Abstract
Despite the fact that a large number of web applications are used in the medical community, there are still certain technological challenges that need to be addressed, for example, browser plug-ins and efficient 3D visualization. These problems make it necessary for a specific browser plug-in to be preinstalled on the client side when launching applications. Otherwise, the applications fail to run due to the lack of the required software. This paper presents the latest techniques in hypertext markup language 5 (HTML5) and web graphics library (WebGL) for solving these problems and an evaluation of the suitability of the combination of HTML5 and WebGL for the development of web-based medical imaging applications. In this study, a comprehensive medical imaging application was developed using HTML5 and WebGL. This application connects to the medical image server, runs on a standard personal computer (PC), and is easily accessible via a standard web browser. The several functions required for radiological interpretation were implemented, for example, navigation, magnification, windowing, and fly-through. The HTML5-based medical imaging application was tested on major browsers and different operating systems over a local area network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN). The experimental results revealed that this application successfully performed two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) functions on different PCs over the LAN and WAN. Moreover, it demonstrated an excellent performance for remote access users, especially over a short time period for 3D visualization and a real-time fly-through navigation. The results of the study demonstrate that HTML5 and WebGL combination is suitable for the development of medical imaging applications. Moreover, the advantages and limitations of these technologies are discussed in this paper.
Highlights
Internet technologies have evolved to a point where it is possible to create web-based applications that are comparable with those typically found on desktop computers and workstations
A demo application for computed tomography colonography (CTC), known as virtual colonoscopy, is designed to satisfy all criteria and is used to conduct an evaluation of the hypertext markup language 5 (HTML5) and web graphics library (WebGL) combination as a development tool. e initial start page for the demo application is presented in Figure 1 and available at http://203.195.157.19/datatest/2D_Viewer.html. e operation flow of radiological interpretation using this demo application is as follows: Step 1
To evaluate the HTML5-based application, two types of experiments were conducted. e first was used to determine the performance of the application on multiple platforms. e second was used to evaluate the performance of the application using either a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN). ree datasets were used in the experiments. e data were downloaded from the Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA), which provides a freely accessible and open archive of cancer-specific medical images to the research community [39]
Summary
Internet technologies have evolved to a point where it is possible to create web-based applications that are comparable with those typically found on desktop computers and workstations. These applications enable radiologists to share images and implement remote access interpretations, there are still certain technological challenges that need to be addressed. Certain constraints such as administrative permission prohibit changes to the computer In this case, Java-based web applications fail to run due to the unsuccessful installation of the JVM. A similar problem exists with ActiveX applications If this problem remains unsolved, radiologists may be unable to use the applications due to the lack of the required browser plug-in, thereby discouraging them from implementing remote access interpretations in the future
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