This DICOM Standard was developed according to the procedures of the DICOM Standards Committee.

While other parts of the DICOM Standard specify how digital image data can be moved from system to system, it does not specify how the pixel values should be interpreted or displayed. PS3.14 specifies a function that relates pixel values to displayed Luminance levels.

A digital signal from an image can be measured, characterized, transmitted, and reproduced objectively and accurately. However, the visual interpretation of that signal is dependent on the varied characteristics of the systems displaying that image. Currently, images produced by the same signal may have completely different visual appearance, information, and characteristics on different display devices.

In medical imaging, it is important that there be a visual consistency in how a given digital image appears, whether viewed, for example, on the display monitor of a workstation or as a film on a light-box. In the absence of any standard that regulates how these images are to be visually presented on any device, a digital image that has good diagnostic value when viewed on one device could look very different and have greatly reduced diagnostic value when viewed on another device. Accordingly, PS3.14 was developed to provide an objective, quantitative mechanism for mapping digital image values into a given range of Luminance. An application that knows this relationship between digital values and display Luminance can produce better visual consistency in how that image appears on diverse display devices. The relationship that PS3.14 defines between digital image values and displayed Luminance is based upon measurements and models of human perception over a wide range of Luminance, not upon the characteristics of any one image presentation device or of any one imaging modality. It is also not dependent upon user preferences, which can be more properly handled by other constructs such as the DICOM Presentation Lookup Table.

The DICOM Standard is structured as a multi-part document using the guidelines established in [ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2].

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