A low-cost scalable solution for digitizing analog X-rays with applications to rural healthcare

In this paper, we present a low-cost scalable solution for digitizing analog X-ray images with the goal of improving diagnostics in rural and remote areas, in addition to having potential applications in disaster healthcare. Our solution attempts to capitalize on the rapid gains made in cellular communication and mobile technologies. The proposed mobile application lets the user digitally acquire the analog X-ray image and apply enhancement operations to it. A novel nonlinear technique for X-ray image enhancement has been proposed and implemented in the application. Additionally, several standard enhancement techniques have also been implemented. A proof-of-concept of the proposed solution is demonstrated with an Android application running on a smartphone. Results from real-world data collected at a semi-urban hospital in India are presented. The Android application has been made available online at the fifth authors´ homepage.