Method, apparatus and computer program product for displaying normalized medical images

1. An image processing method comprising:

receiving a compressed image comprising a plurality of pixels, each pixel being represented by a pixel value having a predefined number of bits in a gray scale format;

decompressing the image, wherein decompressing the image comprises mapping the pixel value into two channels of a multi-channel output buffer such that each channel has fewer than the predefined number of bits;

rendering, with a processor, a scene of the image based upon camera coordinates; and

for a rendered pixel, sampling a plurality of red (R), Green (G) and blue (B) values, converting the plurality of RGB values to the gray scale format having the predefined number of bits, performing an interpolation of the RGB values following conversion to the gray scale format and performing a window/level operation on a result of the interpolation.

2. An image processing method according to claim 1 wherein each pixel is represented by a pixel value having a 16 bit gray scale format, and wherein mapping the pixel value comprises mapping the 16 bit pixel value so as to have 8 bits in one channel and 8 bits in another channel.

3. An image processing method according to claim 2 wherein mapping the 16 bit pixel value comprises mapping most significant bits to one channel and mapping least significant bits to another channel.

4. An image processing method according to claim 1 wherein performing an interpolation comprises performing a bilinear interpolation of the RGB values following conversion to the gray scale format.

5. An image processing method according to claim 1 wherein sampling the plurality of RGB values comprises sampling the plurality of RGB values in accordance with a nearest-neighbor algorithm.

6. An apparatus for image processing, wherein the apparatus comprises processing circuitry configured to:

receive a compressed image comprising a plurality of pixels, each pixel being represented by a pixel value having a predefined number of bits in a gray scale format;

decompress the image by mapping the pixel value into two channels of a multi-channel output buffer such that each channel has fewer than the predefined number of bits;

render a scene of the image based upon camera coordinates; and

for a rendered pixel, sample a plurality of red (R), green (G) and blue (B) values, convert the plurality of RGB values to the gray scale format having the predefined number of bits, perform an interpolation of the RGB values following conversion to the gray scale format and perform a window/level operation on a result of the interpolation.

7. An apparatus according to claim 6 wherein each pixel is represented by a pixel value having a 16 bit gray scale format, and wherein the processing circuitry is configured to map the pixel value by mapping the 16 bit pixel value so as to have 8 bits in one channel and 8 bits in another channel.

8. An apparatus according to claim 7 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to map the 16 bit pixel value by mapping most significant bits to one channel and mapping least significant bits to another channel.

9. An apparatus according to claim 6 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to perform an interpolation by performing a bilinear interpolation of the RGB values following conversion to the gray scale format.

10. An apparatus according to claim 6 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to sample the plurality of RGB values by sampling the plurality of RGB values in accordance with a nearest-neighbor algorithm.

11. A computer program product for processing an image, the computer program product comprising at least one computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable program code instructions stored therein, the computer-executable program code instructions comprising program code instructions for:

receiving a compressed image comprising a plurality of pixels, each pixel being represented by a pixel value having a predefined number of bits in a gray scale format;

decompressing the image, wherein decompressing the image comprises mapping the pixel value into two channels of a multi-channel output buffer such that each channel has fewer than the predefined number of bits;

rendering a scene of the image based upon camera coordinates; and

for a rendered pixel, sampling a plurality of red (R). Green (G) and blue (B) values, converting the plurality of RGB values to the gray scale format having the predefined number of bits, performing an interpolation of the RGB values following conversion to the gray scale format and performing a window/level operation on a result of the interpolation.

12. A computer program product according to claim 11 wherein each pixel is represented by a pixel value having a 16 bit gray scale format, and wherein the program code instructions for mapping the pixel value comprise program code instructions for mapping the 16 bit pixel value so as to have 8 bits in one channel and 8 bits in another channel.

13. A computer program product according to claim 12 wherein the program code instructions for mapping the 16 bit pixel value comprise program code instructions for mapping most significant bits to one channel and mapping least significant bits to another channel.

14. A computer program product according to claim 11 wherein the program code instructions for performing an interpolation comprises program code instructions for performing a bilinear interpolation of the RGB values following conversion to the gray scale format.

15. A computer program product according to claim 11 wherein the program code instructions for sampling the plurality of RGB values comprise program code instructions for sampling the plurality of RGB values in accordance with a nearest-neighbor algorithm.