Software Framework of a Real-time Pre-beamformed RF Data Acquisition of an Ultrasound Research Scanner

Acquisition of pre-beamformed data is essential in advanced imaging research studies such as adaptive beamforming, synthetic aperture imaging, and photoacoustic imaging. Ultrasonix Co. has developed such a data acquisition device for pre-beamformed data known as the SONIX-DAQ, but data can only be downloaded and processed offline rather than streamed in real-time. In this work, we developed a software framework to extend the functionality of the SONIX-DAQ for streaming and processing data in near real-time. As an example, we applied this functionality to our previous work of visualizing photoacoustic images of prostate brachytherapy seeds. In this paper, we present our software framework, applying it to a real-time photoacoustic imaging system, including real-time data collection and data-processing software modules for brachytherapy treatment.