The heart of the electronic medical imaging department that is fast evolving will be the workstation where the medical images are displayed for interpretation by the radiologist. We will investigate issues related to the desired properties of this workstation and the interpretation process of the radiologist in this environment. These investigations fall into two categories. First, an appropriate layout of the display station and effective layout, format, and manipulations of images must be determined. Second, a means of contrast enhancement that is both adequately convenient and effective for use with multi-image presentations must be established. We will compare the reading process and diagnostic capability of radiologists using film and different electronic displays, via both descriptive experiments involving eyetracking, videotaping, and interviewing, and quantitative observer studies. In particular, we will study the number and format of images that must be displayed simultaneously, the usefulness of spatial screen windows for presentation of a subset of the total set of images in a patient study, and the use of roam and zoom as a means of compensating for the inability to display the full image at full acquisition sampling. We will also evaluate the effectiveness of clipped adaptive histogram equalization (clahe) as the default display mode for slice-producing modalities of medical imaging and develop parameter values for this method as a function of medical image type and body region imaged. Using time-motion techniques standard in measuring computer-human interaction, we will investigate questions of the layout and selection of console screens and interactive devices and develop models of the process of navigating through large sets of medical images. Also, we will develop a complete design of special purpose VLSI-based hardware for the fast calculation of clahe and other image processing algorithms.
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