Observer performance in dynamic displays: effect of frame rate on visual signal detection in noisy images

James Stuart Whiting; David A. Honig; Edward Carterette; Neal L. Eigler M.D.

doi:10.1117/12.44353

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1 June 1991 Observer performance in dynamic displays: effect of frame rate on visual signal detection in noisy images

James Stuart Whiting, David A. Honig, Edward Carterette, Neal L. Eigler M.D.

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Proceedings Volume 1453, Human Vision, Visual Processing, and Digital Display II; (1991) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.44353
Event: Electronic Imaging '91, 1991, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

An observer's ability to detect low contrast features (signals) within an image is an important measure of image quality. A theory exists for describing the relationship between measurable image parameters and the detectability of simple visual signals such as squares or disks in single images. This signal detection theory has been successfully applied to many practical visual tasks yielding fundamental re'ationships between noise, contrast, and the effect on detectability of intensifying screen/x-ray film combinations in conventional radiology2, and quantization noise,3 image processing,4 and window/level settings5'6 in digital displays. We are aware of no studies examining signal detectability in dynamically displayed medical images, despite the importance of these displays for many imaging modalities. Examples of dynamic displays in medical imaging include x-ray fluoroscopy, cardiac cineangiography, real-time two-dimensional ultrasound (2D-Echo), rapid-sequence nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (cine MRI), radioisotope ventriculography, and ultrafast computed tomography (UFCT) . The goal of the present study was to quantify the psychophysical parameters which affect observer performance in dynamically displayed sequences of noisy images.

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James Stuart Whiting, David A. Honig, Edward Carterette, and Neal L. Eigler M.D. "Observer performance in dynamic displays: effect of frame rate on visual signal detection in noisy images", Proc. SPIE 1453, Human Vision, Visual Processing, and Digital Display II, (1 June 1991); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.44353

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