Siemens Healthineers make Medical imaging software reach Hollywood standards
Orange County, CA - August 1st 2016 - Inspired by modern cinematic pictures, Siemens Healthineers have created Syngo via Frontier; an advanced image processer that produces extremely detailed, lifelike renderings through compiled x-ray, CT, and MRI images. Currently, this program is solely available for research purposes and is being tested in a few dozen medical centers around the world.
Since the 1980s, medical imaging has vastly improved – CT and MRI machines offer higher resolution, computers and cloud storage provide for more data, and software programs can weave together a plethora of images creating a single composition. The most popular feature of this software is volume rendering, a process that generates 3D images from two-dimensional CT or MRI scans.
Syngo via Frontier further builds upon this technology through knowledge borrowed from Hollywood. Traditional volume rendering processers create 3D images that lack detail and depth while being incomprehensible to general patients. To address this problem and foster a better sense of verisimilitude, Siemens Healthineers designed “cinematic rendering,” a process that gives tissue the appearance of interacting with light.
Default settings in current software works with the assumption that light travels in limited trajectories, while cinematic rendering provides a greater sense of depth perception by making tissue appear to reflect or absorb light. Applying this lighting method allows radiologists to selectively illuminate choice layers of tissue or bone, improving their degree of visibility.
Siemens Healthineers adopted a technique from “The Lord of the Rings” filmmakers known as light mapping. To create these maps, lighting derived from a series of 360-degree photographs of assorted sceneries are used to illuminate computer-generated characters put into a scene. Akin to these filmmakers, Healthineers are working to create a library of illumination by capturing images from various locations all over the world. This will provide clinicians with the ability to customize lighting in a patient’s radiological image, a benefit that they believe will help make abnormalities easier to detect.
According to the director of the CT Clinical Innovation Center at Mayo Clinic, Cynthia McCollough, 3D images cannot take the place of a radiologist looking at individual 2D CT or MRI scans. She states that this software is inadequate as a primary diagnostic technique, for cross slices created by these scans lose important information when made into a 3D image. However, she believes it could prove to be an amazing communicative tool.
Since the 3D images produced by Syngo via Frontier imitate traditional cinematic picture, a mode of representation our eyes are accustomed to, patients can better understand their ailments with these graphic representations. Additionally, the degree of realism can benefit medical and surgical students when learning about anatomy and procedures.
Since its introduction as a mass media medium, cinematic pictures have always held a degree of influence in society. The recent work by Siemens Healthineers stems from borrowed technology, proven to make images realistic, brilliant, and clear. Although limited in the diagnostic sense, adopting such techniques in the medical industry may introduce a seismic shift in accessibility and interpretation of scans.
Contact Ampronix:
Media Contact: Jamie Nguyen
Email: [email protected]
International Sales: +1 949-273-8000
Domestic Sales: 1800-400-7972 for US and Canada
Follow Us:
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
Share This Article:
View our Product Catalog Online Here
About Ampronix
Ampronix is a renowned authorized master distributor of the medical industry's top brands as well as a world class manufacturer of innovative technology. Since 1982, Ampronix has been dedicated to meeting the growing needs of the medical community with its extensive product knowledge, outstanding service, and state-of-the-art repair facility. Ampronix prides itself on its ability to offer tailored, one-stop solutions at a faster and more cost effective rate than other manufacturers. Ampronix is ISO 13485:2003, ISO 9001:2008, and ANSI/ESD S20.20-2007 certified.
