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A foot posture index (FPI-6) measurement is well presented as a straightforward clinical tool for diagnosing foot posture in patients. However, the FPI-6 diagnosis is mostly performed by a medical practitioner manually utilizing both palpation and rulers. Digital photos of the feet had been considered to digitize the FPI-6 assessment, unfortunately, the two-dimensional image is inadequate to identify two-palpation based on six criteria of FPI-6. This paper proposes a mechanical platform design for generating a three-dimensional (3D) model of the patient’s foot. The design is aimed to ease the test process of a large number of samples or participants as statistical data to estimate the foot posture based on the FPI-6 method. The 3D-generated models of the foot belonging to 37 children aged below 12 years old show that the FPI-6 Criteria 1 and 4 can be evaluated more clearly in the 3D models compared with flat 2D photos.

Tissue elasticity and viscosity are always associated with pathological changes. As a new imaging method, ultrasound vibro-acoustic imaging is developed for quantitatively measuring tissue elasticity and viscosity which have important significance in early diagnosis of cancer. This paper developed an ultrasound vibro-acoustic imaging research platform mainly consisting of excitation part and detection part. The excitation transducer was focused at one location within the medium to generate harmonic vibration and shear wave propagation, and the detection transducer was applied to detect shear wave at other locations along shear wave propagation path using pulse-echo method. The received echoes were amplified, filtered, digitized and then processed by Kalman filter to estimate the vibration phase. According to the phase changes between different propagation locations, we estimated the shear wave speed, and then used it to calculate the tissue elasticity and viscosity. Preliminary phantom experiments based on this platform show results of phantom elasticity and viscosity close to literature values. Upcoming experiments are now in progress to obtain quantitative elasticity and viscosity in vitro tissue.