Democratization of Real-time Multi-Spectral Photoacoustic Imaging: Open-Sourced System Architecture for OPOTEK Phocus & Verasonics Vantage Combination

TL;DR

This paper presents an open-source hardware-software system architecture that enhances real-time multi-spectral photoacoustic imaging by improving synchronization stability and accessibility.

Contribution

It introduces a novel open-source platform combining micro-controller and decoupled data streaming to address synchronization issues in RT-mPAI.

Findings

System achieves stable synchronization in RT-mPAI

Open-source pipeline reduces technical barriers

Fosters collaborative development in the community

Abstract

Real-time multi-spectral photoacoustic imaging (RT-mPAI) often suffers from synchronization instabilities when interfacing fast-tuning lasers with data acquisition platforms executing on non-real-time operating systems. To overcome this, we establish an open-source hardware-software architecture tailored for the widely adopted combination of the OPOTEK Phocus lasers and Verasonics Vantage systems. By employing an independent micro-controller for deterministic laser trigger counting alongside a decoupled client-server data streaming framework, the proposed system circumvents OS-induced timing deviations and local storage bottlenecks. By open-sourcing this pipeline and cultivating a collaborative environment to share both code and ideas, we aim to lower the technical and cost barriers for RT-mPAI, thereby democratizing access to stable RT-mPAI research and, more ambitiously, fostering a vibrant open-source community.