USPoint: Self-Supervised Interest Point Detection and Description for Ultrasound-Probe Motion Estimation During Fine-Adjustment Standard Fetal Plane Finding

Cheng Zhao*, Richard Droste, Lior Drukker, Aris T. Papageorghiou, J. Alison Noble

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Ultrasound (US)-probe motion estimation is a fundamental problem in automated standard plane locating during obstetric US diagnosis. Most recent existing recent works employ deep neural network (DNN) to regress the probe motion. However, these deep regression-based methods leverage the DNN to overfit on the specific training data, which is naturally lack of generalization ability for the clinical application. In this paper, we are back to generalized US feature learning rather than deep parameter regression. We propose a self-supervised learned local detector and descriptor, named USPoint, for US-probe motion estimation during the fine-adjustment phase of fetal plane acquisition. Specifically, a hybrid neural architecture is designed to simultaneously extract a local feature, and further estimate the probe motion. By embedding a differentiable USPoint-based motion estimation inside the proposed network architecture, the USPoint learns the keypoint detector, scores and descriptors from motion error alone, which doesn’t require expensive human-annotation of local features. The two tasks, local feature learning and motion estimation, are jointly learned in a unified framework to enable collaborative learning with the aim of mutual benefit. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first learned local detector and descriptor tailored for the US image. Experimental evaluation on real clinical data demonstrates the resultant performance improvement on feature matching and motion estimation for potential clinical value. A video demo can be found online: https://youtu.be/JGzHuTQVlBs.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMedical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention – MICCAI 2022 - 25th International Conference, Proceedings
EditorsLinwei Wang, Qi Dou, P. Thomas Fletcher, Stefanie Speidel, Shuo Li
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages104-114
Number of pages11
ISBN (Print)9783031164484
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022
Externally publishedYes
Event25th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention, MICCAI 2022 - Singapore, Singapore
Duration: 18 Sep 202222 Sep 2022

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume13437 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference25th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention, MICCAI 2022
Country/TerritorySingapore
CitySingapore
Period18/09/2222/09/22

Funding

FundersFunder number
Manchester Biomedical Research Centre
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme694581
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research CouncilEP/R013853/1, EP/MO13774/1

    Keywords

    • Local detector and descriptor
    • Obstetric US
    • Probe motion

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