Patent Awarded for Balancing Areas of Varying Density in a Digital Image

A Canadian company has been awarded a patent for an invention that balances areas of varying density in a digital radiographic image. This innovation provides a method to considerably improve the quality, contrast, and sharpness of digital X-ray images and enhance the capability to study otherwise obscured details within a digital image.

In addition to the U.S. patent awarded to IDC (Imaging Dynamics Company Ltd., Calgary, Canada), a leader in the rapidly growing market for digital radiography, in February 2008 for dual-energy imaging technology, this invention represents the company's involvement in ongoing innovation in digital radiography.

IDC's patent for equalizing digital images brings a higher level of detail into the viewable image, and enhances the fine details in the captured image. According to Robin Winsor, IDC's chief technical officer and inventor, "Applying this digital equalization method provides a clear advantage over currently available methods by allowing a radiologist to easily see both bony and soft tissue detail in one view, thereby providing a better and faster diagnostic reading of the image.”

By applying this methodology in situations like a chest X-ray, for example, where one rib is obscured by more soft tissue than another is, ribs of the same density will show the same absolute brightness irrespective of the amount of obscuring material.

The inventor was issued Canadian Patent No. 2412703. IDC is a developer of digital radiography (DR) technology. IDC's X-Series of direct capture technology replaces conventional film-based X-rays and provides a cost-effective alternative to cassette based film or computed radiography (CR) systems.

Each IDC DR system provides high resolution radiographic images in the digital format required for current electronic medical record networks, all without the use of film, environmentally harmful chemicals, cassettes, or expensive imaging plates.


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