  We present PRETUS -a Plugin-based Real Time UltraSound software platform for
live ultrasound image analysis and operator support. The software is
lightweight; functionality is brought in via independent plug-ins that can be
arranged in sequence. The software allows to capture the real-time stream of
ultrasound images from virtually any ultrasound machine, applies computational
methods and visualises the results on-the-fly.
  Plug-ins can run concurrently without blocking each other. They can be
implemented in C ++ and Python. A graphical user interface can be implemented
for each plug-in, and presented to the user in a compact way. The software is
free and open source, and allows for rapid prototyping and testing of real-time
ultrasound imaging methods in a manufacturer-agnostic fashion. The software is
provided with input, output and processing plug-ins, as well as with tutorials
to illustrate how to develop new plug-ins for PRETUS.
