Subject: [ANN] Escape Information Services releases DICOM Import 1.2

Escape Information Services (http://www.escape.gr/) is pleased to announce
the immediate availability of version 1.2 of the DICOM Import component for
QuickTime and its associated Software Development Kits (SDKs), both
available for the Mac and Windows platforms.

New in version 1.2
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Changes in DICOM Import
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1. Added support for 12 and 16 bit grey-scale and 24 bit RGB images
compressed with jpeg lossless compression.
2. Older files with no information about compression used (if any) can
now be opened.
3. Added support for DICOM frame time vector and other DICOM
frameDuration related elements.
4. General improvements in speed and robustness:
Certain corrupted files would crash the component. Fixed.

Changes in the SDK
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1. Added API level support (using QuickTime's Image Description
Extensions) for controlling the following:

a. For DICOM files containing 16 bit grey-scale image data, one can
choose whether a 16 bit or 8 bit output grey-scale image will be
created.

b. It is now possible to pass flags to the DICOM decompressor.
The following flags (hints) can be set before invoking
the DICOM Import decompressor:

1. DICOMCodecApplyVOITransform, to selectively apply the VOI
(values of interest) transformation
2. DICOMCodecApplyRescaleTransform, to selectively apply the
re-scale (slope/intercept) transformation
3. DICOMCodecOccupyFullRange, to toggle the scaling of
output pixels to use the entire available value range
4. DICOMCodecGetPixelRangeFromData, to ignore the min/max
pixel values given in the file and instead use the min/max
values obtained by parsing the image data

c. One can now apply an arbitrary window center and window width (VOI
parameters), overriding the values in the DICOM file.

2. Made new C sample code available demonstrating the implementation
of the above features (Mac & Windows).

About DICOM Import
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DICOM Import is a QuickTime component that works on both Mac and Windows,
and enhances QuickTime-savvy applications with the ability to import
medical images that conform to the DICOM standard. DICOM files are being
produced by all major radiology systems, such as CT and NMR imagers.

DICOM Import currently supports a wide subset of the DICOM standard, such as:

- single and multiple image files
- compressed (lossy & lossless JPEG; RLE) and uncompressed
- indexed and direct, monochrome and RGB, 8 and 16 bit pixel depth
- support for images in DICOMDIR files
- DICOM files with no image data
- API access to DICOM non-image data

Moreover, the following useful features are available:

- conversion of multi-frame DICOM files to QuickTime movies
- individual access of frames in multi-frame files
(if the calling application supports it)
- URL importing of DICOM files
- embedding of DICOM images in web browsers

System requirements
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- MacOS: Power Macintosh with QuickTime 4 (or later)
- Windows: PC with Windows 9x/NT4 and QuickTime 4 (or later)

Software Development Kits
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DICOM Import works at two levels: At the first level, as a graphics and
movie importer and decompressor, it provides access to QuickTime savvy
applications with transparent access to image data in DICOM files. At a
second level, applications that are also DICOM Import savvy, can take
advantage of the sophisticated services it offers.

Using the free SDKs developers can control DICOM Import's behavior and use
DICOM Import to easily extract non-image data from DICOM files. All with
standard, QuickTime API calls.

A higher-level API is under preparation for the 4D RDBMS/RAD product line
(4D plug-in).

Information, Try & Buy
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All information concerning DICOM Import are at:

http://www.escape.gr/dicom/

We invite prospective byers to download and test the product before
purchase. When not supplied with a valid serial number, the installer
places a demo version of DICOM Import. The demo version is fully functional
except for a message that is placed on top of the images during display.

DICOM Import v1.2 is priced at $135 per machine. Volume discounts are
available and OEM inquiries are welcome.

Owners of previous versions can upgrade to v1.2 free of charge, and use
their existing serial numbers to install the new version.

About Escape
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Escape Information Services of Thessaloniki, Greece, is the maker of
cross-platform developer tools such as code libraries and software
components, including the leading (QuickTime-based) multimedia plug-ins for
4D.