Calibrating the most demanding professional displays

www.qubyx.com

Why calibrate medical displays?

Hospitals and clinics have quality programs for medical equipment. However, often the displays used for diagnostics and reviewing are not part of those quality assurance programs.

No monitor, including medical ones, displays images perfectly. Poor image quality results in fatigue of the doctors, more time spend on readings and in some cases still wrong diagnostics. Life critical decisions, based on computer display readings, imply a need for Calibration and Quality Assurance.

DICOM calibration of displays in medical environment

What is light and how does it influence image? What is DICOM GSDF Part14? Why calibrate displays to DICOM? How does calibration work? What displays can be calibrated? What are the required tools?

What is light?

Visible light is the electromagnetic radiation that can be seen by the human eye.Light is visible in the wavelengths from 380 to 740 nm. When light is broken by a prism, different colors of the white light become visible.

How do we see light?

Rod and con cells in the retina of the human eye are sensible to light and can distinguish up to 10 million different color and luminance shades. These cells form the images. Non image building cells are the photosensitive ganglion cells, that are responsible for adjusting the size of the pupil.

What is DICOM Part14?

The DICOM Standard is developed and published by the US organisation NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association). The Part 14 of this standard discusses how pixel values should be interpreted and displayed. Part 14 also specifies a function that relates pixel values to displayed luminance values. This function is called GSDF (Gray Scale Display Function).

GSDF

Originally developed by the researcher Peter G.J. Barten and published as "Contrast Sensitivity of the Human Eye and Its Effects on Image Quality". He created a function that describes the sensitivity of the human eye to luminance levels. The human eye can distinguish between two dark colors even if the difference is very low, like 1 or 2 cd/m2, but is unable to distinguish that difference at high brightness levels. The function precisely describes the various Just Noticeable Difference levels and the Luminance level in relation to it. This function is included in the DICOM standard and called Gray Scale Display Function.

Why calibrate to DICOM GSDF?

Adapt display to human eye. Human eye is not an digital device like a computer is. The computer display, as the interface between the human and the digital machine, must be adapted to the characteristics of the human eye.

Re-calibrate over time. Computer displays tend to change over time, like any other light source. Backlight lamps and RGB filters change. That is why even a factory calibrated display needs to be re-calibrated over time to continue matching the sensibility of the human eye.

Make sure displays look the same. Consistency of images on various displays is important for diagnostics. Calibration iensures that an image looks the same in all services and on all workstation.

Standardise display outputs. Calibrated displays meet the key quality assurance standards in medical industry.

Safety and assurance.

quality.

Increase

diagnostic

safety

and

improve

quality

Why calibrate color of a display?

human eye perceives various color shades in a different way

a diagnostic image on a color display is influenced by color hues: reddish gray shade will look different from blueish gray, so adjusting luminance is not enough

color calibration ensures the same color temperature on all driving levels (different gray levels) of the display

Why calibrate a display regularly?

display white level degrades

display back light changes over time

display color filters change over time

regular verification and adjustment of the white level of the display is necessary

How does calibration work?

1. Measurements taken.Reference colors and gray levels are displayed on the monitor and measured with a colorimeter or luminance meter.
2. LUT generated. From the actual measured values and the known Barten's formula target values a correction table called Look Up Table (LUT) is generated. 3. LUT applied. This LUT is loaded and applied in the graphic board or inside the display.

What displays can be calibrated to DICOM GSDF?

Almost any LCD, LED, or OLED display can be calibrated to DICOM GSDF to compete with traditional medical displays.

Standardised Quality Assurance

In some countries the legal bodies enforce acceptance testing of diagnostic and reviewing displays when they are installed, and constancy testing for quality assurance on a regular basis.

Major QA standards are AAPM TG18, DIN 6868-57, DIN 6868-157, JESRA X-0093 , IEC 62563-1

The tests performed within those standards consist of visual tests and measurement tests, which verify conformance to the requirements of the standards.

Controlled Environment

Apart from calibration and constant verification of the display it is important to control the working environment:

ambient light must be stable and remain within the acceptable range
no direct reflection on the display panel should occur walls of the reading rooms should be painted neutral gray

calibrates any display to DICOM GSDF.

PerfectLum calibrates displays and projectors to DICOM GSDF on Windows and Mac operating systems and uses DDC/CI communication to adjust the display.

performs acceptance and constancy tests to key medical standards

Download
A free 15-day trial of PerfectLum display calibration and quality assurance software is available at www.perfectlum.com/downloads