Chimaera SDK

Chimaera SDK is a modular Software Development Kit designed for medical and industrial imaging applications. It enables business customers to build scalable solutions ranging from hardware-optimized image processing backends to complete graphical user interface (GUI) applications and customer workstation components. The SDK supports the full development lifecycle, taking projects from initial prototype through to finished, deployable product.

The Chimaera SDK components can be integrated into existing customer software or used to build stand-alone image processing applications. Development is supported in C++, Python, or a mixture of both languages, making it flexible for a wide range of engineering teams and project requirements.

Core Application Areas

• Prototyping and full application development
• High-performance image processing leveraging CPU and GPU resources
• Design of algorithms and processing pipelines
• Mixed C++ and Python development workflows
• Creation of computation backends, viewing workstation extensions, and customized GUI stand-alone applications

Highlighted SDK Features

• Visual programming editor and profiler for designing and interacting with data flow process networks
• Modern multi-platform build system based on conan and CMake
• Built-in support for mixed hardware components including CUDA, OpenGL, and OpenCL
• Python scripting engine enabling mixed C++ and Python development
• Visualization modules such as slice viewing, MPR, and volume rendering
• Image processing algorithms including segmentation and registration
• Property system with serialization for configuration management
• Crash reporting and debugging support, including Visual Studio Source Link integration
• Customer-specific software components for integration into large platforms

Key Advantages

• Modularity and compatibility through standardized interfaces
• High-performance imaging designed specifically for demanding image-processing chains
• Efficient resource management through intelligent component prioritization
• Increased system reliability by optimizing resource usage
• Easy system maintenance, as the algorithm pipeline can be reused across an entire product family
• Long-standing expertise in high-performance image processing system development
• Multi-platform support for both Windows and Linux
• Scalable and extendable via a plugin system
• Flexible GUI styling to support corporate look-and-feel requirements

Chimaera Build System

• Package-based dependency management using conan with custom CMake extensions
• Simplified project setup and IDE integration for apps, plugins, and libraries
• Streamlined addition of library dependencies with reduced CMake integration effort
• Automated tracking and synchronization of shared libraries
• Management of app-specific Python environments and dependencies
• Installer creation and bundling for deployment

Visual Programming and Process Networks

• Processing components and application logic are designed as data flow graphs called process networks
• The Process Network Editor provides a visual programming tool for creating and interacting with networks in a live view
• Networks can be configured to be accessible from distributed applications, for example by service technicians

Analysis and Profiling Tools

• Inspection of parameters and intermediate results within a live application setting
• Collection of processing times and bottleneck analysis
• Visualization of hardware processing, including dedicated GPU device activity
• Tuning of resource management including memory consumption and caching

Advanced Processing and Visualization Components

• Processing algorithms such as image enhancement
• Registration (rigid and non-rigid) and segmentation (manual, AI-assisted, and fully AI-driven)
• Viewing modes including slice view, MPR, and volume rendering
• Configurable view layouts and GUI integration
• Support for multiple imaging modalities including CT, MR, and PET
• Fast and efficient streaming of large volumes of image data
• AI-driven structure recognition for medical anatomy and industrial inspection use cases such as noise reduction and artifact elimination

Decentralized and Large-Scale Data Processing

• Flexible configuration to exchange data across various interfaces
• Empowers decentralized process chains to automate diverse tasks efficiently
• Designed for high reliability and easy scalability
• Supports containerized remote processing via Docker and Kubernetes

The Chimaera SDK is developed in accordance with EN ISO 13485, enabling customers to use its modules as a foundation for building standalone medical devices with defined intended purposes. Upon licensing, Chimaera provides the necessary quality management documentation to support compliance with the European Medical Device Regulation (MDR). Chimaera also offers services and support for developing customer-specific software components based on the SDK for seamless integration into existing systems.