RadioGraphics, Vol 16, 1495-1501, Copyright © 1996 by Radiological Society of North America
RIP: Radiology Internet Protocol
S Partovi
Department of Diagnostic Radiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver Hospital and Health Science Center, Canada.
Radiology Internet Protocol (RIP) is an image transmission protocol
designed to address the special needs of radiology World Wide Web (Web)
servers. RIP preserves the ability to alter the window and level (W/L)
settings of an image over the Internet from a remote location while
maintaining short transmission times. RIP operates with a client-server
paradigm and can be used for Web-based radiology teaching files or
Internet-based teleradiology. The protocol itself is based on the concept
of W/L partitioning, whereby the clinically most important W/L setting of
an image is transmitted first. Supplementary data are appended to the
initial transmitted image in the background while the user is reviewing the
preliminary image. The time required to transmit the first image, or
time-to-first-image, is comparable with that of graphics interchange format
and Joint Photographic Expert Group (JPEG) files. The longer the user looks
at an image, the more data are appended to it in the background.
Ultimately, the user can view a received image at any W/L setting.
