HP TouchPad Enables Doctors to Control MRI Scanners

Although Hewlett-Packard announced that the TouchPad tablet will soon meet its demise, it still has a job at California's Stanford University, where researchers are using the device to control a Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner. MRIs collect detailed 3-D images of the body without the radiation exposure levels of X-rays. The procedures are now being used for both diagnostic purposes as well as ultrasound therapy.

Andrew B. Holbrook, a research associate in the radiology department at Stanford's School of Medicine, developed applications for the TouchPad to allow technicians to control the device from inside or outside the exam room as well as view and manipulate data. Stanford Professor Kim Butts Pauly is directing the project...