OFFICIALS MOVING TO UPDATE IMAGING DISPLAY STANDARDS TO ACCOMMODATE NEW TECHNOLOGY
Updated performance standards are needed for device imaging displays due to rapid advances in imaging technology, experts said at an Oct. 12 workshop. The workshop was co-sponsored by the FDA and the Drug Information Association.
"By 2010, nearly everything will be LCD [liquid crystal display]," rather than cathode ray tube (CRT) -- the traditional display screen for computers and televisions, said Aldo Badano, director of the imaging physics laboratory in the Division of Imaging and Applied Mathematics in the Office of Science and Engineering at CDRH.
Even mammography is going from planar projection to computed tomography (CT, or CAT, scans) or 4-D image displays -- imagery showing objects in 3-D moving in close to real time -- Badano said. A new technology called an "organic light-emitting display" will be the display type of the future, he said.
Existing industry standards need to be updated to cover such areas as image resolution, which degrades over time in CRT displays but not in newer display technologies such as LCDs, Badano said. Current standards that are effective for monochromatic, or grayscale, displays may not apply to color displays, he added.
Badano said CDRH plans to focus over the next two years on four main research directions related to image displays: color, temporal response (the time it takes for a display device to present dynamic scenes, or moving objects), 3-D displays and mobile displays.