| CPC A61B 8/4245 (2013.01) [A61B 8/0841 (2013.01); A61B 8/4488 (2013.01); A61B 8/488 (2013.01); A61B 90/37 (2016.02); A61B 5/7257 (2013.01); A61B 2034/2063 (2016.02); A61B 2090/364 (2016.02); A61B 2090/378 (2016.02)] | 2 Claims |

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1. A method for localizing a medical device using an ultrasound imaging system, the steps of the method comprising:
(a) acquiring Doppler signal data representative of a medical device having coupled thereto an active element that is transmitting acoustic energy at an active element excitation frequency while the Doppler signal data are acquired;
(b) generating with a computer system, time domain data based on the Doppler signal data;
(c) modulating the time domain data using the active element excitation frequency to create a first resultant modulated signal;
(d) modulating the time domain data using the active element excitation frequency to create a second resultant modulated signal;
(e) isolating positive Doppler shifts in the time domain data based on a first combination of the first and second modulated signals using the computer system;
(f) isolating negative Doppler shifts in the time domain data based on a second combination of the first and second modulated signals using the computer system;
(g) identifying spatial locations as being associated with a location of the active element by implementing a mean frequency estimator with a hardware processor and a memory of the computer system, wherein the mean frequency estimator takes as an input the isolated positive Doppler shifts and the isolated negative Doppler shifts in the time domain; and
(h) generating with the computer system, a display that provides a visual depiction of the spatial locations associated with the location of the active element.
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