1. A disk drive comprising:
a reading section for reading data from a disk;
memory for temporarily retaining data read from the disk; and
a control section that controls rotational speed of the disk in accordance with a time interval, the time interval corresponding to a time at which the memory becomes full, the control section controlling the rotational speed of the disk so as to keep the time interval between a set lower limit value and a set upper limit value by first comparing the time interval against the set upper limit value, then either increasing the rotational speed when the time interval is greater than the set upper limit value and when a current rotational speed of the disk is less than an upper rotational speed limit or comparing the time interval against the set lower limit value when the time interval is equal to or smaller than the set upper limit value, and when the time interval is smaller than the set upper time limit value and smaller than the set lower limit value and when a current transfer rate is greater than a lower transfer rate limit, decreasing the rotational speed.
2. The disk drive according to claim 1, wherein the control section controls an increasing rate employed when the rotational speed is increased so as to become greater than a decreasing rate employed when the rotational speed is decreased.
3. The disk drive according to claim 1, wherein the control section performs control so as to decrease the rotational speed regardless of the time interval when a command is not received from a host within a given period of time.
4. The disk drive according to claim 1, wherein the memory is buffer memory.
5. The disk drive according to claim 1, wherein the control section reads data ahead from the disk until the memory becomes full; controls the reading section so as to stop ahead-reading of data at timing when the memory becomes full; starts a timer at timing when the memory becomes full; and stops the timer at timing when next the memory becomes full, thereby measuring a timing interval at which the memory becomes full.
6. The disk drive according to claim 1, wherein the control section decreases the rotational speed when a current rotational speed is greater than a lower limit rotational speed determined in accordance with a servo system and when the time interval is smaller than the set lower limit value.
7. The disk drive according to claim 1, wherein the control section increases the rotational speed when a current rotational speed is smaller than an upper limit rotational speed determined in accordance with a servo system and when the time interval is larger than the set upper limit value.
8. An information processing system comprising:
the disk drive defined in claim 1; and
a host that transmits a command, including at least a read command, to the disk drive and that receives data read from the disk in accordance with the read command.
9. A method comprising:
determining a time interval associated with an amount of time it takes a memory in an optical disk drive system to become full; and
changing a rotational speed of a disk in the disk drive system based on the time interval by first increasing the rotational speed of the disk if the time interval is greater than a set upper time limit value and when a current rotational speed of the disk is less than an upper rotational speed limit, and decreasing the rotational speed of the disk if the time interval is smaller than the set upper time limit value and smaller than a set lower time limit value and when a current transfer rate is greater than a lower transfer rate limit.
10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:
determining if the disk drive system has received a command;
increasing the rotational speed of the disk when the disk drive system has received the command; and
decreasing the rotational speed of the disk when the disk drive system has not received the command.
11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:
increasing the rotational speed of the disk by a first set increment when a current rotational speed of the disk is less than or equal to a rotational speed limit, and increasing the rotational speed of the disk by a second set increment when the current rotational speed of the disk is greater than the rotational speed limit.
12. The method of claim 9, the rotational speed of the disk is increased by 10% and decreased by 1%.
13. A method comprising:
determining a time interval associated with an amount of time it takes a memory in an optical disk drive system to become full; and
changing a rotational speed of a disk in the disk drive system based on the time interval by first increasing the rotational speed of the disk if the time interval is greater than a set upper time limit value and decreasing the rotational speed of the disk if the time interval is smaller than the set upper time limit value and smaller than a set lower time limit value, wherein changing the rotational speed of the disk includes increasing the rotational speed of the disk by a first set increment when a current rotational speed of the disk is less than or equal to a rotational speed limit, and increasing the rotational speed of the disk by a second set increment when the current rotational speed of the disk is greater than the rotational speed limit.
14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:
determining if the disk drive system has received a command;
increasing the rotational speed of the disk when the disk drive system has received the command; and
decreasing the rotational speed of the disk when the disk drive system has not received the command.
15. A disk drive comprising:
a reading section for reading data from a disk;
memory for temporarily retaining data read from the disk; and
a control section that controls rotational speed of the disk in accordance with a time interval, the time interval corresponding to a time at which the memory becomes full, the control section controlling the rotational speed of the disk so as to keep the time interval between a set lower limit value and a set upper limit value by first comparing the time interval against the set upper limit value, then either increasing the rotational speed when the time interval is greater than the set upper limit value or comparing the time interval against the set lower limit value when the time interval is equal to or smaller than the set upper limit value, and when the time interval is smaller than the set lower limit value decreasing the rotational speed, the control section further controls the rotational speed of the disk by increasing the rotational speed of the disk by a first set increment when a current rotational speed of the disk is less than or equal to a rotational speed limit, and increasing the rotational speed of the disk by a second set increment when the current rotational speed of the disk is greater than the rotational speed limit.
16. The disk drive according to claim 15, wherein the control section controls an increasing rate employed when the rotational speed is increased so as to become greater than a decreasing rate employed when the rotational speed is decreased.
17. The disk drive according to claim 15, wherein the control section performs control so as to decrease the rotational speed regardless of the time interval when a command is not received from a host within a given period of time.
18. The disk drive according to claim 15, wherein the control section reads data ahead from the disk until the memory becomes full; controls the reading section so as to stop ahead-reading of data at timing when the memory becomes full; starts a timer at timing when the memory becomes full; and stops the timer at timing when next the memory becomes full, thereby measuring a timing interval at which the memory becomes full.
19. The disk drive according to claim 15, wherein the control section decreases the rotational speed when a current rotational speed is greater than a lower limit rotational speed determined in accordance with a servo system and when the time interval is smaller than the set lower limit value.
20. The disk drive according to claim 15, wherein the control section increases the rotational speed when a current rotational speed is smaller than an upper limit rotational speed determined in accordance with a servo system and when the time interval is larger than the set upper limit value.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. An image display method comprising:
color coding an overlay image respective to an intensity spectrum using a color map that assigns colors to intensities and that sets a portion of the intensity spectrum to be transparent, the color coding generating a color coded overlay image;
combining an underlay image and the color coded overlay image to generate a fused image using partial transparency controlled by a transparency factor \u03b1 for those portions of the overlay image not set to be transparent by the color coding; and
displaying the fused image on a display;
wherein the color coding and the combining are performed by a digital processing device.
2. The image display method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the color coding assigns a key color to the portion of the intensity spectrum set to be transparent, and the combining comprises:
adding pixels or voxels of the color coded overlay image to corresponding pixels or voxels of the underlay image in accordance with the controlling transparency factor \u03b1 without adding pixels or voxels of the color coded overlay image that are assigned the key color.
3. The image display method as set forth in claim 2, further comprising:
adjusting the transparency factor \u03b1 without adjusting the portion of the intensity spectrum set by the color map to be transparent.
4. The image display method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the portion of the intensity spectrum set by the color map to be transparent includes a range of non-zero intensities having a non-zero lowest intensity.
5. The image display method as set forth in claim 4, wherein the range of non-zero intensities further has a highest intensity that is less than a maximum intensity of the intensity spectrum.
6. The image display method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the overlay image is a functional image and the portion of the intensity spectrum set by the color map to be transparent includes a lowest portion of the intensity spectrum, the lowest portion having a highest intensity selected to set as transparent pixels or voxels of the functional overlay image that represent a lower range of standard uptake values (SUV’s).
7. The image display method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the portion of the intensity spectrum set by the color map to be transparent includes two or more spaced apart ranges of intensities.
8. The image display method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the portion of the intensity spectrum set by the color map to be transparent includes a first range of intensities and a second range of intensities that are spaced apart in the intensity spectrum.
9. The image display method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the portion of the intensity spectrum set by the color map to be transparent includes a plurality of spaced apart ranges of intensities that define a plurality of color coding bands spaced apart in the intensity spectrum, each color coding band including one or more contiguous intensities of the intensity spectrum.
10. The image display method as set forth in claim 9, wherein the color coding bands are spaced apart in the intensity spectrum by equidistant intervals.
11. The image display method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the underlay image is a computed tomography (CT) image.
12. The image display method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the overlay image is a positron emission tomography (PET) image.
13. An image display system comprising:
an image generating module configured to generate an image by color coding an input image in accordance with a color map assigning colors to intensities of an intensity spectrum and fusing the color coded image with a second input image;
a color map modifying module configured to set a portion of the intensity spectrum to be transparent; and
a display configured to display the generated image;
wherein the image generating module is configured to fuse the color coded image with the second input image using overlay fusion with the second input image defining an underlay image displayed in grayscale and the color coded image defining an overlay image, the overlay fusion using partial transparency of the color coded overlay image controlled by a transparency factor \u03b1 except where the color coded overlay image is set to be transparent by the color coding of the overlay image in accordance with the color map.
14. The image display system as set forth in claim 13, further comprising:
a spatial registration module configured to relatively spatially register the input image and the second input image.
15. The image display system as set forth in claim 13, wherein the overlay fusion comprises assigning the value \u03b1V1+(1\u2212\u03b1)V2 where V1 is the pixel or voxel value of the underlay image and V2 is the pixel or voxel value of the color coded overlay image.
16. The image display system as set forth in claim 13, wherein the color map modifying module is configured to receive a user input selecting the portion of the intensity spectrum that is set to be transparent.
17. The image display system as set forth in claim 13, wherein the color map modifying module is configured to set a plurality of non-contiguous portions of the intensity spectrum to be transparent.
18. The image display system as set forth in claim 13, wherein the color map modifying module is configured to set lower and upper portions of the intensity spectrum to be transparent.
19. The image display system as set forth in claim 13, wherein the color map modifying module is configured to set the portions of the intensity spectrum to be transparent so as to define color coding bands spaced apart in the intensity spectrum, each color coding band including one or more contiguous intensities of the intensity spectrum.
20. A non-transitory storage medium storing instructions executable by a digital processing device to perform a method comprising:
color coding an overlay image respective to an intensity spectrum using a color map that assigns colors to intensities and that sets a portion of the intensity spectrum to be transparent, the color coding generating a color coded overlay image;
combining an underlay image and the color coded overlay image to generate a fused image using partial transparency controlled by a transparency factor \u03b1 for those portions of the overlay image not set to be transparent by the color coding; and
displaying the fused image on a display.
21. The non-transitory storage medium as set forth in claim 20, wherein the color coding assigns a key color to the portion of the intensity spectrum set to be transparent, and the combining comprises:
adding pixels or voxels of the color coded overlay image to corresponding pixels or voxels of the underlay image in accordance with the controlling transparency factor \u03b1 without adding pixels or voxels of the color coded overlay image that are assigned the key color.
22. The non-transitory storage medium as set forth in claim 20, wherein the portion of the intensity spectrum set by the color map to be transparent includes a range of non-zero intensities having a non-zero lowest intensity.
23. The non-transitory storage medium as set forth in claim 22, wherein the range of non-zero intensities further has a highest intensity that is less than a maximum intensity of the intensity spectrum.
24. The non-transitory storage medium as set forth in claim 20, wherein the portion of the intensity spectrum set by the color map to be transparent includes two or more spaced apart ranges of intensities.
25. The non-transitory storage medium as set forth in claim 20, wherein the portion of the intensity spectrum set by the color map to be transparent includes a first range of intensities and a second range of intensities that are spaced apart in the intensity spectrum.
26. The non-transitory storage medium as set forth in claim 20, wherein the portion of the intensity spectrum set by the color map to be transparent includes a plurality of spaced apart ranges of intensities that define a plurality of color coding bands spaced apart in the intensity spectrum, each color coding band including one or more contiguous intensities of the intensity spectrum.