Image Data Transfer Research Articles

Characterization of image transfer patterns in a regional trauma network.

Trauma Networks are currently founded in Germany to improve patient care of severely injured persons. To assure appropriate patient treatment in a short time, the transfer of radiological image data between the connected hospitals over the internet is an important method. This paper characterizes radiological image transfer patterns in a regional trauma network and analyzes various compression options. Within the "TraumaNetwork NorthWest" in Germany, the web-based platform "MedSix" was developed. MedSix is able to transfer DICOM-data quickly and easily between connected hospitals and can be directly connected to the local PACS. Audit data of the routine system between the 01.01.2012 and the 31.12.2012 were analyzed to identify typical characteristics of radiological image exchanges. Five different compression methods were compared by a simulation. MedSix has been used by 12 hospitals. 87% of the transfers were uploaded within 15min. Lossless compression is able to save about 50% bandwidth. 82% of the transfers have a data volume of less than 200MB. Temporary accounts for non-regular users were used regularly. Most transfers were done from small to maximum care hospitals. It is feasible to substitute physical image exchange in a trauma network with electronic exchange of radiological images between the connected hospitals. Even large datasets are transferred within an acceptable time frame. Most transfers occur from small to large hospitals. The possibility of temporary accounts seems to be a key feature for the user acceptance.

Development of an inspection system using an UV wavelength for defects on the thin electrode in a multilayer pattern

Generally, the Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED), Light-Emitting Diode (LCD), Touch Screen Panel (TSP) glass and Thin Film Transistor (TFT) pattern consists of multiple layers of electrodes separated by thin insulating films. In multilayered devices, when using visible light to inspect the electrode pattern and the defect, the critical shapes of a specific layer are difficult to define. To increase the image contrast between the materials and the layers, this study uses a UV wavelength, which has larger selective differences in reflectance than a visible wavelength. The newly-developed optical system and image analysis units are made to focus on a specific UV range to precisely define a top electrode layer. Two types of magnification systems are developed. Direct side illumination is available in a magnification 1.2 (1.2x) system with a large back focal length (BFL). However, in a magnification 3 (3x) system, on-axis line beam illumination is needed. A multi-point LED source (custom-made) and an anamorphic optical system is used to increase the light efficiency and decrease the noise. Electric units and an algorithm for high-speed image processing and data transfer are also developed. The final images have good selective contrast between the layers despite the high-depth condition decided by the required NA for the target resolution. This system can be used for the inspection of general display panels, Printed Circuit Board (PCB) patterns, and mobile glasses that are composed of multilayered films.

DESIGN ISSUES AND CHALLENGES OF RELIABLE AND SECURE TRANSMISSION OF MEDICAL IMAGES

The transmission of digital image data now a day’s become a routine and necessity of our society .The amount of digital medical data is increasing rapidly on internet. Now it is become necessity of the secure and reliable digital image data transfer for the fast and efficient diagnosis in the medical world. A lot of data is to be transferred between hospital where the major portion of the data is the medical images, patient history, and pervious diagnosis record. Digital Imaging and communication in medicine (DICOM) standard are used to solve this problem where the patient records are attached. To make the transmission robust the patient record are embedded in the medical image using digital water marking technique for the reliable and secure transmission. The various type of noise may corrupt the medical image data during transmission and even storage media may also be affected. Using Error Control Coding Techniques to Encode the medical images may one of the possible solutions for this problem.

Integrated Analysis Platform: An Open-Source Information System for High-Throughput Plant Phenotyping.

High-throughput phenotyping is emerging as an important technology to dissect phenotypic components in plants. Efficient image processing and feature extraction are prerequisites to quantify plant growth and performance based on phenotypic traits. Issues include data management, image analysis, and result visualization of large-scale phenotypic data sets. Here, we present Integrated Analysis Platform (IAP), an open-source framework for high-throughput plant phenotyping. IAP provides user-friendly interfaces, and its core functions are highly adaptable. Our system supports image data transfer from different acquisition environments and large-scale image analysis for different plant species based on real-time imaging data obtained from different spectra. Due to the huge amount of data to manage, we utilized a common data structure for efficient storage and organization of data for both input data and result data. We implemented a block-based method for automated image processing to extract a representative list of plant phenotypic traits. We also provide tools for build-in data plotting and result export. For validation of IAP, we performed an example experiment that contains 33 maize (Zea mays 'Fernandez') plants, which were grown for 9 weeks in an automated greenhouse with nondestructive imaging. Subsequently, the image data were subjected to automated analysis with the maize pipeline implemented in our system. We found that the computed digital volume and number of leaves correlate with our manually measured data in high accuracy up to 0.98 and 0.95, respectively. In summary, IAP provides a multiple set of functionalities for import/export, management, and automated analysis of high-throughput plant phenotyping data, and its analysis results are highly reliable.

CT and MRI image compression using wavelet-based contourlet transform and binary array technique

Compression techniques are essential for efficient storage and fast transfer of medical image data. In this paper, a rapid 2-D lossy compression technique constructed using wavelet-based contourlet transform (WBCT) and binary array technique (BAT) has been proposed for computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images. In WBCT, the high-frequency subband obtained from wavelet transform is further decomposed into multiple directional subbands by directional filter bank to obtain more directional information. The relationship between the coefficients has been changed in WBCT as it has more directions. The differences in parent---child relationships are handled by a repositioning algorithm. The repositioned coefficients are then subjected to quantization. The quantized coefficients are further compressed by BAT where the most frequently occurring value is coded only once. The proposed method has been experimented with real-time CT and MRI images, the results indicated that the processing time of the proposed method is less compared to existing wavelet-based set-partitioning in hierarchical trees and set-partitioning embedded block coders. The evaluation results obtained from radiologists indicated that the proposed method could reproduce the diagnostic features of CT and MRI images precisely.

Shape reconstruction from images: Pixel fields and Fourier transform

We discuss shape reconstruction methods for data presented in various image spaces. We demonstrate the usefulness of the Fourier transform in transferring image data and shape model projections to a domain more suitable for shape inversion. Using boundary contours in images to represent minimal information, we present uniqueness results for shapes recoverable from interferometric and range-Doppler data. We present applications of our methods to adaptive optics, interferometry, and range-Doppler images.

Compressing repeated content within large-scale remote sensing images

Large-scale remote sensing images, including both satellite and aerial photographs, are widely used to render terrain scenes in real-time geographic visualization systems. Such systems often require large memories in order to store fine terrain details and fast network speeds to transfer image data, if they are built as web applications. In this paper, we propose a progressive texture compression framework to reduce the memory and bandwidth cost by compressing repeated content within and among large-scale remote sensing images. Different from existing image factorization methods, our algorithm incrementally find similar regions in new images so that large-scale images can be more efficiently compressed over time. We further propose a descriptor, the Gray Split Rotate (GSR) descriptor, to accelerate the similarity search. The reconstruction quality is finally improved by compressing residual error maps using customized S3TC-like compression. Our experiment shows that even with the error maps, our system still has higher compression rate and higher compression quality than using S3TC alone, which is a typical compression solution in most existing visualization systems.

无线OLED微显示器系统的设计与实现

According to the problems of LCOS power consumption and the user experience for the existing microdisplay system,what is more,physical wires generally between the image transmitter and microdisplay or the use of the transmission efficiency not high of wireless image transmission protocol and so on,this work adopted the OLED microdisplay and wireless image data transfer protocol based on the non-compressed data WHDI,and used the FPGA EP2C8Q208C8 as the core control device.In the meantime,a host controller and OLED microdisplay driver and control module were designed.Thus the entire wireless OLED microdisplay system was designed and the realtime wireless transmission and display of high-definition images were realized.

ATOM - an OMERO add-on for automated import of image data.

BackgroundModern microscope platforms are able to generate multiple gigabytes of image data in a single experimental session. In a routine research laboratory workflow, these data are initially stored on the local acquisition computer from which files need to be transferred to the experimenter's (remote) image repository (e.g., DVDs, portable hard discs or server-based storage) because of limited local data storage. Although manual solutions for this migration, such as OMERO - a client-server software for visualising and managing large amounts of image data - exist, this import process may be a time-consuming and tedious task.FindingsWe have developed ATOM, a Java-based and thus platform-independent add-on for OMERO enabling automated transfer of image data from a wide variety of acquisition software packages into OMERO. ATOM provides a graphical user interface and allows pre-organisation of experimental data for the transfer.ConclusionsATOM is a convenient extension of the OMERO software system. An automated interface to OMERO will be a useful tool for scientists working with file formats supported by the Bio-Formats file format library, a platform-independent library for reading the most common file formats of microscope images.

Tracking latency in image-based dynamic MLC tracking with direct image access

Purpose. Target tracking is a promising method for motion compensation in radiotherapy. For image-based dynamic multileaf collimator (DMLC) tracking, latency has been shown to be the main contributor to geometrical errors in tracking of respiratory motion, specifically due to slow transfer of image data from the image acquisition system to the tracking system via image file storage on a hard disk. The purpose of the current study was to integrate direct image access with a DMLC tracking system and to quantify the tracking latency of the integrated system for both kV and MV image-based tracking. Method. A DMLC tracking system integrated with a linear accelerator was used for tracking of a motion phantom with an embedded tungsten marker. Real-time target localization was based on x-ray images acquired either with a portal imager or a kV imager mounted orthogonal to the treatment beam. Images were processed directly without intermediate disk access. Continuous portal images and system log files were stored during treatment delivery for detailed offline analysis of the tracking latency. Results. The mean tracking system latency for kV and MV image-based tracking as function of the imaging interval ΔTimage increased linearly with ΔTimage as 148 ms + 0.58 * ΔTimage (kV) and 162 ms + 1.1 * ΔTimage (MV). The latency contribution from image acquisition and image transfer for kV image-based tracking was independent on ΔTimage at 103 ± 14 ms. For MV-based tracking, it increased with ΔTimage as 124 ms + 0.44 * ΔTimage. For ΔTimage = 200 ms (5 Hz imaging), the total latency was reduced from 550 ms to 264 ms for kV image-based tracking and from 500 ms to 382 ms for MV image-based tracking as compared to the previously used indirect image transfer via image file storage on a hard disk. Conclusion. kV and MV image-based DMLC tracking was successfully integrated with direct image access. It resulted in substantial tracking latency reductions compared with image-based tracking without direct image access.

The Making of Workpieces Using Autocad Software based Siemens Sinumerik 802C Base Line Frais Machine

The purpose of the study is to: (a) Make the engine component design drawings using AutoCAD software, (b) Transfer of image data from AutoCAD to Mastercam X software, (c) Execute program from Mastercam X data into Siemens Sinumerik 802C Base Line CNC 90(Computer Numeric Control) Frais machine. The method used is based on experiment by making the design drawings in AutoCAD software and then transferred into language program of the Siemens Sinumerik 802C Base Line CNC Frais machine through madiator software, Mastercam X. The results showed that the Mastercam X software can display N Code / G Code derived from 2D AutoCAD drawings.

MO-A-224-01: A Review of the TG-201 Rapid Communication: QA of Data Transfer

Radiation therapy is a data intensive endeavor where multiple data transfers occur among various software applications, databases and treatment devices. Errors in data transfer or interpretation can lead to mistreatments. Hence, it is important to have recommendations for the quality assurance of data transfers for external beam radiotherapy. This is the subject of a rapid communication (RC) from the AAPM TG201. In this session, we will review the TG201 RC. An overview, rationale and administrative issues for a QA program will be described in terms of the responsibilities of the medical physicist for maintaining a systems approach to the clinical processes that require data transfers. The 14 recommendations of that section will provide the framework for the QA of treatment data, which is covered by another 14 recommendations that were deemed to be the most important issues by TG201. The remainder of the session will discuss recommendations regarding the logical consistency and integrity of the treatmentdatabase as well as imaging data that are transferred for image guided radiotherapy. We will conclude with an analysis of the manpower requirements for a data transfer QA program. Learning Objectives: 1. Understand the data flow within the clinical processes for external beam radiotherapy, the errors that could occur, and the management of the QA program that is recommended for patient safety. 2. Organize the list of recommendations for treatment data transfer QA into a checklist that clinics could use to assess the state of their QA program. 3. Learn relevant database concepts within the context of information integrity and logical consistency of treatment data. 4. Determine the image data transfer recommendations that are applicable to one's clinic.

웹서비스 기반의 Grid-PACS 상호운용성 프레임워크

최근 증가하는 협업 연구는 원격 의료 데이터 공유 및 외부 기관의 데이터 접근을 요구하고 있다. 본 논문에서는 융통성 있고 효율적인 의료 데이터 관리를 위해 웹서비스를 이용하여 그리드와 PACS 간의 상호운용성 프레임워크를 제안하고 구현하였다. DICOM 표준은 PACS와 이미지 데이터베이스 사이에 의료 이미지 데이터의 교환과 전송을 정의한다. 그러나 병원들 간 의료 데이터 교환은 신뢰할 수 있는 기관들 사이에서만 제공된다. 더군다나 DICOM은 의료 데이터 관리 기능을 제공하지 않고 그리드 미들웨어는 DICOM 데이터에 접근 가능한 표준 툴킷을 제공하고 있지 않고 있다. 본 논문에서는 이러한 문제를 해결하기 위하여 PACS 간의 연동과 의료 데이터 관리를 가능하게 하는 웹 서비스기반의 그리드 서비스 중계자(Web Services-based Grid Service Mediator, WGSM)를 개발하였다. WGSM은 압축 중계자, GridFTP 중계자, RFT 중계자, MyProxy 중계자, MDS 중계자, RLS 중계자 등으로 구성된다. 제안한 웹서비스 기반의 프레임워크는 협업 환경에서 PACS 간 사용자 인증 및 안전한 데이터 접근을 제공한다. 특히, WGSM은 일반 사용자들이 그리드 미들웨어에 대한 어떠한 지식이 없어도 간단하고 효율적인 방법으로 원격 PACS를 접근할 수 있게 한다. Recently the increasing collaborative research requires the remote medical and clinical data sharing and access of external institutions. In this paper, an interoperability framework between Grid and PACS using Web services is proposed and implemented in order to provide flexible and efficient medical data management. The Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine(DICOM) standard defines medical image data exchange and transfer between PACSs and image databases. However, medical data exchange between hospitals is limited within the trusted and static environments. Moreover, DICOM does not provide medical data management and the Grid middleware does not include standard toolkit to access DICOM data. To address this issue, a Web services-based Grid Service Mediator (WGSM) which provides PACS integration and medical image data management is developed. The WGSM consists of several service mediators such as compress mediator, GridFTP mediator, RFT mediator, MyProxy mediator, MDS mediator, and RLS mediator and others. The proposed Web services-based framework provides user authentication and secure data access between PACSs in collaborative environments. In particular, the WGSM allows ordinary users to access remote PACS data in a simple and efficient manner without any the knowledge about underlying Grid middleware.

Making the PACS workstation a browser of image processing software: a feasibility study using inter-process communication techniques

To enhance the functional expandability of a picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) workstation and to facilitate the integration of third-part image-processing modules, we propose a browser-server style method. In the proposed solution, the PACS workstation shows the front-end user interface defined in an XML file while the image processing software is running in the background as a server. Inter-process communication (IPC) techniques allow an efficient exchange of image data, parameters, and user input between the PACS workstation and stand-alone image-processing software. Using a predefined communication protocol, the PACS workstation developer or image processing software developer does not need detailed information about the other system, but will still be able to achieve seamless integration between the two systems and the IPC procedure is totally transparent to the final user. A browser-server style solution was built between OsiriX (PACS workstation software) and MeVisLab (Image-Processing Software). Ten example image-processing modules were easily added to OsiriX by converting existing MeVisLab image processing networks. Image data transfer using shared memory added <10ms of processing time while the other IPC methods cost 1-5 s in our experiments. The browser-server style communication based on IPC techniques is an appealing method that allows PACS workstation developers and image processing software developers to cooperate while focusing on different interests.

Computational Hemodynamic Analysis in Congenital Heart Disease: Simulation of the Norwood Procedure

Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is a congenital heart disease which should be treated at neonate. Even now, its operation is one of the greatest challenges. However, currently there are no quantitative standards to evaluate and predict the outcome of the therapy. In this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to estimate the performance of first stage HLHS surgery, the Norwood operation. An image data transfer system was developed to convert clinical images into three-dimensional geometry. To confirm software applicability, a validation process was carried out to eliminate any influence of numerical procedures. The velocities derived from echocardiography measurements were used as boundary conditions, and pressure waves measured by a cardiac catheter simultaneous with an electrocardiogram (ECG) were employed to validate the results of CFD simulation. Calculated results were congruent with the in vivo measurement results. The blood flow circulations were successfully simulated and the distribution of blood flow in each vessel was estimated. Time-varying energy losses (EL), local pressure and wall shear stress (WSS) were analyzed to estimate clinical treatment. The results indicated that pulsatile simulation is essential in quantitative evaluation. Computational hemodynamics may be applied in the surgical optimization for the treatment of HLHS.

Application of holographic display in radiotherapy treatment planning II: a multi-institutional study.

We hypothesized that use of a true 3D display providing easy visualization of patient anatomy and dose distribution would lead to the production of better quality radiation therapy treatment plans. We report on a randomized prospective multi‐institutional study to evaluate a novel 3D display for treatment planning.The Perspecta® Spatial 3D System produces 360° holograms by projecting cross‐sectional images on a diffuser screen rotating at 900 rpm. Specially‐developed software allows bi‐directional transfer of image and dose data between Perspecta and the Pinnacle planning system.Thirty‐three patients previously treated at three institutions were included in this IRB‐approved study. Patient data were de‐identified, randomized, and assigned to different planners. A physician at each institution reviewed the cases and established planning objectives. Two treatment plans were then produced for each patient, one based on the Pinnacle system alone and another in conjunction with Perspecta. Plan quality was then evaluated by the same physicians who established the planning objectives. All plans were viewable on both Perspecta and Pinnacle for review. Reviewing physicians were blinded to the planning device used. Data from a 13‐patient pilot study were also included in the analysis.Perspecta plans were considered better in 28 patients (61%), Pinnacle in 14 patients (30%), and both were equivalent in 4 patients. The use of non‐coplanar beams was more common with Perspecta plans (82% vs. 27%). The mean target dose differed by less than 2% between rival plans. Perspecta plans were somewhat more likely to have the hot spot located inside the target (43% vs. 33%). Conversely, 30% of the Pinnacle plans had the hot spot outside the target compared with 18% for Perspecta plans. About 57% of normal organs received less dose from Perspecta plans. No statistically significant association was found between plan preference and planning institution or planner.The study found that use of the holographic display leads to radiotherapy plans preferred in a majority of cases over those developed with 2D displays. These data indicate that continued development of this technology for clinical implementation is warranted.PACS numbers: 87.55.D

Principal Component Analysis-Based Object Detection/Recognition Chip for Wireless Interconnected Three-Dimensional Integration

To develop image detection/recognition systems for various types of multiobjects that operate in real-time/real-world with small-size hardware and low-power dissipation, three-demensional (3-D) integration of multichips is required. We have designed a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) test chip for object detection/recognition utilizing the processing algorithm based on the eigenface method and wireless chip-to-chip interconnections. Furthermore, a 3-D integration system was designed utilizing wireless chip-to-chip interconnections of parallel inductor-coupled local wireless interconnect (LWI) for 5.3 Gbps image data transfer, and antenna-coupled global wireless interconnect (GWI) for 500 Mbps clock and command distribution. With the prospect of realizing enhanced system performance using 0.18 µm CMOS chips, object detection/recognition times of 580 µs for detection and 4.2 µs for one-to-one recognition, and 40 giga operation per second (GOPS) processing capabilities at a 250 MHz clock frequency were obtained.

Das DICOM-CD-Projekt der Deutschen Röntgengesellschaft - eine Übersicht über die Inhalte und Ergebnisse des Pilottests 2006

DICOM-CDs are frequently used for medical image data transfer. Many different potential advantages are known, such as improved image quality, handling simplification, and cost optimization. However, there are numerous restrictions in the daily routine. While testing DICOM-CDs at the 2006 German Radiology Congress, we found that more than 70 % of CDs have discrepancies with respect to data structure or content. The German Radiological Association and OFFIS started an initiative to improve the quality of DICOM-CDs. There are three main objectives: To provide requirements for vendors of CD-writing systems, to establish user guidelines for the handling of DICOM-CDs, and to develop a test procedure for DICOM-CDs. Radiologists using such systems should be aware of these developments and use them for RFP's.

RT_Image: An Open-Source Tool for Investigating PET in Radiation Oncology

Positron emission tomography (PET) has emerged as a valuable imaging modality for the diagnosis and staging of cancer. However, despite evidence that PET may be useful for defining target volumes for radiation therapy, no standardized methodology for accomplishing this task exists. To facilitate the investigation of the utility of PET imaging in radiotherapy treatment planning and accelerate its integration into clinical radiation oncology, we have developed software for exploratory analysis and segmentation of functional imaging datasets. The application, RT_Image, allows display of multiple imaging datasets and associated three-dimensional regions-of-interest (ROIs) at arbitrary view angles and fields of view. It also includes semi-automated image segmentation tools for defining metabolically active tumor volumes that may aid creation of target volumes for treatment planning. RT_Image is DICOM compliant, permitting the transfer of imaging data and DICOM-RT structure sets between the application and treatment planning software. RT_Image has been used by radiation oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians, and radiation physicists to analyze over 200 PET datasets. Novel segmentation techniques have been implemented within this programming framework for therapy planning and for evaluation of molecular imaging-derived parameters as prognostic indicators. RT_Image represents a freely-available software base on which further investigations of the utlity of PET and molecular imaging in radiation oncology may be built. The development of tools such as this is critical in order to realize the potential of molecular imaging-guided radiation therapy.

PfeLib—A Performance Primitives Library for Embedded Vision

This paper presents our work on PfeLib--a high performance software library for image processing and computer vision algorithms for an embedded system. The main target platform for PfeLib is the TMS320C6000 series of digital signal processors (DSPs) from Texas instruments. PfeLib contains several new approaches for problems that are typical when developing software for embedded systems. We propose a method for image data transfer from a development host (PC) to an embedded system for test and verification. This enables step-by-step performance optimizations directly on the target platform. An optimization procedure is described that illustrates our approach for obtaining the best possible DSP performance with a reasonable development effort. Speedup improvement factors of up to 16 were achieved. Also, the problem of the limited on-chip memory on DSPs is addressed by a novel double buffering method using direct memory access (DMA), called resource optimized slicing (ROS-DMA). ROS-DMA is intended to be used instead of L2 cache and it is a core component of PfeLib--it achieves up to six times faster image processing as compared to using L2 cache.