Automatic acquisition interfaces for computed radiography, CT, MR, US, and laser scanner.

Existing radiological imaging devices such as computed radiography (CR), computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MR), and ultrasound (US) systems generally do not have a direct digital interface to an external computer. Thus, special developments are necessary for their integration into a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). The interface architecture and software models for performing automatic data acquisition from these devices as well as a CR plate scanner and a laser film digitizer are discussed based on their networking capabilities and the accessibility of internal data structures. The design approaches and operation efficiencies vary drastically depending on whether additional modules are needed, and whether the acquisition is performed on-line or off-line. In addition to the image data link, a complete acquisition interface includes polling of text patient information, image reformatting to the UCLA standard, and communication to the archival database.