IMAGE PRESENTATION IN DIGITAL RADIOLOGY - PERSPECTIVES ON THE EMERGING DICOM DISPLAY FUNCTION STANDARD AND ITS APPLICATION

DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) Working Group X I, formerly called ACR/NEMA (American College of Radiology/National El ectrical Manufacturers' Association) Working Group XI, is currently de veloping a display function standard, The main objective of the standa rd is to define mathematically a display function for all image presen tation systems, As a secondary objective, the standard aims at providi ng similarity in gray-scale perception for a given image between displ ay systems of different luminance and at facilitating efficient utiliz ation of the available digital input levels of a display system, The d esign of the display function incorporates the concept of perceptual l inearization. The proposed standard applies to monochrome image presen tation devices such as cathode ray tube monitor-display controller sys tems and digital laser image printers, The standard does not eliminate the use of application-specific display functions but rather ensures their effectiveness, Neither does the standard guarantee equal informa tion transfer between image presentation devices with different physic al properties; it does, however, form the basis for applying image pro cessing to compensate for such differences.