WSI Streaming Normalizes Tile Formats for Consistent Web Loading
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Solution Overview
Problem
Digital pathology systems face inconsistent image streaming performance due to varying image compression formats and tile sizes from different vendors, leading to performance deterioration and slow image loading speeds, especially in web environments where browsers cannot directly support certain formats like JPIP, requiring JavaScript decoding.
Innovation Solution
A whole slide image (WSI) streaming method that normalizes tile images during acquisition to minimize time costs, involving optimized tile definitions and caching based on region and access frequency to improve response and loading times, with the method including operations such as transcoding, JPEG image block transfer, and caching mechanisms to manage tile data efficiently.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If WSI image streaming is performed with various vendor-specific compression formats and tile sizes, then vendor-specific functionality is maintained, but performance consistency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms WSI images from various vendor-specific formats into a standardized JPEG format with uniform tile dimensions (256x256 pixels). This parameter transformation eliminates performance variations caused by different compression formats and tile sizes, achieving consistent streaming performance across all vendors while maintaining adaptability through format conversion
2Adaptability or versatility
If server performs conversion on images, then format compatibility is improved, but image loading speed deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs image conversion and normalization operations during the image acquisition phase rather than during web serving. By preprocessing images into standardized JPEG format with uniform tiles beforehand, the system eliminates real-time conversion overhead during image loading, thus maintaining both format compatibility and fast loading speeds
3Use of energy by moving object
If JPIP is used for image streaming, then compression efficiency is improved, but browser compatibility deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates standardized JPEG copies of the original WSI images during acquisition, storing them in a normalized format with uniform 256x256 pixel tiles. These pre-converted JPEG copies can be directly served to web browsers without requiring JavaScript-based decoding, thus achieving both compression efficiency and universal browser compatibility
4Reliability
If tile images are normalized during acquisition, then performance consistency is improved, but processing time cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs tile normalization during the image acquisition phase rather than during web serving. By completing the computationally intensive normalization process upfront, the system achieves consistent performance across vendors while the actual time cost is amortized over the initial acquisition period, not affecting operational streaming performance
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a method in which a web client receives a whole slide image (WSI) having an image compression format and a tile size different depending on a digital pathology vendor from a digital pathology server in a streaming manner. The method includes a WSI acquisition operation of acquiring the WSI from the digital pathology server. The WSI acquisition operation includes a normalized tile definition operation of defining a normalized tile having a minimized time cost, a determination operation of comparing a tile with the normalized tile, and a conversion operation of optimizing the tile with the normalized tile.