UltraScatter: Ray-Based Simulation of Ultrasound Scattering

Abstract

Traditional ultrasound simulation methods solve wave equations numerically, achieving high accuracy but at substantial computational cost. Faster alternatives based on convolution with precomputed impulse responses remain relatively slow, often requiring several minutes to generate a full B-mode image. We introduce UltraScatter, a probabilistic ray tracing framework that models ultrasound scattering efficiently and realistically. Tissue is represented as a volumetric field of scattering probability and scattering amplitude, and ray interactions are simulated via free-flight delta tracking. Scattered rays are traced to the transducer, with phase information incorporated through a linear time-of-flight model. Integrated with plane-wave imaging and beamforming, our parallelized ray tracing architecture produces B-mode images within seconds. Validation with phantom data shows realistic speckle and inclusion patterns, positioning UltraScatter as a scalable alternative to wave-based methods.