The need for automated identification of a disease makes the issue of medical biometrics very current in our society. Not all biometric tools available provide real-time feedback. We introduce gas discharge visualization (GDV) technique as one of the biometric tools that have the potential to identify deviations from the normal functional state at early stages and in real time. GDV is a nonintrusive technique to capture the physiological and psychoemotional status of a person and the functional status of different organs and organ systems through the electrophotonic emissions of fingertips placed on the surface of an impulse analyzer. This paper first introduces biometrics and its different types and then specifically focuses on medical biometrics and the potential applications of GDV in medical biometrics. We also present our previous experience with GDV in the research regarding autism and the potential use of GDV in combination with computer science for the potential development of biological pattern/biomarker for different kinds of health abnormalities including cancer and mental diseases.

Educational software has been designed and developed for training within the field of diagnostic radiography and is particularly concerned with the science and technology of diagnostic X-rays. The material has been structured into hypertext networks and as such allows interactive exploration of the available information. The courseware development platform was Microsoft Windows and authoring was accomplished using the constructional tool kit ToolBook. The resulting CAL package is highly graphical in nature with a user interface designed to meet the 'friendliness' demands of the end user group. Mechanisms for navigation through, and orientation within, the hypertext have also been established which support two levels of user activities. By changing the level of user freedom, students using the system as a learning tool are restricted to more structured routes than experienced staff using the courseware as an information resource. An aim of this work has been to provide interactive educational activities to support the main courseware, and consequently a novel application has been developed using dynamic data exchange (DDE) and the spreadsheet software Excel. Through a ToolBook front end students can interactively alter an X-ray spectrum by changing the operating conditions of a simulated X-ray tube.