The document summarizes a project to use the computational capabilities of the PlayStation 3 (PS3) to accelerate medical image visualization. Researchers developed a framework to distribute DICOM image processing algorithms across client workstations and a PS3. Initial benchmarks showed the PS3 could process batches of 1000 DICOM images in under 10 minutes using just its main processor core. Future work involves optimizing algorithms for the PS3's specialized cores and comparing its performance to other hardware.

1. Running DICOM Visualization on the CELL (PS3) Abstract Co-Author: Andre Broekema, BS Presenter: Peter M. van Ooijen, PhD Abstract Co-Author: Matthys Oudkerk, MD, PhD

3. The Project (Background) Visualization is in need of more processing hardware and it is a challenge to realize it with cost effective hardware and free open source software. There are expensive commercial processing software tools available which utilize special computational hardware for accelerating the needed processing power. Aim of this study is to work towards the usage of the CELL Broadband Engine Architecture inside the Playstation3(PS3) and open source software and SDK's to accelerate the visualizations already developed for the free open source community.

4. Solution in development The solution is designed to be as scalable as possible to allow multiple workstation and Playstations to be added. Client workstations can request processing algorithms on the framework on desired DICOM datasets from a PACS or other DICOM system. Results are then processed through the framework and returned to the client workstations.

6. The Project (Evaluation) By using open source Linux operating systems such as Fedora and Yellow Dog with tools like Eclipse one can create a development platform for use with the PS3. Also the usage of free available SDK's from IBM for developments on the PS3 and the OFFIS DCMTK and the visualization toolkit VTK creates an environment for optimization on the available algorithms inside the toolkits. Currently a framework is running which handles streaming DICOM image data to the PS3, start simple algorithms through dynamically loaded process plug-ins which utilize the DCMTK and stream the result to the requesting workstation.

13. First benchmark (results) Time durations are in seconds

15. The Project (Discussion) Using online available open source processing and visualization toolkits and modify these for performance on cheap processing hardware such as the PS3 is ongoing. When the VTK visualization toolkit is compiled onto the PS3 the next step is to attach it to the process plug-ins to use the available algorithms and move forward to optimize these for use on the CELL architecture. The results will be compared next to other processing hardware and will also be used in developments on other processing intensive projects.