If a scan is performed so that all the slices are approximately
in the same plane, the position information can be used to patch them
together to create a composite "panorama'' image. This can be done
'live', with the image built up on the screen as the scan is performed
(see Figure 5).
Figure 5: An extended field of view image generated
by joining up a large number of individual 2D scan images.
It is
interesting to draw parallels between today's 3D ultrasound research and
the pioneering days of medical ultrasound. The first ultrasound scan was
produced by Wild & Reid in 1953. In 1964, Smiths Industries on Clydeside
produced the first commercial 2D scanner, called the Diasonograph, incorporating
mechanisms from shipbuilding and a multitude of valves. By the 1970s,
improvements in transducer design resulted in better images, and the 2D
ultrasound machine, as we now know it, emerged in the 1980s.