Browser Technology Research Articles

WEB technology — the future of teleradiology?

With the widespread use of the Internet, standard browsers are widely available in radiological and clinical departments. So far the limited speed of the Internet has made teleradiology via the Internet too slow for practical use, but many hospital LANs are now connected to the World Wide Web through high speed access. The new JavaScript technology has made it possible to view examinations with web browsers as simple images instead of sending the full examination data. The full data from the examination remains on the server in the radiology department. If changes in window, level, size, zoom factor etc. are required, corrections are made locally in the web browser with JavaScript, and a new simple image is sent from the server. Web browser technology is now offered by most PACS companies and a new de facto standard for image viewing is emerging.

Web-based acquisition, storage, and retrieval of biomedical signals.

The Web allows ubiquitous access to distributed databases through standard browser technology. However, appropriate middleware software needs to be developed to provide the tools both for accessing databases over the Web and ensuring that querying the knowledge base is possible. In this article we explore a number of these Web technologies and examine a case study based around the acquisition of respiratory flow signals from a Web-enabled spirometer.

EDI via the Internet

Only about 5 per cent of the companies that could be doing EDI are doing EDI. Can the Internet change the mathematics with its lower costs and easy accessibility? The Internet is attractive, not only because it is free and can handle EDI, but because it affords even small retail concerns a new marketplace for linking with suppliers. The Internet has its own vulnerabilities. Unreliable Internet performance could result in message loss – totally unacceptable to trading partners. The Internet is perceived as an unsafe medium for the valuable and sensitive information in business transactions. Mass adoption of Internet/EDI will come when Web browser technology is married to forms‐based EDI. While Internet/EDI may be dark and dangerous, several firms are now conducting pilots or implementing production systems.

Will technology kill the healthcare library?

Will technology kill the healthcare library?

Monitoring and simulating non-stationary vibrations for package optimization

This paper introduces a new method to analyse and simulate vibrations of transport vehicles. The method pays particular attention to the non-stationary nature of vibrations, especially during road transport. The limitations of current methods used for analysing and simulating vehicle vibrations are demonstrated. The paper shows how the Hilbert transform can be used to compute the vibration intensity and offers substantial data reduction advantages. It is shown how statistical characteristics of the vibration intensity can be combined with spectral characteristics to enable more realistic simulations of transport vibrations. Finally, it is shown how the processed data is well suited for use with modern telemetry techniques integrated with web browser technologies. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Bringing the internet to the community

Current developments in browser technology have largely ignored academic research on interface design in hypermedia systems. This is unlikely to change in the future. Thus, the needs of an information society must be met by providing appropriate training in the use of the technology in the community. To be effective, such training has to identify the difficulties computer-naive members of the public experience with existing systems and to consider both software and training based solutions to these problems. This paper seeks to encourage debate about strategies for facilitating access to Internet technology in the community by reviewing both the success and the difficulties encountered in a public access to the Internet outreach programme, the Internet Express, currently operating at libraries in Merseyside, UK.

The Regenstrief Medical Record System: a quarter century experience

Entrusted with the records for more than 1.5 million patients, the Regenstrief Medical Record System (RMRS) has evolved into a fast and comprehensive data repository used extensively at three hospitals on the Indiana University Medical Center campus and more than 30 Indianapolis clinics. The RMRS routinely captures laboratory results, narrative reports, orders, medications. radiology reports, registration information, nursing assessments, vital signs, EKGs and other clinical data. In this paper, we describe the RMRS data model, file structures and architecture, as well as recent necessary changes to these as we coordinate a collaborative effort among all major Indianapolis hospital systems, improving patient care by capturing city-wide laboratory and encounter data. We believe that our success represents persistent efforts to build interfaces directly to multiple independent instruments and other data collection systems, using medical standards such as HL7, LOINC, and DICOM. Inpatient and outpatient order entry systems, instruments for visit notes and on-line questionnaires that replace hardcopy forms, and intelligent use of coded data entry supplement the RMRS. Physicians happily enter orders, problems, allergies, visit notes, and discharge summaries into our locally developed Gopher order entry system, as we provide them with convenient output forms, choice lists, defaults, templates, reminders, drug interaction information, charge information, and on-line articles and textbooks. To prepare for the future, we have begun wrapping our system in Web browser technology, testing voice dictation and understanding, and employing wireless technology.

Interfacing the radiology information system to the modality: an integrated approach.

The radiology information system (RIS) provides patient and examination information that is used in setting up and performing a radiologic procedure. In a digital imaging environment, information from the RIS can also be used to populate fields in the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) image header. Ideally, information from the RIS should be available at the modality at the time of the examination, and automatically be attached to the image in the appropriate DICOM fields before storage in the picture archiving and communications system (PACS). We have designed a highly integrated RIS interface for a digital radiography (DR) system. This interface employs browser technology to make RIS information conveniently available at the modality, and DICOM modality performed procedure step (MPPS) for RIS/DR information exchange. A novel feature of our approach is that a single display screen at the modality is used to alternatively display either the modality control window or the RIS window. Full access to RIS capabilities is available at the modality, including worklists and prior reports.

The open controller

The author proposes a method of achieving open control systems which, he contends, could replace the PLC. It uses IEEE1451 as a truly network-independent standard for transducers and associated networks implemented on volume hardware. A combination of chip vendors and board vendors supplies a variety of markets. JDC/IDC is used for the strategy engines running on chips and boards based on Web technology. Microsoft standards are used for a development environment and for supervisory functions. Operator screens based on Web browser technology are used. The underlying theme should be objects. As for the actual hardware to implement these standards, the fieldbuses at present define hardware: however, people are starting to mix and match. The new RISC machines, found, for instance, in the handheld devices, provide excellent cost-effective vehicles, and mezzanine standards are emerging. Associated flatscreen technology is providing good cost-effective methods for operator displays.

Pocket computers ignite OS battle

Not content with dominating the market for desktop computer operating systems, Microsoft is now involved in a struggle for what could be an even bigger business-the real-time system software required by handhelds, set-top devices, and car PCs. In future, access to information over the Internet will be basic to most if not all applications. Adding support for Web access into the operating system is logical when it is viewed as a basic input/output function, and the size of the operating system is not an issue. But the general-purpose operating system, although bound to assimilate the naturally related browser technology, is not itself assimilable into some up-and-coming consumer areas. The technology of desktop Windows is inadequate for such new devices as hand-held and palm computers, Web-telephones, Web-to-TV set-top boxes, and automobile PCs. Accordingly, Microsoft's latest target is the need of these novel consumer electronic items for a real-time operating system (RTOS)-its home-grown Windows CE. The author discusses the competition between Microsoft and others in this new market.

Asml: Automatic Site Markup Language

Creation of large and complex World Wide Web sites is hampered by the “page at a time” approach of many tools and the programming knowledge and custom software development required for automated solutions. This paper describes the development of Automatic Site Markup Language (ASML). ASML is a new markup language designed to automate and facilitate the production of large, complicated web sites which can include dynamic content or content that changes with time. ASML extends HTML with new, high-level features while still preserving complete compatibility with common browser and server technologies. It has powerful indexing and searching facilities, and enables the automatic translation of document formats. Most importantly, ASML provides HTML-like features at the site level rather than just the page level.

The second wave. Netscape on usability in the services-based Internet

It's common to talk about the usability of browser technology, and how the advent of easy-to-use Web browsers has opened the Internet to unprecedented numbers of people with little or no technical sophistication. It's less common to consider the usability of the entire Internet architecture, and the World Wide Web in particular, by users at all levels: programmer developers, administrators, Webmasters and end-users alike. Netscape Communications offers an application architecture and programming model to extend the same usability that created the information-based (first-wave) Internet to a services-based (second-wave) Internet.

Enterprise computing: the Java factor

The ubiquitous availability of Web browsers on multiple platforms and user familiarity with browser technology provide numerous advantages: a uniform interface; support for multimedia and user interaction and collaboration; a simple communication protocol that has been implemented in all major hardware and software platforms; and support by almost all vendors who package Web engines within their products. Such factors have expedited the implementation of network centric computing as a productive infrastructure for corporate environments. The addition of Java, with its ability to build cross platform application logic into a browser, gives network centric computing the potential to better meet enterprise computing needs. Because it lets users interact with the application on the client rather than the server, Java enables better utilization of both the server and the client's computational capability. Java can also provide sessions state information (for client side session control and resource management) in an otherwise stateless Web world. Besides naturally decentralizing application execution, Java makes it possible to decentralize application deployment. In large enterprises, organization wide applications such as personnel timekeeping or document routing can benefit from Java implementations. One immediate impact is a noticeable reduction of the server load during peak hours. Finally, Java enabled browsers can provide greater functionality than HTML.

QoS management in a World Wide Web environment which supports continuous media

Until recently the World Wide Web (WWW) and associated browser technologies have provided no support for the delivery of continuous media in real time. Instead, files have been down-loaded completely and then played back. There are now some systems available that provide support for streaming of audio and/or video between WWW servers and clients. However the Internet comprises a vast range of networks and end systems with different characteristics, which together determine the level of continuous media service quality that can be supported for a given connection. A quality of service (QoS) model is required that will encompass the heterogeneity of the Internet environment. In this paper we present our approach to delivering continuous media in WWW environments, based on a model of end-to-end QoS management. We have developed an experimental implementation that permits real-time delivery of audio and video within the WWW. Significantly our implementation incorporates end-to-end QoS negotiation and QoS adaptation, which adjusts the delivery stream to match prevailing network and system conditions. We describe the design and implementation of our WWW-based QoS model. We then discuss some issues arising from our experience, including a proposal for future work based on a more open, object oriented architecture.

Access to Geoscience Data from the Seafloor on the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM Using Java{TM} and WWW Browser Technology: ABSTRACTS

Access to Geoscience Data from the Seafloor on the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM Using Java{TM} and WWW Browser Technology: ABSTRACTS