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Xbox Kinect Technology Helps Create Higher-Quality X-Rays (rsna.org)

Posted by Soulskill on from the thank-you-mario-but-our-hairline-fracture-is-in-another-castle dept.

An anonymous reader writes: A team of researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, has adapted a gaming system to help radiographers improve the quality of X-rays. The technology, originally developed for Microsoft Kinect, has been amended to provide a useful tool for measuring the thickness of body parts and monitor movement and positioning in the X-ray field of vision before imaging. The goal of the technology is to aid in the production of high-quality X-rays at low radiation, without the need to repeat the image. Although the technology is expected to benefit all patients, the researchers believe it could be particularly practical for use in children – who are much more sensitive to radiation and vary in body size, from premature babies through to teens.

14 comments

  1. Xbox uses the integrated face system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Xbox uses the integrated face system to help create X-Rays.

  2. Xbone's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How better is the Xbone Kinect?
    I remember the 360's being far from perfect, but god nonetheless...

  3. Variable-size children by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    and vary in body size, from premature babies through to teens.

    As opposed to adults, who are all exactly the same size?

    Or are they expecting to have these kids on the X-ray table long enough to have a growth spurt halfway through?

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    1. Re:Variable-size children by wardrich86 · · Score: 1
      I think you missed the 2nd part of your quoted sentence:

      and vary in body size, from premature babies through to teens.

      The variance between a newborn and a teenager is greater than the difference between one adult to another.

    2. Re:Variable-size children by bobbied · · Score: 3, Informative

      X-Ray techs use all sorts of tables to figure out how to set their system to optimal settings, where they use the absolute minimum radiation exposure to get the imagery they need. This just allows them to judge sizes and thicknesses automatically and thus how to set up the system quicker and more accurately, reducing radiation exposure while producing the needed imagery.

      So it's not about things changing during the x-ray, it's about setting up the equipment using something other than educated guesses and experience but actually measuring things using cheap, off the shelf equipment and then suggesting better estimates of the best X-Ray settings automatically. It leads to less radiation exposure, especially in the case of children where the task facing X-Ray techs is the most difficult and the net affects of X-Ray exposure the most dangerous.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    3. Re:Variable-size children by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      Given that some people act as though they view obesity as a challenge instead of a health problem, I'm not so sure about that statement.

    4. Re:Variable-size children by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like it could also be used as a cutoff on radiation treatment machines.
      Proton beams and those from linacs can be a lot more harmful than x-rays if applied to the wrong location.

    5. Re:Variable-size children by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      7 pounds to 150pounds, or 100 pounds to 500 pounds. Even using extremes for adults, children still win.

  4. Blindingly obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please tell me this is not an "improvement" in modern stuff that was blindingly obvious 30 years ago? Tell me this is not "stereoscopic" photo tech, ala the "Viewmaster" children's toy from the 1970s. Tell me there is a newer computer tech that works only with this newer crystal emitter or whatever. Because I really hope the same tech from before 1860, yes eighteen sixty, isn't a novel application:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoscopy

    Because if it is, where the hell is the benefit from the patent office's locking down tech in the US?

    1. Re:Blindingly obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please tell me you're posting this from a "House for the Retarded"

  5. no fun by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i first thought this was about producing higher quality xrays, like the photons themselves. Like making a clean signal with little noise. Like HD Radio for xrays or something similar. turns out it's about higher quality xray images. its a shame becuase it's fun to consider a device that is a cross between a kinect and an xray tube that fries your nads.

  6. Why use Kinect? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Kinect doesn't use any new revolutionary technology. The only thing that is unique is the firmware that makes all the sensors work together like they do. I just don't understand why they wouldn't just design their own device to do the same thing.