A Multicenter Observer Performance Study of 3D JPEG2000 Compression of Thin-Slice CT

The goal of this study was to determine the compression level at which 3D JPEG2000 compression of thin-slice CTs of the chest and abdomen–pelvis becomes visually perceptible. A secondary goal was to determine if residents in training and non-physicians are substantially different from experienced radiologists in their perception of compression-related changes. This study used multidetector computed tomography 3D datasets with 0.625–1-mm thickness slices of standard chest, abdomen, or pelvis, clipped to 12 bits. The Kakadu v5.2 JPEG2000 compression algorithm was used to compress and decompress the 80 examinations creating four sets of images: lossless, 1.5 bpp (8:1), 1 bpp (12:1), and 0.75 bpp (16:1). Two randomly selected slices from each examination were shown to observers using a flicker mode paradigm in which observers rapidly toggled between two images, the original and a compressed version, with the task of deciding whether differences between them could be detected. Six staff radiologists, four residents, and six PhDs experienced in medical imaging (from three institutions) served as observers. Overall, 77.46% of observers detected differences at 8:1, 94.75% at 12:1, and 98.59% at 16:1 compression levels. Across all compression levels, the staff radiologists noted differences 64.70% of the time, the resident’s detected differences 71.91% of the time, and the PhDs detected differences 69.95% of the time. Even mild compression is perceptible with current technology. The ability to detect differences does not equate to diagnostic differences, although perception of compression artifacts could affect diagnostic decision making and diagnostic workflow

Sistemas de microscopía virtual: análisis y perspectivas

Microscopy has been constantly evolving since the end of the Twentieth Century, with the introduction of new resources which have improved its practice. For example, the use of the virtual microscope has reached a high level of maturity; it is a synergy among disciplines such as pathology, histology, medical informatics and image analysis. This technology has moved forward many paradigms in research, diagnosis, education and medical training. The virtual microscopy systems require the digitalization of a physical slide, using motorized microscopes, pre and post image processing, compression, transmission and visualization. This article provides an extensive analysis of each of these processes. The main characteristics of virtual microscopy are presented as well as the impact of these systems in image interpretation and in diagnostic activities.Desde finales del siglo XX la microscopía se ha venido transformando, incluyendo nuevos recursos que mejoran y perfeccionan su práctica. Entre ellos se destaca el microscopio virtual, la sinergia entre disciplinas como la patología, la histología, la informática médica y el análisis de imágenes. Esta tecnología ha cambiado muchos paradigmas en la investigación, el diagnóstico, la educación y el entrenamiento médico. Los sistemas de microscopía virtual requieren de la digitalización de una placa con el uso de microscopios robotizados, antes del procesamiento de la imagen y después de él, compresión, transmisión por la red y visualización. En este artículo se hace un análisis extenso de cada uno de estos procesos, y se presentan las principales características de los microscopios virtuales, junto con el impacto de estos sistemas en actividades de interpretación y diagnóstico

JPIP proxy server with prefetching strategies based on user-navigation model and semantic map

The efficient transmission of large resolution images and, in particular, the interactive transmission of images in a client-server scenario, is an important aspect for many applications. Among the current image compression standards, JPEG2000 excels for its interactive transmission capabilities. In general, three mechanisms are employed to optimize the transmission of images when using the JPEG2000 Interactive Protocol (JPIP): 1) packet re-sequencing at the server; 2) prefetching at the client; and 3) proxy servers along the network infrastructure. To avoid the congestion of the network, prefetching mechanisms are not commonly employed when many clients within a local area network (LAN) browse images from a remote server. Aimed to maximize the responsiveness of all the clients within a LAN, this work proposes the use of prefetching strategies at the proxy server -rather than at the clients. The main insight behind the proposed prefetching strategies is a user-navigation model and a semantic map that predict the future requests of the clients. Experimental results indicate that the introduction of these strategies into a JPIP proxy server enhances the browsing experience of the end-users notably

Lossy-to-lossless 3D image coding through prior coefficient lookup tables

This paper describes a low-complexity, highefficiency, lossy-to-lossless 3D image coding system. The proposed system is based on a novel probability model for the symbols that are emitted by bitplane coding engines. This probability model uses partially reconstructed coefficients from previous components together with a mathematical framework that captures the statistical behavior of the image. An important aspect of this mathematical framework is its generality, which makes the proposed scheme suitable for different types of 3D images. The main advantages of the proposed scheme are competitive coding performance, low computational load, very low memory requirements, straightforward implementation, and simple adaptation to most sensors