Computer Graphics World

June 2009 35 Trends & Technologies n n n n DVI to support today's platforms, but they now comply with the first truly in- teroperable 10-bit standard, DisplayPort. And we're not talking a few pricey, niche models, either. Support for 30-bit color over DVI and DisplayPort is a feature now spread across the breadth of professional graphics product lines. 10-Bit Appeal All the appeal of recent improvements in 10-bit quality, cost, and interoperability won't be limited to new markets, as exist- ing ones will reap the same benefits. Con- sider the potential impact of DisplayPort in studios, for example. Offered a less-costly, broad-based alternative to 10-bit SDI, more customers should be able to justify further deployment of 10-bit capable systems. And with the scope of medical imaging continuing to expand through the spread of picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), IT buyers will certainly be pleased to find their choices wider and their prices lower, opening opportuni- ties to improve the existing infrastructure. Hospitals won't necessarily equip twice as many reading rooms if solution costs are cut in half, but any dollars saved would go to good use: to upgrade existing read- ing stations with multiple high-resolution displays, thereby allowing more effective side-by-side analysis, or to extend PACS and 10-bit display into other corners of the hospital, including operating rooms. Beyond hospital borders, a wider range of economical, 10-bit digital imaging solu- tions will mean that more will find their way into a physician's individual or group practices, where the light box remains a common fixture. Another opportunity opened up by re- cent improvements in 10-bit display tech- nology is the exploitation of the synergy between 10-bit precision and cutting-edge GPU technology. Today, after all, consider- ing an imaging solution with 10-bit display as the one and only goal is shortsighted. Real-Time Rendering Keep in mind that 10-bit precision (and full 30-bit color) is just one of many fea- tures afforded by today's professional GPUs. Select Nvidia's Quadro FX or AMD's ATI FirePro, for example, and you not only get the full 30-bit color precision (with 10-bit grayscale, to boot), but a high- performance, full-featured, programmable 3D GPU—and everything that goes along with it. Such solutions offer capabilities that extend not only beyond 10-bit preci- sion, but even beyond conventional, po- lygonal 3D rendering. Consider simple 2D pan and zoom, seemingly trivial graphics operations in this age of elaborate 3D special effects and im- mersive gameplay. With scan resolutions to- day reaching 2k x 2k (and beyond), reading medical images without fast, hardware-accel- erated pan and zoom can waste a lot of valu- able time in the reading room. Yet, many of the proprietary solutions historically offered to medical applications have lacked even this most basic of hardware features. With today's professional GPUs, high- speed 2D zoom and pan come free and fast, trivial cases of the more complex non- affine perspective transformations com- mon in 3D rendering. And their onboard, programmable scaling filters process more samples with more precise filter responses, yielding high-quality, high-resolution im- ages in real time. While display quality is the top priority for many applications in medical imaging, a visualization solution that can handle more than the simple 2D display of 10-bit gray- scale has become a must-have. IT buyers demand maximum return for dollars spent and are anxious to build a more broad-based, flexible digital imaging solution, thereby unifying support for the display and render- ing of imaging data generated by a range of scan technologies in both 2D and 3D. For example, companies serving medi- cal imaging markets—such as visualization and analysis software provider Vital Images and Mercury Computer Systems—have exploited the Nvidia Quadro FX cards used primarily for fast 2D imaging, having them also serve double duty as real-time 3D volume visualizers. Similarly, Barco Medical Imaging is utiliz- ing the AMD ATI FirePro cards for fast and accurate representation of raw CT data and more. With today's advanced CT scanners producing scans of 1mm per slice, volumes can run into the thousands of high-resolu- tion slices—far too many for a physician to navigate effectively in 2D. Add into the mix emerging scan technologies like posi- tron emission tomography (PET) and the increasing use of 4D visualization (3D vol- umes varying across time), and high-per- formance volume visualization has moved from nicety to that of baseline requirement for radiology departments. PACS, 10-bit, 3D rendering, multi- modal volume visualization, blending high-quality grayscale and color: e technologies go hand in hand with today's increasingly integrated medical imaging solutions. By combining best-in-class 3D GPUs with 10-bit display precision and innovative software, professional graphics products seemingly can handle it all. Collaborative viewing is a natural fit for high-resolution, 30-bit displays.

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