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[ Document Identification Number : DIN00032510 ]
Proceedings of the 2nd Symposium of the 'Color' of Digital Imaging in Biology and Medicine,
10.1-10.2, 2000.03.25
<http://biocolor.umin.ac.jp/sympo200004/proc20.pdf>
Research Plan Proposals

A System for Practical Calibration of the Color of Medical Displays
On the Internet


Masahiro NISHIBORI*1 (mn-mn@umin.ac.jp)
Hiroshi TANAKA*2, Debabrata MUKHOPADHYAY (debu@tnp.saha.ernet.in)*3
*1Clinical Laboratory, Tokyo Medical and Dental University Medical Hospital
*2Information Center, Tokyo Medical and Dental University
*3Theory Group, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Calcutta, India

1. Objectives of the project
Although telemedicine, electronic patient record management, online medical textbooks and remote education etc are being increasingly put to practical use, there is no standard method yet to reproduce exactly the same colors of a digital image on various displays. A new method was recently proposed to verify and to calibrate display equipment using a reference set of medical images of typical cases as a practical online calibrator. The purpose of this project is the development of a system for distributing these images through the internet.

2. Background for the collaboration
India has of late brought up a quality infrastructure in computer science. The Indian coordinator is a specialist in medical visualization using large-scale computation and is well experienced in imaging and radiotherapy physics. Japan has a long history of research on the reproduction of color. The Japanese coordinator is a leading researcher on color in medical imaging, and he recently organized a governmental research project dealing with the subject as well as the first symposium of the world for discussing it. This project is aimed at realizing the most advanced concepts using the supremely potent computer technology. So a collaboration of both the coordinators is essential for it.

3. National and institutional scenario in the proposed area of research
The technology of color management has been well developed in the desktop publishing area, but there is no method suitable for medical application which can reproduce the color so consistently that erroneous diagnoses can be positively ruled out. Although telemedicine and electronic patient record keeping are coming into wide use, this point of view has been overlooked till the Japanese governmental research project team picked it up last year. The 1st symposium on it attracted a considerable world-wide attention, and the international collaboration culminated in the creation of an academic society for this subject which has just recently been launched. An application for academic grants related to this project has been made to the Japanese government.

4. Scientific and technical description of the project including methodology
Some key technologies of the system are on the process of protecting patents by the Japanese team. The Japanese side will design the requirements of the system, provide the key technologies and verify its performance from the medical viewpoint, and Indian side will plan and develop a concrete architecture of the whole system. Both institutes will provide most of the required equipment, and close communications between them will be ensured and maintained through the internet during both the development and the verification phases.

5. Possible collaborators to be invited
Researchers interested in this project as well as manufacturers willing to produce the system and able to offer essential resources required to develop it are welcome.