A research team at MIT, led by Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences Canan Dagdeviren, published a study on a portable, real-time 3D ultrasound system for operator-independent breast imaging on July 1, 2026. The paper, titled "Portable, real-time 3D ultrasound for operator-independent breast imaging," appeared in Nature Communications.

The system creates images with improved resolution and can detect potential tumors, cysts, and microcalcifications. Md Osman Goni Nayeem, a former MIT postdoc, and MIT graduate students Shrihari Viswanath and Hyeokjun Yoon are the lead authors.

The new system incorporates a backing layer added to the ultrasound transducer to contain and focus ultrasound waves. This addition increases the range of soundwave frequencies that can be absorbed while reducing acoustical and electrical noise. "With the backing layer, the device produces more accurate and sharper images, with a wider operating range of frequencies," Nayeem said.

Researchers developed an algorithm for adaptive beamforming that compensates for variations in the speed at which sound waves travel through different tissue types. "What we are trying to do is predict the speed of sound properties of the tissue you're imaging, and then use that to reconstruct the image more accurately," Viswanath said. He added, "We see up to a 10 percent improvement in the resolution just by applying this technique."

The team tested the system on 10 volunteers who were not experts in ultrasound technology. These volunteers used the system to locate small micro targets embedded in a tissue phantom, a gel-like material designed to mimic human tissue. Participants achieved a higher success rate identifying spheres with the new system compared to a traditional ultrasound probe.

In a separate trial involving seven people, users accurately placed the probe in the correct location for each scan. The user interface, displayed on a computer screen, guides the user on proper probe placement. "At each time interval, the computer interface guides you to position the device in exactly the same location, which is important for the longitudinal monitoring of a given tissue," Dagdeviren said.

Current ultrasound technology typically requires large equipment and a trained operator. The compact system can create a 3D image of the entire breast by scanning two or three locations. Earlier this year, Dagdeviren's lab published a study on a small ultrasound probe attached to an acquisition and processing module slightly larger than a smartphone.

Interval breast cancers account for 20 to 30 percent of all breast cancer cases and tend to be more aggressive than other breast cancers. Dagdeviren's interest in this area stems from losing an aunt to interval breast cancer in 2015. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, the Lyda Hill Foundation, the MIT Media Lab Consortium, and a Tata Center Technology and Design Fellowship.