Comparison of human observer performance of contrast-detail detection across multiple liquid crystal displays

Appropriate selection of a display subsystem requires balancing the optimization of its physical parameters with clinical setting and cost. Recent advances in Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) technology warrant a rigorous evaluation of both the specialized and the mass market displays for clinical radiology. This article outlines step two in the evaluation of a novel 9.2 million pixel IBM AMLCD panel. Prior to these experiments, the panel was calibrated according to the DICOM Part 14 standard, using both a gray-scale and a pseudo-gray scale lookup table. The specific aim of this study is to compare human, contrast-detail perception on different computer display subsystems. The subsystems that we looked at included 3- and 5-million pixel "medical-grade" monochrome LCDs and a 9.2-million pixel color LCD. We found that the observer response was similar for these three display configurations.