Redundancy Reduction in Radiographic Pictures

Abstract

Electronic transmission storage and retrieval of medical X-ray pictures is a feasible concept using today's technology. The large amounts of data can be compressed by digital picture coding techniques. The maximum information within a basic picture element of a film/foil combination has been estimated on the basis of statistical source and receiver properties. Intrinsic dependencies between adjacent picture elements offer the chance of applying efficient redundancy-reducing codes. Several coding schemes have been published for TV and facsimile transmission. These methods, which are mainly predictive and transform coding procedures, have been applied and modified so as to best suit radiographs. Novel schemes, especially adapted for X-ray picture statistics and to suppress error propagation, have been developed.