Device for converting medical image data

1. A converting device that carries out data conversion on medical image data expressing a state of one pixel of a medical image using effective bits, which are part of a plurality of bits for one pixel and expressing information other than the medical image using redundant bits, which express a state of each pixel of a text image superimposed on the medical image, and which are different part from that of the effective bits, the converting device comprising:

a determining unit detects a character row expressing personal data by character pattern recognition of the text image expressed by the redundant bits, and determines a pixel in an area containing the character row as an object to be invalidated; and

an invalidating unit that invalidates data included in the pixel data determined as the object to be invalidated and expressed by the redundant bits by changing at least one bit of part of the medical image data.

2. The converting device according to claim 1 , wherein the invalidating unit masks the redundant data with particular data.

3. The converting device according to claim 2 , wherein each of the plurality of bits for one pixel in the medical image data is an effective bit or a redundant bit, and the medical image data includes additional data indicating the number of bits for one pixel and the number of bits of the effective bits, and wherein the invalidating unit determines the number of bits of the redundant bits based on the number of bits for one pixel and the number of bits of the effective bits, expressed by the additional data, and masks the redundant bits with data having the same number of bits determined.

4. The converting device according to claim 1 , wherein the medical image data include significance data indicating significance of the redundant bits, and the invalidating unit masks the significance data with data indicating insignificant information.

5. The converting device according to claim 1 , wherein the medical image data include significance data indicating significance of the redundant bits, and the invalidating unit masks the redundant bits with particular data when the significance data indicate significant information.

6. The converting device according to claim 5 , wherein the significance data is included in the redundant bits, and the invalidating unit masks all of the redundant data including the significance data with the particular data.

7. The converting device according to claim 1 , further comprising a fetching unit that fetches the medical image data, wherein the invalidating unit changes a bit of part of the medical image data fetched by the fetching unit.