At The Operating Room of the Future, NorMIT, St Olav's Hospital, we are in the process of going to procurement of an infrastructure for ultrasound based images. To enable development of the image guided techniques for use in surgical applications, access to real time imaging data from ultrasound devices is necessary. This can be done via a research interface, which some of the high end ultrasound scanners for surgical applications offer. In addition, a scanner is needed that opens the possibility to develop new ultrasound probes, either in cooperation with the tenderer or with a third party supplier (such as Vermon, France). Such a scanner is therefore an important component that will contribute to quicker transition from investigations in the laboratory to the patient.