Patent ID: 8535227

Claim:
A method of ultrasound imaging, said method comprising: attaching a detachable transducer head to a signal processing module to form a hand-held probe assembly that includes said signal processing module and said detachable transducer head; receiving ultrasound signals with said hand-held probe assembly from a region of interest to generate a plurality of received digital signals within said hand-held probe assembly; transmitting said plurality of received digital signals to an off-the-shelf commercially available personal digital assistant (PDA) having a touch-screen display over a standard digital interface; selecting an imaging mode from a menu on the touch-screen display of said PDA; digitally beamforming said plurality of received digital signals within said PDA to generate at least one beam of digital data corresponding to said region of interest; and creating and displaying an ultrasound image on said touch-screen display of said PDA.