Experimental Study on Light Intensity of the Collimator of the X-ray Tube Using Smartphone Applications

Measurement Light Intensity from the Collimator of the X-ray Tube

Abstract

        The light from the collimator of the X-ray tube using to define the area of the radiation beam and the light intensity is required to comply with the quality control standard. At present, there are many applications for measuring light intensity that can be freely downloaded on a smartphone which will be useful to solve the problem of a lack of lux meters in hospitals. The purpose of this research was to
study the measurement of light intensity from the collimator of the X-ray tube using three smartphone applications: Smart Luxmeter (Smart Tools co.), Lux Meter (Light Meter) (My Mobile Tools Dev) and Lux Meter (KHTSXR) compared with the standard reference lux meter (Yokogawa model 51001). The result showed that after calibrating, all the three applications could measure the light intensity of a light emitting diode (LED) lamp with the close value of the standard reference lux meter. The percentages of difference were between 0.9% and 1.4%. In addition, measuring the light of the collimator from the X-ray tube at a distance of one meter from the X-ray source showed that light intensity from all the three applications had an average difference between 1.5% and 5.2%. The Lux Meter (KSTSXR) application had the lowest percentage of difference (1.5%) which was closest to the reference values and comply with the acceptable range of the quality standards of the medical diagnostic X-ray machine of the Department of Medical Sciences. In conclusion, if for light intensity screening, the calibrated lux meter applications
could be used in stead of the light meter.