Yakami DICOM tools: free lightweight DICOM viewer, & converter for Windows

Hazem Abbas

Jul 25, 2019 — 3 min read

Yakami DICOM tools is a free DICOM viewer and converter aiming for research, not for the diagnosis. It's developed using Microsoft technologies to run on Windows PC (Windows XP, 2000, VISTA, 7, 8, 8.1, & Windows 10).

Though the project has not been updated since 2014, many radiologists, physicians,& dentists are using it on their PC. because it's a lightweight package that provides several required tools to view, process, convert DICOM files.

"YAKAMI DICOM Tools" contains several DICOM utilities with it's lightweight, it has a PACS client, DICOM viewer with advanced options, DICOM file converter that supports batch operations, & several custom image editors (Gamma editor, CLUT editor, Combi editor, & WL/WW Editor.

Because "YAKAMI DICOM tools" program has PACS client features, it supports querying, finding, & reading remote or local studies with ease. The PACS client has a command-line configuration tool, it's easy to use but requires advanced skills.

"YAKAMI DICOM Tools" was developed, & maintained by the department of medical imaging, & nuclear medicine, School of medicine, at Kyoto University.

Yakami DICOM tools

Highlights

Lightweight
Easy to install, & use
Works smoothly on old and new machines/ systems
Works for novice users, & advanced users
Supported languages: English, Japanese

Features

Command-line tools for advanced users
DICOM viewer
DICOM counter
DICOM index generator
PACS client
Batch file conversion
Batch file re-namer tool
Batch file moving tool
Window Level (WL) and Window Width (WW) editors
Gamma editor
CLUT editor
Combi editor
Study query
Study viewer

DICOM Viewer features:

Multi-document interface support
Multiple view support
Multiple format support: it supports DICOM, & Non-standard Dicom files
File formats: JPEG, JPEG Lossless, JPEG LS, MPEG compressions. (MPEG data are converted to .mpeg files for playing with external programs.) Other Formats: NIfTI, ANALIZE, RAW. Image: JPEG (JFIF, LossLess JPEG, JPEG-LS, JPEG 2000), Bitmap, EMF, EXIF, Icon (Windows), W3C PNG, TIFF, WMF (Windows Meta-file)
Measurement tools: distance, signal average/standard deviation/maximum/minimum of circular ROI, overlay figures are saved and reloaded.
Multiple-filters
Cross Reference.
Ruler
DICOM file conversion
Reading Progress.
Image Fusion

Batch DICOM File Converter [src:YAKAMI DICOM TOOLS]

Under the hood

The project uses several open-source, closed source tools and development libraries, here is a list of them:

Microsoft .NET(TM) Framework 2.0
FreeImage open source image library.
"CharLS" developed by Jan de Vaan: JPEG-LS (Lossless and near-lossless JPEG compression library)
"IJG Win32 - JPEG co-decoding library with Lossless JPEG Extensions".
AForge.NET Framework 2.1.5. is a C# framework designed for developers and researchers in the fields of Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence

Requirements

Operating system: Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista®/XP/2000
Hardware: supporting above OS
Memory: 256MB minimum, 1GB recommended at least to prevent out-of-memory exception on DICOM Viewer

License

The project is NOT an open-source project, but it's freeware package that allows the user to use it freely on their machines, & systems. Reproduction and Redistribution of this software require the Author's permission.

Conclusions

YAKAMI DICOM Tools is a lightweight software package, that does not require high hardware specifications, and it works smoothly on old Windows as well as the new Windows 10. It's not open-source, and it's not in active development as it has not been updated since 2014, but it works, and it can be useful to convert batch DICOM files and View DICOM files on the fly. However, It lacks many functions required to consider it a PACS client.

Resources

YAKAMI DICOM Tools

DICOM/ PACS Viewers Archive

Yakami DICOM tools: free lightweight DICOM viewer, & converter for Windows

Hazem Abbas