RadBuddy Highlighter
Marks findings on the image on your screen. Runs entirely on your own workstation.
Get Highlighter for Windows · 348 MB
What it is
Highlighter is a small program that looks at your screen when you ask it to, runs a neural network on your computer's own processor, and marks what it found. It all happens on your own computer: the app reads your screen and uses the model files that come inside the download, each checked before it is used, and the one thing it ever fetches is a newer version of itself, when you click Update now. The license works offline. Optionally, a second computer with a graphics card, joined to the workstation by one cable, runs the heavier models (the GPU Booster PC).
It is a prototype, not cleared or validated: see the disclaimer at the end of this page. The other app, DEXAhelper, reads bone density results screens into report text; it is a separate download with its own page. About RadBuddy has both in short.
Starting it
The download is given out on request: ask for an account on the sign-up page and you get an email when it is approved, usually the same day. Then sign in and download it, with the button above or from your account page; unzip the download and double-click Highlighter, the one with the icon (Highlighter.cmd beside it starts the app the same way, should your computer block the other). On its first start the app asks for a license: click Get / renew license at radbuddy.com, sign in, and the page sends the license to the app by itself. Nothing is installed: the whole program lives in that folder, and deleting the folder removes it. It opens one small window, the panel, which stays on top, and puts an icon in the system tray (bottom right, next to the clock). The panel and the tray icon have the same actions.
Windows may show a blue SmartScreen box the first time because the download is not code-signed. Click More info, then Run anyway. Chrome may hold the zip back as an uncommon file for the same reason: open its downloads panel, the three dots beside the file, then Keep.
The license
On its first start the app asks for a license and offers one button, Get / renew license at radbuddy.com: sign in, and the page sends the license to the app by itself; there is nothing to type or to copy. It is kept as the file rb_highlighter.license beside Highlighter.cmd, and it works offline.
A license lasts a limited time; the account page says how long. The app renews it by itself before it runs out, asking radbuddy.com from the same separate process its updater uses (Settings → License → Renew automatically, on unless you turn it off; the request carries the license and nothing about your computer). Where that cannot happen, on a network that lets only the browser out for example, the app says so when the license runs out and offers one button, Get / renew license at radbuddy.com: sign in, and the page sends the license to the app by itself. The app unlocks on its own; there is nothing to type or to copy. Your browser may ask once whether to open RadBuddy Highlighter (Python, on an app older than 0.5.4): choose Open, and tick always allow to skip the question next time.
If the browser cannot reach the app, for example because it has never been started on that computer, click Show license on the account page, copy it, and paste it into the app's license box. Remove license in the app's Settings deletes the license from that computer.
Hotkeys
| Ctrl+Alt+X | Analyze once: grab the monitor under the mouse (or the region box, whichever the panel says), find the image on it, work out what it is, and mark it. |
| Ctrl+Alt+L | Live on / off: keep scoring the image on screen as you scroll through a CT. |
| Ctrl+Alt+R | Switch between Entire monitor and Analyze region (shows or hides the region box). |
| Ctrl+Alt+B | Collapse the panel to the thin bar across its top, or expand it again. A click on the bar does the same. |
| Ctrl+Alt+Q | Quit. |
The hotkeys can be changed in highlighter.ini.
What it looks at
Entire monitor grabs the monitor chosen in the dropdown beside it and finds the image on it by itself; while the dropdown is open a big number sits on every monitor so you can see which is which. Analyze region puts a see-through box on the screen: park it over the image (drag its band to move it, a corner or an edge to resize it, the padlock to lock it in place) and the app looks only inside it. Clicks inside the box still go to your viewer. The box and the choice are remembered for the next start.
Every grab goes through a small classifier first that says what is on screen: chest X-ray, CT, MRI, ultrasound, or none of those. A chest X-ray or a CT goes to that model. For MRI and ultrasound the app says it has no model yet, and a worklist, a report or the desktop is not scored at all.
The result
The result appears in the panel, beside the controls: the image with a heat map for the selected finding, and the findings next to it. Click a finding, or use the arrow keys, to see its heat map. H toggles the heat, the slider sets its strength, Esc or × clears the result. With the region box, the same heat is drawn over the image on your screen.
The app marks only what it is sure of. A finding is either marked or shows its score; a critical finding below its lower point says no mark, in grey: the model put no mark there, and that is all it means; it is not a negative. What each model looks for is work in progress and changes between versions; the panel lists it. On a CT, a finding the current window cannot show says not in this window instead of showing a number.
The heat map is coarse. It says roughly where the network looked, and lands on or next to the finding about half the time. Treat it as a pointer to look, not an outline.
Live mode
Live on (Ctrl+Alt+L) scores the image on screen continuously while you scroll. For CT this needs a graphics card: this computer's own if it has one, or a second computer joined to it by one cable, the GPU Booster PC. Without either, CT is off and the panel says why; chest X-rays work on any computer. Settings → This computer says what this computer has and whether CT analysis is enabled.
The GPU Booster PC
CT analysis needs a graphics card the app can use. When the workstation has none it can use, a second computer that has one does the work, joined to the workstation by a single cable. Chest X-rays need nothing extra.
What you need
- A second computer with a graphics card. A gaming laptop with an NVIDIA card is plenty. Windows 10 or 11.
- One Ethernet cable between the two computers.
- A USB Ethernet adapter for the workstation if it has no free Ethernet port. Any adapter works out of the box on Windows 10 and 11; nothing is installed.
That is all: the cable is the whole connection, and the same download runs on both computers.
Setting it up
- Join them. Plug the adapter into the workstation and run the cable from it to the second computer.
- Start the GPU Booster PC. On the second computer, unzip the same download and double-click
GPU-Booster-PC.cmd. Choose the address on the cable from the networks list and press Start. The window shows what it serves and who is connected. - Pair. Press Pair in the GPU Booster PC window. On the workstation open Settings → GPU Booster, type the address the GPU Booster PC shows, and press Pair. Both windows show the same six-digit number: press Confirm on the GPU Booster PC.
- Test and Save. Test on the workstation reports the connection and the models on the other side; Save keeps it. From then on the app connects to the GPU Booster PC whenever the cable is in.
Done: Settings → This computer on the workstation says CT analysis: enabled, on the GPU Booster PC. Pull the cable and the workstation carries on with chest X-rays on its own processor.
Which computer does what
With the cable in, every model runs on the GPU Booster PC, X-ray included; the workstation captures the screen and draws the marks. With the cable out, the workstation runs chest X-rays on its own processor. Settings → This computer always says which it is.
Settings
Settings at the bottom of the panel opens on This computer: the processor, memory and graphics card, and whether CT analysis is enabled, with a link to the page when it is not. The other tabs hold the license, the GPU Booster PC and the update controls. For the rest, copy highlighter.ini.example to highlighter.ini in the same folder and edit it: the hotkeys, the capture rate in live mode, the GPU Booster PC.
Updating
The app updates itself: Settings → Update → Check for updates, then Update now and Restart to finish update. It replaces its own folder in place and keeps your settings and license. The models come inside the download; there is nothing else to fetch.
On a network that lets only the browser out (many hospital networks), the check fails with "connection forcibly closed". Then download the new version from your account page in the browser; the Update tab notices the RadBuddy-…zip in your Downloads folder and offers to install it, or use Install a downloaded zip… to pick the file.
Checking the download
The published release is RadBuddy-0.5.14.zip, sha256 , listed in SHA256SUMS. The zip you download is exactly that file; the app's updater fetches it the same way and checks it against that listing. The X-ray model inside is bundle highlighter-v2, sha256 ; the app checks every model file against its bundle before using it.
Disclaimer
Highlighter is a prototype, handed out for testing: it has not been cleared or approved by any regulator, it has not been validated, and it does not interpret the study or replace your read. It marks regions of the image already on your screen, and what it flags is not a diagnosis; any mark or score can be wrong or missing, what it leaves unmarked is not a negative, and you remain responsible for the full read. It is provided as is and used at your own risk, the author owes no support or availability, and nothing about a patient ever leaves your computer. The terms of use say all of this in full; you agree to them on your account page before anything is handed out.