Real-time window/leveling on a radiographic workstation

Claim 1

Digital image processing apparatus comprising: a memory for storing digital medical images and image processing look-up tables, including a window/level look-up table (lut) having selectively variable parameters and a gamma lut; an image display having an image display area and a non-image display area; a hardware color lut memory coupled between said memory and said image display; a digital control means, including a user input device for inputting commands to said digital control for controlling said memory, said image display, and said hardware color lut memory; and a) in a first mode, in response to a command through said user input device to display a medical image from said memory on said image display, to cascade said window/level lut and said gamma lut into an image display lut; to store said image display lut in said hardware color lut memory, while reserving color cells used in said non-image area of said image display; and to display said medical image from said memory in the image area of said image display after said image is passed through said hardware color lut memory; and (b) in a second mode, in response to a command through said user input device to selectively change the parameters of said window/level lut, to change said window/level lut as a function of said changed parameters, to cascade said changed window/level lut with said gamma lut into a changed image display lut; to store said changed image display lut in said hardware color lut memory; and to redisplay said medical image in said image display area of said image display, with said changed window/level parameters, without changing the displayed values of said non-image display areas.