Visualizing Channel Data

The Sonix research devices have a special program installed that allow users to view the individual channel data in real-time. This software is a hardware test software, or HwTest, since it also contains additional functionality for various hardware specifics. The Texo SDK contains a demonstration program, called channels-demo, that also performs the same function as the HwTest software, it may be of interest to run the Texo version, since the source code is available.

Startup

 * 1) Ensure that the Sonix research software is closed
 * 2) Run the HwTest program and press the Initialize button to load the system
 * 3) Press the Channel Analysis button to enter the channel view
 * 4) Select the desired transducer from the Probe Selection list on the right
 * 5) Press Run to start running the sequence

Sequence
Note that since parallel channels cannot be captured, the sequence is actually formulated of 32 (Sonix RP) or 64 (SonixTOUCH Research) separate transmit and receives. With each scanline, a single receive channel is allowed through the beamforming summation, and all other channels are masked off. By sliding the mask, each channel can be visualized in semi-realtime. One final scanline is done at the end which is not masked and acts as a full summation of all the channels.