Computational techniques for efficient conversion of image files from area detectors

Area detectors are used in many scientific and technological applications such as particle and radiation physics. Thanks to the recent technological developments, the radiation sources are becoming increasingly brighter and the detectors become faster and more efficient. The result is a sharp increase in the size of data collected in a typical experiment. This situation imposes a bottleneck on data processing capabilities, and could pose a real challenge to scientific research in certain areas. This article proposes a number of simple techniques to facilitate rapid and efficient extraction of data obtained from these detectors. These techniques are successfully implemented and tested in a computer program to deal with the extraction of X-ray diffraction patterns from EDF image files obtained from CCD detectors.