Amorphous Semiconductors Usher in Digital X‐Ray Imaging

NOV 01, 1997

The same photoconducting materials that made photocopying possible in the 1960s are now poised to provide a basis for convenient, fully digital radiography.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881994

John Rowlands

Safa Kasap

Unlike other major medical imaging methods, such as computed tomography, ultrasound, nuclear medicine and magnetic resonance imaging—all of which are digital—conventional x‐ray imaging remains a largely analog technology. Making the transition from analog to digital could bring several advantages to x‐ray imaging: Contrast and other aspects of image quality could be improved by means of image processing; radiological images could be compared more easily with those obtained from other imaging modalities; the electronic distribution of images within hospitals would make remote access and archiving possible; highly qualified personnel could service remote or poorly populated regions from a central facility by means of “teleradiology”; and radiologists could use computers more effectively to help with diagnosis—work that has already been initiated at the University of Chicago by Kunio Doi and his coworkers.

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More about the authors

John Rowlands, University of Toronto, Canada.

Safa Kasap, University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada.