CHICAGO, Planar Systems, Inc., a worldwide leader in flat panel display systems, today unveiled the Dome(R) EX line, which includes the first 4-megapixel color diagnostic display medically certified for the healthcare field.

Designed for use in areas such as radiology, cardiology, nuclear medicine (NM), positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT), dermatology and the OR, Planar's Dome E4c features a widescreen, 16:9 format that simplifies comparison studies by eliminating the image split associated with dual-head monitors, providing more screen space for multiple images. The Dome E4c, along with the other color displays in the Dome EX line (Dome E2c and E3c), enhances visualization of various color modalities, 2-D color imaging, image fusion, and 3-D imaging.

"Planar's innovative EX line of color displays satisfies a true market need," said David Kurzynski, senior vice president of engineering at Emageon, a provider of advanced visualization software for diagnostic imaging. "Through our combined efforts this year, Emageon and Planar have delivered high performance advanced visualization using the OpenGL graphics standard. The Dome EX line naturally extends these benefits to color medical displays."

The Dome E4c can display more than 90 percent of a computed radiography (CR) image without the need to scale it down and also can show 15 full-size 512 x 512 color and grayscale images at the same time, dramatically increasing productivity when viewing large datasets and studies with multiple series.

New Color and Grayscale Displays Complete Dome EX Line

The Dome EX line offers faster performance for smoother image rotation and higher brightness and contrast ratios for better, more vivid representation of grayscale and color images. The new color displays are ideal for use in a distributed PACS environment for areas ranging from radiology and cardiology, to dermatology and applications in the OR. The new grayscale displays in the Dome EX line (Dome E2, E3 and E5) have been designed for the most demanding diagnostic applications including CT, magnetic resonance (MR), ultrasound, CR, digital radiography (DR), NM, digitized film and mammography.

Dome EX line of DICOM-calibrated diagnostic imaging displays features Planar's advanced Dome DA4 hardware architecture, enabling the use of select, commercially available graphics controllers for open standards support. Open standards, such as OpenGL and DirectX, provide the capability to perform texture mapping, volumetric rendering and other powerful visualization functions often used in interactive 2-D and 3-D medical viewing applications.

"Surgeons and diagnostic physicians have been looking forward to the expanded scope and larger viewing areas promised by the wide-format 16:9 aspect ratio monitor prototypes," said Katherine Shariq, industry manager of healthcare and life sciences information technologies at Frost & Sullivan.

Planar's Dome EX line is compatible with Dome CXtra(TM) and Dome Dashboard(TM) software. Dome CXtra software monitors and controls DICOM calibration of Dome displays using data from the Planar RightLight(TM) integrated photometer. Dome Dashboard is a console application which enables PACS administrators and IT managers to centrally manage, control and report on their entire line of Dome medical imaging displays.

Planar's new Dome EX line features the following attributes and benefits:
Dome E4c

--Widescreen, 16:9 format with 4-megapixel resolution; DICOM
calibration for grayscale images
--1786 unique shades of gray
--330 cd/m2 typical brightness
--600:1 contrast ratio

Dome E3c

--3-megapixel resolution; DICOM calibration for grayscale images
--1786 unique shades of gray
--400 cd/m2 typical brightness
--400:1 contrast ratio

Dome E2c

--2-megapixel resolution; DICOM calibration for grayscale images
--1786 unique shades of gray
--500 cd/m2 typical brightness
--600:1 contrast ratio

Dome E5

--5-megapixel resolution; DICOM-calibrated grayscale images
--3061 unique shades of gray
--600:1 contrast ratio
--850 cd/m2 operating brightness

Dome E3

--3-megapixel resolution; DICOM-calibrated grayscale images
--3061 unique shades of gray
--700:1 contrast ratio
--800 cd/m2 operating brightness

Dome E2

--2-megapixel resolution; DICOM-calibrated grayscale images
--3061 unique shades of gray
--600:1 contrast ratio
--900 cd/m2 operating brightness

The Dome E3 is currently available through online and direct resellers and through Planar's PACS software partners. The Dome E2 will be available in the beginning of December with the remaining products to follow in early 2006.