Autoencoder-based Learning of Transmission Parameters in Fast Pulse-Echo Ultrasound Imaging employing Sparse Recovery

There is recently a notable rise in the exploration of pulse-echo ultrasound image reconstruction techniques that address the inverse problem employing sparse signal and rely on a single measurement cycle. Nevertheless, these techniques continue to pose significant challenges with regard to accuracy of estimations. Previous studies have endeavored to decrease the correlation between received samples in each transducer array in order to enhance accuracy of sparsely approximated solutions to inverse problems. In this paper, our objective is to learn the transmission parameters within a parametric measurement matrix by employing an autoencoder, which encodes sparse spatial data with a parametric measurement matrix and subsequently decodes it using Fast Iterative Shrinkage-Thresholding Algorithm (FISTA). Outcomes exhibit superior performance in comparison to both state-of-art random selection of the parameters and conventional plane wave imaging (PWI) scenarios in terms of reconstruction accuracy.