Author(s)

P. Knoll, S. Mirzaei & H. Köhn

Abstract

Iterative algorithms to reconstruct single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) data are based on the mathematical simulation of the acquisition process. The reconstruction times of these methods are much longer than that of routinely used reconstruction methods. Java, a platform independent programming language changed the way of software design by using Jini and JavaSpaces, new technologies that have been introduced recently. By applying JavaSpaces, a space is used to store objects persistently which can be used also for effective parallel processing. In this paper, we report a novel approach for iterative reconstruction of SPECT data by means of JavaSpaces, which uses only standard personal computer equipment and results in significant improvement of reconstruction time due to the fact that several layers of the object are computed in parallel. 1 Introduction Java platform developed by Sun Microsystems (http://www.sun.com [11) represents a new means of computation specially designed for network computing and based on the idea that computer software should run on different available computer hardware and operating systems. Software written in Java and compiled with the freely available Java Development Kit 1.4 (http://java.sun.com/products/jdkl.4[2]) runs different kinds of computers due to the Java virtual machine which enables the Java platform to host applications on any computer without rewriting the programming code. Java applications are already used in medicine, but mainly to distribute clinical information (Malameteniou [3], Slomka [4]). However, it does not seem reasonable to translate already existing programs written in C/C++ into Java. A new

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