DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING IS CONSTRAINED BY CURRENT DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY.

DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING IS CONSTRAINED BY CURRENT DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY. THE IMAGES ARE SMALL AND DISTORTED BY THICK, CURVED FACEPLATES OF CRT MONITORS. A LARGE, FLAT FULL-COLORDISPLAY IS REQUIRED, IDEALLY WITHOUT THE BULK OF CRTS BUT WITH EQUAL OR BETTER IMAGE QUALITY. THIS RESEARCH PROPOSAL IS DIRECTED AT DEVELOPING THE LARGE-FORMAT CAPABILITY OF NEWDISPLAY TECHNOLOGY. THE BASIC CONCEPTS HAVE ALREADY BEEN DEMONSTRATED IN A MONOCHROME PANEL ONLY 4 INCHES THICK. THEFLATSCREEN PROTOTYPE DISPLAYS A 4-SQUARE-FOOT STANDARD TELEVISION IMAGE OR COMPUTER GRAPHICS WITH THE GREY SCALE AND BRIGHTNESS OF A CRT. THIS RESEARCH EFFORT WILL PRODUCE A FULL-SIZE PROTOTYPE OF A COMPLIANT VACUUM ENCLOSURE TO PROVE ITS DESIGN CONCEPTS. THE CURRENT RIGID STRUCTURES ARENOT SUITABLE FOR PRODUCTION. SOME OF THE BASIC PRINCIPLES IN THIS ENCLOSURE DESIGN HAVE BEEN DEMONSTRATED IN SMALL TEST CELLS, BUT SCALING THE TECHNIQUES TO A FULL-SIZE PANEL INVOLVES RESEARCH ON MATERIALS, WELDING, AND OTHER FABRICATION PROBLEMS THAT ARE CONSTRAINED BY THE PHYSICS OF THE DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY. THE ADVANTAGES OF THIS FLAT-PANEL CONCEPT INCLUDE THE FACT THAT IT CAN BE MOUNTED ON THE WALL,YET HAVE AN IMAGE AREA LARGE ENOUGH TO DISPLAY TWO LIFE- SIZE BODY IMAGES AT ONCE. IT WILL BE POSSIBLE TO DISPLAY MULTIPLE IMAGES FOR IMMEDIATE COMPARISON AND CORRELATION OR TO ADD NOTATIONS OR TO DISPLAY OTHER MONITORED DATA SIMULTANEOUSLY. EXPERIMENTAL WORK ON THE PHASE I ENCLOSURE PROTOTYPE WILL ANTICIPATE A WIDE RANGE OF PRODUCTION CONCERNS FOR THE SUCCESS OF THE FULL-SIZE COLOR PANEL IN PHASE II.