A new approach to brain imaging, based on an open and distributed environment

The standard way to offer image reconstruction algorithms and processing tools to the medical community is through the proprietary software preinstalled on the computing system that comes along with the acquisition device. This makes it difficult for the medical community to experiment with new advances in the field of image reconstruction and analysis, and at the same time, for the basic research community to benefit from an extended feedback from the end users of its products. A prototypal set of software tools and strategies to reconstruct, display, analyze as well as store, share, distribute and organize medical images, is described. The main goal of the project was to design an easily available and usable software environment with which the medical community could experiment on one side, and that the research groups could use as a reference or as a basis for continuing research on the other side. The outcome of this work consists of software that is platform independent, remotely executable, freely downloadable and accessible, and based on open source code, while, at the same time, addressing the major problems in the field of image reconstruction and processing.