INTRODUCTION TO PERCEPTUAL LINEARIZATION OF VIDEO DISPLAY SYSTEMS FORMEDICAL IMAGE PRESENTATION

The perceptual linearization of video display systems should play a si gnificant role in medical image presentation. It maximizes the faithfu lness of information transfer to the human observer; it provides a met hod for standardizing the appearance of images across different displa y devices; and it allows for calculation of the inherent contrast reso lution of different display devices. This paper provides insight into the process of perceptual linearization by decomposing it into the dig ital driving level-to-monitor luminance relationship, the monitor lumi nance-to-human brightness perception relationship, and the constructio n of a linearization function derived from these two relationships. A discussion of previous work in these areas is given. We then compare a nd contrast the results of previous work with recent experiments in ou r laboratory and related work in vision and computer science. We concl ude that (1) sufficiently good visual models exist for agreeing on a s tandard method of calculating the perceptual linearization function; ( 2) improvements in the resolution and luminance distribution of the di gital-to-analog circuitry in display systems are required for medical imaging; and (3), methods for calculating a linearization remapping fr om a perceptual linearization function currently have significant erro r and should be replaced with methods that minimize perceptual error. Copyright (C) 1995 by W. B. Saunders Company