What visual artifacts are common in low-quality displays?

visual-artifacts-surgical-monitorsVisual artifacts on a surgical monitor can obscure critical details. This creates uncertainty and risk, but a high-quality display provides a clear, stable image that you can trust completely.

Common visual artifacts in low-quality displays include color banding, motion blur, ghosting, and uneven brightness. These issues stem from inferior panels, slow processing, and poor calibration, all of which can compromise surgical precision by hiding or distorting vital visual information.

Throughout my career, I have seen how seemingly small imperfections in a display can have large consequences. A monitor is a surgeon’s window into the patient, and that window must be perfectly clear. Visual artifacts are not just minor annoyances; they are forms of visual noise¹ that interfere with a surgeon’s ability to interpret anatomical structures. They can hide the subtle cues that inform critical decisions. Understanding what causes these artifacts is the first step toward eliminating them from the operating room. This article will break down the most common visual flaws and explain why a medically certified display² is engineered to prevent them.

What causes color banding in surgical images?

You are examining tissue, but the colors form distinct, distracting bands. This visual flaw makes it difficult to see the subtle gradient between healthy and diseased tissue, creating clinical uncertainty.

Color banding is caused by a display’s limited color depth. When a monitor cannot render enough shades to create a smooth gradient, it produces visible steps or "bands." This often happens with 8-bit panels that lack advanced processing.

Color banding occurs when a monitor’s hardware and software cannot accurately reproduce subtle transitions between shades of color. This limitation is directly tied to the display’s bit depth³. A standard 8-bit monitor can display approximately 16.7 million colors. While this sounds like a lot, it can be insufficient for the nuanced color gradients found in medical imagery, especially in large, uniform areas of red like those seen in endoscopic surgery. When the display needs to show a color that falls between the shades it can produce, it defaults to the nearest available one. This creates a visible "step" or band. A monitor with a 10-bit panel⁴, in contrast, can display over one billion colors, allowing for far smoother and more realistic gradients. This prevents banding and ensures that surgeons can perceive the most subtle tissue variations. Monitors like our MS321PC use advanced color processing to render these gradients accurately, which is essential for making confident clinical assessments.

Color Depth Comparison

Why do low-quality screens show motion blur during camera movements?

The surgeon moves the endoscope, and the image on the screen becomes a smear. This motion blur makes it impossible to track instruments or identify anatomical structures with any confidence.

Low-quality screens show motion blur because their pixels have a slow response time. The pixels cannot change color fast enough to keep up with the moving image, causing a trailing or smearing effect that compromises clarity during dynamic procedures.

Motion blur is a direct result of a panel’s pixel response time⁵, which is the time it takes for a pixel to switch from one color to another. In low-quality displays, this transition is too slow. When the surgical camera moves quickly, the pixels lag behind, failing to update in sync with the live video feed. This creates a visible "smear" behind moving objects, such as surgical instruments or pulsating blood vessels. This artifact is particularly disruptive in fast-paced procedures like laparoscopy or arthroscopy, where surgeons rely on fluid camera movements to navigate. A blurry image forces the surgeon’s brain to work harder to predict the instrument’s location, increasing cognitive load and the potential for error. High-performance surgical monitors⁶ like our MS247SA are built with panels that have very fast response times. This ensures that motion is rendered crisply and clearly, providing a stable and reliable view of the surgical field, no matter how quickly the camera moves.

How do ghosting and image retention affect surgical visualization?

A faint outline of a static menu icon remains on the screen. This ghost image overlaps with the live surgical view, creating a confusing and distracting visual that interferes with the procedure.

Ghosting and image retention superimpose unwanted residual images onto the live video feed. This clutters the surgical view, potentially obscuring small anatomical details or being mistaken for an actual structure, leading to misinterpretation and distraction.

Ghosting⁷ and image retention⁸ are two related but distinct artifacts that degrade image quality. Ghosting appears as a faint trail behind moving objects and is typically caused by slow pixel response times, similar to motion blur. Image retention, sometimes called temporary image persistence or "burn-in," occurs when a static image is displayed for too long. The pixels can get "stuck," leaving a faint silhouette of the static image even after the picture changes. This is a common problem when surgical monitors⁹ display static user interface elements from a camera control unit or other medical devices. Both artifacts are highly problematic in a surgical context. A ghost image could obscure the view of a bleeding vessel, while a retained image of a tool could be mistaken for the real thing. High-quality surgical displays like our compact MS192SA use robust, medical-grade panels and specialized electronic controls designed to minimize these effects, ensuring the screen shows only the live surgical image, free from visual clutter.

Ghosting vs. Image Retention

Is uneven brightness a significant issue in medical monitors?

You notice that the corners of your display are darker than the center. This inconsistency means a critical detail could be hidden in one of these shadowy areas, compromising the safety of the procedure.

Yes, uneven brightness is a very significant issue. Known as a lack of uniformity, it can cause parts of an image to appear dimmer or discolored, potentially masking subtle pathologies or critical anatomical landmarks and directly impacting clinical interpretation.

Brightness uniformity¹⁰ refers to a monitor’s ability to maintain a consistent level of brightness across its entire screen surface. In low-quality, consumer-grade displays, it is common to see "hot spots" in the center and noticeably dimmer corners or edges. This phenomenon, also known as mura¹¹, happens because of inconsistencies in the panel and its backlight. In a medical setting, this is unacceptable. A surgeon must be confident that a detail seen in the center of the screen would be just as visible if it appeared at the edge. Uneven brightness can obscure a small bleeder in a dark corner or wash out subtle tissue differences in an overly bright spot. To prevent this, premium medical monitors undergo a rigorous factory calibration process called uniformity correction¹². Specialized sensors measure the brightness at hundreds of points across the screen, and a correction algorithm is applied to ensure consistency. This technology, integrated into monitors like our MS275P, guarantees that the image is stable and reliable from edge to edge.

How does Reshin mitigate these visual artifacts in its surgical monitors?

You worry that any new monitor could come with these frustrating visual flaws. This uncertainty makes choosing the right display a stressful and high-stakes decision for your hospital.

Reshin mitigates visual artifacts through a multi-layered approach. We start with premium-grade panels and combine them with advanced image processing, real-time correction technologies, and strict factory calibration to deliver a clear, stable, and artifact-free image every time.

Our entire design philosophy is centered on eliminating the visual noise that can compromise surgical performance. We address each potential artifact with specific engineering solutions. To prevent color banding¹³, we use panels with high bit depth and employ sophisticated processing that can render over a billion colors for smooth, lifelike gradients. For motion blur and ghosting, we select panels with intrinsically fast pixel response times and fine-tune the electronics to ensure crisp, clear motion even during the most rapid camera movements. The problem of image retention¹⁴ is tackled by using robust, industrial-grade components designed for long hours of continuous use. Most importantly, to solve uneven brightness, every single one of our monitors undergoes a detailed uniformity calibration¹⁵ before it leaves the factory. This ensures a consistent and reliable image across the entire screen. By integrating these technologies into models like our versatile MS321PB, we provide surgeons with a display they can trust, free from the distractions and risks of visual artifacts.

Conclusion

Low-quality displays introduce artifacts that degrade surgical visualization. Choosing a medically certified monitor with advanced processing and calibration ensures a clear, stable image, which is essential for surgeon confidence and patient safety. To secure artifact-free surgical displays engineered for precision, contact Reshin at martin@reshinmonitors.com.