Characterization of color-related properties of displays for medical applications

This paper addresses characterization of color-related properties of softcopy displays used in medical image interpretation. Four Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) were studied, three of them were color displays and one of them was monochrome. Physical evaluation was conducted on all the displays. Luminance and chrominance response, white point, color primaries and color gamut were evaluated. Results showed that when color displays were used to present grayscale clinical images, their performance could be inferior to using monochrome displays. This is because of the addition of color filters. When color displays were used to present color clinical images, the rendition could be totally different on different color displays because of their different color gamuts. A calibration standard or guideline for color as well as grayscale calibration is necessary for color displays used for medical applications which is currently absent.