RSNA 2010: Observations by an Architect (November 28, 2010)
Spent all day yesterday at McCormick Place – I had the opportunity to attend the annual RSNA trade show again this year. Most of my time was probably spent in the research exhibits, but I also spent a fair amount of time upstairs on the main floor visiting commercial exhibits. It's always interesting to see the move of technologies to the commercial space. The same technologies might exist in both spaces, but while researchers will usually be happy to explain what's inside the box, everything is black-boxed and shrink-wrapped by the time commercial products are made. I was fortunate this year in that I was able to interact with quite a few researchers, and got there early enough to get some good demonstrations.
One of the best exhibits in my opinion was "PACS 3D: Utilizing Cutting-edge Technologies to Create a Fully Interactive 3D PACS Interface". (A complete list of research exhibits is available here in the "Education Exhibits" section.) I had a chance to chat with the researcher before the lines formed. He integrated a Wii into his software at some point (he's been working on this research for 6 years). The demonstration was fairly smooth, but he said the ambient light was interfering with the Wii. Essentially, what his software provides is the ability to examine an image, click on an individual anatomical part (which I think he referred to as "segmenting"), and drag and rotate the part in space away from the original image. No photo of me in glasses – sorry – but here is a photo of some physicians who arrived a few minutes after me.