Open-Source Live-Reconfigurable Multi-Mode Wearable Ultrasound

Abstract

Wearable ultrasound enables continuous deep-tissue monitoring, and a single programmable probe can operate in multiple complementary modes, such as structural A-mode and Doppler flow measurement. However, each operating mode requires dedicated measurement parameters and peripheral states, with no single configuration serving all modes on resource-constrained devices. Time multiplexing of operating modes introduces reconfiguration latency that lowers the effective mode repetition rate. To address this limitation, we present an open-source, transition-aware control stack for low-latency, in-session reconfiguration of the 32-channel TinyProbe wearable platform. Operating modes are described as hardware configurations, and host-side shadow registers track the peripheral states, enabling transition-specific register updates. Transition sequences are executed either by the host (over Wi-Fi 6) or by a firmware loop on the probe MCU. We validate the stack on a pulsatile-flow phantom by interleaving blocks of 25 to 100 pulsed-wave Doppler shots at 1.43 kHz PRF with single 16-channel A-mode acquisitions, changing channel configurations at every transition. Compared to full reconfiguration, the overhead per transition decreases from 30.2 ms to 11.6 ms (host-scheduled) and 3.1 ms (MCU-scheduled). For 75-shot Doppler blocks, the multi-mode repetition rate reaches 16.0 Hz (MCU-scheduled), 90.1% of the theoretical maximum of 17.7 Hz. Concurrent reconstruction of a Doppler spectrogram and a lumen-diameter trace demonstrates the functionality of time-multiplexed flow and structural monitoring.