ISDN application for image transmission

Image transmission using ISDN is not yet popular in Japan, but the number of ISDN terminals is rapidly increasing since 1991. We have two systems for image transmission using ISDN. One system uses an image workstation of the mini PACS. With this system, an image can be directly input from CT or MR to the workstation, and transmitted without errors. This system is very expensive. The format of images is the original one, and the data can be transmitted between workstations. The other system is the ISDN videophone. Images are input to the videophone through a CCD camera. The quality of the image is not high. However, this system is cheap and easy to use. In the near future, the videophone will be widely distributed, and will be used also for the transmission of medical images.