THE TECHNICAL AND COMMERCIAL FEASIBILITY OF A SYSTEM OF INTERACTIVE PATTERN RECOGNITION FOR THE SEMI-AUTOMATIC ANALYSIS OF DIGITIZED CHEST RADIOGRAPHS WILL BE EVALUATED.

THE TECHNICAL AND COMMERCIAL FEASIBILITY OF A SYSTEM OF INTERACTIVE PATTERN RECOGNITION FOR THE SEMI-AUTOMATIC ANALYSIS OF DIGITIZED CHEST RADIOGRAPHS WILL BE EVALUATED. A PRELIMINARY DESIGN FOR SUCH A SYSTEM, EXPLOITING A PARALLEL-PIPELINE MULTIMICROPROCESSOR ARCHITECTURE, WILL BE DEVELOPED IN SUFFICIENT DETAIL FOR A FEASIBILITY STUDY. THIS DESIGN WILL INCLUDE A CAPABILITY OF SCANNING, DIGITIZING, ANALYZING, AND DISPLAYING A WIDE VARIETY OF FILM RADIOGRAPHS AT HIGH SPEED AND HIGH RESOLUTION. IN THIS SYSTEM THE RADIOLOGIST/USER WILL EXERCISE CONTROL OVER COMPUTER ALGORITHMS THAT (A) ENHANCE THE VISIBILITY OF DIAGNOSTICALLY SIGNIFICANT DETAILS IN THE VIEWED RADIOGRAPH AND (B) DETECT ABNORMALITIES BASED ON THE SHAPE AND TEXTURAL FEATURES OF THE RADIOGRAPHIC IMAGES OF THESE ABNORMALITIES. THIS SYSTEM (A) WILL INCREASE THE SPEED AND ACCURACY OF ANALYZING RADIOGRAPHS AND (B) WILL FACILITATE THE INTRODUCTION OF NUMERICAL AND GRAPHICAL INFORMATION INTO RADIOLOGICAL REPORTS. THIS DESIGN WILL HAVE COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS AS SUBSYSTEMS OF MEDICAL DIGITAL RADIOGRAPHIC SYSTEMS.