[The digital reprocessing of under- and overexposed x-ray films with a personal computer]

An image processing work station for digitalizing and interactively manipulating under- and overexposed X-rays was set up by adding modules to an IBM compatible personal computer. Overexposed X-rays can be qualitatively enhanced by means of controlled manipulation of contrast and brightness and by means of the use of various digital filtering techniques. With underexposed X-rays an equalized grey scale can be achieved by means of regulating contrast and brightness. Digital filtering is not required. To assure a high degree of anatomical detail (periodontal ligament) in the digitalized image a maximum pixel of 0.1 mm was defined as a qualitative norm. Since in every digitalization process resolution is diminished, it proved best to select for interactive manipulation out of the total image only the section of interest.