Thinsight Architecture

The Thinsight^TM server (SightServer) performs all the memory and computation-intensive operations, transmitting only final results to the clients, who have a very minimal memory and computation "footprint", regardless of the size of the dataset being visualized. The client responds locally to user interface events, sends computation requests to the server as needed, decompresses the images returned, adds overlay graphics and text and displays the result.

SightServer is a Windows Service process, residing on a computer with access to the medical imaging data to be shown. This can be the same computer running the host system's database, or a separate computer dedicated to 3D processing. The volume rendering engine uses CPU power - no need for a graphics card - and, if possible, runs as a 64 bit process with a memory capacity limited only by the hardware. Processing is highly scalable, taking advantage of as many CPU cores as available. The server integrity is protected against unexpected client behaviour (eg, sudden termination, lost connection) and in the highly unlikely event of a hung thread or server crash, SightServer automatically recovers and continues.

The Thinsight client can be configured to run as an ActiveX control embedded in the host application, or as a stand-alone desktop application controlled form the host process using command line parameters. It installs quickly (less than 5MB) on any Windows PC. The only installation requirement is .NET 2.0, which is part of Vista and is already installed on most PCs. If needed, Thinsight and SightServer may even be integrated into a single process, offering the simplicity and ease of maintenance of a simple standalone application.