A Method of Precise Pulse Onset Determination Using the Akaike Information Criterion for Ultrasound Transmission Tomography

Information criteria used in statistics for model selection can be used to accurately determine pulse transition times in transmission methods. The most popular information criteria are the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and the Bayesian Schwartz Criterion (BIC). These criteria are considered the most reliable tests of model type and structure and are computationally simple. In this paper, an algorithm developed according to the AIC criterion is used to determine the transition time from transmission tomography measurements acquired with a multi-element ultrasonic ring array, which is the scanning element of the novel prototype of ultrasound tomography device for detecting and estimating the malignancy of female breast cancer in vivo. As a result, a new algorithm was developed to precise search for the onset of the recorded receiving pulse. The algorithm was tested in an aqueous environment using elementary pairs of transmitting and receiving ultrasonic transducers of a tomographic ring array.