DoctorZ is a tele medicine application for medical imaging. I created
this application for the Sharp
Zaurus. DoctorZ connects to a special set of web pages to download
and show medical images, for example ultra sound images.
At the other end of DoctorZ is, obviously, some medical imaging equipment. Our current setup uses Philips ATL HDI 3000/5000 ultra sound machines. The images are captured from the ultra sound machine using standard DICOM capture software and are then uploaded to the central webserver.
I pronounce DoctorZ either 'Doctor-Zee' or 'Doctorzzzz'.
Please note that on larger images contrast/brightness operations can
take several seconds.
This is the download view, which lists all currently available online
images. Images are either personal for you or for a group of
people. The settings allow you to set your username, password and
server location. The images are just plain-old-png images, but there
is some meta information like the dimensions and patient details that
can be stored along with the image.
When you download an image, the initial display is set to fit screen,
low quality zoom and no color change. As you can see, this already results in
a very clear picture. By clicking on the plus and minus you can zoom
in and out from the initial setting, by rought ten percent per
click. Hitting the 'Q' button gives you a higher quality image,
because it uses a slower but much better image scaling algorithm.
Moving about after you zoom in can be done by just dragging you zaurus
pencil over the screen and the image will move along. This makes
moving through the image really intuitive, you can go as fast or slow
as you like. Another advantage is that there is no need for
scrollbars, which would take up too much display room.
Because the human eye is good, but does at times need some help to
interpret images. DoctorZ offers a colorisation button (the one with
the
green/gray/red
stripes)
Hitting this button toggles a greenish, reddish and back to normal
display. The different colors really help pickout details that you may
otherwise miss.
After you download an image, it is stored on the Zaurus along with the
other documents you may have. Because DoctorZ images are just images,
the file listing also shows all other images available on the
Zaurus. These can be opened just like a ultra sound images, to be
viewed, zoomed, scrolled and colorised.
Although I must admit that normal photographs don't look very good in
red.
Getting Doctor Z
Doctor Z is free software, licenced under the GNU General Public
Licence. As such, you are free to have it, copy it, modify it and use
it in anywhich way you like. There are NO WARANTIES however. It works
for us, it will probably work for you.
I am working on more documentation right now. One important
hidden feature is brightness/contrast. Brightness can be
controlled by dragging your pen up/down along the left handside of the
screen. Contrast can be controlled in the same manner on the righthand
side. To reset brightness to default, drag your pen from the lefthand
side to the middle. Again the same for contrast, drag from the right
edge to the center.