Silvio Bonfiglio

The OASIS Concept

OASIS is an Integrated Project with the aim to revolutionise the interoperability, quality, breadth and usability of services for all daily activities of the elderly, by developing and deploying innovative technological challenges, consisting of a new, open architecture and a hyper-ontological framework. A wide range of applications are integrated in the areas of independent living, socialization, autonomous mobility and smart workplaces. User friendliness and acceptability of OASIS services are a top priority of the project, ensured with a user-centered design approach and the development of interactive services.

An Ontology-Driven Multisensorial Platform to Enable Unobtrusive Human Monitoring and Independent Living

The profound, pervasive and enduring consequences of ageing population present enormous challenges as well as enormous opportunities for Information and Communication Technology. The EU funded OASIS project, a Large Scale Integrated Project, is aimed to develop an open and innovative reference architecture, based upon ontologies and semantic services, that will allow plug and play and cost-effective interconnection of existing and new services in all domains required for the independent and autonomous living of the elderly and their enhanced quality of life. Among other technological advances, in OASIS we are developing a smart multisensorial platform for monitoring the lower limbs movements, as well as the muscular activations. We are using unobtrusive integrated sensors to transduce posture and kinematic variables and to acquire surface Electromiography (sEMG). The platform is able to analyze and merge the sEMG signals and kinematics variables to provide a single coherent dynamic information of the acquired movements. A Predictive Dynamic Model (PDM) based on machine learning techniques assesses the physiological muscular recruitments as well as muscular fatigue and physiological conditions.

Nonlinear mapping of the luminance in dual-layer high dynamic range displays

It has long been known that the human visual system (HVS) has a nonlinear response to luminance. This nonlinearity can be quantified using the concept of just noticeable difference (JND), which represents the minimum amplitude of a specified test pattern an average observer can discern from a uniform background. The JND depends on the background luminance following a threshold versus intensity (TVI) function. It is possible to define a curve which maps physical luminances into a perceptually linearized domain. This mapping can be used to optimize a digital encoding, by minimizing the visibility of quantization noise. It is also commonly used in medical applications to display images adapting to the characteristics of the display device. High dynamic range (HDR) displays, which are beginning to appear on the market, can display luminance levels outside the range in which most standard mapping curves are defined. In particular, dual-layer LCD displays are able to extend the gamut of luminance offered by conventional liquid crystals towards the black region; in such areas suitable and HVS-compliant luminance transformations need to be determined. In this paper we propose a method, which is primarily targeted to the extension of the DICOM curve used in medical imaging, but also has a more general application. The method can be modified in order to compensate for the ambient light, which can be significantly greater than the black level of an HDR display and consequently reduce the visibility of the details in dark areas.

10.4: New Display Solutions for the Image‐Centric Era of Healthcare

Imaging has a growing impact in healthcare. New visualization solutions are needed to cope with the increased quantity of images used by the clinicians and with the need they have for viewing these images “anywhere, anytime” as an integral part of their professional tasks. In this paper we report on a project intended to design new display-based solutions better suited for the image-centric era of healthcare.

HDR medical display based on dual layer LCD

There is increased interest in the visualization community to experiment the benefit of HDR presentation. Current developments in HDR displays are geared towards projecting more realistic images than conventional (non-HDR) displays. The dynamic range of the natural world is approximately 14 orders of magnitude while conventional displays are limited to at most 3 orders of magnitude in luminance. A high dynamic range based on Dual Layer liquid crystal display (LCD) is built by stacking two panels one on top of the other. In this way, the dynamic range is theoretically squared and the bit depth is also increased. However, in order to minimize the parallax and reconstruction errors, dedicated splitting algorithms are needed to generate the two images which drive the panels. Moreover, to cope with the reduce transmittance of this Dual Layer LCD concept, a high brightness backlight is required and new LED technology enable a reliable implementation.

P‐32: LED Backlight System for Medical Imaging on LCD Monitors

Nowadays products with LED backlight are entering the consumer and semi-professional markets where wide color gamut is essential. In this paper a new LED backlight solution suitable for medical imaging application will be described where the requirements are mainly related to luminance and color accuracy and white point tuning.

LED Backlight for Better Accuracy in Medical Imaging

In clinical tasks the display is often the natural interface between the medical system and the medical professionals and in the current image-centric healthcare the accuracy of the visualized images represents a key requirement; ideally no compromise would be acceptable. In the recent past LED backlights for liquid-crystal displays have been intensively investigated for their use in displays addressed to the mainstream markets (mobile and portable displays, computer displays and TV). Accordingly adapted, they could offer new opportunities also to the displays used in healthcare by allowing better accuracy and consistency of the medical images. In this respect they could make possible a new, important advance towards a better quality of care.In this paper we will describe a novel LED backlight solution suitable for medical imaging.

Grayscale standard display function on LCD color monitors

Currently, as a rule, digital medical systems use monochromatic Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitors to ensure an accurate reproduction of the Grayscale Standard Display Function (GSDF) as specified in the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) Standard. As a drawback, special panels need to be utilized in digital medical systems, while it would be preferable to use regular color panels, which are manufactured on a wide scale and are thus available at by far lower prices. The method proposed introduces a temporal color dithering technique to accurately reproduce the GSDF on color monitors without losing monitor resolution. By exploiting the characteristics of the Human Visual System (HVS) the technique ensures that a satisfactory grayscale reproduction is achieved minimizing perceivable flickering and undesired color artifacts. The algorithm has been implemented in the monitor using a low-cost Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). Quantitative evaluations of luminance response on a 3 Mega-pixel color monitor have shown that the compliance with the GSDF can be achieved with the accuracy level required by medical applications. At the same time the measured color deviation is below the threshold perceivable by the human eye.