Quality assurance of electronic display devices is important for maintaining reliable soft-copy image interpretations. This paper presents effects of test patterns on measurement of the luminance of liquid-crystal display (LCD) devices by use of a telescopic-type luminance meter. The luminance for different types of test patterns having different backgrounds and measurement areas was measured and compared with the results obtained with AAPM task group-18 (TG-18) LN test patterns. The luminance measured for the test patterns with a black background was lower than that measured for TG-18 LN test patterns due to the light emitted from the outside the focused area of the telescopic-type luminance meter. Also, the luminance obtained with smaller measurement areas indicated lower luminance. These tendencies were particularly obvious at low luminance. The luminance of the LCD device by use of a telescopic-type luminance meter should be measured with test patterns that have a black background and a smaller measurement area than that for the TG-18 LN test patterns.

The goal of this study was to investigate the effect of the different luminance settings of a high-brightness color liquid-crystal display (LCD) on the detectability of a simple grayscale object with low contrast by use of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The detectability of a high-brightness color LCD with two maximum-luminance settings (500 and 170 cd/m(2)) was compared with the detectability of a monochrome LCD (500 cd/m(2)). The two LCDs used in this study were calibrated to the grayscale standard display function. The average areas under the ROC curve (AUCs) and the standard deviations for all thirteen observers for the 500 cd/m(2) color LCD, 500 cd/m(2) monochrome LCD, and 170 cd/m(2) color LCD were 0.937 +/- 0.040, 0.924 +/- 0.056, and 0.915 +/- 0.068, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in the average AUCs among the three LCD monitor conditions. On the other hand, the total observation time for the 170 cd/m(2) color LCD was significantly shorter than that for the 500 cd/m(2) color and monochrome LCDs (p < 0.05). Irrespective of the maximum luminance settings (500 and 170 cd/m(2)), the color LCD provided a performance comparable to the monochrome LCD for detection of a simple grayscale object with low contrast.

Our purpose in this study was to examine the potential usefulness of liquid-crystal display (LCD) monitors having the capability of rendering higher than 8 bits in display-bit depth. An LCD monitor having the capability of rendering 8, 10, and 12 bits was used. It was calibrated to the grayscale standard display function with a maximum luminance of 450 cd/m(2) and a minimum of 0.75 cd/m(2). For examining the grayscale resolution reported by ten observers, various simple test patterns having two different combinations of luminance in 8, 10, and 12 bits were randomly displayed on the LCD monitor. These patterns were placed on different uniform background luminance levels, such as 0, 50, and 100%, for maximum luminance. All observers participating in this study distinguished a smaller difference in luminance than one gray level in 8 bits irrespective of background luminance levels. As a result of the adaptation processes of the human visual system, observers distinguished a smaller difference in luminance as the luminance level of the test pattern was closer to the background. The smallest difference in luminance that observers distinguished was four gray levels in 12 bits, i.e., one gray level in 10 bits. Considering the results obtained by use of simple test patterns, medical images should ideally be displayed on LCD monitors having 10 bits or greater so that low-contrast objects with small differences in luminance can be detected and for providing a smooth gradation of grayscale.

Our purpose in this study was to examine the detectability of a lung nodule at different maximum luminance settings of a liquid-crystal display (LCD) monitor by utilizing receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The LCD monitor used in this study was calibrated to the grayscale standard display function with different maximum luminance settings (670, 450, and 170 cd/m(2)). The average area under the ROC curve (AUC) and the standard deviation for all observers at 670, 450, and 170 cd/m(2) were 0.837 +/- 0.076, 0.832 +/- 0.051, and 0.830 +/- 0.078, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in AUC as a function of the maximum luminance setting of the LCD monitor. Considering the results, setting the maximum luminance of an LCD monitor at a higher level may not provide a significant advantage in the detectability of a lung nodule.