UlRe-NeRF: 3D Ultrasound Imaging through Neural Rendering with Ultrasound Reflection Direction Parameterization

TL;DR

UlRe-NeRF introduces a neural rendering framework for 3D ultrasound imaging that models reflection directions and medium properties, significantly improving image realism and accuracy in complex structures.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel ultrasound neural rendering architecture combining implicit neural networks with explicit volume rendering, incorporating reflection direction parameterization and harmonic encoding.

Findings

Enhanced ultrasound image realism and fidelity.

Improved handling of complex medium structures.

Significant performance gains over traditional methods.

Abstract

Three-dimensional ultrasound imaging is a critical technology widely used in medical diagnostics. However, traditional 3D ultrasound imaging methods have limitations such as fixed resolution, low storage efficiency, and insufficient contextual connectivity, leading to poor performance in handling complex artifacts and reflection characteristics. Recently, techniques based on NeRF (Neural Radiance Fields) have made significant progress in view synthesis and 3D reconstruction, but there remains a research gap in high-quality ultrasound imaging. To address these issues, we propose a new model, UlRe-NeRF, which combines implicit neural networks and explicit ultrasound volume rendering into an ultrasound neural rendering architecture. This model incorporates reflection direction parameterization and harmonic encoding, using a directional MLP module to generate view-dependent high-frequency reflection intensity estimates, and a spatial MLP module to produce the medium's physical property parameters. These parameters are used in the volume rendering process to accurately reproduce the propagation and reflection behavior of ultrasound waves in the medium. Experimental results demonstrate that the UlRe-NeRF model significantly enhances the realism and accuracy of high-fidelity ultrasound image reconstruction, especially in handling complex medium structures.