Impact of defective pixels in AMLCDs on the perception of medical images

Tom Kimpe; Yuri Sneyders

doi:10.1117/12.650510

17 March 2006 Impact of defective pixels in AMLCDs on the perception of medical images

Tom Kimpe, Yuri Sneyders

Proceedings Volume 6146, Medical Imaging 2006: Image Perception, Observer Performance, and Technology Assessment; 614608 (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.650510
Event: Medical Imaging, 2006, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

With LCD displays, each pixel has its own individual transistor that controls the transmittance of that pixel. Occasionally, these individual transistors will short or alternatively malfunction, resulting in a defective pixel that always shows the same brightness. With ever increasing resolution of displays the number of defect pixels per display increases accordingly. State of the art processes are capable of producing displays with no more than one faulty transistor out of 3 million. A five Mega Pixel medical LCD panel contains 15 million individual sub pixels (3 sub pixels per pixel), each having an individual transistor. This means that a five Mega Pixel display on average will have 5 failing pixels. This paper investigates the visibility of defective pixels and analyzes the possible impact of defective pixels on the perception of medical images. JND simulations were done to study the effect of defective pixels on medical images. Our results indicate that defective LCD pixels can mask subtle features in medical images in an unexpectedly broad area around the defect and therefore may reduce the quality of diagnosis for specific high-demanding areas such as mammography. As a second contribution an innovative solution is proposed. A specialized image processing algorithm can make defective pixels completely invisible and moreover can also recover the information of the defect so that the radiologist perceives the medical image correctly. This correction algorithm has been validated with both JND simulations and psycho visual tests.

Citation Download Citation

Tom Kimpe and Yuri Sneyders "Impact of defective pixels in AMLCDs on the perception of medical images", Proc. SPIE 6146, Medical Imaging 2006: Image Perception, Observer Performance, and Technology Assessment, 614608 (17 March 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.650510

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