Prototype controls for a plain radiography workstation

The purpose of this work was to develop a set of controls for image navigation and manipulation for use at a workstation. The intended focus was to provide a set of controls that would be most useful for the task of reading plain radiographs, such as those from chest, abdominal, and musculoskeletal imaging. We thought that most workstation controls were better suited to the interpretation of cross sectional imaging rather than plain radiography, and from current reports on user ergonomics and our own experience, developed a prototype control set. A goal of this design was to create controls that could be operated without the need to display menus on the workstation or select items from them. The control set was also designed to be operable without having to do visual searches for the controls or observe the controls while they were being used.