Very cool. There was something on HN about a year ago about why ultrasound machines are so expensive. This might provide some background on why something low cost makes sense.<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13230741" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13230741</a>
I have no idea how hackernews always reads my mind about this kind of things but I started thinking about this topic due to a personal interest a few days ago.<p>And my question is. Can the ultrasound probe be made of off-the shelf parts. I think I understand why it's not possible with electromagnetic parts alone (kind of a speaker) they just can't vibrate fast enough to reach the Mhz frequency range.<p>But would it be possible to use a regular crystal oscillator they should be cheap, can easily be found for Mhz frequencies and are basically the same technology as the PZTs used in ultrasound probes. Just remove the casing and excite them, would that work?
Could one use this as a sense-prothesis (without a motor)?<p>How small can the probe head get? Can I tape it to my ringfinger? Any health hazzards?<p>My first try would be taping it to my finger and listening to the signals enveloped mapped to my audible range.
Wow that's really awesome, I'm just skimming the site at the moment, are you planning on selling the pulser boards etc. out of interest, if so roughly how much do they cost?
It's tough to get right with discrete components.<p>As a side note, does anyone reading this have MAX2082EVKIT# lying around in a trash pile somewhere? I'm looking for one.