A user report on the trial use of gesture commands for image manipulation and X-ray acquisition

Touchless environment for image manipulation and X-ray acquisition may enhance the current infection control measure during X-ray examination simply by avoiding any touch on the control panel. The present study is intended at designing and performing a trial experiment on using motion-sensing technology to perform image manipulation and X-ray acquisition function (the activities a radiographer frequently performs during an X-ray examination) under an experimental setup. Based on the author’s clinical experience, several gesture commands were designed carefully to complete a single X-ray examination. Four radiographers were randomly recruited for the study. They were asked to perform gesture commands in front of a computer integrated with a gesture-based touchless controller. The translational movements of the tip of their thumb and index finger while performing different gesture commands were recorded for analysis. Although individual operators were free to decide the extent of movement and the speed at which their fingers and thumbs moved while performing these gesture commands, the result of our study demonstrated that all operators could perform our proposed gesture commands with good consistency, suggesting that motion-sensing technology could, in practice, be integrated into radiographic examinations. To summarize, although the implementation of motion-sensing technology as an input command in radiographic examination might inevitably slow down the examination throughput considering that extra procedural steps are required to trigger specific gesture commands in sequence, it is advantageous in minimizing the potential of the pathogen contamination during image operation and image processing that leads to cross infection.