Off to Vegas!

Wow, a whole week without a single entry. Ever get so busy that you have a hard time keeping track of what you’re supposed to be working on? That’s my problem right now. Too many things going on.It’s starting to get me a little bit behind on my equipment surveys. I’ve got technical support for a bunch of clinical research protocols that are starting to get ramped up and a couple of research projects that need to get finished up among the many things starting to pile up.

Yesterday a Shimadzu portable unit with integrated digital detector fell into my lap for acceptance testing. TPTB decided to bring one in on a trial basis for the week. An interesting compact unit powered by Windows XP of all things. The detector is a scintillator based aSi:H flat panel detector about 35cmx43cm tethered to the portable by a long cable. The portable unit itself wasn’t terribly remarkable. The integrated flat panel detector was pretty neat, although I didn’t have much time to spend doing a more thorough evaluation of the panel itself.

One thing that’s kind of bugging me about the DR software vendors use is the exposure area masking they do. Of the two digital units I’ve tested so far, both of them mask off the unexposed area of the image. It’s probably convenient for the radiologist looking at the image, because they don’t have to deal with a large white unexposed area. For me, the masking makes it a little bit difficult to test the radiation/light field alignment because my light field markers usually end up being in the masked area. So far I haven’t been able to find any way to get the software to turn the masking off. Mightily inconvenient if you ask me.

For the next week, I can put that stack of things to do away (at least for a little while) while we head off to see the sights and sounds of Las Vegas. This will be our first trip there and we’re looking forward to it. Many things planned, including going to see Mystere, some horseback riding and the Atomic Testing Museum. We’re flying out tomorrow afternoon, and coming back next Friday night. Should be cool. Look for a few blog entries and pictures in the gallery while I’m there (if I can get online).