Methods and apparatus for streaming DICOM images through data element sources and sinks

• US 20030149680A9
• Filed: 09/04/2001
• Published: 08/07/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Merative US LP
• Original Assignee: Emageon Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: York, Gary, Wortmann, Joseph P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,426,567 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/1
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/40 for processing medical images, e.g. editing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/18 End to end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/30 in combination with information about buffer occupancy at either end or at transit nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/36 by determining packet size, e.g. maximum transfer unit [MTU]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 Negotiation of communication capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for streaming DICOM images or objects through data element sources and sinks. Digital data contained in relatively large DICOM objects of any size can be transmitted between applications, devices, or storage media in a network. The use of data element sources and data element sinks to incrementally process data elements and data values one at a time, minimizes the amount of memory needed to perform a DICOM operation. The methods and apparatus according to the present invention limit the consumption of memory resources while providing a relatively small, fixed amount of memory for handling a relatively large DICOM object, while maintaining the performance of applications operating in the DICOM network.

Claims

1. A method for communicating digital data from a first device to a second device using a fixed amount of memory, wherein the digital data defines data elements, comprising:

providing an input stream of bytes representing the digital data from the first device;

creating a data element source from the input stream of bytes;

creating an output stream of bytes representing the digital data received at a second device;

creating a data element sink configured to provide one or more bytes to the output stream of bytes;

creating a communication engine configured to use the data element source and data element sink;

requesting a data element from the data element source;

converting the next bytes from the input stream of bytes to a data element;

providing the data element to the data element sink; and

converting the data element to bytes and providing the bytes to the output stream of bytes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device is a file system comprising at least one selectable file configured for conversion to a stream of bytes, and wherein the data element source can be created.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the data element source comprises an input transfer syntax.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device is a network comprising

a network connection configured for providing the input stream of bytes.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the input stream of bytes comprises protocol data units containing presentation data values, the presentation data values comprising byte arrays.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the byte arrays can be placed in a presentation data value input stream.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the data element source comprises an input transfer syntax created from the presentation data value input stream.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the presentation data value input stream is limited to buffering a predefined or limited number of presentation data values.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the second device is a file system comprising a file with an output stream of bytes.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein a data element sink is created from the output stream of bytes.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the data element sink comprises an output transfer syntax created from the output stream of bytes.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the second device is a network comprising a network connection configured for receiving an output stream of bytes.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the output stream of bytes comprises a packetizer configured to create protocol data units containing presentation data values.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the data element sink provides bytes to the packetizer.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the data element sink is an output transfer syntax created with the packetizer.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the data element source comprises an input transfer syntax further comprising a streaming threshold configured to provide a byte limit.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein if the byte limit is exceeded by a stream of bytes comprising a data element, then the data element is a streaming data element.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the streaming data element comprises incremental values obtained from the input transfer syntax.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the data element sink is provided a streaming data element, and the data element sink comprises an output transfer syntax.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the data element sink requests from the streaming data element values in fixed block size.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the output transfer syntax encodes the streaming data element values as each block is received.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device is any device capable of providing an input stream of bytes.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the first device consists of one of the following:

a database, a tape, a CD, a storage medium.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the second device is any device capable of receiving an output stream of bytes.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the first device consists of one of the following:

a database, a tape, a CD, a storage medium.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein defining a limited number of data values further comprises:

negotiating an association between the first device and the second device.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the data stream further comprises:

defining a message prior to transmission which contains the data stream and data values;

determining an appropriate operation for the message; and

queuing the message for subsequent processing.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein extracting the data values from the data stream further comprises:

creating a transfer syntax that can be used to parse the data values contained in the data stream.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein the digital data consists of one of the following:

a DICOM object, a DICOM image file, or an object that can be transmitted using a DICOM-based communications network protocol.

31. The method of claim 1, wherein defining a limited number of data values to be stored in a data stream sets the number of data values at five or less.

32. The method of claim 1, wherein the data elements are protocol data units, and the data values are presentation data values.

33. The method of claim 1, wherein the data consists of sequence data elements defining sets of data elements, and incrementally reading the received set of data elements so that each data element is read one at a time, further comprises:

incrementally processing a set of data elements, one data element at a time, until all of the data elements from all of the sets of data elements have been processed.

34. The method of claim 1, wherein the data consists of pixel data elements defining data arrays of bytes, and incrementally reading the received set of data elements so that each data element is read one at a time, further comprises:

incrementally processing a data array of bytes as a block of data elements.

35. The method of claim 1, wherein the data stream is a presentation data value input stream.

36. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device is a network and the second device is a network.

37. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device is a network and the second device is a storage medium.

38. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device is a storage medium and the second device is a network.

26. A method for communicating digital data from a first device to a second device using a fixed amount of memory, wherein the digital data defines data elements and data values, comprising:

defining a limited number of data values to be stored in a data stream;

incrementally reading a set of data elements from a first device so that each data element is read one at a time;

extracting a data value from each data element;

creating a data stream with only a limited number of the data values;

if the predefined limit of data values is reached, then transmitting the data stream containing the limited number of data values to a second device; and

extracting the data values from the data stream.

39. A method for communicating a file containing digital data from a first device to a second device using a fixed amount of memory, wherein the digital data defines data elements and data values, comprising:

receiving a file containing digital data from a first device;

extracting a data value from each data element to be communicated;

creating a data stream containing data values for the file containing digital data;

creating a data element source based on the data stream;

incrementally processing the data values one at a time from the data stream through the data element source;

and transmitting the data values to a second device.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the file consists of one of the following:

a DICOM object, a DICOM image file, or an object that can be transmitted using a DICOM-based communications network protocol.

41. The method of claim 39, wherein creating a data element source further comprises:

creating an input transfer syntax configured to incrementally read a single data value at a time.

42. The method of claim 39, wherein creating a data element source further comprises:

creating an output transfer syntax configured to incrementally write a single data value at a time.

43. The method of claim 39, wherein incrementally processing the data values one at a time from the data stream through the data element source, further comprises:

defining a maximum number of data values to be stored in a data stream at five or less.

44. The method of claim 39, wherein the data elements are protocol data units, and the data values are presentation data values.

45. The method of claim 39, wherein the data consists of sequence data elements defining sets of data elements, and incrementally processing the received set of data values so that each data value is read one at a time, further comprises:

incrementally processing a set of data values, one data value at a time, until all of the data values from all of the sets of data elements have been processed.

46. The method of claim 39, wherein the data consists of pixel data elements defining data arrays of bytes, and incrementally processing the received set of data values so that each data value is read one at a time, further comprises:

incrementally processing a data array of bytes as a block of data values.

47. The method of claim 39, wherein the data stream is a presentation data value input stream.

48. The method of claim 39, wherein the first device is a storage medium and the second device is a network.

49. The method of claim 39, wherein the first device is a network and the second device is a storage medium.

50. An apparatus for streaming digital data between two devices in a network using a fixed amount of memory, comprising:

a communications module comprising,

a data element source configured for providing a set of data elements from a first device, and further configured for incrementally reading a single data element at a time from the set of data elements;

a communications engine configured for transmitting each data element from the data element source; and

a data element sink configured for incrementally receiving data elements from the data communications engine for encoding each data element into a data stream, and further configured for transmitting the encoded data stream to a second device.