A proposal of an original system of "voice-mediated input" in radiological reporting.

The digital format of diagnostic images is gradually replacing the analogic one, as expected, thanks to its diagnostic, gestional, and economic advantages. Digital radiology is expanding, crossing the borders of conventional radiology: the spread of photostimulable plates will cancel all differences, offering a "digital dimension" to conventional examinations, that will produce numeric images using the conventional method. Off-line systems are a most useful approach to numeric format, because they offer diagnostic and gestional advantages at a low price. Moreover, they allow analogic images to be put into the "digital flow" of radiological departments, thus making a format standardization possible between different types of images. The system proposed has advanced characteristics, such as acquisition, reconstruction and visualization of digital images with a 2560 x 2048 x 8 bit matrix. The use of two scanning systems (CCD and laser scanner) has proved to be the most effective way to acquire images with different resolution, while the use of a 2k x 2k monitor makes both observation and reporting at the workstation more reliable.