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In today’s digital world, basic functions once performed
by the operator are now preprogrammed. For example,
your cell phone most likely has a built-in digital camera.
Before you take that picture of your dog eating peanut butter,
you don’t stop to set the ISO, f-stop or check the lighting.
Chances are that thought never even crosses your mind. The
camera is programmed to make these selections for you. In
most cases, your images turn out rather well, but every once in
a while, one is too light or too dark, blurry or just plain no
good. When this happens, you think “oh, well,” and you
delete it and take another picture.
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But why did it fail? Quite simply, the software is only as good
as the information it’s supplied. The image-processing
algorithm on your phone can’t take bad data and make it
good, although it will do its best. It’s often referred to as
“garbage in, garbage out.” The same is true with today’s
digital imaging systems. There’s a misconception that when
moving from a film-based X-ray system to a digital system
that image processing will make all your images great. Just
like the cell phone example, the image processing is only as
good as the information with which it’s supplied. Except this
time, you’re supplying ionizing radiation to a patient – so you