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The DR Option for Metron-PX
Most digital images that one encounters have 8-bits per color component
per pixel. This means that for a color image, there are a total
of 24-bits of color information per pixel, since there are 8-bits
for green, 8-bits for blue, and 8-bits for red. Likewise a typical
grayscale image has 8-bits per pixel to specify the shade of gray.
Essentially all digital cameras produce images like this, and most
software packages that come with digital cameras, or are purchased
separately, will deal with images like these.
Some devices, notably the new Digital Radiography systems, produce
images which have more than 8-bits per color component, for example,
they may produce grayscale images with 12-bits per pixel. Although
the human eye cannot discern all these shades of gray, it is a valuable
thing to have them all available, because image-processing tools
can then be used to modify the image so various features can be
seen by the human eye.
As most image processing software was developed to support digital
cameras, or web-site graphics, etc., they only deal with 8-bits
per color component per pixel. This means that if you have a 12-bit
image taken by your expensive new DR unit, if you just want to crop
it, or rotate it, or add an annotation, you cannot use most applications
that you find on your PC. If you try, they may not be able to read
the 12-bit image; even if they can read the 12-bit image, you will
find that after you crop, rotate, etc. and re-save the image, it
will be reduced to an 8-bit image.
One way around this is to move into the DICOM world. DICOM is a
standard used in the human medical field for representing and transmitting
digital images. However, due to the influence of the human-medical
market, DICOM based systems are generally expensive.
The 'DR Option' for Metron allows Metron to input 12-bit and even
16-bit images and manipulate them, and no data is lost in the process.
Metron can perform most of the image processing functions found
in expensive packages, and can also mark-up the image with accurately
scaled measurements and other annotations. At all times, up to 16-bits
per color component is preserved. As such, Metron with the DR option
can be viewed as an inexpensive alternative to DICOM, and an alternative
that is 'open architecture' in that it deals with images with standard
formats like TIFF and JPEG.
Without the 'DR Option' Metron, like most software packages for
image manipulation, will deal only with 8-bit per color component
images.
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