths,
• coupling a plurality of ultrasound images and detected magnetic field strengths by their timestamps,
• recording the plurality of couplings of ultrasound images and detected magnetic field strengths, and
• generating the 3D visualization from the ultrasound images by aligning each of the ultrasound images in accordance with a corresponding detected magnetic field strength.