> On Thu, 12 Jun 1997 17:22:00 -0400, John <jjance at bellsouth.net> wrote:
> >
> > I am trying to find a way of loading scan data onto an SGI machine for
> > volume rendering. The data is obtained from both MRI & CT scanners, mainly
> > Siemens & General Electric, from various hospitals. The SGI is an Indigo2
> > High Impact R10,000 in a fairly isolated environment, where FTP or ISDN
> > probably won't be practical.
> > Ideally I would like to able to hook up a magneto-optical drive to the SGI
> > which would read the mo disks. However, nobody I have spoken to seems to
> > be able to know of such a device. It seems likely that a Pioneer SH7101 or
> > SH9101 will load Siemens data on a Sun Sparc workstation, which might be an
> > option if I can get access to a Sun, but it seems unlikely that these
> > drives will talk to a SGI.
> >
> > Does anybody know of any solutions to this problem ?
> > I don't know the whole answer but the images would have to be DICOM
> > compliant.
>Marco Hoeksma replied:
>> I don't think the image format has anything to do with being able to
> read the images or not. You only need a MO drive that can talk to your
> Indigo. As far as I know, you have one external SCSI-2 connector on
> your Indigo to which you can connect your MO. Ask SGI for a list of
> drives that are compatible with your system. DICOM is the file format,
> it is not critical for reading /writing the MO. You should check what
> filesystem is used when the disk is written however.
First, let me say that you may find it more practical to get a network
connection installed than to fuss around with medical image data
formats.
As Marco eludes to there are actually two levels of problem to be solved
here. The first is getting a driver for the paticular MO drive you have
for the machine/OS combination you want to use the MO on. This may not
be trivial because MO's typically don't come with drivers for each
variant of UNIX. The other problem you've (likely)got is scanner OEM's
don't typically use the same device and MO media is not(generally)
compatible from one manufacturer to another. In all likelyhood you'll
need two drives to read from two manufacturers. GE uses Pioneer 7101
drives last I knew. I don't know about Siemens.
If you're able to get the right MO drive and proper driver installed,
you will next be faced with reading the data from the MO. This is
dependent on what version of the MO you have. I am not familar with
Siemens but not all data written on GE MO's is in DICOM compliant
formats. In fact, most(to date) is not. I imagine the same is true for
most manufacturers, Siemens included. You need to learn what revision
of software was running on the scanner or workstation which produced the
MO intially. Once you have this, you will need to find someone who can
tell you for that revision of software how the data was written and in
what format. If you're lucky, it will be DICOM data objects. If you're
not lucky, you'll need to contact Siemens or GE about how to read their
proprietary formats.
Good luck!
Jeff
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeff W. Burrell /_/ _/ _/ _/_/_/
Hewlett Packard Co. _/ _/ _// _/ _/ _/
3404 E. Harmony Road, MS 74 _/ _/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/
Ft. Collins, CO 80525 _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/_/
_/ _/_/ _/_/ _/ _/
burrell at fc.hp.com _/ _/ _// _// _/ _/
ph: (970) 229-7724 _/_/_/_/ _/ _/ _/_/_/_/
fax:(970) 229-6318
My opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of HP...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
