The Perception of Medical Images:
Past and Present

Miguel Eckstein

Department of Psychology
University of California, Santa Barbara

Date: Friday, November 21, 2003
Place: ECE Conference Room
_____ Building 406, Rm. 201
Time: 3:30 pm — 4:30 pm (Refreshments served at 3:00 pm)



Abstract:
The purpose of medical images is to visualize aspects of human anatomical structure and function that are not apparent to the naked eye. Modern medical imaging was born with the discovery of the X-rays in 1895 by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen. It was not until the 1940's, that the field recognized the key role of the viewer of the image in medical diagnostic errors and the value of understanding the visual and cognitive processes by which viewers detect and classify aspects of the images. In this lecture, I will discuss the history of the field of medical image perception and present research efforts to use computers to model human viewers and perform automated evaluation and optimization of medical image quality.

MIGUEL ECKSTEIN earned a BS in Physics and Psychology at UC Berkeley and a PhD in Cognitive Psychology at UCLA. He then worked at the Department of Medical Physics and Imaging, Cedars Sinai Medical Center and NASA Ames Research Center before moving to UCSB. He is recipient of the Optical Society of America Young Investigator Award, the SPIE Image Perception Cum Laude Award, Cedars Sinai Young Investigator Award and the National Science Foundation Early CAREER Award. He serves as the chair of the Vision Technical Group of the Optical Society of America and the Human Performance, Image Perception and Technology Assessment conference of the SPIE Medical Imaging Annual Meeting, the program committee of the SPIE Human Vision and Electronic Imaging Annual Meeting, and the board of editors of Perception and Psychophysics. He has published over 50 articles relating to human vision, visual attention, and the perception of medical images.