Acquiring DICOM images in real-time

To run a real-time experiment you need to be able to access the volumes as they are acquired. This involves connecting the real-time computer to the scanner console, and configuring the scanner to write out DICOM files in real-time.

Connecting to the scanner network

  1. Connect the real-time computer to the router switch on top of the scanner console with an ethernet cable.

  2. Take note of the real-time computer’s IP address, which should be 192.168.1.<some number>.

Mounting the network shared drive

The real-time computer hosts a network shared folder using the SAMBA protocol. We will use the built-in Windows tool to mount the shared folder over the network.

  1. Press Ctrl+Esc to open the Windows start menu, click “Computer” or “Windows Explorer.”

  2. Click “Tools > Map network drive”, and enter Y: and \\<real-time computer's IP address>\rtfmri

  3. Check “use different credentials” and click “OK.”

  4. Enter rtfmri for the user name and enter the samba password and click “OK.”

This links the directory Y: on the scanner console to the /mnt/scanner on the realtimefmri_samba container running on the real-time computer. You can test this connection by writing a file to the directory on one computer and making sure it appears in the corresponding directory on the other computer.

Configuring the scanner to write out DICOM files to that folder in real-time

Siemens scanners come with a useful program called ideacmdtool that can configure the scanner to write out DICOM files as they are collected. Unfortunately it is not that well documented – thanks to the FIRMM and Dynamically Adaptive Imaging projects for explaining how to configure it.

  1. Press Ctrl-Esc to open the Windows start menu. Click on “Advanced user” to activate Advanced User mode. Talk to scanner administrators to get the authentication details.

  2. Press Ctrl-Esc and click “Command Prompt” or click “Run” and enter cmd in the dialog to launch the command prompt.

  3. Enter ideacmdtool in the command prompt to start the ideacmdtool program.

Configure the default settings (these steps should be performed BEFORE registering a patient):

../_images/network_online_export.jpg

  1. Enter 4 to go to the “Online export defaults” menu

  2. Enter 1 and set “Target port” to -1

  3. Enter 3 and set “Target path” to y: (or whatever path you mounted the SAMBA folder on)

  4. Enter 8 to set SendBuffered to OFF

  5. Enter q to go back to the main ideacmdtool menu

Configure the session settings (these steps should be performed AFTER registering a patient, since these flags get reset every time you register a new patient):

../_images/network_switches.jpg

  1. Enter 5 to go to the “Switches” menu

  2. Enter 8 to set SendIMA to ON

  3. Enter q to go back to the main ideacmdtool menu

  4. Enter q to exit ideacmdtool