ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING SYSTEM WITH CONTEXTUALLY VARIABLE CONTROL PANEL

摘要

An ultrasound system has a control panel formed of a top glass plate with control area graphics screened onto the bottom surface of the glass plate. Capacitive foils are attached to the areas of the screened graphics, enabling a user control to be capacitively selected by touching the top surface above the screened graphics. Each control area is selectively back-illuminated by a diffuser frame with light pipes fastened below the glass plate. LEDs for illumination are mounted on a printed circuit board fastened to the diffuser frame, which are controlled by the printed circuit board. Different groups of user controls are illuminated in accordance with the context of the operating mode or imaging procedure being performed so that only needed control are illuminated while unneeded controls are invisible to the user. All of the controls can be extinguished and de-activated so that the top surface of the control panel can be cleaned without randomly activating the controls of the control panel.

主权项

1. An ultrasound system comprising:
an ultrasound probe for use in imaging; an image display screen; and a user control panel comprising:
a surface and a plurality of user control graphics located on an underside of the surface at fixed positions, the control graphics being surrounded by an opaque color,a barrier layer on the underside of the surface, the barrier layer comprising a plurality of depressions that are below the control graphics and define illumination areas confined to the fixed positions of the user controls, the illumination areas comprising selectively illuminated light sources, andan illumination controller coupled to the light sources and configured to cause different groups of user control graphics to be illuminated for use during different operating modes in accordance with the need for the controls during a selected mode, with the illumination of unneeded user controls being extinguished such that the unneeded controls are substantially invisible to a user due to the opaque color.