Stereo Vision-Based High Dynamic Range Imaging Using Differently-Exposed Image Pair

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Won-Jae Park

2017-06-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a high dynamic range (HDR imaging method based on the stereo vision system is presented. The proposed method uses differently exposed low dynamic range (LDR images captured from a stereo camera. The stereo LDR images are first converted to initial stereo HDR images using the inverse camera response function estimated from the LDR images. However, due to the limited dynamic range of the stereo LDR camera, the radiance values in under/over-exposed regions of the initial main-view (MV HDR image can be lost. To restore these radiance values, the proposed stereo matching and hole-filling algorithms are applied to the stereo HDR images. Specifically, the auxiliary-view (AV HDR image is warped by using the estimated disparity between initial the stereo HDR images and then effective hole-filling is applied to the warped AV HDR image. To reconstruct the final MV HDR, the warped and hole-filled AV HDR image is fused with the initial MV HDR image using the weight map. The experimental results demonstrate objectively and subjectively that the proposed stereo HDR imaging method provides better performance compared to the conventional method.

Quantitative analysis of velopharyngeal movement using a stereoendoscope: accuracy and reliability of range images.

Science.gov (United States)

Nakano, Asuka; Mishima, Katsuaki; Shiraishi, Ruriko; Ueyama, Yoshiya

2015-01-01

We developed a novel method of producing accurate range images of the velopharynx using a three-dimensional (3D) endoscope to obtain detailed measurements of velopharyngeal movements. The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between the distance from the endoscope to an object, elucidate the measurement accuracy along the temporal axes, and determine the degree of blurring when using a jig to fix the endoscope. An endoscopic measuring system was developed in which a pattern projection system was incorporated into a commercially available 3D endoscope. After correcting the distortion of the camera images, range images were produced using pattern projection to achieve stereo matching. Graph paper was used to measure the appropriate distance from the camera to an object, the mesial buccal cusp of the right maxillary first molar was measured to clarify the range image stability, and an electric actuator was used to evaluate the measurement accuracy along the temporal axes. The measurement error was substantial when the distance from the camera to the subject was >6.5 cm. The standard error of the 3D coordinate value produced from 30 frames was within 0.1 mm (range, 0.01-0.08 mm). The measurement error of the temporal axes was 9.16% in the horizontal direction and 9.27% in the vertical direction. The optimal distance from the camera to an object is movements.

Unsynchronized scanning with a low-cost laser range finder for real-time range imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Hatipoglu, Isa; Nakhmani, Arie

2017-06-01

Range imaging plays an essential role in many fields: 3D modeling, robotics, heritage, agriculture, forestry, reverse engineering. One of the most popular range-measuring technologies is laser scanner due to its several advantages: long range, high precision, real-time measurement capabilities, and no dependence on lighting conditions. However, laser scanners are very costly. Their high cost prevents widespread use in applications. Due to the latest developments in technology, now, low-cost, reliable, faster, and light-weight 1D laser range finders (LRFs) are available. A low-cost 1D LRF with a scanning mechanism, providing the ability of laser beam steering for additional dimensions, enables to capture a depth map. In this work, we present an unsynchronized scanning with a low-cost LRF to decrease scanning period and reduce vibrations caused by stop-scan in synchronized scanning. Moreover, we developed an algorithm for alignment of unsynchronized raw data and proposed range image post-processing framework. The proposed technique enables to have a range imaging system for a fraction of the price of its counterparts. The results prove that the proposed method can fulfill the need for a low-cost laser scanning for range imaging for static environments because the most significant limitation of the method is the scanning period which is about 2 minutes for 55,000 range points (resolution of 250x220 image). In contrast, scanning the same image takes around 4 minutes in synchronized scanning. Once faster, longer range, and narrow beam LRFs are available, the methods proposed in this work can produce better results.

Research on range-gated laser active imaging seeker

Science.gov (United States)

You, Mu; Wang, PengHui; Tan, DongJie

2013-09-01

Compared with other imaging methods such as millimeter wave imaging, infrared imaging and visible light imaging, laser imaging provides both a 2-D array of reflected intensity data as well as 2-D array of range data, which is the most important data for use in autonomous target acquisition .In terms of application, it can be widely used in military fields such as radar, guidance and fuse. In this paper, we present a laser active imaging seeker system based on range-gated laser transmitter and sensor technology .The seeker system presented here consist of two important part, one is laser image system, which uses a negative lens to diverge the light from a pulse laser to flood illuminate a target, return light is collected by a camera lens, each laser pulse triggers the camera delay and shutter. The other is stabilization gimbals, which is designed to be a rotatable structure both in azimuth and elevation angles. The laser image system consists of transmitter and receiver. The transmitter is based on diode pumped solid-state lasers that are passively Q-switched at 532nm wavelength. A visible wavelength was chosen because the receiver uses a Gen III image intensifier tube with a spectral sensitivity limited to wavelengths less than 900nm.The receiver is image intensifier tube's micro channel plate coupled into high sensitivity charge coupled device camera. The image has been taken at range over one kilometer and can be taken at much longer range in better weather. Image frame frequency can be changed according to requirement of guidance with modifiable range gate, The instantaneous field of views of the system was found to be 2×2 deg. Since completion of system integration, the seeker system has gone through a series of tests both in the lab and in the outdoor field. Two different kinds of buildings have been chosen as target, which is located at range from 200m up to 1000m.To simulate dynamic process of range change between missile and target, the seeker system has

High Dynamic Range Imaging Using Multiple Exposures

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, Xinglin; Luo, Haibo; Zhou, Peipei; Zhou, Wei

2017-06-01

It is challenging to capture a high-dynamic range (HDR) scene using a low-dynamic range (LDR) camera. This paper presents an approach for improving the dynamic range of cameras by using multiple exposure images of same scene taken under different exposure times. First, the camera response function (CRF) is recovered by solving a high-order polynomial in which only the ratios of the exposures are used. Then, the HDR radiance image is reconstructed by weighted summation of the each radiance maps. After that, a novel local tone mapping (TM) operator is proposed for the display of the HDR radiance image. By solving the high-order polynomial, the CRF can be recovered quickly and easily. Taken the local image feature and characteristic of histogram statics into consideration, the proposed TM operator could preserve the local details efficiently. Experimental result demonstrates the effectiveness of our method. By comparison, the method outperforms other methods in terms of imaging quality.

Imaging Formation Algorithm of the Ground and Space-Borne Hybrid BiSAR Based on Parameters Estimation from Direct Signal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qingjun Zhang

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a novel image formation algorithm for the bistatic synthetic aperture radar (BiSAR with the configuration of a noncooperative transmitter and a stationary receiver in which the traditional imaging algorithm failed because the necessary imaging parameters cannot be estimated from the limited information from the noncooperative data provider. In the new algorithm, the essential parameters for imaging, such as squint angle, Doppler centroid, and Doppler chirp-rate, will be estimated by full exploration of the recorded direct signal (direct signal is the echo from satellite to stationary receiver directly from the transmitter. The Doppler chirp-rate is retrieved by modeling the peak phase of direct signal as a quadratic polynomial. The Doppler centroid frequency and the squint angle can be derived from the image contrast optimization. Then the range focusing, the range cell migration correction (RCMC, and the azimuth focusing are implemented by secondary range compression (SRC and the range cell migration, respectively. At last, the proposed algorithm is validated by imaging of the BiSAR experiment configured with china YAOGAN 10 SAR as the transmitter and the receiver platform located on a building at a height of 109 m in Jiangsu province. The experiment image with geometric correction shows good accordance with local Google images.

Illumination normalization of face image based on illuminant direction estimation and improved Retinex.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jizheng Yi

Full Text Available Illumination normalization of face image for face recognition and facial expression recognition is one of the most frequent and difficult problems in image processing. In order to obtain a face image with normal illumination, our method firstly divides the input face image into sixteen local regions and calculates the edge level percentage in each of them. Secondly, three local regions, which meet the requirements of lower complexity and larger average gray value, are selected to calculate the final illuminant direction according to the error function between the measured intensity and the calculated intensity, and the constraint function for an infinite light source model. After knowing the final illuminant direction of the input face image, the Retinex algorithm is improved from two aspects: (1 we optimize the surround function; (2 we intercept the values in both ends of histogram of face image, determine the range of gray levels, and stretch the range of gray levels into the dynamic range of display device. Finally, we achieve illumination normalization and get the final face image. Unlike previous illumination normalization approaches, the method proposed in this paper does not require any training step or any knowledge of 3D face and reflective surface model. The experimental results using extended Yale face database B and CMU-PIE show that our method achieves better normalization effect comparing with the existing techniques.

Illumination normalization of face image based on illuminant direction estimation and improved Retinex.

Science.gov (United States)

Yi, Jizheng; Mao, Xia; Chen, Lijiang; Xue, Yuli; Rovetta, Alberto; Caleanu, Catalin-Daniel

2015-01-01

Illumination normalization of face image for face recognition and facial expression recognition is one of the most frequent and difficult problems in image processing. In order to obtain a face image with normal illumination, our method firstly divides the input face image into sixteen local regions and calculates the edge level percentage in each of them. Secondly, three local regions, which meet the requirements of lower complexity and larger average gray value, are selected to calculate the final illuminant direction according to the error function between the measured intensity and the calculated intensity, and the constraint function for an infinite light source model. After knowing the final illuminant direction of the input face image, the Retinex algorithm is improved from two aspects: (1) we optimize the surround function; (2) we intercept the values in both ends of histogram of face image, determine the range of gray levels, and stretch the range of gray levels into the dynamic range of display device. Finally, we achieve illumination normalization and get the final face image. Unlike previous illumination normalization approaches, the method proposed in this paper does not require any training step or any knowledge of 3D face and reflective surface model. The experimental results using extended Yale face database B and CMU-PIE show that our method achieves better normalization effect comparing with the existing techniques.

Content analysis of Australian direct-to-consumer websites for emerging breast cancer imaging devices.

Science.gov (United States)

Vreugdenburg, Thomas D; Laurence, Caroline O; Willis, Cameron D; Mundy, Linda; Hiller, Janet E

2014-09-01

To describe the nature and frequency of information presented on direct-to-consumer websites for emerging breast cancer imaging devices. Content analysis of Australian website advertisements from 2 March 2011 to 30 March 2012, for three emerging breast cancer imaging devices: digital infrared thermal imaging, electrical impedance scanning and electronic palpation imaging. Type of imaging offered, device safety, device performance, application of device, target population, supporting evidence and comparator tests. Thirty-nine unique Australian websites promoting a direct-to-consumer breast imaging device were identified. Despite a lack of supporting evidence, 22 websites advertised devices for diagnosis, 20 advertised devices for screening, 13 advertised devices for prevention and 13 advertised devices for identifying breast cancer risk factors. Similarly, advertised ranges of diagnostic sensitivity (78%-99%) and specificity (44%-91%) were relatively high compared with published literature. Direct comparisons with conventional screening tools that favoured the new device were highly prominent (31 websites), and one-third of websites (12) explicitly promoted their device as a suitable alternative. Australian websites for emerging breast imaging devices, which are also available internationally, promote the use of such devices as safe and effective solutions for breast cancer screening and diagnosis in a range of target populations. Many of these claims are not supported by peer-reviewed evidence, raising questions about the manner in which these devices and their advertising material are regulated, particularly when they are promoted as direct alternatives to established screening interventions.

A Compton Imaging Prototype for Range Verification in Particle Therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Golnik, C.; Hueso Gonzalez, F.; Kormoll, T.; Pausch, G.; Rohling, H.; Fiedler, F.; Heidel, K.; Schoene, S.; Sobiella, M.; Wagner, A.; Enghardt, W.

2013-06-01

During the 2012 AAPM Annual Meeting 33 percent of the delegates considered the range uncertainty in proton therapy as the main obstacle of becoming a mainstream treatment modality. Utilizing prompt gamma emission, a side product of particle tissue interaction, opens the possibility of in-beam dose verification, due to the direct correlation between prompt gamma emission and particle dose deposition. Compton imaging has proven to be a technique to measure three dimensional gamma emission profiles and opens the possibility of adaptive dose monitoring and treatment correction. We successfully built a Compton Imaging prototype, characterized the detectors and showed the imaging capability of the complete device. The major advantage of CZT detectors is the high energy resolution and the high spatial resolution, which are key parameters for Compton Imaging. However, our measurements at the proton beam accelerator facility KVI in Groningen (Netherlands) disclosed a spectrum of prompt gamma rays under proton irradiation up to 4.4 MeV. As CZT detectors of 5 mm thickness do not efficiently absorb photons in such energy ranges, another absorption, based on a Siemens LSO block detector is added behind CZT1. This setup provides a higher absorption probability of high energy photons. With a size of 5.2 cm x 5.2 cm x 2.0 cm, this scintillation detector further increases the angular acceptance of Compton scattered photons due to geometric size. (authors)

Image interpolation used in three-dimensional range data compression.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Shaoze; Zhang, Jianqi; Huang, Xi; Liu, Delian

2016-05-20

Advances in the field of three-dimensional (3D) scanning have made the acquisition of 3D range data easier and easier. However, with the large size of 3D range data comes the challenge of storing and transmitting it. To address this challenge, this paper presents a framework to further compress 3D range data using image interpolation. We first use a virtual fringe-projection system to store 3D range data as images, and then apply the interpolation algorithm to the images to reduce their resolution to further reduce the data size. When the 3D range data are needed, the low-resolution image is scaled up to its original resolution by applying the interpolation algorithm, and then the scaled-up image is decoded and the 3D range data are recovered according to the decoded result. Experimental results show that the proposed method could further reduce the data size while maintaining a low rate of error.

Characteristics of different frequency ranges in scanning electron microscope images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sim, K. S.; Nia, M. E.; Tan, T. L.; Tso, C. P.; Ee, C. S.

2015-01-01

We demonstrate a new approach to characterize the frequency range in general scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. First, pure frequency images are generated from low frequency to high frequency, and then, the magnification of each type of frequency image is implemented. By comparing the edge percentage of the SEM image to the self-generated frequency images, we can define the frequency ranges of the SEM images. Characterization of frequency ranges of SEM images benefits further processing and analysis of those SEM images, such as in noise filtering and contrast enhancement

Characteristics of different frequency ranges in scanning electron microscope images

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sim, K. S., E-mail: kssim@mmu.edu.my; Nia, M. E.; Tan, T. L.; Tso, C. P.; Ee, C. S. [Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Multimedia University, 75450 Melaka (Malaysia)

2015-07-22

We demonstrate a new approach to characterize the frequency range in general scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. First, pure frequency images are generated from low frequency to high frequency, and then, the magnification of each type of frequency image is implemented. By comparing the edge percentage of the SEM image to the self-generated frequency images, we can define the frequency ranges of the SEM images. Characterization of frequency ranges of SEM images benefits further processing and analysis of those SEM images, such as in noise filtering and contrast enhancement.

A contribution to laser range imaging technology

Science.gov (United States)

Defigueiredo, Rui J. P.; Denney, Bradley S.

1991-01-01

The goal of the project was to develop a methodology for fusion of a Laser Range Imaging Device (LRID) and camera data. Our initial work in the project led to the conclusion that none of the LRID's that were available were sufficiently adequate for this purpose. Thus we spent the time and effort on the development of the new LRID with several novel features which elicit the desired fusion objectives. In what follows, we describe the device developed and built under contract. The Laser Range Imaging Device (LRID) is an instrument which scans a scene using a laser and returns range and reflection intensity data. Such a system would be extremely useful in scene analysis in industry and space applications. The LRID will be eventually implemented on board a mobile robot. The current system has several advantages over some commercially available systems. One improvement is the use of X-Y galvonometer scanning mirrors instead of polygonal mirrors present in some systems. The advantage of the X-Y scanning mirrors is that the mirror system can be programmed to provide adjustable scanning regions. For each mirror there are two controls accessible by the computer. The first is the mirror position and the second is a zoom factor which modifies the amplitude of the position of the parameter. Another advantage of the LRID is the use of a visible low power laser. Some of the commercial systems use a higher intensity invisible laser which causes safety concerns. By using a low power visible laser, not only can one see the beam and avoid direct eye contact, but also the lower intensity reduces the risk of damage to the eye, and no protective eyeware is required.

A Novel Multi-View-Angle Range Images Generation Method for Measurement of Complicated Polyhedron in 3D Space

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Deming Kong

2017-01-01

Full Text Available A new kind of generation method is proposed in this paper to acquire range images for complicated polyhedron in 3D space from a series of view angles. In the proposed generation method, concept of three-view drawing in mechanical cartography is introduced into the range image generation procedure. Negative and positive directions of x-, y-, and z-axes are selected as the view angles to generate the range images for complicated polyhedron in 3D space. Furthermore, a novel iterative operation of mathematical morphology is proposed to ensure that satisfactory range images can be generated for the polyhedron from all the selected view angles. Compared with the existing method based on single view angle and interpolation operation, structure features contained in surface of the complicated polyhedron can be represented more consistently with the reality by using the proposed multi-view-angle range images generation method. The proposed generation method is validated by using an experiment.

Full Waveform Analysis for Long-Range 3D Imaging Laser Radar

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Wallace AndrewM

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The new generation of 3D imaging systems based on laser radar (ladar offers significant advantages in defense and security applications. In particular, it is possible to retrieve 3D shape information directly from the scene and separate a target from background or foreground clutter by extracting a narrow depth range from the field of view by range gating, either in the sensor or by postprocessing. We discuss and demonstrate the applicability of full-waveform ladar to produce multilayer 3D imagery, in which each pixel produces a complex temporal response that describes the scene structure. Such complexity caused by multiple and distributed reflection arises in many relevant scenarios, for example in viewing partially occluded targets, through semitransparent materials (e.g., windows and through distributed reflective media such as foliage. We demonstrate our methodology on 3D image data acquired by a scanning time-of-flight system, developed in our own laboratories, which uses the time-correlated single-photon counting technique.

Aerial Triangulation Close-range Images with Dual Quaternion

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SHENG Qinghong

2015-05-01

Full Text Available A new method for the aerial triangulation of close-range images based on dual quaternion is presented. Using dual quaternion to represent the spiral screw motion of the beam in the space, the real part of dual quaternion represents the angular elements of all the beams in the close-range area networks, the real part and the dual part of dual quaternion represents the line elements corporately. Finally, an aerial triangulation adjustment model based on dual quaternion is established, and the elements of interior orientation and exterior orientation and the object coordinates of the ground points are calculated. Real images and large attitude angle simulated images are selected to run the experiments of aerial triangulation. The experimental results show that the new method for the aerial triangulation of close-range images based on dual quaternion can obtain higher accuracy.

An efficient feedback calibration algorithm for direct imaging radio telescopes

Science.gov (United States)

Beardsley, Adam P.; Thyagarajan, Nithyanandan; Bowman, Judd D.; Morales, Miguel F.

2017-10-01

We present the E-field Parallel Imaging Calibration (EPICal) algorithm, which addresses the need for a fast calibration method for direct imaging radio astronomy correlators. Direct imaging involves a spatial fast Fourier transform of antenna signals, alleviating an O(Na ^2) computational bottleneck typical in radio correlators, and yielding a more gentle O(Ng log _2 Ng) scaling, where Na is the number of antennas in the array and Ng is the number of gridpoints in the imaging analysis. This can save orders of magnitude in computation cost for next generation arrays consisting of hundreds or thousands of antennas. However, because antenna signals are mixed in the imaging correlator without creating visibilities, gain correction must be applied prior to imaging, rather than on visibilities post-correlation. We develop the EPICal algorithm to form gain solutions quickly and without ever forming visibilities. This method scales as the number of antennas, and produces results comparable to those from visibilities. We use simulations to demonstrate the EPICal technique and study the noise properties of our gain solutions, showing they are similar to visibility-based solutions in realistic situations. By applying EPICal to 2 s of Long Wavelength Array data, we achieve a 65 per cent dynamic range improvement compared to uncalibrated images, showing this algorithm is a promising solution for next generation instruments.

Video-rate or high-precision: a flexible range imaging camera

Science.gov (United States)

Dorrington, Adrian A.; Cree, Michael J.; Carnegie, Dale A.; Payne, Andrew D.; Conroy, Richard M.; Godbaz, John P.; Jongenelen, Adrian P. P.

2008-02-01

A range imaging camera produces an output similar to a digital photograph, but every pixel in the image contains distance information as well as intensity. This is useful for measuring the shape, size and location of objects in a scene, hence is well suited to certain machine vision applications. Previously we demonstrated a heterodyne range imaging system operating in a relatively high resolution (512-by-512) pixels and high precision (0.4 mm best case) configuration, but with a slow measurement rate (one every 10 s). Although this high precision range imaging is useful for some applications, the low acquisition speed is limiting in many situations. The system's frame rate and length of acquisition is fully configurable in software, which means the measurement rate can be increased by compromising precision and image resolution. In this paper we demonstrate the flexibility of our range imaging system by showing examples of high precision ranging at slow acquisition speeds and video-rate ranging with reduced ranging precision and image resolution. We also show that the heterodyne approach and the use of more than four samples per beat cycle provides better linearity than the traditional homodyne quadrature detection approach. Finally, we comment on practical issues of frame rate and beat signal frequency selection.

High-dynamic-range imaging for cloud segmentation

Science.gov (United States)

Dev, Soumyabrata; Savoy, Florian M.; Lee, Yee Hui; Winkler, Stefan

2018-04-01

Sky-cloud images obtained from ground-based sky cameras are usually captured using a fisheye lens with a wide field of view. However, the sky exhibits a large dynamic range in terms of luminance, more than a conventional camera can capture. It is thus difficult to capture the details of an entire scene with a regular camera in a single shot. In most cases, the circumsolar region is overexposed, and the regions near the horizon are underexposed. This renders cloud segmentation for such images difficult. In this paper, we propose HDRCloudSeg - an effective method for cloud segmentation using high-dynamic-range (HDR) imaging based on multi-exposure fusion. We describe the HDR image generation process and release a new database to the community for benchmarking. Our proposed approach is the first using HDR radiance maps for cloud segmentation and achieves very good results.

High dynamic range imaging sensors and architectures

CERN Document Server

Darmont, Arnaud

2013-01-01

Illumination is a crucial element in many applications, matching the luminance of the scene with the operational range of a camera. When luminance cannot be adequately controlled, a high dynamic range (HDR) imaging system may be necessary. These systems are being increasingly used in automotive on-board systems, road traffic monitoring, and other industrial, security, and military applications. This book provides readers with an intermediate discussion of HDR image sensors and techniques for industrial and non-industrial applications. It describes various sensor and pixel architectures capable

Study of TeV range cosmic ray detection with Cherenkov imaging techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ansari, R.; Gaillard, J.M.; Parrour, G.

1992-03-01

The Monte Carlo study of cosmic ray detection in the TeV energy range has been triggered by the authors' interest in the ARTEMIS (Antimatter Research Through the Earth Moon Ion Spectrometer) proposal. The properties of cosmic ray showers detected by Cherenkov imaging in the visible domain are studied. The detection sensitivity and the accuracy of the reconstruction of the parent particle direction using Cherenkov imaging are discussed. The backbone of the study is the atmospheric shower Monte Carlo generator developed by A.M. Hillas. A comparison between nucleon and photon induced showers of Cherenkov detection is also included. (R.P.) 14 refs., 48 figs., 3 tabs

ISAR imaging using the instantaneous range instantaneous Doppler method

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Wazna, TM

2015-10-01

Full Text Available In Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) imaging, the Range Instantaneous Doppler (RID) method is used to compensate for the nonuniform rotational motion of the target that degrades the Doppler resolution of the ISAR image. The Instantaneous Range...

The structure of DNA by direct imaging

KAUST Repository

Marini, Monica

2015-08-28

The structure of DNA was determined in 1953 by x-ray fiber diffraction. Several attempts have been made to obtain a direct image of DNA with alternative techniques. The direct image is intended to allow a quantitative evaluation of all relevant characteristic lengths present in a molecule. A direct image of DNA, which is different from diffraction in the reciprocal space, is difficult to obtain for two main reasons: the intrinsic very low contrast of the elements that form the molecule and the difficulty of preparing the sample while preserving its pristine shape and size. We show that through a preparation procedure compatible with the DNA physiological conditions, a direct image of a single suspended DNA molecule can be obtained. In the image, all relevant lengths of A-form DNA are measurable. A high-resolution transmission electron microscope that operates at 80 keV with an ultimate resolution of 1.5 Å was used for this experiment. Direct imaging of a single molecule can be used as a method to address biological problems that require knowledge at the single-molecule level, given that the average information obtained by x-ray diffraction of crystals or fibers is not sufficient for detailed structure determination, or when crystals cannot be obtained from biological molecules or are not sufficient in understanding multiple protein configurations.

The structure of DNA by direct imaging

KAUST Repository

Marini, Monica; Falqui, Andrea; Moretti, Manola; Limongi, Tania; Allione, Marco; Genovese, Alessandro; Lopatin, Sergei; Tirinato, Luca; Das, Gobind; Torre, Bruno; Giugni, Andrea; Gentile, Francesco; Candeloro, Patrizio; Di Fabrizio, Enzo M.

2015-01-01

The structure of DNA was determined in 1953 by x-ray fiber diffraction. Several attempts have been made to obtain a direct image of DNA with alternative techniques. The direct image is intended to allow a quantitative evaluation of all relevant characteristic lengths present in a molecule. A direct image of DNA, which is different from diffraction in the reciprocal space, is difficult to obtain for two main reasons: the intrinsic very low contrast of the elements that form the molecule and the difficulty of preparing the sample while preserving its pristine shape and size. We show that through a preparation procedure compatible with the DNA physiological conditions, a direct image of a single suspended DNA molecule can be obtained. In the image, all relevant lengths of A-form DNA are measurable. A high-resolution transmission electron microscope that operates at 80 keV with an ultimate resolution of 1.5 Å was used for this experiment. Direct imaging of a single molecule can be used as a method to address biological problems that require knowledge at the single-molecule level, given that the average information obtained by x-ray diffraction of crystals or fibers is not sufficient for detailed structure determination, or when crystals cannot be obtained from biological molecules or are not sufficient in understanding multiple protein configurations.

Automatic Generation of Wide Dynamic Range Image without Pseudo-Edge Using Integration of Multi-Steps Exposure Images

Science.gov (United States)

Migiyama, Go; Sugimura, Atsuhiko; Osa, Atsushi; Miike, Hidetoshi

Recently, digital cameras are offering technical advantages rapidly. However, the shot image is different from the sight image generated when that scenery is seen with the naked eye. There are blown-out highlights and crushed blacks in the image that photographed the scenery of wide dynamic range. The problems are hardly generated in the sight image. These are contributory cause of difference between the shot image and the sight image. Blown-out highlights and crushed blacks are caused by the difference of dynamic range between the image sensor installed in a digital camera such as CCD and CMOS and the human visual system. Dynamic range of the shot image is narrower than dynamic range of the sight image. In order to solve the problem, we propose an automatic method to decide an effective exposure range in superposition of edges. We integrate multi-step exposure images using the method. In addition, we try to erase pseudo-edges using the process to blend exposure values. Afterwards, we get a pseudo wide dynamic range image automatically.

Image Alignment for Multiple Camera High Dynamic Range Microscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

Eastwood, Brian S; Childs, Elisabeth C

2012-01-09

This paper investigates the problem of image alignment for multiple camera high dynamic range (HDR) imaging. HDR imaging combines information from images taken with different exposure settings. Combining information from multiple cameras requires an alignment process that is robust to the intensity differences in the images. HDR applications that use a limited number of component images require an alignment technique that is robust to large exposure differences. We evaluate the suitability for HDR alignment of three exposure-robust techniques. We conclude that image alignment based on matching feature descriptors extracted from radiant power images from calibrated cameras yields the most accurate and robust solution. We demonstrate the use of this alignment technique in a high dynamic range video microscope that enables live specimen imaging with a greater level of detail than can be captured with a single camera.

A HWIL test facility of infrared imaging laser radar using direct signal injection

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Qian; Lu, Wei; Wang, Chunhui; Wang, Qi

2005-01-01

Laser radar has been widely used these years and the hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) testing of laser radar become important because of its low cost and high fidelity compare with On-the-Fly testing and whole digital simulation separately. Scene generation and projection two key technologies of hardware-in-the-loop testing of laser radar and is a complicated problem because the 3D images result from time delay. The scene generation process begins with the definition of the target geometry and reflectivity and range. The real-time 3D scene generation computer is a PC based hardware and the 3D target models were modeled using 3dsMAX. The scene generation software was written in C and OpenGL and is executed to extract the Z-buffer from the bit planes to main memory as range image. These pixels contain each target position x, y, z and its respective intensity and range value. Expensive optical injection technologies of scene projection such as LDP array, VCSEL array, DMD and associated scene generation is ongoing. But the optical scene projection is complicated and always unaffordable. In this paper a cheaper test facility was described that uses direct electronic injection to provide rang images for laser radar testing. The electronic delay and pulse shaping circuits inject the scenes directly into the seeker's signal processing unit.

Effects of Resolution, Range, and Image Contrast on Target Acquisition Performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Hollands, Justin G; Terhaar, Phil; Pavlovic, Nada J

2018-05-01

We sought to determine the joint influence of resolution, target range, and image contrast on the detection and identification of targets in simulated naturalistic scenes. Resolution requirements for target acquisition have been developed based on threshold values obtained using imaging systems, when target range was fixed, and image characteristics were determined by the system. Subsequent work has examined the influence of factors like target range and image contrast on target acquisition. We varied the resolution and contrast of static images in two experiments. Participants (soldiers) decided whether a human target was located in the scene (detection task) or whether a target was friendly or hostile (identification task). Target range was also varied (50-400 m). In Experiment 1, 30 participants saw color images with a single target exemplar. In Experiment 2, another 30 participants saw monochrome images containing different target exemplars. The effects of target range and image contrast were qualitatively different above and below 6 pixels per meter of target for both tasks in both experiments. Target detection and identification performance were a joint function of image resolution, range, and contrast for both color and monochrome images. The beneficial effects of increasing resolution for target acquisition performance are greater for closer (larger) targets.

A Wide Spectral Range Reflectance and Luminescence Imaging System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tapani Hirvonen

2013-10-01

Full Text Available In this study, we introduce a wide spectral range (200–2500 nm imaging system with a 250 μm minimum spatial resolution, which can be freely modified for a wide range of resolutions and measurement geometries. The system has been tested for reflectance and luminescence measurements, but can also be customized for transmittance measurements. This study includes the performance results of the developed system, as well as examples of spectral images. Discussion of the system relates it to existing systems and methods. The wide range spectral imaging system that has been developed is however highly customizable and has great potential in many practical applications.

POTENTIALS OF IMAGE BASED ACTIVE RANGING TO CAPTURE DYNAMIC SCENES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. Jutzi

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Obtaining a 3D description of man-made and natural environments is a basic task in Computer Vision and Remote Sensing. To this end, laser scanning is currently one of the dominating techniques to gather reliable 3D information. The scanning principle inherently needs a certain time interval to acquire the 3D point cloud. On the other hand, new active sensors provide the possibility of capturing range information by images with a single measurement. With this new technique image-based active ranging is possible which allows capturing dynamic scenes, e.g. like walking pedestrians in a yard or moving vehicles. Unfortunately most of these range imaging sensors have strong technical limitations and are not yet sufficient for airborne data acquisition. It can be seen from the recent development of highly specialized (far-range imaging sensors – so called flash-light lasers – that most of the limitations could be alleviated soon, so that future systems will be equipped with improved image size and potentially expanded operating range. The presented work is a first step towards the development of methods capable for application of range images in outdoor environments. To this end, an experimental setup was set up for investigating these proposed possibilities. With the experimental setup a measurement campaign was carried out and first results will be presented within this paper.

TH-CD-202-01: BEST IN PHYSICS (JOINT IMAGING-THERAPY): Evaluation of the Use of Direct Electron Density CT Images in Radiation Therapy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhao, T; Sun, B; Li, H; Mutic, S [Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO (United States); Mistry, N [Siemens Healthcare, Cary, NC (United States); Raupach, R; Huenemohr, N; Ritter [Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Forchheim, Bavaria (Germany)

2016-06-15

Purpose: The current standard for calculation of photon and electron dose requires conversion of Hounsfield Units (HU) to Electron Density (ED) by applying a calibration curve specifically constructed for the corresponding CT tube voltage. This practice limits the use of the CT scanner to a single tube voltage and hinders the freedom in the selection of optimal tube voltage for better image quality. The objective of this study is to report a prototype CT reconstruction algorithm that provides direct ED images from the raw CT data independently of tube voltages used during acquisition. Methods: A tissue substitute phantom was scanned for Stoichiometric CT calibrations at tube voltages of 70kV, 80kV, 100kV, 120kV and 140kV respectively. HU images and direct ED images were acquired sequentially on a thoracic anthropomorphic phantom at the same tube voltages. Electron densities converted from the HU images were compared to ED obtained from the direct ED images. A 7-field treatment plan was made on all HU and ED images. Gamma analysis was performed to demonstrate quantitatively dosimetric change from the two schemes in acquiring ED. Results: The average deviation of EDs obtained from the direct ED images was −1.5%±2.1% from the EDs from HU images with the corresponding CT calibration curves applied. Gamma analysis on dose calculated on the direct ED images and the HU images acquired at the same tube voltage indicated negligible difference with lowest passing rate at 99.9%. Conclusion: Direct ED images require no CT calibration while demonstrate equivalent dosimetry compared to that obtained from standard HU images. The ability of acquiring direct ED images simplifies the current practice at a safer level by eliminating CT calibration and HU conversion from commissioning and treatment planning respectively. Furthermore, it unlocks a wider range of tube voltages in CT scanner for better imaging quality while maintaining similar dosimetric accuracy.

Image Denoising Using Interquartile Range Filter with Local Averaging

OpenAIRE

Jassim, Firas Ajil

2013-01-01

Image denoising is one of the fundamental problems in image processing. In this paper, a novel approach to suppress noise from the image is conducted by applying the interquartile range (IQR) which is one of the statistical methods used to detect outlier effect from a dataset. A window of size kXk was implemented to support IQR filter. Each pixel outside the IQR range of the kXk window is treated as noisy pixel. The estimation of the noisy pixels was obtained by local averaging. The essential...

Pixel extraction based integral imaging with controllable viewing direction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ji, Chao-Chao; Deng, Huan; Wang, Qiong-Hua

2012-01-01

We propose pixel extraction based integral imaging with a controllable viewing direction. The proposed integral imaging can provide viewers three-dimensional (3D) images in a very small viewing angle. The viewing angle and the viewing direction of the reconstructed 3D images are controlled by the pixels extracted from an elemental image array. Theoretical analysis and a 3D display experiment of the viewing direction controllable integral imaging are carried out. The experimental results verify the correctness of the theory. A 3D display based on the integral imaging can protect the viewer’s privacy and has huge potential for a television to show multiple 3D programs at the same time. (paper)

LIDAR pulse coding for high resolution range imaging at improved refresh rate.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Gunzung; Park, Yongwan

2016-10-17

In this study, a light detection and ranging system (LIDAR) was designed that codes pixel location information in its laser pulses using the direct- sequence optical code division multiple access (DS-OCDMA) method in conjunction with a scanning-based microelectromechanical system (MEMS) mirror. This LIDAR can constantly measure the distance without idle listening time for the return of reflected waves because its laser pulses include pixel location information encoded by applying the DS-OCDMA. Therefore, this emits in each bearing direction without waiting for the reflected wave to return. The MEMS mirror is used to deflect and steer the coded laser pulses in the desired bearing direction. The receiver digitizes the received reflected pulses using a low-temperature-grown (LTG) indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) based photoconductive antenna (PCA) and the time-to-digital converter (TDC) and demodulates them using the DS-OCDMA. When all of the reflected waves corresponding to the pixels forming a range image are received, the proposed LIDAR generates a point cloud based on the time-of-flight (ToF) of each reflected wave. The results of simulations performed on the proposed LIDAR are compared with simulations of existing LIDARs.

Luminescence imaging of water during carbon-ion irradiation for range estimation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yamamoto, Seiichi, E-mail: s-yama@met.nagoya-u.ac.jp; Komori, Masataka; Koyama, Shuji; Morishita, Yuki; Sekihara, Eri [Radiological and Medical Laboratory Sciences, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Higashi-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 461-8673 (Japan); Akagi, Takashi; Yamashita, Tomohiro [Hygo Ion Beam Medical Center, Hyogo 679-5165 (Japan); Toshito, Toshiyuki [Department of Proton Therapy Physics, Nagoya Proton Therapy Center, Nagoya City West Medical Center, Aichi 462-8508 (Japan)

2016-05-15

Purpose: The authors previously reported successful luminescence imaging of water during proton irradiation and its application to range estimation. However, since the feasibility of this approach for carbon-ion irradiation remained unclear, the authors conducted luminescence imaging during carbon-ion irradiation and estimated the ranges. Methods: The authors placed a pure-water phantom on the patient couch of a carbon-ion therapy system and measured the luminescence images with a high-sensitivity, cooled charge-coupled device camera during carbon-ion irradiation. The authors also carried out imaging of three types of phantoms (tap-water, an acrylic block, and a plastic scintillator) and compared their intensities and distributions with those of a phantom containing pure-water. Results: The luminescence images of pure-water phantoms during carbon-ion irradiation showed clear Bragg peaks, and the measured carbon-ion ranges from the images were almost the same as those obtained by simulation. The image of the tap-water phantom showed almost the same distribution as that of the pure-water phantom. The acrylic block phantom’s luminescence image produced seven times higher luminescence and had a 13% shorter range than that of the water phantoms; the range with the acrylic phantom generally matched the calculated value. The plastic scintillator showed ∼15 000 times higher light than that of water. Conclusions: Luminescence imaging during carbon-ion irradiation of water is not only possible but also a promising method for range estimation in carbon-ion therapy.

Luminescence imaging of water during carbon-ion irradiation for range estimation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamamoto, Seiichi; Komori, Masataka; Koyama, Shuji; Morishita, Yuki; Sekihara, Eri; Akagi, Takashi; Yamashita, Tomohiro; Toshito, Toshiyuki

2016-01-01

Purpose: The authors previously reported successful luminescence imaging of water during proton irradiation and its application to range estimation. However, since the feasibility of this approach for carbon-ion irradiation remained unclear, the authors conducted luminescence imaging during carbon-ion irradiation and estimated the ranges. Methods: The authors placed a pure-water phantom on the patient couch of a carbon-ion therapy system and measured the luminescence images with a high-sensitivity, cooled charge-coupled device camera during carbon-ion irradiation. The authors also carried out imaging of three types of phantoms (tap-water, an acrylic block, and a plastic scintillator) and compared their intensities and distributions with those of a phantom containing pure-water. Results: The luminescence images of pure-water phantoms during carbon-ion irradiation showed clear Bragg peaks, and the measured carbon-ion ranges from the images were almost the same as those obtained by simulation. The image of the tap-water phantom showed almost the same distribution as that of the pure-water phantom. The acrylic block phantom’s luminescence image produced seven times higher luminescence and had a 13% shorter range than that of the water phantoms; the range with the acrylic phantom generally matched the calculated value. The plastic scintillator showed ∼15 000 times higher light than that of water. Conclusions: Luminescence imaging during carbon-ion irradiation of water is not only possible but also a promising method for range estimation in carbon-ion therapy.

Image Alignment for Multiple Camera High Dynamic Range Microscopy

OpenAIRE

Eastwood, Brian S.; Childs, Elisabeth C.

2012-01-01

This paper investigates the problem of image alignment for multiple camera high dynamic range (HDR) imaging. HDR imaging combines information from images taken with different exposure settings. Combining information from multiple cameras requires an alignment process that is robust to the intensity differences in the images. HDR applications that use a limited number of component images require an alignment technique that is robust to large exposure differences. We evaluate the suitability fo...

Direct imaging of extra-solar planetary systems with the Circumstellar Imaging Telescope (CIT)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Terrile, R.J.

1988-01-01

In a joint study conducted by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Perkin-Elmer Corporation it was found that an earth orbital, 1.5 meter diameter low scattered light coronagraphic telescope can achieve a broad range of scientific objectives including the direct detection of Jupiter-sized planets around the nearby stars. Recent major advances in the understanding of coronagraphic performance and in the field of super smooth mirror fabrication allow such an instrument to be designed and built within current technology. Such a project, called the Circumstellar Imaging Telescope (CIT), is currently being proposed. 10 references

SEGMENTATION AND QUALITY ANALYSIS OF LONG RANGE CAPTURED IRIS IMAGE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anand Deshpande

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The iris segmentation plays a major role in an iris recognition system to increase the performance of the system. This paper proposes a novel method for segmentation of iris images to extract the iris part of long range captured eye image and an approach to select best iris frame from the iris polar image sequences by analyzing the quality of iris polar images. The quality of iris image is determined by the frequency components present in the iris polar images. The experiments are carried out on CASIA-long range captured iris image sequences. The proposed segmentation method is compared with Hough transform based segmentation and it has been determined that the proposed method gives higher accuracy for segmentation than Hough transform.

Diagnostic accuracy of artificially induced vertical root fractures: a comparison of direct digital periapical images with conventional periapical images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Ji Un; Kwon, Ki Jeong; Koh, Kwang Joon

2004-01-01

To compare the diagnostic accuracy for the detection of root fractures in CMOS-based digital periapical images with conventional film-based periapical images. Sixty extracted single-root human teeth with closed apices were prepared endodontically and divided into two groups; artificially induced vertical root fracture group and control group. All radiographs were obtained using the paralleling technique. The radiographs were examined by 4 observers three times within a 4 week interval. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was carried out using data obtained from four observers. Intra- and inter-examiner agreements were computed using kappa analysis. The area under the ROC curve (Az) was used as an indicator of the diagnostic accuracy of the imaging system. Az values were as follows: direct-digital images; 0.93, film-based images; 0.92, and inverted digital images; 0.91. There was no significant difference between imaging modalities(P<0.05). The kappa value of inter-observer agreement was 0.42(range:0.28-0.60) and intra-observer agreement was 0.57(range:0.44-0.75). There is no statistical difference in diagnostic accuracy for the detection of vertical root fractures between digital periapical images and conventional periapical images. The results indicate that the CMOS sensor is a good image detector for the evaluation of vertical root fractures.

Study on super-resolution three-dimensional range-gated imaging technology

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Huichao; Sun, Huayan; Wang, Shuai; Fan, Youchen; Li, Yuanmiao

2018-04-01

Range-gated three dimensional imaging technology is a hotspot in recent years, because of the advantages of high spatial resolution, high range accuracy, long range, and simultaneous reflection of target reflectivity information. Based on the study of the principle of intensity-related method, this paper has carried out theoretical analysis and experimental research. The experimental system adopts the high power pulsed semiconductor laser as light source, gated ICCD as the imaging device, can realize the imaging depth and distance flexible adjustment to achieve different work mode. The imaging experiment of small imaging depth is carried out aiming at building 500m away, and 26 group images were obtained with distance step 1.5m. In this paper, the calculation method of 3D point cloud based on triangle method is analyzed, and 15m depth slice of the target 3D point cloud are obtained by using two frame images, the distance precision is better than 0.5m. The influence of signal to noise ratio, illumination uniformity and image brightness on distance accuracy are analyzed. Based on the comparison with the time-slicing method, a method for improving the linearity of point cloud is proposed.

Beyond Kepler: Direct Imaging of Exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Belikov, Ruslan

2018-01-01

The exoplanets field has been revolutionizing astronomy over the past 20+ years and shows no signs of stopping. The next big wave of exoplanet science may come from direct imaging of exoplanets. Several (non-habitable) exoplanets have already been imaged from the ground and NASA is planning an instrument for its 2020s flagship mission (WFIRST) to directly image large exoplanets. One of the key goals of the field is the detection and characterization of "Earth 2.0", i.e. a rocky planet with an atmosphere capable of supporting life. This appears possible with several potential instruments in the late 2020s such as WFIRST with a starshade, Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) from the ground, or one of NASA possible flagship missions in the 2030s (HabEx or LUVOIR). Also, if an Earth-like planet exists around Alpha Centauri (A or B), it may be possible to directly image it in the next approx. 5 years with a small space mission such as the Alpha Centauri Exoplanet Satellite (ACESat). I will describe the current challenges and opportunities in this exciting field, as well as the work we are doing at the Exoplanet Technologies group to enable this exciting science.

Directional x-ray dark-field imaging of strongly ordered systems

Science.gov (United States)

Jensen, Torben Haugaard; Bech, Martin; Zanette, Irene; Weitkamp, Timm; David, Christian; Deyhle, Hans; Rutishauser, Simon; Reznikova, Elena; Mohr, Jürgen; Feidenhans'L, Robert; Pfeiffer, Franz

2010-12-01

Recently a novel grating based x-ray imaging approach called directional x-ray dark-field imaging was introduced. Directional x-ray dark-field imaging yields information about the local texture of structures smaller than the pixel size of the imaging system. In this work we extend the theoretical description and data processing schemes for directional dark-field imaging to strongly scattering systems, which could not be described previously. We develop a simple scattering model to account for these recent observations and subsequently demonstrate the model using experimental data. The experimental data includes directional dark-field images of polypropylene fibers and a human tooth slice.

Unimodal primary sensory cortices are directly connected by long-range horizontal projections in the rat sensory cortex

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jimmy eStehberg

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Research based on functional imaging and neuronal recordings in the barrel cortex subdivision of primary somatosensory cortex (SI of the adult rat has revealed novel aspects of structure-function relationships in this cortex. Specifically, it has demonstrated that single whisker stimulation evokes subthreshold neuronal activity that spreads symmetrically within gray matter from the appropriate barrel area, crosses cytoarchitectural borders of SI and reaches deeply into other unimodal primary cortices such as primary auditory (AI and primary visual (VI. It was further demonstrated that this spread is supported by a spatially matching underlying diffuse network of border-crossing, long-range projections that could also reach deeply into AI and VI. Here we seek to determine whether such a network of border-crossing, long-range projections is unique to barrel cortex or characterizes also other primary, unimodal sensory cortices and therefore could directly connect them. Using anterograde (BDA and retrograde (CTb tract-tracing techniques, we demonstrate that such diffuse horizontal networks directly and mutually connect VI, AI and SI. These findings suggest that diffuse, border-crossing axonal projections connecting directly primary cortices are an important organizational motif common to all major primary sensory cortices in the rat. Potential implications of these findings for topics including cortical structure-function relationships, multisensory integration, functional imaging and cortical parcellation are discussed.

Kilovoltage energy imaging with a radiotherapy linac with a continuously variable energy range.

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, D A; Hansen, V N; Thompson, M G; Poludniowski, G; Niven, A; Seco, J; Evans, P M

2012-03-01

In this paper, the effect on image quality of significantly reducing the primary electron energy of a radiotherapy accelerator is investigated using a novel waveguide test piece. The waveguide contains a novel variable coupling device (rotovane), allowing for a wide continuously variable energy range of between 1.4 and 9 MeV suitable for both imaging and therapy. Imaging at linac accelerating potentials close to 1 MV was investigated experimentally and via Monte Carlo simulations. An imaging beam line was designed, and planar and cone beam computed tomography images were obtained to enable qualitative and quantitative comparisons with kilovoltage and megavoltage imaging systems. The imaging beam had an electron energy of 1.4 MeV, which was incident on a water cooled electron window consisting of stainless steel, a 5 mm carbon electron absorber and 2.5 mm aluminium filtration. Images were acquired with an amorphous silicon detector sensitive to diagnostic x-ray energies. The x-ray beam had an average energy of 220 keV and half value layer of 5.9 mm of copper. Cone beam CT images with the same contrast to noise ratio as a gantry mounted kilovoltage imaging system were obtained with doses as low as 2 cGy. This dose is equivalent to a single 6 MV portal image. While 12 times higher than a 100 kVp CBCT system (Elekta XVI), this dose is 140 times lower than a 6 MV cone beam imaging system and 6 times lower than previously published LowZ imaging beams operating at higher (4-5 MeV) energies. The novel coupling device provides for a wide range of electron energies that are suitable for kilovoltage quality imaging and therapy. The imaging system provides high contrast images from the therapy portal at low dose, approaching that of gantry mounted kilovoltage x-ray systems. Additionally, the system provides low dose imaging directly from the therapy portal, potentially allowing for target tracking during radiotherapy treatment. There is the scope with such a tuneable system

Understanding synthesis imaging dynamic range

Science.gov (United States)

Braun, R.

2013-03-01

We develop a general framework for quantifying the many different contributions to the noise budget of an image made with an array of dishes or aperture array stations. Each noise contribution to the visibility data is associated with a relevant correlation timescale and frequency bandwidth so that the net impact on a complete observation can be assessed when a particular effect is not captured in the instrumental calibration. All quantities are parameterised as function of observing frequency and the visibility baseline length. We apply the resulting noise budget analysis to a wide range of existing and planned telescope systems that will operate between about 100 MHz and 5 GHz to ascertain the magnitude of the calibration challenges that they must overcome to achieve thermal noise limited performance. We conclude that calibration challenges are increased in several respects by small dimensions of the dishes or aperture array stations. It will be more challenging to achieve thermal noise limited performance using 15 m class dishes rather than the 25 m dishes of current arrays. Some of the performance risks are mitigated by the deployment of phased array feeds and more with the choice of an (alt,az,pol) mount, although a larger dish diameter offers the best prospects for risk mitigation. Many improvements to imaging performance can be anticipated at the expense of greater complexity in calibration algorithms. However, a fundamental limitation is ultimately imposed by an insufficient number of data constraints relative to calibration variables. The upcoming aperture array systems will be operating in a regime that has never previously been addressed, where a wide range of effects are expected to exceed the thermal noise by two to three orders of magnitude. Achieving routine thermal noise limited imaging performance with these systems presents an extreme challenge. The magnitude of that challenge is inversely related to the aperture array station diameter.

Luminescence imaging of water during proton-beam irradiation for range estimation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yamamoto, Seiichi, E-mail: s-yama@met.nagoya-u.ac.jp; Okumura, Satoshi; Komori, Masataka [Radiological and Medical Laboratory Sciences, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya 461-8673 (Japan); Toshito, Toshiyuki [Department of Proton Therapy Physics, Nagoya Proton Therapy Center, Nagoya City West Medical Center, Nagoya 462-8508 (Japan)

2015-11-15

Purpose: Proton therapy has the ability to selectively deliver a dose to the target tumor, so the dose distribution should be accurately measured by a precise and efficient method. The authors found that luminescence was emitted from water during proton irradiation and conjectured that this phenomenon could be used for estimating the dose distribution. Methods: To achieve more accurate dose distribution, the authors set water phantoms on a table with a spot scanning proton therapy system and measured the luminescence images of these phantoms with a high-sensitivity, cooled charge coupled device camera during proton-beam irradiation. The authors imaged the phantoms of pure water, fluorescein solution, and an acrylic block. Results: The luminescence images of water phantoms taken during proton-beam irradiation showed clear Bragg peaks, and the measured proton ranges from the images were almost the same as those obtained with an ionization chamber. Furthermore, the image of the pure-water phantom showed almost the same distribution as the tap-water phantom, indicating that the luminescence image was not related to impurities in the water. The luminescence image of the fluorescein solution had ∼3 times higher intensity than water, with the same proton range as that of water. The luminescence image of the acrylic phantom had a 14.5% shorter proton range than that of water; the proton range in the acrylic phantom generally matched the calculated value. The luminescence images of the tap-water phantom during proton irradiation could be obtained in less than 2 s. Conclusions: Luminescence imaging during proton-beam irradiation is promising as an effective method for range estimation in proton therapy.

Luminescence imaging of water during proton-beam irradiation for range estimation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamamoto, Seiichi; Okumura, Satoshi; Komori, Masataka; Toshito, Toshiyuki

2015-01-01

Purpose: Proton therapy has the ability to selectively deliver a dose to the target tumor, so the dose distribution should be accurately measured by a precise and efficient method. The authors found that luminescence was emitted from water during proton irradiation and conjectured that this phenomenon could be used for estimating the dose distribution. Methods: To achieve more accurate dose distribution, the authors set water phantoms on a table with a spot scanning proton therapy system and measured the luminescence images of these phantoms with a high-sensitivity, cooled charge coupled device camera during proton-beam irradiation. The authors imaged the phantoms of pure water, fluorescein solution, and an acrylic block. Results: The luminescence images of water phantoms taken during proton-beam irradiation showed clear Bragg peaks, and the measured proton ranges from the images were almost the same as those obtained with an ionization chamber. Furthermore, the image of the pure-water phantom showed almost the same distribution as the tap-water phantom, indicating that the luminescence image was not related to impurities in the water. The luminescence image of the fluorescein solution had ∼3 times higher intensity than water, with the same proton range as that of water. The luminescence image of the acrylic phantom had a 14.5% shorter proton range than that of water; the proton range in the acrylic phantom generally matched the calculated value. The luminescence images of the tap-water phantom during proton irradiation could be obtained in less than 2 s. Conclusions: Luminescence imaging during proton-beam irradiation is promising as an effective method for range estimation in proton therapy

A novel track imaging system as a range counter

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chen, Z. [National Institute of Radiological Sciences (Japan); Matsufuji, N. [National Institute of Radiological Sciences (Japan); Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan); Kanayama, S. [Chiba University (Japan); Ishida, A. [National Institute of Radiological Sciences (Japan); Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan); Kohno, T. [Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan); Koba, Y.; Sekiguchi, M.; Kitagawa, A.; Murakami, T. [National Institute of Radiological Sciences (Japan)

2016-05-01

An image-intensified, camera-based track imaging system has been developed to measure the tracks of ions in a scintillator block. To study the performance of the detector unit in the system, two types of scintillators, a dosimetrically tissue-equivalent plastic scintillator EJ-240 and a CsI(Tl) scintillator, were separately irradiated with carbon ion ({sup 12}C) beams of therapeutic energy from HIMAC at NIRS. The images of individual ion tracks in the scintillators were acquired by the newly developed track imaging system. The ranges reconstructed from the images are reported here. The range resolution of the measurements is 1.8 mm for 290 MeV/u carbon ions, which is considered a significant improvement on the energy resolution of the conventional ΔE/E method. The detector is compact and easy to handle, and it can fit inside treatment rooms for in-situ studies, as well as satisfy clinical quality assurance purposes.

Color and neighbor edge directional difference feature for image retrieval

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Chaobing Huang; Shengsheng Yu; Jingli Zhou; Hongwei Lu

2005-01-01

@@ A novel image feature termed neighbor edge directional difference unit histogram is proposed, in which the neighbor edge directional difference unit is defined and computed for every pixel in the image, and is used to generate the neighbor edge directional difference unit histogram. This histogram and color histogram are used as feature indexes to retrieve color image. The feature is invariant to image scaling and translation and has more powerful descriptive for the natural color images. Experimental results show that the feature can achieve better retrieval performance than other color-spatial features.

New directions in pediatric digital imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fletcher, B.D.; Adams, R.B.; Blackham, W.C.

1985-01-01

In this chapter the authors describe several simple experiments performed utilizing digital equipment which apply to clinical situations in pediatrics and which suggest future directions for research in digital imaging. They also discuss experimental systems which they believe will overcome certain limitations of current equipment and might be applicable to pediatric digital imaging in the future

Image rejects in general direct digital radiography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hofmann, Bjørn; Rosanowsky, Tine Blomberg; Jensen, Camilla; Wah, Kenneth Hong Ching

2015-01-01

The number of rejected images is an indicator of image quality and unnecessary imaging at a radiology department. Image reject analysis was frequent in the film era, but comparably few and small studies have been published after converting to digital radiography. One reason may be a belief that rejects have been eliminated with digitalization. To measure the extension of deleted images in direct digital radiography (DR), in order to assess the rates of rejects and unnecessary imaging and to analyze reasons for deletions, in order to improve the radiological services. All exposed images at two direct digital laboratories at a hospital in Norway were reviewed in January 2014. Type of examination, number of exposed images, and number of deleted images were registered. Each deleted image was analyzed separately and the reason for deleting the image was recorded. Out of 5417 exposed images, 596 were deleted, giving a deletion rate of 11%. A total of 51.3% were deleted due to positioning errors and 31.0% due to error in centering. The examinations with the highest percentage of deleted images were the knee, hip, and ankle, 20.6%, 18.5%, and 13.8% respectively. The reject rate is at least as high as the deletion rate and is comparable with previous film-based imaging systems. The reasons for rejection are quite different in digital systems. This falsifies the hypothesis that digitalization would eliminates rejects. A deleted image does not contribute to diagnostics, and therefore is an unnecessary image. Hence, the high rates of deleted images have implications for management, training, education, as well as for quality

Image rejects in general direct digital radiography.

Science.gov (United States)

Hofmann, Bjørn; Rosanowsky, Tine Blomberg; Jensen, Camilla; Wah, Kenneth Hong Ching

2015-10-01

The number of rejected images is an indicator of image quality and unnecessary imaging at a radiology department. Image reject analysis was frequent in the film era, but comparably few and small studies have been published after converting to digital radiography. One reason may be a belief that rejects have been eliminated with digitalization. To measure the extension of deleted images in direct digital radiography (DR), in order to assess the rates of rejects and unnecessary imaging and to analyze reasons for deletions, in order to improve the radiological services. All exposed images at two direct digital laboratories at a hospital in Norway were reviewed in January 2014. Type of examination, number of exposed images, and number of deleted images were registered. Each deleted image was analyzed separately and the reason for deleting the image was recorded. Out of 5417 exposed images, 596 were deleted, giving a deletion rate of 11%. A total of 51.3% were deleted due to positioning errors and 31.0% due to error in centering. The examinations with the highest percentage of deleted images were the knee, hip, and ankle, 20.6%, 18.5%, and 13.8% respectively. The reject rate is at least as high as the deletion rate and is comparable with previous film-based imaging systems. The reasons for rejection are quite different in digital systems. This falsifies the hypothesis that digitalization would eliminates rejects. A deleted image does not contribute to diagnostics, and therefore is an unnecessary image. Hence, the high rates of deleted images have implications for management, training, education, as well as for quality.

Image dynamic range test and evaluation of Gaofen-2 dual cameras

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Zhenhua; Gan, Fuping; Wei, Dandan

2015-12-01

In order to fully understand the dynamic range of Gaofen-2 satellite data and support the data processing, application and next satellites development, in this article, we evaluated the dynamic range by calculating some statistics such as maximum ,minimum, average and stand deviation of four images obtained at the same time by Gaofen-2 dual cameras in Beijing area; then the maximum ,minimum, average and stand deviation of each longitudinal overlap of PMS1,PMS2 were calculated respectively for the evaluation of each camera's dynamic range consistency; and these four statistics of each latitudinal overlap of PMS1,PMS2 were calculated respectively for the evaluation of the dynamic range consistency between PMS1 and PMS2 at last. The results suggest that there is a wide dynamic range of DN value in the image obtained by PMS1 and PMS2 which contains rich information of ground objects; in general, the consistency of dynamic range between the single camera images is in close agreement, but also a little difference, so do the dual cameras. The consistency of dynamic range between the single camera images is better than the dual cameras'.

Future directions for positive body image research

OpenAIRE

Halliwell, E.

2015-01-01

The emergence of positive body image research during the last 10 years represents an important shift in the body image literature. The existing evidence provides a strong empirical basis for the study of positive body image and research has begun to address issues of age, gender, ethnicity, culture, development, and intervention in relation to positive body image. This article briefly reviews the existing evidence before outlining directions for future research. Specifically, six areas for fu...

An efficient direct method for image registration of flat objects

Science.gov (United States)

Nikolaev, Dmitry; Tihonkih, Dmitrii; Makovetskii, Artyom; Voronin, Sergei

2017-09-01

Image alignment of rigid surfaces is a rapidly developing area of research and has many practical applications. Alignment methods can be roughly divided into two types: feature-based methods and direct methods. Known SURF and SIFT algorithms are examples of the feature-based methods. Direct methods refer to those that exploit the pixel intensities without resorting to image features and image-based deformations are general direct method to align images of deformable objects in 3D space. Nevertheless, it is not good for the registration of images of 3D rigid objects since the underlying structure cannot be directly evaluated. In the article, we propose a model that is suitable for image alignment of rigid flat objects under various illumination models. The brightness consistency assumptions used for reconstruction of optimal geometrical transformation. Computer simulation results are provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed algorithm for computing of an accordance between pixels of two images.

110 °C range athermalization of wavefront coding infrared imaging systems

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Bin; Shi, Zelin; Chang, Zheng; Liu, Haizheng; Zhao, Yaohong

2017-09-01

110 °C range athermalization is significant but difficult for designing infrared imaging systems. Our wavefront coding athermalized infrared imaging system adopts an optical phase mask with less manufacturing errors and a decoding method based on shrinkage function. The qualitative experiments prove that our wavefront coding athermalized infrared imaging system has three prominent merits: (1) working well over a temperature range of 110 °C; (2) extending the focal depth up to 15.2 times; (3) achieving a decoded image being approximate to its corresponding in-focus infrared image, with a mean structural similarity index (MSSIM) value greater than 0.85.

Image enhancement circuit using nonlinear processing curve and constrained histogram range equalization

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cvetkovic, S.D.; With, de P.H.N.; Panchanathan, S.; Vasudev, B.

2004-01-01

For real-time imaging in surveillance applications, image fidelity is of primary importance to ensure customer confidence. The obtained image fidelity is a result from amongst others dynamic range expansion and video signal enhancement. The dynamic range of the signal needs adaptation, because the

Multi-exposure high dynamic range image synthesis with camera shake correction

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Xudong; Chen, Yongfu; Jiang, Hongzhi; Zhao, Huijie

2017-10-01

Machine vision plays an important part in industrial online inspection. Owing to the nonuniform illuminance conditions and variable working distances, the captured image tends to be over-exposed or under-exposed. As a result, when processing the image such as crack inspection, the algorithm complexity and computing time increase. Multiexposure high dynamic range (HDR) image synthesis is used to improve the quality of the captured image, whose dynamic range is limited. Inevitably, camera shake will result in ghost effect, which blurs the synthesis image to some extent. However, existed exposure fusion algorithms assume that the input images are either perfectly aligned or captured in the same scene. These assumptions limit the application. At present, widely used registration based on Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) is usually time consuming. In order to rapidly obtain a high quality HDR image without ghost effect, we come up with an efficient Low Dynamic Range (LDR) images capturing approach and propose a registration method based on ORiented Brief (ORB) and histogram equalization which can eliminate the illumination differences between the LDR images. The fusion is performed after alignment. The experiment results demonstrate that the proposed method is robust to illumination changes and local geometric distortion. Comparing with other exposure fusion methods, our method is more efficient and can produce HDR images without ghost effect by registering and fusing four multi-exposure images.

Dense range images from sparse point clouds using multi-scale processing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Do, Q.L.; Ma, L.; With, de P.H.N.

2013-01-01

Multi-modal data processing based on visual and depth/range images has become relevant in computer vision for 3D reconstruction applications such as city modeling, robot navigation etc. In this paper, we generate highaccuracy dense range images from sparse point clouds to facilitate such

Control range: a controllability-based index for node significance in directed networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Bingbo; Gao, Lin; Gao, Yong

2012-01-01

While a large number of methods for module detection have been developed for undirected networks, it is difficult to adapt them to handle directed networks due to the lack of consensus criteria for measuring the node significance in a directed network. In this paper, we propose a novel structural index, the control range, motivated by recent studies on the structural controllability of large-scale directed networks. The control range of a node quantifies the size of the subnetwork that the node can effectively control. A related index, called the control range similarity, is also introduced to measure the structural similarity between two nodes. When applying the index of control range to several real-world and synthetic directed networks, it is observed that the control range of the nodes is mainly influenced by the network's degree distribution and that nodes with a low degree may have a high control range. We use the index of control range similarity to detect and analyze functional modules in glossary networks and the enzyme-centric network of homo sapiens. Our results, as compared with other approaches to module detection such as modularity optimization algorithm, dynamic algorithm and clique percolation method, indicate that the proposed indices are effective and practical in depicting structural and modular characteristics of sparse directed networks

Histogram Matching Extends Acceptable Signal Strength Range on Optical Coherence Tomography Images

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Chieh-Li; Ishikawa, Hiroshi; Wollstein, Gadi; Bilonick, Richard A.; Sigal, Ian A.; Kagemann, Larry; Schuman, Joel S.

2015-01-01

Purpose. We minimized the influence of image quality variability, as measured by signal strength (SS), on optical coherence tomography (OCT) thickness measurements using the histogram matching (HM) method. Methods. We scanned 12 eyes from 12 healthy subjects with the Cirrus HD-OCT device to obtain a series of OCT images with a wide range of SS (maximal range, 1–10) at the same visit. For each eye, the histogram of an image with the highest SS (best image quality) was set as the reference. We applied HM to the images with lower SS by shaping the input histogram into the reference histogram. Retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness was automatically measured before and after HM processing (defined as original and HM measurements), and compared to the device output (device measurements). Nonlinear mixed effects models were used to analyze the relationship between RNFL thickness and SS. In addition, the lowest tolerable SSs, which gave the RNFL thickness within the variability margin of manufacturer recommended SS range (6–10), were determined for device, original, and HM measurements. Results. The HM measurements showed less variability across a wide range of image quality than the original and device measurements (slope = 1.17 vs. 4.89 and 1.72 μm/SS, respectively). The lowest tolerable SS was successfully reduced to 4.5 after HM processing. Conclusions. The HM method successfully extended the acceptable SS range on OCT images. This would qualify more OCT images with low SS for clinical assessment, broadening the OCT application to a wider range of subjects. PMID:26066749

Range-Gated Laser Stroboscopic Imaging for Night Remote Surveillance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xin-Wei, Wang; Yan, Zhou; Song-Tao, Fan; Jun, He; Yu-Liang, Liu

2010-01-01

For night remote surveillance, we present a method, the range-gated laser stroboscopic imaging(RGLSI), which uses a new kind of time delay integration mode to integrate target signals so that night remote surveillance can be realized by a low-energy illuminated laser. The time delay integration in this method has no influence on the video frame rate. Compared with the traditional range-gated laser imaging, RGLSI can reduce scintillation and target speckle effects and significantly improve the image signal-to-noise ratio analyzed. Even under low light level and low visibility conditions, the RGLSI system can effectively work. In a preliminary experiment, we have detected and recognized a railway bridge one kilometer away under a visibility of six kilometers, when the effective illuminated energy is 29.5 μJ

Introduction to sensors for ranging and imaging

CERN Document Server

Brooker, Graham

2009-01-01

""This comprehensive text-reference provides a solid background in active sensing technology. It is concerned with active sensing, starting with the basics of time-of-flight sensors (operational principles, components), and going through the derivation of the radar range equation and the detection of echo signals, both fundamental to the understanding of radar, sonar and lidar imaging. Several chapters cover signal propagation of both electromagnetic and acoustic energy, target characteristics, stealth, and clutter. The remainder of the book introduces the range measurement process, active ima

Characterization of modulated time-of-flight range image sensors

Science.gov (United States)

Payne, Andrew D.; Dorrington, Adrian A.; Cree, Michael J.; Carnegie, Dale A.

2009-01-01

A number of full field image sensors have been developed that are capable of simultaneously measuring intensity and distance (range) for every pixel in a given scene using an indirect time-of-flight measurement technique. A light source is intensity modulated at a frequency between 10-100 MHz, and an image sensor is modulated at the same frequency, synchronously sampling light reflected from objects in the scene (homodyne detection). The time of flight is manifested as a phase shift in the illumination modulation envelope, which can be determined from the sampled data simultaneously for each pixel in the scene. This paper presents a method of characterizing the high frequency modulation response of these image sensors, using a pico-second laser pulser. The characterization results allow the optimal operating parameters, such as the modulation frequency, to be identified in order to maximize the range measurement precision for a given sensor. A number of potential sources of error exist when using these sensors, including deficiencies in the modulation waveform shape, duty cycle, or phase, resulting in contamination of the resultant range data. From the characterization data these parameters can be identified and compensated for by modifying the sensor hardware or through post processing of the acquired range measurements.

Enhancing the dynamic range of Ultrasound Imaging Velocimetry using interleaved imaging

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Poelma, C.; Fraser, K.H.

2013-01-01

In recent years, non-invasive velocity field measurement based on correlation of ultrasound images has been introduced as a promising technique for fundamental research into disease processes, as well as a diagnostic tool. A major drawback of the method is the relatively limited dynamic range when

Directional Joint Bilateral Filter for Depth Images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anh Vu Le

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Depth maps taken by the low cost Kinect sensor are often noisy and incomplete. Thus, post-processing for obtaining reliable depth maps is necessary for advanced image and video applications such as object recognition and multi-view rendering. In this paper, we propose adaptive directional filters that fill the holes and suppress the noise in depth maps. Specifically, novel filters whose window shapes are adaptively adjusted based on the edge direction of the color image are presented. Experimental results show that our method yields higher quality filtered depth maps than other existing methods, especially at the edge boundaries.

Future directions for positive body image research.

Science.gov (United States)

Halliwell, Emma

2015-06-01

The emergence of positive body image research during the last 10 years represents an important shift in the body image literature. The existing evidence provides a strong empirical basis for the study of positive body image and research has begun to address issues of age, gender, ethnicity, culture, development, and intervention in relation to positive body image. This article briefly reviews the existing evidence before outlining directions for future research. Specifically, six areas for future positive body image research are outlined: (a) conceptualization, (b) models, (c) developmental factors, (d) social interactions, (e) cognitive processing style, and (f) interventions. Finally, the potential role of positive body image as a protective factor within the broader body image literature is discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Study of CT-based positron range correction in high resolution 3D PET imaging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cal-Gonzalez, J., E-mail: jacobo@nuclear.fis.ucm.es [Grupo de Fisica Nuclear, Dpto. Fisica Atomica, Molecular y Nuclear, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain); Herraiz, J.L. [Grupo de Fisica Nuclear, Dpto. Fisica Atomica, Molecular y Nuclear, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain); Espana, S. [Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (United States); Vicente, E. [Grupo de Fisica Nuclear, Dpto. Fisica Atomica, Molecular y Nuclear, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain); Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Madrid (Spain); Herranz, E. [Grupo de Fisica Nuclear, Dpto. Fisica Atomica, Molecular y Nuclear, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain); Desco, M. [Unidad de Medicina y Cirugia Experimental, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Maranon, Madrid (Spain); Vaquero, J.J. [Dpto. de Bioingenieria e Ingenieria Espacial, Universidad Carlos III, Madrid (Spain); Udias, J.M. [Grupo de Fisica Nuclear, Dpto. Fisica Atomica, Molecular y Nuclear, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)

2011-08-21

Positron range limits the spatial resolution of PET images and has a different effect for different isotopes and positron propagation materials. Therefore it is important to consider it during image reconstruction, in order to obtain optimal image quality. Positron range distributions for most common isotopes used in PET in different materials were computed using the Monte Carlo simulations with PeneloPET. The range profiles were introduced into the 3D OSEM image reconstruction software FIRST and employed to blur the image either in the forward projection or in the forward and backward projection. The blurring introduced takes into account the different materials in which the positron propagates. Information on these materials may be obtained, for instance, from a segmentation of a CT image. The results of introducing positron blurring in both forward and backward projection operations was compared to using it only during forward projection. Further, the effect of different shapes of positron range profile in the quality of the reconstructed images with positron range correction was studied. For high positron energy isotopes, the reconstructed images show significant improvement in spatial resolution when positron range is taken into account during reconstruction, compared to reconstructions without positron range modeling.

Study of CT-based positron range correction in high resolution 3D PET imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cal-Gonzalez, J.; Herraiz, J.L.; Espana, S.; Vicente, E.; Herranz, E.; Desco, M.; Vaquero, J.J.; Udias, J.M.

2011-01-01

Positron range limits the spatial resolution of PET images and has a different effect for different isotopes and positron propagation materials. Therefore it is important to consider it during image reconstruction, in order to obtain optimal image quality. Positron range distributions for most common isotopes used in PET in different materials were computed using the Monte Carlo simulations with PeneloPET. The range profiles were introduced into the 3D OSEM image reconstruction software FIRST and employed to blur the image either in the forward projection or in the forward and backward projection. The blurring introduced takes into account the different materials in which the positron propagates. Information on these materials may be obtained, for instance, from a segmentation of a CT image. The results of introducing positron blurring in both forward and backward projection operations was compared to using it only during forward projection. Further, the effect of different shapes of positron range profile in the quality of the reconstructed images with positron range correction was studied. For high positron energy isotopes, the reconstructed images show significant improvement in spatial resolution when positron range is taken into account during reconstruction, compared to reconstructions without positron range modeling.

Influence of long-range Coulomb interaction in velocity map imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Barillot, T; Brédy, R; Celep, G; Cohen, S; Compagnon, I; Concina, B; Constant, E; Danakas, S; Kalaitzis, P; Karras, G; Lépine, F; Loriot, V; Marciniak, A; Predelus-Renois, G; Schindler, B; Bordas, C

2017-07-07

The standard velocity-map imaging (VMI) analysis relies on the simple approximation that the residual Coulomb field experienced by the photoelectron ejected from a neutral or ion system may be neglected. Under this almost universal approximation, the photoelectrons follow ballistic (parabolic) trajectories in the externally applied electric field, and the recorded image may be considered as a 2D projection of the initial photoelectron velocity distribution. There are, however, several circumstances where this approximation is not justified and the influence of long-range forces must absolutely be taken into account for the interpretation and analysis of the recorded images. The aim of this paper is to illustrate this influence by discussing two different situations involving isolated atoms or molecules where the analysis of experimental images cannot be performed without considering long-range Coulomb interactions. The first situation occurs when slow (meV) photoelectrons are photoionized from a neutral system and strongly interact with the attractive Coulomb potential of the residual ion. The result of this interaction is the formation of a more complex structure in the image, as well as the appearance of an intense glory at the center of the image. The second situation, observed also at low energy, occurs in the photodetachment from a multiply charged anion and it is characterized by the presence of a long-range repulsive potential. Then, while the standard VMI approximation is still valid, the very specific features exhibited by the recorded images can be explained only by taking into consideration tunnel detachment through the repulsive Coulomb barrier.

Improved Feature Detection in Fused Intensity-Range Images with Complex SIFT (ℂSIFT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Boris Jutzi

2011-09-01

Full Text Available The real and imaginary parts are proposed as an alternative to the usual Polar representation of complex-valued images. It is proven that the transformation from Polar to Cartesian representation contributes to decreased mutual information, and hence to greater distinctiveness. The Complex Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (ℂSIFT detects distinctive features in complex-valued images. An evaluation method for estimating the uniformity of feature distributions in complex-valued images derived from intensity-range images is proposed. In order to experimentally evaluate the proposed methodology on intensity-range images, three different kinds of active sensing systems were used: Range Imaging, Laser Scanning, and Structured Light Projection devices (PMD CamCube 2.0, Z+F IMAGER 5003, Microsoft Kinect.

Calibration and control for range imaging in mobile robot navigation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dorum, O.H. [Norges Tekniske Hoegskole, Trondheim (Norway). Div. of Computer Systems and Telematics; Hoover, A. [University of South Florida, Tampa, FL (United States). Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering; Jones, J.P. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)

1994-06-01

This paper addresses some issues in the development of sensor-based systems for mobile robot navigation which use range imaging sensors as the primary source for geometric information about the environment. In particular, we describe a model of scanning laser range cameras which takes into account the properties of the mechanical system responsible for image formation and a calibration procedure which yields improved accuracy over previous models. In addition, we describe an algorithm which takes the limitations of these sensors into account in path planning and path execution. In particular, range imaging sensors are characterized by a limited field of view and a standoff distance -- a minimum distance nearer than which surfaces cannot be sensed. These limitations can be addressed by enriching the concept of configuration space to include information about what can be sensed from a given configuration, and using this information to guide path planning and path following.

Model-based restoration using light vein for range-gated imaging systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Canjin; Sun, Tao; Wang, Tingfeng; Wang, Rui; Guo, Jin; Tian, Yuzhen

2016-09-10

The images captured by an airborne range-gated imaging system are degraded by many factors, such as light scattering, noise, defocus of the optical system, atmospheric disturbances, platform vibrations, and so on. The characteristics of low illumination, few details, and high noise make the state-of-the-art restoration method fail. In this paper, we present a restoration method especially for range-gated imaging systems. The degradation process is divided into two parts: the static part and the dynamic part. For the static part, we establish the physical model of the imaging system according to the laser transmission theory, and estimate the static point spread function (PSF). For the dynamic part, a so-called light vein feature extraction method is presented to estimate the fuzzy parameter of the atmospheric disturbance and platform movement, which make contributions to the dynamic PSF. Finally, combined with the static and dynamic PSF, an iterative updating framework is used to restore the image. Compared with the state-of-the-art methods, the proposed method can effectively suppress ringing artifacts and achieve better performance in a range-gated imaging system.

ON THE DIRECT IMAGING OF TIDALLY HEATED EXOMOONS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Peters, Mary Anne; Turner, Edwin L., E-mail: mapeters@princeton.edu [Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States)

2013-06-01

We demonstrate the ability of existing and planned telescopes, on the ground and in space, to directly image tidally heated exomoons orbiting gas-giant exoplanets. Tidally heated exomoons can plausibly be far more luminous than their host exoplanet and as much as 0.1% as bright as the system's stellar primary if it is a low mass star. Because emission from exomoons can be powered by tidal forces, they can shine brightly at arbitrarily large separations from the system's stellar primary with temperatures of several hundreds degrees Kelvin or even higher in extreme cases. Furthermore, these high temperatures can occur in systems that are billions of years old. Tidally heated exomoons may thus be far easier targets for direct imaging studies than giant exoplanets which must be both young and at a large projected separation (typically at least tens of AU) from their primary to be accessible to current generation direct imaging studies. For example, the (warm) Spitzer Space Telescope and the next generation of ground based instruments could detect an exomoon roughly the size of the Earth at a temperature Almost-Equal-To 600 K and a distance Almost-Equal-To 5 pc in the K, L, and M bands at the 5{sigma} confidence level with a one hour exposure; in more favorable but still plausible cases, detection at distances of tens of parsecs is feasible. Future mid-infrared space telescopes, such as James Webb Space Telescope and SPICA, will be capable of directly imaging tidally heated exomoons around the nearest two dozen stars with a brightness temperature {>=}300 K and R {>=} 1 R{sub Circled-Plus} orbiting at {>=}12 AU from the primary star at a 5{sigma} confidence level in a 10{sup 4} s integration. In addition it is possible that some of the exoplanets which have already been directly imaged are actually tidally heated exomoons or blends of such objects with hot young planets. If such exomoons exist and are sufficiently common (i.e., nearby), it may well be far

Eye gazing direction inspection based on image processing technique

Science.gov (United States)

Hao, Qun; Song, Yong

2005-02-01

According to the research result in neural biology, human eyes can obtain high resolution only at the center of view of field. In the research of Virtual Reality helmet, we design to detect the gazing direction of human eyes in real time and feed it back to the control system to improve the resolution of the graph at the center of field of view. In the case of current display instruments, this method can both give attention to the view field of virtual scene and resolution, and improve the immersion of virtual system greatly. Therefore, detecting the gazing direction of human eyes rapidly and exactly is the basis of realizing the design scheme of this novel VR helmet. In this paper, the conventional method of gazing direction detection that based on Purklinje spot is introduced firstly. In order to overcome the disadvantage of the method based on Purklinje spot, this paper proposed a method based on image processing to realize the detection and determination of the gazing direction. The locations of pupils and shapes of eye sockets change with the gazing directions. With the aid of these changes, analyzing the images of eyes captured by the cameras, gazing direction of human eyes can be determined finally. In this paper, experiments have been done to validate the efficiency of this method by analyzing the images. The algorithm can carry out the detection of gazing direction base on normal eye image directly, and it eliminates the need of special hardware. Experiment results show that the method is easy to implement and have high precision.

Edge-detect interpolation for direct digital periapical images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Song, Nam Kyu; Koh, Kwang Joon

1998-01-01

The purpose of this study was to aid in the use of the digital images by edge-detect interpolation for direct digital periapical images using edge-deted interpolation. This study was performed by image processing of 20 digital periapical images; pixel replication, linear non-interpolation, linear interpolation, and edge-sensitive interpolation. The obtained results were as follows ; 1. Pixel replication showed blocking artifact and serious image distortion. 2. Linear interpolation showed smoothing effect on the edge. 3. Edge-sensitive interpolation overcame the smoothing effect on the edge and showed better image.

Target recognition of ladar range images using even-order Zernike moments.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Zheng-Jun; Li, Qi; Xia, Zhi-Wei; Wang, Qi

2012-11-01

Ladar range images have attracted considerable attention in automatic target recognition fields. In this paper, Zernike moments (ZMs) are applied to classify the target of the range image from an arbitrary azimuth angle. However, ZMs suffer from high computational costs. To improve the performance of target recognition based on small samples, even-order ZMs with serial-parallel backpropagation neural networks (BPNNs) are applied to recognize the target of the range image. It is found that the rotation invariance and classified performance of the even-order ZMs are both better than for odd-order moments and for moments compressed by principal component analysis. The experimental results demonstrate that combining the even-order ZMs with serial-parallel BPNNs can significantly improve the recognition rate for small samples.

Image restoration from non-uniform magnetic field influence for direct Fourier NMR imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sekihara, K.; Kuroda, M.; Kohno, H.

1984-01-01

A new technique is proposed for NMR image restoration from the influence of main magnetic field non-uniformities. This technique is applicable to direct Fourier NMR imaging. The mathematical basis and details of this technique are fully described. Modification to include image restoration from non-linear field gradient influence is also presented. Computer simulation demonstrates the effectiveness of this technique for both Fourier zeugmatography and spin-warp imaging. (author)

Efficient processing of fluorescence images using directional multiscale representations.

Science.gov (United States)

Labate, D; Laezza, F; Negi, P; Ozcan, B; Papadakis, M

2014-01-01

Recent advances in high-resolution fluorescence microscopy have enabled the systematic study of morphological changes in large populations of cells induced by chemical and genetic perturbations, facilitating the discovery of signaling pathways underlying diseases and the development of new pharmacological treatments. In these studies, though, due to the complexity of the data, quantification and analysis of morphological features are for the vast majority handled manually, slowing significantly data processing and limiting often the information gained to a descriptive level. Thus, there is an urgent need for developing highly efficient automated analysis and processing tools for fluorescent images. In this paper, we present the application of a method based on the shearlet representation for confocal image analysis of neurons. The shearlet representation is a newly emerged method designed to combine multiscale data analysis with superior directional sensitivity, making this approach particularly effective for the representation of objects defined over a wide range of scales and with highly anisotropic features. Here, we apply the shearlet representation to problems of soma detection of neurons in culture and extraction of geometrical features of neuronal processes in brain tissue, and propose it as a new framework for large-scale fluorescent image analysis of biomedical data.

32Still Image Compression Algorithm Based on Directional Filter Banks

OpenAIRE

Chunling Yang; Duanwu Cao; Li Ma

2010-01-01

Hybrid wavelet and directional filter banks (HWD) is an effective multi-scale geometrical analysis method. Compared to wavelet transform, it can better capture the directional information of images. But the ringing artifact, which is caused by the coefficient quantization in transform domain, is the biggest drawback of image compression algorithms in HWD domain. In this paper, by researching on the relationship between directional decomposition and ringing artifact, an improved decomposition ...

A high-resolution full-field range imaging system

Science.gov (United States)

Carnegie, D. A.; Cree, M. J.; Dorrington, A. A.

2005-08-01

There exist a number of applications where the range to all objects in a field of view needs to be obtained. Specific examples include obstacle avoidance for autonomous mobile robots, process automation in assembly factories, surface profiling for shape analysis, and surveying. Ranging systems can be typically characterized as being either laser scanning systems where a laser point is sequentially scanned over a scene or a full-field acquisition where the range to every point in the image is simultaneously obtained. The former offers advantages in terms of range resolution, while the latter tend to be faster and involve no moving parts. We present a system for determining the range to any object within a camera's field of view, at the speed of a full-field system and the range resolution of some point laser scans. Initial results obtained have a centimeter range resolution for a 10 second acquisition time. Modifications to the existing system are discussed that should provide faster results with submillimeter resolution.

Context-dependent JPEG backward-compatible high-dynamic range image compression

Science.gov (United States)

Korshunov, Pavel; Ebrahimi, Touradj

2013-10-01

High-dynamic range (HDR) imaging is expected, together with ultrahigh definition and high-frame rate video, to become a technology that may change photo, TV, and film industries. Many cameras and displays capable of capturing and rendering both HDR images and video are already available in the market. The popularity and full-public adoption of HDR content is, however, hindered by the lack of standards in evaluation of quality, file formats, and compression, as well as large legacy base of low-dynamic range (LDR) displays that are unable to render HDR. To facilitate the wide spread of HDR usage, the backward compatibility of HDR with commonly used legacy technologies for storage, rendering, and compression of video and images are necessary. Although many tone-mapping algorithms are developed for generating viewable LDR content from HDR, there is no consensus of which algorithm to use and under which conditions. We, via a series of subjective evaluations, demonstrate the dependency of the perceptual quality of the tone-mapped LDR images on the context: environmental factors, display parameters, and image content itself. Based on the results of subjective tests, it proposes to extend JPEG file format, the most popular image format, in a backward compatible manner to deal with HDR images also. An architecture to achieve such backward compatibility with JPEG is proposed. A simple implementation of lossy compression demonstrates the efficiency of the proposed architecture compared with the state-of-the-art HDR image compression.

Vector Directional Distance Rational Hybrid Filters for Color Image Restoration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Khriji

2005-12-01

Full Text Available A new class of nonlinear filters, called vector-directional distance rational hybrid filters (VDDRHF for multispectral image processing, is introduced and applied to color image-filtering problems. These filters are based on rational functions (RF. The VDDRHF filter is a two-stage filter, which exploits the features of the vector directional distance filter (VDDF, the center weighted vector directional distance filter (CWVDDF and those of the rational operator. The filter output is a result of vector rational function (VRF operating on the output of three sub-functions. Two vector directional distance (VDDF filters and one center weighted vector directional distance filter (CWVDDF are proposed to be used in the first stage due to their desirable properties, such as, noise attenuation, chromaticity retention, and edges and details preservation. Experimental results show that the new VDDRHF outperforms a number of widely known nonlinear filters for multi-spectral image processing such as the vector median filter (VMF, the generalized vector directional filters (GVDF and distance directional filters (DDF with respect to all criteria used.

Fingerprint Image Enhancement Based on Second Directional Derivative of the Digital Image

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Onnia Vesa

2002-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a novel approach of fingerprint image enhancement that relies on detecting the fingerprint ridges as image regions where the second directional derivative of the digital image is positive. A facet model is used in order to approximate the derivatives at each image pixel based on the intensity values of pixels located in a certain neighborhood. We note that the size of this neighborhood has a critical role in achieving accurate enhancement results. Using neighborhoods of various sizes, the proposed algorithm determines several candidate binary representations of the input fingerprint pattern. Subsequently, an output binary ridge-map image is created by selecting image zones, from the available binary image candidates, according to a MAP selection rule. Two public domain collections of fingerprint images are used in order to objectively assess the performance of the proposed fingerprint image enhancement approach.

Direct imaging of atomic-scale ripples in few-layer graphene.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Wei L; Bhandari, Sagar; Yi, Wei; Bell, David C; Westervelt, Robert; Kaxiras, Efthimios

2012-05-09

Graphene has been touted as the prototypical two-dimensional solid of extraordinary stability and strength. However, its very existence relies on out-of-plane ripples as predicted by theory and confirmed by experiments. Evidence of the intrinsic ripples has been reported in the form of broadened diffraction spots in reciprocal space, in which all spatial information is lost. Here we show direct real-space images of the ripples in a few-layer graphene (FLG) membrane resolved at the atomic scale using monochromated aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The thickness of FLG amplifies the weak local effects of the ripples, resulting in spatially varying TEM contrast that is unique up to inversion symmetry. We compare the characteristic TEM contrast with simulated images based on accurate first-principles calculations of the scattering potential. Our results characterize the ripples in real space and suggest that such features are likely common in ultrathin materials, even in the nanometer-thickness range.

Passive ranging using a filter-based non-imaging method based on oxygen absorption.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Hao; Liu, Bingqi; Yan, Zongqun; Zhang, Yu

2017-10-01

To solve the problem of poor real-time measurement caused by a hyperspectral imaging system and to simplify the design in passive ranging technology based on oxygen absorption spectrum, a filter-based non-imaging ranging method is proposed. In this method, three bandpass filters are used to obtain the source radiation intensities that are located in the oxygen absorption band near 762 nm and the band's left and right non-absorption shoulders, and a photomultiplier tube is used as the non-imaging sensor of the passive ranging system. Range is estimated by comparing the calculated values of band-average transmission due to oxygen absorption, τ O 2 , against the predicted curve of τ O 2 versus range. The method is tested under short-range conditions. Accuracy of 6.5% is achieved with the designed experimental ranging system at the range of 400 m.

First Human Experience with Directly Image-able Iodinated Embolization Microbeads

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Levy, Elliot B., E-mail: levyeb@cc.nih.gov; Krishnasamy, Venkatesh P. [National Institutes of Health, Center for Interventional Oncology (United States); Lewis, Andrew L.; Willis, Sean; Macfarlane, Chelsea [Biocompatibles, UK Ltd, A BTG International Group Company (United Kingdom); Anderson, Victoria [National Institutes of Health, Center for Interventional Oncology (United States); Bom, Imramsjah MJ van der [Clinical Science IGT Systems North & Latin America, Philips, Philips, Image Guided Interventions (United States); Radaelli, Alessandro [Image-Guided Therapy Systems, Philips, Philips, Image Guided Interventions (Netherlands); Dreher, Matthew R. [Biocompatibles, UK Ltd, A BTG International Group Company (United Kingdom); Sharma, Karun V. [Children’s National Medical Center (United States); Negussie, Ayele; Mikhail, Andrew S. [National Institutes of Health, Center for Interventional Oncology (United States); Geschwind, Jean-Francois H. [Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging (United States); Wood, Bradford J. [National Institutes of Health, Center for Interventional Oncology (United States)

2016-08-15

PurposeTo describe first clinical experience with a directly image-able, inherently radio-opaque microspherical embolic agent for transarterial embolization of liver tumors.MethodologyLC Bead LUMI™ is a new product based upon sulfonate-modified polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel microbeads with covalently bound iodine (~260 mg I/ml). 70–150 μ LC Bead LUMI™ iodinated microbeads were injected selectively via a 2.8 Fr microcatheter to near complete flow stasis into hepatic arteries in three patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, carcinoid, or neuroendocrine tumor. A custom imaging platform tuned for LC LUMI™ microbead conspicuity using a cone beam CT (CBCT)/angiographic C-arm system (Allura Clarity FD20, Philips) was used along with CBCT embolization treatment planning software (EmboGuide, Philips).ResultsLC Bead LUMI™ image-able microbeads were easily delivered and monitored during the procedure using fluoroscopy, single-shot radiography (SSD), digital subtraction angiography (DSA), dual-phase enhanced and unenhanced CBCT, and unenhanced conventional CT obtained 48 h after the procedure. Intra-procedural imaging demonstrated tumor at risk for potential under-treatment, defined as paucity of image-able microbeads within a portion of the tumor which was confirmed at 48 h CT imaging. Fusion of pre- and post-embolization CBCT identified vessels without beads that corresponded to enhancing tumor tissue in the same location on follow-up imaging (48 h post).ConclusionLC Bead LUMI™ image-able microbeads provide real-time feedback and geographic localization of treatment in real time during treatment. The distribution and density of image-able beads within a tumor need further evaluation as an additional endpoint for embolization.

High Dynamic Velocity Range Particle Image Velocimetry Using Multiple Pulse Separation Imaging

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tadhg S. O’Donovan

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The dynamic velocity range of particle image velocimetry (PIV is determined by the maximum and minimum resolvable particle displacement. Various techniques have extended the dynamic range, however flows with a wide velocity range (e.g., impinging jets still challenge PIV algorithms. A new technique is presented to increase the dynamic velocity range by over an order of magnitude. The multiple pulse separation (MPS technique (i records series of double-frame exposures with different pulse separations, (ii processes the fields using conventional multi-grid algorithms, and (iii yields a composite velocity field with a locally optimized pulse separation. A robust criterion determines the local optimum pulse separation, accounting for correlation strength and measurement uncertainty. Validation experiments are performed in an impinging jet flow, using laser-Doppler velocimetry as reference measurement. The precision of mean flow and turbulence quantities is significantly improved compared to conventional PIV, due to the increase in dynamic range. In a wide range of applications, MPS PIV is a robust approach to increase the dynamic velocity range without restricting the vector evaluation methods.

High dynamic velocity range particle image velocimetry using multiple pulse separation imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Persoons, Tim; O'Donovan, Tadhg S

2011-01-01

The dynamic velocity range of particle image velocimetry (PIV) is determined by the maximum and minimum resolvable particle displacement. Various techniques have extended the dynamic range, however flows with a wide velocity range (e.g., impinging jets) still challenge PIV algorithms. A new technique is presented to increase the dynamic velocity range by over an order of magnitude. The multiple pulse separation (MPS) technique (i) records series of double-frame exposures with different pulse separations, (ii) processes the fields using conventional multi-grid algorithms, and (iii) yields a composite velocity field with a locally optimized pulse separation. A robust criterion determines the local optimum pulse separation, accounting for correlation strength and measurement uncertainty. Validation experiments are performed in an impinging jet flow, using laser-Doppler velocimetry as reference measurement. The precision of mean flow and turbulence quantities is significantly improved compared to conventional PIV, due to the increase in dynamic range. In a wide range of applications, MPS PIV is a robust approach to increase the dynamic velocity range without restricting the vector evaluation methods.

Hierarchical tone mapping for high dynamic range image visualization

Science.gov (United States)

Qiu, Guoping; Duan, Jiang

2005-07-01

In this paper, we present a computationally efficient, practically easy to use tone mapping techniques for the visualization of high dynamic range (HDR) images in low dynamic range (LDR) reproduction devices. The new method, termed hierarchical nonlinear linear (HNL) tone-mapping operator maps the pixels in two hierarchical steps. The first step allocates appropriate numbers of LDR display levels to different HDR intensity intervals according to the pixel densities of the intervals. The second step linearly maps the HDR intensity intervals to theirs allocated LDR display levels. In the developed HNL scheme, the assignment of LDR display levels to HDR intensity intervals is controlled by a very simple and flexible formula with a single adjustable parameter. We also show that our new operators can be used for the effective enhancement of ordinary images.

Image processing pipeline for segmentation and material classification based on multispectral high dynamic range polarimetric images.

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez-Domingo, Miguel Ángel; Valero, Eva M; Hernández-Andrés, Javier; Tominaga, Shoji; Horiuchi, Takahiko; Hirai, Keita

2017-11-27

We propose a method for the capture of high dynamic range (HDR), multispectral (MS), polarimetric (Pol) images of indoor scenes using a liquid crystal tunable filter (LCTF). We have included the adaptive exposure estimation (AEE) method to fully automatize the capturing process. We also propose a pre-processing method which can be applied for the registration of HDR images after they are already built as the result of combining different low dynamic range (LDR) images. This method is applied to ensure a correct alignment of the different polarization HDR images for each spectral band. We have focused our efforts in two main applications: object segmentation and classification into metal and dielectric classes. We have simplified the segmentation using mean shift combined with cluster averaging and region merging techniques. We compare the performance of our segmentation with that of Ncut and Watershed methods. For the classification task, we propose to use information not only in the highlight regions but also in their surrounding area, extracted from the degree of linear polarization (DoLP) maps. We present experimental results which proof that the proposed image processing pipeline outperforms previous techniques developed specifically for MSHDRPol image cubes.

Acceleration of the direct reconstruction of linear parametric images using nested algorithms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Guobao; Qi Jinyi

2010-01-01

Parametric imaging using dynamic positron emission tomography (PET) provides important information for biological research and clinical diagnosis. Indirect and direct methods have been developed for reconstructing linear parametric images from dynamic PET data. Indirect methods are relatively simple and easy to implement because the image reconstruction and kinetic modeling are performed in two separate steps. Direct methods estimate parametric images directly from raw PET data and are statistically more efficient. However, the convergence rate of direct algorithms can be slow due to the coupling between the reconstruction and kinetic modeling. Here we present two fast gradient-type algorithms for direct reconstruction of linear parametric images. The new algorithms decouple the reconstruction and linear parametric modeling at each iteration by employing the principle of optimization transfer. Convergence speed is accelerated by running more sub-iterations of linear parametric estimation because the computation cost of the linear parametric modeling is much less than that of the image reconstruction. Computer simulation studies demonstrated that the new algorithms converge much faster than the traditional expectation maximization (EM) and the preconditioned conjugate gradient algorithms for dynamic PET.

Blind image fusion for hyperspectral imaging with the directional total variation

Science.gov (United States)

Bungert, Leon; Coomes, David A.; Ehrhardt, Matthias J.; Rasch, Jennifer; Reisenhofer, Rafael; Schönlieb, Carola-Bibiane

2018-04-01

Hyperspectral imaging is a cutting-edge type of remote sensing used for mapping vegetation properties, rock minerals and other materials. A major drawback of hyperspectral imaging devices is their intrinsic low spatial resolution. In this paper, we propose a method for increasing the spatial resolution of a hyperspectral image by fusing it with an image of higher spatial resolution that was obtained with a different imaging modality. This is accomplished by solving a variational problem in which the regularization functional is the directional total variation. To accommodate for possible mis-registrations between the two images, we consider a non-convex blind super-resolution problem where both a fused image and the corresponding convolution kernel are estimated. Using this approach, our model can realign the given images if needed. Our experimental results indicate that the non-convexity is negligible in practice and that reliable solutions can be computed using a variety of different optimization algorithms. Numerical results on real remote sensing data from plant sciences and urban monitoring show the potential of the proposed method and suggests that it is robust with respect to the regularization parameters, mis-registration and the shape of the kernel.

Direct comparison of soft x-ray images of organelles with optical fluorescence images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ishino, Masahiko; Kado, Masataka; Kishimoto, Maki; Nishikino, Masaharu; Ohba, Toshiyuki; Kaihori, Takeshi; Kawachi, Tetsuya; Tamotsu, Satoshi; Yasuda, Keiko; Mikata, Yuji; Shinohara, Kunio

2011-01-01

Soft x-ray microscopes operating in the water window region are capable of imaging living hydrated cells. Up to now, we have been able to take some soft x-ray images of living cells by the use of a contact x-ray microscope system with laser produced plasma soft x-ray source. Since the soft x-ray images are different from the optical images obtained with an ordinary microscope, it is very important to identify what is seen in the x-ray images. Hence, we have demonstrated the direct comparison between the images of organelles obtained with a fluorescence microscope and those with a soft x-ray microscope. Comparing the soft x-ray images to the fluorescence images, the fine structures of the organelles could be identified and observed. (author)

Long range image enhancement

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Duvenhage, B

2015-11-01

Full Text Available the surveillance system performance. This paper discusses an image processing method that tracks the behaviour of the PSF and then de-warps the image to reduce the disruptive effects of turbulence. Optical flow, an average image filter and a simple unsharp mask...

Fast digital zooming system using directionally adaptive image interpolation and restoration.

Science.gov (United States)

Kang, Wonseok; Jeon, Jaehwan; Yu, Soohwan; Paik, Joonki

2014-01-01

This paper presents a fast digital zooming system for mobile consumer cameras using directionally adaptive image interpolation and restoration methods. The proposed interpolation algorithm performs edge refinement along the initially estimated edge orientation using directionally steerable filters. Either the directionally weighted linear or adaptive cubic-spline interpolation filter is then selectively used according to the refined edge orientation for removing jagged artifacts in the slanted edge region. A novel image restoration algorithm is also presented for removing blurring artifacts caused by the linear or cubic-spline interpolation using the directionally adaptive truncated constrained least squares (TCLS) filter. Both proposed steerable filter-based interpolation and the TCLS-based restoration filters have a finite impulse response (FIR) structure for real time processing in an image signal processing (ISP) chain. Experimental results show that the proposed digital zooming system provides high-quality magnified images with FIR filter-based fast computational structure.

Time-of-flight range imaging for underwater applications

Science.gov (United States)

Merbold, Hannes; Catregn, Gion-Pol; Leutenegger, Tobias

2018-02-01

Precise and low-cost range imaging in underwater settings with object distances on the meter level is demonstrated. This is addressed through silicon-based time-of-flight (TOF) cameras operated with light emitting diodes (LEDs) at visible, rather than near-IR wavelengths. We find that the attainable performance depends on a variety of parameters, such as the wavelength dependent absorption of water, the emitted optical power and response times of the LEDs, or the spectral sensitivity of the TOF chip. An in-depth analysis of the interplay between the different parameters is given and the performance of underwater TOF imaging using different visible illumination wavelengths is analyzed.

Theoretical antineutrino detection, direction and ranging at long distances

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jocher, Glenn R., E-mail: gjocher@integrity-apps.com [Integrity Applications Incorporated, 15020 Conference Center Drive, Chantilly, VA, 20151 (United States); Bondy, Daniel A., E-mail: dbondy@integrity-apps.com [Integrity Applications Incorporated, 15020 Conference Center Drive, Chantilly, VA, 20151 (United States); Dobbs, Brian M., E-mail: Brian.M.Dobbs.ctr@nga.mil [Integrity Applications Incorporated, 15020 Conference Center Drive, Chantilly, VA, 20151 (United States); Dye, Stephen T., E-mail: sdye@phys.hawaii.edu [College of Natural Sciences, Hawaii Pacific University, Kaneohe, HI 96744 (United States); Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, 96822 (United States); Georges, James A., E-mail: James.A.Georges.ctr@nga.mil [Integrity Applications Incorporated, 15020 Conference Center Drive, Chantilly, VA, 20151 (United States); Learned, John G., E-mail: jgl@phys.hawaii.edu [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, 96822 (United States); Mulliss, Christopher L., E-mail: Christopher.L.Mulliss.ctr@nga.mil [Integrity Applications Incorporated, 15020 Conference Center Drive, Chantilly, VA, 20151 (United States); Usman, Shawn, E-mail: Shawn.Usman@nga.mil [InnoVision Basic and Applied Research Office, Sensor Geopositioning Center, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, 7500 GEOINT Dr., Springfield, VA, 22150 (United States)

2013-06-20

In this paper we introduce the concept of what we call “NUDAR” (NeUtrino Direction and Ranging), making the point that measurements of the observed energy and direction vectors can be employed to passively deduce the exact three-dimensional location and thermal power of geophysical and anthropogenic neutrino sources from even a single detector. Earlier studies have presented the challenges of long-range detection, dominated by the unavoidable inverse-square falloff in neutrinos, which force the use of kiloton scale detectors beyond a few kilometers. Earlier work has also presented the case for multiple detectors, and has reviewed the background challenges. We present the most precise background estimates to date, all handled in full three dimensions, as functions of depth and geographical location. For the present calculations, we consider a hypothetical 138 kiloton detector which can be transported to an ocean site and deployed to an operational depth. We present a Bayesian estimation framework to incorporate any a priori knowledge of the reactor that we are trying to detect, as well as the estimated uncertainty in the background and the oscillation parameters. Most importantly, we fully employ the knowledge of the reactor spectrum and the distance-dependent effects of neutrino oscillations on such spectra. The latter, in particular, makes possible determination of range from one location, given adequate signal statistics. Further, we explore the rich potential of improving detection with even modest improvements in individual neutrino direction determination. We conclude that a 300 MW{sub th} reactor can indeed be geolocated, and its operating power estimated with one or two detectors in the hundred kiloton class at ranges out to a few hundred kilometers. We note that such detectors would have natural and non-interfering utility for scientific studies of geo-neutrinos, neutrino oscillations, and astrophysical neutrinos. This motivates the development of cost

DIRECT IMAGING CONFIRMATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A DUST-ENSHROUDED CANDIDATE EXOPLANET ORBITING FOMALHAUT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Currie, Thayne; Debes, John; Rodigas, Timothy J.; Burrows, Adam; Itoh, Yoichi; Fukagawa, Misato; Kenyon, Scott J.; Kuchner, Marc; Matsumura, Soko

2012-01-01

We present Subaru/IRCS J-band data for Fomalhaut and a (re)reduction of archival 2004-2006 HST/ACS data first presented by Kalas et al. We confirm the existence of a candidate exoplanet, Fomalhaut b, in both the 2004 and 2006 F606W data sets at a high signal-to-noise ratio. Additionally, we confirm the detection at F814W and present a new detection in F435W. Fomalhaut b's space motion may be consistent with it being in an apsidally aligned, non-debris ring-crossing orbit, although new astrometry is required for firmer conclusions. We cannot confirm that Fomalhaut b exhibits 0.7-0.8 mag variability cited as evidence for planet accretion or a semi-transient dust cloud. The new, combined optical spectral energy distribution and IR upper limits confirm that emission identifying Fomalhaut b originates from starlight scattered by small dust, but this dust is most likely associated with a massive body. The Subaru and IRAC/4.5 μm upper limits imply M J , still consistent with the range of Fomalhaut b masses needed to sculpt the disk. Fomalhaut b is very plausibly 'a planet identified from direct imaging' even if current images of it do not, strictly speaking, show thermal emission from a directly imaged planet.

Image analysis software versus direct anthropometry for breast measurements.

Science.gov (United States)

Quieregatto, Paulo Rogério; Hochman, Bernardo; Furtado, Fabianne; Machado, Aline Fernanda Perez; Sabino Neto, Miguel; Ferreira, Lydia Masako

2014-10-01

To compare breast measurements performed using the software packages ImageTool(r), AutoCAD(r) and Adobe Photoshop(r) with direct anthropometric measurements. Points were marked on the breasts and arms of 40 volunteer women aged between 18 and 60 years. When connecting the points, seven linear segments and one angular measurement on each half of the body, and one medial segment common to both body halves were defined. The volunteers were photographed in a standardized manner. Photogrammetric measurements were performed by three independent observers using the three software packages and compared to direct anthropometric measurements made with calipers and a protractor. Measurements obtained with AutoCAD(r) were the most reproducible and those made with ImageTool(r) were the most similar to direct anthropometry, while measurements with Adobe Photoshop(r) showed the largest differences. Except for angular measurements, significant differences were found between measurements of line segments made using the three software packages and those obtained by direct anthropometry. AutoCAD(r) provided the highest precision and intermediate accuracy; ImageTool(r) had the highest accuracy and lowest precision; and Adobe Photoshop(r) showed intermediate precision and the worst accuracy among the three software packages.

Real-time image processing of TOF range images using a reconfigurable processor system

Science.gov (United States)

Hussmann, S.; Knoll, F.; Edeler, T.

2011-07-01

During the last years, Time-of-Flight sensors achieved a significant impact onto research fields in machine vision. In comparison to stereo vision system and laser range scanners they combine the advantages of active sensors providing accurate distance measurements and camera-based systems recording a 2D matrix at a high frame rate. Moreover low cost 3D imaging has the potential to open a wide field of additional applications and solutions in markets like consumer electronics, multimedia, digital photography, robotics and medical technologies. This paper focuses on the currently implemented 4-phase-shift algorithm in this type of sensors. The most time critical operation of the phase-shift algorithm is the arctangent function. In this paper a novel hardware implementation of the arctangent function using a reconfigurable processor system is presented and benchmarked against the state-of-the-art CORDIC arctangent algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is well suited for real-time processing of the range images of TOF cameras.

Direct Imaging of a Cold Jovian Exoplanet in Orbit around the Sun-Like Star GJ 504

Science.gov (United States)

Kuzuhara, M.; Tamura, M.; Kudo, T.; Janson, M; Kandori, R.; Brandt, T. D.; Thalmann, C.; Spiegel, D.; Biller, B.; Carson, J.;

Processor for Real-Time Atmospheric Compensation in Long-Range Imaging, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Long-range imaging is a critical component to many NASA applications including range surveillance, launch tracking, and astronomical observation. However,...

CLOSE RANGE HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGING INTEGRATED WITH TERRESTRIAL LIDAR SCANNING APPLIED TO ROCK CHARACTERISATION AT CENTIMETRE SCALE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. H. Kurz

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Compact and lightweight hyperspectral imagers allow the application of close range hyperspectral imaging with a ground based scanning setup for geological fieldwork. Using such a scanning setup, steep cliff sections and quarry walls can be scanned with a more appropriate viewing direction and a higher image resolution than from airborne and spaceborne platforms. Integration of the hyperspectral imagery with terrestrial lidar scanning provides the hyperspectral information in a georeferenced framework and enables measurement at centimetre scale. In this paper, three geological case studies are used to demonstrate the potential of this method for rock characterisation. Two case studies are applied to carbonate quarries where mapping of different limestone and dolomite types was required, as well as measurements of faults and layer thicknesses from inaccessible parts of the quarries. The third case study demonstrates the method using artificial lighting, applied in a subsurface scanning scenario where solar radiation cannot be utilised.

Direct identification of pure penicillium species using image analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dørge, Thorsten Carlheim; Carstensen, Jens Michael; Frisvad, Jens Christian

2000-01-01

This paper presents a method for direct identification of fungal species solely by means of digital image analysis of colonies as seen after growth on a standard medium. The method described is completely automated and hence objective once digital images of the reference fungi have been establish...

Toward 1-mm depth precision with a solid state full-field range imaging system

Science.gov (United States)

Dorrington, Adrian A.; Carnegie, Dale A.; Cree, Michael J.

2006-02-01

Previously, we demonstrated a novel heterodyne based solid-state full-field range-finding imaging system. This system is comprised of modulated LED illumination, a modulated image intensifier, and a digital video camera. A 10 MHz drive is provided with 1 Hz difference between the LEDs and image intensifier. A sequence of images of the resulting beating intensifier output are captured and processed to determine phase and hence distance to the object for each pixel. In a previous publication, we detailed results showing a one-sigma precision of 15 mm to 30 mm (depending on signal strength). Furthermore, we identified the limitations of the system and potential improvements that were expected to result in a range precision in the order of 1 mm. These primarily include increasing the operating frequency and improving optical coupling and sensitivity. In this paper, we report on the implementation of these improvements and the new system characteristics. We also comment on the factors that are important for high precision image ranging and present configuration strategies for best performance. Ranging with sub-millimeter precision is demonstrated by imaging a planar surface and calculating the deviations from a planar fit. The results are also illustrated graphically by imaging a garden gnome.

Three-Dimensional Microwave Imaging for Concealed Weapon Detection Using Range Stacking Technique

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Weixian Tan

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Three-dimensional (3D microwave imaging has been proven to be well suited for concealed weapon detection application. For the 3D image reconstruction under two-dimensional (2D planar aperture condition, most of current imaging algorithms focus on decomposing the 3D free space Green function by exploiting the stationary phase and, consequently, the accuracy of the final imagery is obtained at a sacrifice of computational complexity due to the need of interpolation. In this paper, from an alternative viewpoint, we propose a novel interpolation-free imaging algorithm based on wavefront reconstruction theory. The algorithm is an extension of the 2D range stacking algorithm (RSA with the advantages of low computational cost and high precision. The algorithm uses different reference signal spectrums at different range bins and then forms the target functions at desired range bin by a concise coherent summation. Several practical issues such as the propagation loss compensation, wavefront reconstruction, and aliasing mitigating are also considered. The sampling criterion and the achievable resolutions for the proposed algorithm are also derived. Finally, the proposed method is validated through extensive computer simulations and real-field experiments. The results show that accurate 3D image can be generated at a very high speed by utilizing the proposed algorithm.

Human genome sequencing with direct x-ray holographic imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rhodes, C.K.

1993-01-01

Direct holographic imaging of biological materials is widely applicable to the study of the structure, properties and action of genetic material. This particular application involves the sequencing of the human genome where prospective genomic imaging technology is composed of three subtechnologies, name an x-ray holographic camera, suitable chemistry and enzymology for the preparation of tagged DNA samples, and the illuminator in the form of an x-ray laser. We report appropriate x-ray camera, embodied by the instrument developed by MCR, is available and that suitable chemical and enzymatic procedures exist for the preparation of the necessary tagged DNA strands. Concerning the future development of the x-ray illuminator. We find that a practical small scale x-ray light source is indeed feasible. This outcome requires the use of unconventional physical processes in order to achieve the necessary power-compression in the amplifying medium. The understanding of these new physical mechanisms is developing rapidly. Importantly, although the x-ray source does not currently exist, the understanding of these new physical mechanisms is developing rapidly and the research has established the basic scaling laws that will determine the properties of the x-ray illuminator. When this x-ray source becomes available, an extremely rapid and cost effective instrument for 3-D imaging of biological materials can be applied to a wide range of biological structural assays, including the base-pair sequencing of the human genome and many questions regarding its higher levels of organization

Direct tissue oxygen monitoring by in vivo photoacoustic lifetime imaging (PALI)

Science.gov (United States)

Shao, Qi; Morgounova, Ekaterina; Ashkenazi, Shai

2014-03-01

Tissue oxygen plays a critical role in maintaining tissue viability and in various diseases, including response to therapy. Images of oxygen distribution provide the history of tissue hypoxia and evidence of oxygen availability in the circulatory system. Currently available methods of direct measuring or imaging tissue oxygen all have significant limitations. Previously, we have reported a non-invasive in vivo imaging modality based on photoacoustic lifetime. The technique maps the excited triplet state of oxygen-sensitive dye, thus reflects the spatial and temporal distribution of tissue oxygen. We have applied PALI on tumor hypoxia in small animals, and the hypoxic region imaged by PALI is consistent with the site of the tumor imaged by ultrasound. Here, we present two studies of applying PALI to monitor changes of tissue oxygen by modulations. The first study involves an acute ischemia model using a thin thread tied around the hind limb of a normal mouse to reduce the blood flow. PALI images were acquired before, during, and after the restriction. The drop of muscle pO2 and recovery from hypoxia due to reperfusion were observed by PALI tracking the same region. The second study modulates tissue oxygen by controlling the percentage of oxygen the mouse inhales. We demonstrate that PALI is able to reflect the change of oxygen level with respect to both hyperbaric and hypobaric conditions. We expect this technique to be very attractive for a range of clinical applications in which tissue oxygen mapping would improve therapy decision making and treatment planning.

Positron range in PET imaging: non-conventional isotopes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jødal, L; Le Loirec, C; Champion, C

2014-01-01

In addition to conventional short-lived radionuclides, longer-lived isotopes are becoming increasingly important to positron emission tomography (PET). The longer half-life both allows for circumvention of the in-house production of radionuclides, and expands the spectrum of physiological processes amenable to PET imaging, including processes with prohibitively slow kinetics for investigation with short-lived radiotracers. However, many of these radionuclides emit ‘high-energy’ positrons and gamma rays which affect the spatial resolution and quantitative accuracy of PET images. The objective of the present work is to investigate the positron range distribution for some of these long-lived isotopes. Based on existing Monte Carlo simulations of positron interactions in water, the probability distribution of the line of response displacement have been empirically described by means of analytic displacement functions. Relevant distributions have been derived for the isotopes 22 Na, 52 Mn, 89 Zr, 45 Ti, 51 Mn, 94m Tc, 52m Mn, 38 K, 64 Cu, 86 Y, 124 I, and 120 I. It was found that the distribution functions previously found for a series of conventional isotopes (Jødal et al 2012 Phys. Med. Bio. 57 3931–43), were also applicable to these non-conventional isotopes, except that for 120 I, 124 I, 89 Zr, 52 Mn, and 64 Cu, parameters in the formulae were less well predicted by mean positron energy alone. Both conventional and non-conventional range distributions can be described by relatively simple analytic expressions. The results will be applicable to image-reconstruction software to improve the resolution. (paper)

Direct-Conversion Molecular Breast Imaging of Invasive Breast Cancer: Imaging Features, Extent of Invasive Disease, and Comparison Between Invasive Ductal and Lobular Histology.

Science.gov (United States)

Conners, Amy Lynn; Jones, Katie N; Hruska, Carrie B; Geske, Jennifer R; Boughey, Judy C; Rhodes, Deborah J

2015-09-01

The purposes of this study were to compare the tumor appearance of invasive breast cancer on direct-conversion molecular breast imaging using a standardized lexicon and to determine how often direct-conversion molecular breast imaging identifies all known invasive tumor foci in the breast, and whether this differs for invasive ductal versus lobular histologic profiles. Patients with prior invasive breast cancer and concurrent direct-conversion molecular breast imaging examinations were retrospectively reviewed. Blinded review of direct-conversion molecular breast imaging examinations was performed by one of two radiologists, according to a validated lexicon. Direct-conversion molecular breast imaging findings were matched with lesions described on the pathology report to exclude benign reasons for direct-conversion molecular breast imaging findings and to document direct-conversion molecular breast imaging-occult tumor foci. Associations between direct-conversion molecular breast imaging findings and tumor histologic profiles were examined using chi-square tests. In 286 patients, 390 invasive tumor foci were present in 294 breasts. A corresponding direct-conversion molecular breast imaging finding was present for 341 of 390 (87%) tumor foci described on the pathology report. Invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) tumor foci were more likely to be a mass (40% IDC vs 15% invasive lobular carcinoma [ILC]; p < 0.001) and to have marked intensity than were ILC foci (63% IDC vs 32% ILC; p < 0.001). Direct-conversion molecular breast imaging correctly revealed all pathology-proven foci of invasive disease in 79.8% of cases and was more likely to do so for IDC than for ILC (86.1% vs 56.7%; p < 0.0001). Overall, direct-conversion molecular breast imaging showed all known invasive foci in 249 of 286 (87%) patients. Direct-conversion molecular breast imaging features of invasive cancer, including lesion type and intensity, differ by histologic subtype. Direct-conversion molecular

DIRECT IMAGING CONFIRMATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A DUST-ENSHROUDED CANDIDATE EXOPLANET ORBITING FOMALHAUT

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Currie, Thayne [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON (Canada); Debes, John [Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD (United States); Rodigas, Timothy J. [Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States); Burrows, Adam [Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (United States); Itoh, Yoichi [Nishi-Harima Observatory, University of Hyogo, Kobe (Japan); Fukagawa, Misato [Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Osaka University, Osaka (Japan); Kenyon, Scott J. [Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA (United States); Kuchner, Marc [Stellar and Exoplanets Laboratory, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States); Matsumura, Soko, E-mail: currie@astro.utoronto.ca [Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland-College Park, College Park, MD (United States)

2012-12-01

We present Subaru/IRCS J-band data for Fomalhaut and a (re)reduction of archival 2004-2006 HST/ACS data first presented by Kalas et al. We confirm the existence of a candidate exoplanet, Fomalhaut b, in both the 2004 and 2006 F606W data sets at a high signal-to-noise ratio. Additionally, we confirm the detection at F814W and present a new detection in F435W. Fomalhaut b's space motion may be consistent with it being in an apsidally aligned, non-debris ring-crossing orbit, although new astrometry is required for firmer conclusions. We cannot confirm that Fomalhaut b exhibits 0.7-0.8 mag variability cited as evidence for planet accretion or a semi-transient dust cloud. The new, combined optical spectral energy distribution and IR upper limits confirm that emission identifying Fomalhaut b originates from starlight scattered by small dust, but this dust is most likely associated with a massive body. The Subaru and IRAC/4.5 {mu}m upper limits imply M < 2 M{sub J} , still consistent with the range of Fomalhaut b masses needed to sculpt the disk. Fomalhaut b is very plausibly 'a planet identified from direct imaging' even if current images of it do not, strictly speaking, show thermal emission from a directly imaged planet.

DIRECT IMAGING OF A COLD JOVIAN EXOPLANET IN ORBIT AROUND THE SUN-LIKE STAR GJ 504

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kuzuhara, M. [Department of Earth and Planetary Science, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033 (Japan); Tamura, M.; Kandori, R.; Hori, Y.; Suzuki, R.; Suenaga, T.; Takahashi, Y. H.; Kwon, J. [National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588 (Japan); Kudo, T. [Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 650 North A' ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720 (United States); Janson, M.; Brandt, T. D.; Spiegel, D.; Burrows, A.; Turner, E. L.; Moro-Martin, A. [Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Peyton Hall, Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States); Thalmann, C. [Astronomical Institute ' ' Anton Pannekoek' ' , University of Amsterdam, Postbus 94249, 1090 GE, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Biller, B.; Henning, T. [Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Koenigstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany); Carson, J. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Charleston, 58 Coming Street, Charleston, SC 29424 (United States); McElwain, M. W., E-mail: m.kuzuhara@nao.ac.jp [Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory, Code 667, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States); and others

2013-09-01

Several exoplanets have recently been imaged at wide separations of >10 AU from their parent stars. These span a limited range of ages (<50 Myr) and atmospheric properties, with temperatures of 800-1800 K and very red colors (J - H > 0.5 mag), implying thick cloud covers. Furthermore, substantial model uncertainties exist at these young ages due to the unknown initial conditions at formation, which can lead to an order of magnitude of uncertainty in the modeled planet mass. Here, we report the direct-imaging discovery of a Jovian exoplanet around the Sun-like star GJ 504, detected as part of the SEEDS survey. The system is older than all other known directly imaged planets; as a result, its estimated mass remains in the planetary regime independent of uncertainties related to choices of initial conditions in the exoplanet modeling. Using the most common exoplanet cooling model, and given the system age of 160{sup +350}{sub -60} Myr, GJ 504b has an estimated mass of 4{sup +4.5}{sub -1.0} Jupiter masses, among the lowest of directly imaged planets. Its projected separation of 43.5 AU exceeds the typical outer boundary of {approx}30 AU predicted for the core accretion mechanism. GJ 504b is also significantly cooler (510{sup +30}{sub -20} K) and has a bluer color (J - H = -0.23 mag) than previously imaged exoplanets, suggesting a largely cloud-free atmosphere accessible to spectroscopic characterization. Thus, it has the potential of providing novel insights into the origins of giant planets as well as their atmospheric properties.

Monte Carlo patient study on the comparison of prompt gamma and PET imaging for range verification in proton therapy

Science.gov (United States)

Moteabbed, M.; España, S.; Paganetti, H.

2011-02-01

The purpose of this work was to compare the clinical adaptation of prompt gamma (PG) imaging and positron emission tomography (PET) as independent tools for non-invasive proton beam range verification and treatment validation. The PG range correlation and its differences with PET have been modeled for the first time in a highly heterogeneous tissue environment, using different field sizes and configurations. Four patients with different tumor locations (head and neck, prostate, spine and abdomen) were chosen to compare the site-specific behaviors of the PG and PET images, using both passive scattered and pencil beam fields. Accurate reconstruction of dose, PG and PET distributions was achieved by using the planning computed tomography (CT) image in a validated GEANT4-based Monte Carlo code capable of modeling the treatment nozzle and patient anatomy in detail. The physical and biological washout phenomenon and decay half-lives for PET activity for the most abundant isotopes such as 11C, 15O, 13N, 30P and 38K were taken into account in the data analysis. The attenuation of the gamma signal after traversing the patient geometry and respective detection efficiencies were estimated for both methods to ensure proper comparison. The projected dose, PG and PET profiles along many lines in the beam direction were analyzed to investigate the correlation consistency across the beam width. For all subjects, the PG method showed on average approximately 10 times higher gamma production rates than the PET method before, and 60 to 80 times higher production after including the washout correction and acquisition time delay. This rate strongly depended on tissue density and elemental composition. For broad passive scattered fields, it was demonstrated that large differences exist between PG and PET signal falloff positions and the correlation with the dose distribution for different lines in the beam direction. These variations also depended on the treatment site and the

Spin-image surface matching based target recognition in laser radar range imagery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Wang; Jian-Feng, Sun; Qi, Wang

2010-01-01

We explore the problem of in-plane rotation-invariance existing in the vertical detection of laser radar (Ladar) using the algorithm of spin-image surface matching. The method used to recognize the target in the range imagery of Ladar is time-consuming, owing to its complicated procedure, which violates the requirement of real-time target recognition in practical applications. To simplify the troublesome procedures, we improve the spin-image algorithm by introducing a statistical correlated coefficient into target recognition in range imagery of Ladar. The system performance is demonstrated on sixteen simulated noise range images with targets rotated through an arbitrary angle in plane. A high efficiency and an acceptable recognition rate obtained herein testify the validity of the improved algorithm for practical applications. The proposed algorithm not only solves the problem of in-plane rotation-invariance rationally, but also meets the real-time requirement. This paper ends with a comparison of the proposed method and the previous one. (classical areas of phenomenology)

Molecular ultrasound imaging: current status and future directions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deshpande, N.; Needles, A.; Willmann, J.K.

2010-01-01

Targeted contrast-enhanced ultrasound (molecular ultrasound) is an emerging imaging strategy that combines ultrasound technology with novel molecularly-targeted ultrasound contrast agents for assessing biological processes at the molecular level. Molecular ultrasound contrast agents are nano- or micro-sized particles that are targeted to specific molecular markers by adding high-affinity binding ligands onto the surface of the particles. Following intravenous administration, these targeted ultrasound contrast agents accumulate at tissue sites overexpressing specific molecular markers, thereby enhancing the ultrasound imaging signal. High spatial and temporal resolution, real-time imaging, non-invasiveness, relatively low costs, lack of ionising irradiation and wide availability of ultrasound systems are advantages compared to other molecular imaging modalities. In this article we review current concepts and future directions of molecular ultrasound imaging, including different classes of molecular ultrasound contrast agents, ongoing technical developments of pre-clinical and clinical ultrasound systems, the potential of molecular ultrasound for imaging different diseases at the molecular level, and the translation of molecular ultrasound into the clinic.

High-dynamic range compressive spectral imaging by grayscale coded aperture adaptive filtering

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nelson Eduardo Diaz

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The coded aperture snapshot spectral imaging system (CASSI is an imaging architecture which senses the three dimensional informa-tion of a scene with two dimensional (2D focal plane array (FPA coded projection measurements. A reconstruction algorithm takes advantage of the compressive measurements sparsity to recover the underlying 3D data cube. Traditionally, CASSI uses block-un-block coded apertures (BCA to spatially modulate the light. In CASSI the quality of the reconstructed images depends on the design of these coded apertures and the FPA dynamic range. This work presents a new CASSI architecture based on grayscaled coded apertu-res (GCA which reduce the FPA saturation and increase the dynamic range of the reconstructed images. The set of GCA is calculated in a real-time adaptive manner exploiting the information from the FPA compressive measurements. Extensive simulations show the attained improvement in the quality of the reconstructed images when GCA are employed.  In addition, a comparison between traditional coded apertures and GCA is realized with respect to noise tolerance.

Flash trajectory imaging of target 3D motion

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xinwei; Zhou, Yan; Fan, Songtao; He, Jun; Liu, Yuliang

2011-03-01

We present a flash trajectory imaging technique which can directly obtain target trajectory and realize non-contact measurement of motion parameters by range-gated imaging and time delay integration. Range-gated imaging gives the range of targets and realizes silhouette detection which can directly extract targets from complex background and decrease the complexity of moving target image processing. Time delay integration increases information of one single frame of image so that one can directly gain the moving trajectory. In this paper, we have studied the algorithm about flash trajectory imaging and performed initial experiments which successfully obtained the trajectory of a falling badminton. Our research demonstrates that flash trajectory imaging is an effective approach to imaging target trajectory and can give motion parameters of moving targets.

Characterization of the range effect in synthetic aperture radar images of concrete specimens for width estimation

Science.gov (United States)

Alzeyadi, Ahmed; Yu, Tzuyang

2018-03-01

Nondestructive evaluation (NDE) is an indispensable approach for the sustainability of critical civil infrastructure systems such as bridges and buildings. Recently, microwave/radar sensors are widely used for assessing the condition of concrete structures. Among existing imaging techniques in microwave/radar sensors, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging enables researchers to conduct surface and subsurface inspection of concrete structures in the range-cross-range representation of SAR images. The objective of this paper is to investigate the range effect of concrete specimens in SAR images at various ranges (15 cm, 50 cm, 75 cm, 100 cm, and 200 cm). One concrete panel specimen (water-to-cement ratio = 0.45) of 30-cm-by-30-cm-by-5-cm was manufactured and scanned by a 10 GHz SAR imaging radar sensor inside an anechoic chamber. Scatterers in SAR images representing two corners of the concrete panel were used to estimate the width of the panel. It was found that the range-dependent pattern of corner scatters can be used to predict the width of concrete panels. Also, the maximum SAR amplitude decreases when the range increases. An empirical model was also proposed for width estimation of concrete panels.

Interlaced zone plate optics for hard X-ray imaging in the 10 nm range

Science.gov (United States)

Mohacsi, Istvan; Vartiainen, Ismo; Rösner, Benedikt; Guizar-Sicairos, Manuel; Guzenko, Vitaliy A.; McNulty, Ian; Winarski, Robert; Holt, Martin V.; David, Christian

2017-03-01

Multi-keV X-ray microscopy has been particularly successful in bridging the resolution gap between optical and electron microscopy. However, resolutions below 20 nm are still considered challenging, as high throughput direct imaging methods are limited by the availability of suitable optical elements. In order to bridge this gap, we present a new type of Fresnel zone plate lenses aimed at the sub-20 and the sub-10 nm resolution range. By extending the concept of double-sided zone plate stacking, we demonstrate the doubling of the effective line density and thus the resolution and provide large aperture, singlechip optical devices with 15 and 7 nm smallest zone widths. The detailed characterization of these lenses shows excellent optical properties with focal spots down to 7.8 nm. Beyond wave front characterization, the zone plates also excel in typical imaging scenarios, verifying their resolution close to their diffraction limited optical performance.

An Integrated Tone Mapping for High Dynamic Range Image Visualization

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Lei; Pan, Jeng-Shyang; Zhuang, Yongjun

2018-01-01

There are two type tone mapping operators for high dynamic range (HDR) image visualization. HDR image mapped by perceptual operators have strong sense of reality, but will lose local details. Empirical operators can maximize local detail information of HDR image, but realism is not strong. A common tone mapping operator suitable for all applications is not available. This paper proposes a novel integrated tone mapping framework which can achieve conversion between empirical operators and perceptual operators. In this framework, the empirical operator is rendered based on improved saliency map, which simulates the visual attention mechanism of the human eye to the natural scene. The results of objective evaluation prove the effectiveness of the proposed solution.

Observation of plasma-facing-wall via high dynamic range imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Villamayor, Michelle Marie S.; Rosario, Leo Mendel D.; Viloan, Rommel Paulo B.

2013-01-01

Pictures of plasmas and deposits in a discharge chamber taken by varying shutter speeds have been integrated into high dynamic range (HDR) images. The HDR images of a graphite target surface of a compact planar magnetron (CPM) discharge device have clearly indicated the erosion pattern of the target, which are correlated to the light intensity distribution of plasma during operation. Based upon the HDR image technique coupled to colorimetry, a formation history of dust-like deposits inside of the CPM chamber has been recorded. The obtained HDR images have shown how the patterns of deposits changed in accordance with discharge duration. Results show that deposition takes place near the evacuation ports during the early stage of the plasma discharge. Discoloration of the plasma-facing-walls indicating erosion and redeposition eventually spreads at the periphery after several hours of operation. (author)

Subband directional vector quantization in radiological image compression

Science.gov (United States)

Akrout, Nabil M.; Diab, Chaouki; Prost, Remy; Goutte, Robert; Amiel, Michel

1992-05-01

The aim of this paper is to propose a new scheme for image compression. The method is very efficient for images which have directional edges such as the tree-like structure of the coronary vessels in digital angiograms. This method involves two steps. First, the original image is decomposed at different resolution levels using a pyramidal subband decomposition scheme. For decomposition/reconstruction of the image, free of aliasing and boundary errors, we use an ideal band-pass filter bank implemented in the Discrete Cosine Transform domain (DCT). Second, the high-frequency subbands are vector quantized using a multiresolution codebook with vertical and horizontal codewords which take into account the edge orientation of each subband. The proposed method reduces the blocking effect encountered at low bit rates in conventional vector quantization.

Preliminary experiment of fast neutron imaging with direct-film method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pei Yuyang; Tang Guoyou; Guo Zhiyu; Zhang Guohui

2005-01-01

A preliminary experiment is conducted with direct-film method under the condition that fast neutron is generated by the reaction of 9 Be(d, n) on the Beijing University 4.5 MV Van de Graaff, whose energy is lower than 7 MeV. Basic characteristics of direct-film neutron radiography system are investigated with the help of samples in different materials, different thickness and holes of different diameter. The fast neutron converter, which is vital for fast neutron imaging, is produced with the materials made in China. The result indicates that fast neutron converter can meet the requirement of fast neutron imaging; further research of fast neutron imaging can be conducted on the accelerator and neutron-generator in China. (authors)

Achieving sub-millimetre precision with a solid-state full-field heterodyning range imaging camera

Science.gov (United States)

Dorrington, A. A.; Cree, M. J.; Payne, A. D.; Conroy, R. M.; Carnegie, D. A.

2007-09-01

We have developed a full-field solid-state range imaging system capable of capturing range and intensity data simultaneously for every pixel in a scene with sub-millimetre range precision. The system is based on indirect time-of-flight measurements by heterodyning intensity-modulated illumination with a gain modulation intensified digital video camera. Sub-millimetre precision to beyond 5 m and 2 mm precision out to 12 m has been achieved. In this paper, we describe the new sub-millimetre class range imaging system in detail, and review the important aspects that have been instrumental in achieving high precision ranging. We also present the results of performance characterization experiments and a method of resolving the range ambiguity problem associated with homodyne and heterodyne ranging systems.

A High-Dynamic-Range Optical Remote Sensing Imaging Method for Digital TDI CMOS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Taiji Lan

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The digital time delay integration (digital TDI technology of the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS image sensor has been widely adopted and developed in the optical remote sensing field. However, the details of targets that have low illumination or low contrast in scenarios of high contrast are often drowned out because of the superposition of multi-stage images in digital domain multiplies the read noise and the dark noise, thus limiting the imaging dynamic range. Through an in-depth analysis of the information transfer model of digital TDI, this paper attempts to explore effective ways to overcome this issue. Based on the evaluation and analysis of multi-stage images, the entropy-maximized adaptive histogram equalization (EMAHE algorithm is proposed to improve the ability of images to express the details of dark or low-contrast targets. Furthermore, in this paper, an image fusion method is utilized based on gradient pyramid decomposition and entropy weighting of different TDI stage images, which can improve the detection ability of the digital TDI CMOS for complex scenes with high contrast, and obtain images that are suitable for recognition by the human eye. The experimental results show that the proposed methods can effectively improve the high-dynamic-range imaging (HDRI capability of the digital TDI CMOS. The obtained images have greater entropy and average gradients.

TH-CD-202-02: A Preliminary Study Evaluating Beam-Hardening Artifact Reduction On CT Direct Electron-Density Images

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Li, H; Dolly, S; Zhao, T; Anastasio, M; Mutic, S [Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO (United States); Ritter, A; Colombo, V; Raupach, R; Huenemohr, N [Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Deutschland (Germany); Mistry, N [Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Malvern, PA (United States); Yu, L [Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: A prototype reconstruction algorithm that can provide direct electron density (ED) images from single energy CT scans is being currently developed by Siemens Healthcare GmbH. This feature can eliminate the need for kV specific calibration curve for radiation treatemnt planning. An added benefit is that beam-hardening artifacts are also reduced on direct-ED images due to the underlying material decomposition. This study is to quantitatively analyze the reduction of beam-hardening artifacts on direct-ED images and suggest additional clinical usages. Methods: HU and direct-ED images were reconstructed on a head phantom scanned on a Siemens Definition AS CT scanner at five tube potentials of 70kV, 80kV, 100kV, 120kV and 140kV respectively. From these images, mean, standard deviation (SD), and local NPS were calculated for regions of interest (ROI) of same locations and sizes. A complete analysis of beam-hardening artifact reduction and image quality improvement was conducted. Results: Along with the increase of tube potentials, ROI means and SDs decrease on both HU and direct-ED images. The mean value differences between HU and direct-ED images are up to 8% with absolute value of 2.9. Compared to that on HU images, the SDs are lower on direct-ED images, and the differences are up to 26%. Interestingly, the local NPS calculated from direct-ED images shows consistent values in the low spatial frequency domain for images acquired from all tube potential settings, while varied dramatically on HU images. This also confirms the beam -hardening artifact reduction on ED images. Conclusions: The low SDs on direct-ED images and relative consistent NPS values in the low spatial frequency domain indicate a reduction of beam-hardening artifacts. The direct-ED image has the potential to assist in more accurate organ contouring, and is a better fit for the desired purpose of CT simulations for radiotherapy.

72-directional display having VGA resolution for high-appearance image generation

Science.gov (United States)

Takaki, Yasuhiro; Dairiki, Takeshi

2006-02-01

The high-density directional display, which was originally developed in order to realize a natural 3D display, is not only a 3D display but also a high-appearance display. The appearances of objects, such as glare and transparency, are the results of the reflection and the refraction of rays. The faithful reproduction of such appearances of objects is impossible using conventional 2D displays because rays diffuse on the display screen. The high-density directional display precisely controls the horizontal ray directions so that it can reproduce the appearances of objects. The fidelity of the reproduction of object appearances depends on the ray angle sampling pitch. The angle sampling pitch is determined by considering the human eye imaging system. In the present study the high-appearance display which has the resolution of 640×400 and emits rays in 72 different horizontal directions with the angle pitch of 0.38° was constructed. Two 72-directional displays were combined, each of which consisted of a high-resolution LCD panel (3,840×2,400) and a slanted lenticular sheet. Two images produced by two displays were superimposed by a half mirror. A slit array was placed at the focal plane of the lenticular sheet for each display to reduce the horizontal image crosstalk in the combined image. The impression analysis shows that the high-appearance display provides higher appearances and presence than the conventional 2D displays do.

TU-FG-BRB-05: A 3 Dimensional Prompt Gamma Imaging System for Range Verification in Proton Radiotherapy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Draeger, E; Chen, H; Polf, J [University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD (United States); Mackin, D; Beddar, S [MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX (United States); Avery, S [University of Cape Town, Rondebosch (South Africa); Peterson, S

2016-06-15

Purpose: To report on the initial developments of a clinical 3-dimensional (3D) prompt gamma (PG) imaging system for proton radiotherapy range verification. Methods: The new imaging system under development consists of a prototype Compton camera to measure PG emission during proton beam irradiation and software to reconstruct, display, and analyze 3D images of the PG emission. For initial test of the system, PGs were measured with a prototype CC during a 200 cGy dose delivery with clinical proton pencil beams (ranging from 100 MeV – 200 MeV) to a water phantom. Measurements were also carried out with the CC placed 15 cm from the phantom for a full range 150 MeV pencil beam and with its range shifted by 2 mm. Reconstructed images of the PG emission were displayed by the clinical PG imaging software and compared to the dose distributions of the proton beams calculated by a commercial treatment planning system. Results: Measurements made with the new PG imaging system showed that a 3D image could be reconstructed from PGs measured during the delivery of 200 cGy of dose, and that shifts in the Bragg peak range of as little as 2 mm could be detected. Conclusion: Initial tests of a new PG imaging system show its potential to provide 3D imaging and range verification for proton radiotherapy. Based on these results, we have begun work to improve the system with the goal that images can be produced from delivery of as little as 20 cGy so that the system could be used for in-vivo proton beam range verification on a daily basis.

An imaging grating diffractometer for traceable calibration of grating pitch in the range 20 μm to 350 nm

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brasil, D A; Alves, J A P; Pekelsky, J R

2015-01-01

This work describes the development of a grating diffratometer to provide traceable calibration of grating pitch in range 20 μm to 350 nm. The approach is based on the Littrow configuration in which a laser beam is directed onto the grating which is mounted on a rotary table and can be turned so that each selected diffraction order is retro-reflected in the laser incidence direction. A beamsplitter and a lens direct the reflected diffraction order to form a small image spot on a CCD camera and the spot centering is used to adjust to rotation angle, thereby giving the diffraction angle. Knowing the diffraction angle for several orders and the wavelength of the laser, the average grating pitch can be determined to an uncertainty the order of 14 pm. (paper)

Improvement of range spatial resolution of medical ultrasound imaging by element-domain signal processing

Science.gov (United States)

Hasegawa, Hideyuki

2017-07-01

The range spatial resolution is an important factor determining the image quality in ultrasonic imaging. The range spatial resolution in ultrasonic imaging depends on the ultrasonic pulse length, which is determined by the mechanical response of the piezoelectric element in an ultrasonic probe. To improve the range spatial resolution without replacing the transducer element, in the present study, methods based on maximum likelihood (ML) estimation and multiple signal classification (MUSIC) were proposed. The proposed methods were applied to echo signals received by individual transducer elements in an ultrasonic probe. The basic experimental results showed that the axial half maximum of the echo from a string phantom was improved from 0.21 mm (conventional method) to 0.086 mm (ML) and 0.094 mm (MUSIC).

Three-dimensional short-range MR angiography and multiplanar reconstruction images in the evaluation of neurovascular compression in hemifacial spasm

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Choi, Woo Suk; Kim, Eui Jong; Lee, Jae Gue; Rhee, Bong Arm [Kyunghee Univ. Hospital, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

1998-08-01

To evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of three-dimensional(3D) short-range MR angiography(MRA) and multiplanar reconstruction(MPR) imaging in hemifacial spasm(HS). Materials and Methods : Two hundreds patients with HS were studied using a 1.5T MRI system with a 3D time-of-flight(TOF) MRA sequence. To reconstruct short-range MRA, 6-10 source images near the 7-8th cranial nerve complex were processed using a maximum-intensity projection technique. In addition, an MPR technique was used to investigate neurovascular compression. We observed the relationship between the root-exit zone(REZ) of the 7th cranial nerve and compressive vessel, and identified the compressive vessels on symptomatic sides. To investigate neurovascular contact, asymptomatic contralateral sides were also evaluated. Results : MRI showed that in 197 of 200 patients there was vascular compression or contact with the facial nerve REZ on symptomatic sides. One of the three remaining patients was suffering from acoustic neurinoma on the symptomatic side, while in two patients there were no definite abnormal findings.Compressive vessels were demonstrated in all 197 patients; 80 cases involved the anterior inferior cerebellar artery(AICA), 74 the posterior cerebellar artery(PICA), 13 the vertebral artery(VA), 16 the VA and AICA, eight the VA and PICA, and six the AICA and PICA. In all 197 patients, compressive vessels were reconstructed on one 3D short-range MRA image without discontinuation from vertebral or basilar arteries. 3D MPR studies provided additional information such as the direction of compression and course of the compressive vessel. In 31 patients there was neurovascular contact on the contralateral side at the 7-8th cranial nerve complex. Conclusion : Inpatients with HS, 3D short-range MRA and MPR images are excellent and very helpful for the investigation of neurovascular compression and the identification of compressive vessels.

Three-dimensional short-range MR angiography and multiplanar reconstruction images in the evaluation of neurovascular compression in hemifacial spasm

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Woo Suk; Kim, Eui Jong; Lee, Jae Gue; Rhee, Bong Arm

1998-01-01

To evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of three-dimensional(3D) short-range MR angiography(MRA) and multiplanar reconstruction(MPR) imaging in hemifacial spasm(HS). Materials and Methods : Two hundreds patients with HS were studied using a 1.5T MRI system with a 3D time-of-flight(TOF) MRA sequence. To reconstruct short-range MRA, 6-10 source images near the 7-8th cranial nerve complex were processed using a maximum-intensity projection technique. In addition, an MPR technique was used to investigate neurovascular compression. We observed the relationship between the root-exit zone(REZ) of the 7th cranial nerve and compressive vessel, and identified the compressive vessels on symptomatic sides. To investigate neurovascular contact, asymptomatic contralateral sides were also evaluated. Results : MRI showed that in 197 of 200 patients there was vascular compression or contact with the facial nerve REZ on symptomatic sides. One of the three remaining patients was suffering from acoustic neurinoma on the symptomatic side, while in two patients there were no definite abnormal findings.Compressive vessels were demonstrated in all 197 patients; 80 cases involved the anterior inferior cerebellar artery(AICA), 74 the posterior cerebellar artery(PICA), 13 the vertebral artery(VA), 16 the VA and AICA, eight the VA and PICA, and six the AICA and PICA. In all 197 patients, compressive vessels were reconstructed on one 3D short-range MRA image without discontinuation from vertebral or basilar arteries. 3D MPR studies provided additional information such as the direction of compression and course of the compressive vessel. In 31 patients there was neurovascular contact on the contralateral side at the 7-8th cranial nerve complex. Conclusion : Inpatients with HS, 3D short-range MRA and MPR images are excellent and very helpful for the investigation of neurovascular compression and the identification of compressive vessels

High Dynamic Range Imaging at the Quantum Limit with Single Photon Avalanche Diode-Based Image Sensors †

Science.gov (United States)

Mattioli Della Rocca, Francescopaolo

2018-01-01

This paper examines methods to best exploit the High Dynamic Range (HDR) of the single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) in a high fill-factor HDR photon counting pixel that is scalable to megapixel arrays. The proposed method combines multi-exposure HDR with temporal oversampling in-pixel. We present a silicon demonstration IC with 96 × 40 array of 8.25 µm pitch 66% fill-factor SPAD-based pixels achieving >100 dB dynamic range with 3 back-to-back exposures (short, mid, long). Each pixel sums 15 bit-planes or binary field images internally to constitute one frame providing 3.75× data compression, hence the 1k frames per second (FPS) output off-chip represents 45,000 individual field images per second on chip. Two future projections of this work are described: scaling SPAD-based image sensors to HDR 1 MPixel formats and shrinking the pixel pitch to 1–3 µm. PMID:29641479

Direct 4D reconstruction of parametric images incorporating anato-functional joint entropy.

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Jing; Kuwabara, Hiroto; Wong, Dean F; Rahmim, Arman

2010-08-07

We developed an anatomy-guided 4D closed-form algorithm to directly reconstruct parametric images from projection data for (nearly) irreversible tracers. Conventional methods consist of individually reconstructing 2D/3D PET data, followed by graphical analysis on the sequence of reconstructed image frames. The proposed direct reconstruction approach maintains the simplicity and accuracy of the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm by extending the system matrix to include the relation between the parametric images and the measured data. A closed-form solution was achieved using a different hidden complete-data formulation within the EM framework. Furthermore, the proposed method was extended to maximum a posterior reconstruction via incorporation of MR image information, taking the joint entropy between MR and parametric PET features as the prior. Using realistic simulated noisy [(11)C]-naltrindole PET and MR brain images/data, the quantitative performance of the proposed methods was investigated. Significant improvements in terms of noise versus bias performance were demonstrated when performing direct parametric reconstruction, and additionally upon extending the algorithm to its Bayesian counterpart using the MR-PET joint entropy measure.

Anisotropic Margin Expansions in 6 Anatomic Directions for Oropharyngeal Image Guided Radiation Therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yock, Adam D.; Garden, Adam S.; Court, Laurence E.; Beadle, Beth M.; Zhang, Lifei; Dong, Lei

2013-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this work was to determine the expansions in 6 anatomic directions that produced optimal margins considering nonrigid setup errors and tissue deformation for patients receiving image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) of the oropharynx. Methods and Materials: For 20 patients who had received IGRT to the head and neck, we deformably registered each patient's daily images acquired with a computed tomography (CT)-on-rails system to his or her planning CT. By use of the resulting vector fields, the positions of volume elements within the clinical target volume (CTV) (target voxels) or within a 1-cm shell surrounding the CTV (normal tissue voxels) on the planning CT were identified on each daily CT. We generated a total of 15,625 margins by dilating the CTV by 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 mm in the posterior, anterior, lateral, medial, inferior, and superior directions. The optimal margins were those that minimized the relative volume of normal tissue voxels positioned within the margin while satisfying 1 of 4 geometric target coverage criteria and 1 of 3 population criteria. Results: Each pair of geometric target coverage and population criteria resulted in a unique, anisotropic, optimal margin. The optimal margin expansions ranged in magnitude from 1 to 5 mm depending on the anatomic direction of the expansion and on the geometric target coverage and population criteria. Typically, the expansions were largest in the medial direction, were smallest in the lateral direction, and increased with the demand of the criteria. The anisotropic margin resulting from the optimal set of expansions always included less normal tissue than did any isotropic margin that satisfied the same pair of criteria. Conclusions: We demonstrated the potential of anisotropic margins to reduce normal tissue exposure without compromising target coverage in IGRT to the head and neck

Computational model of lightness perception in high dynamic range imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Krawczyk, Grzegorz; Myszkowski, Karol; Seidel, Hans-Peter

2006-02-01

An anchoring theory of lightness perception by Gilchrist et al. [1999] explains many characteristics of human visual system such as lightness constancy and its spectacular failures which are important in the perception of images. The principal concept of this theory is the perception of complex scenes in terms of groups of consistent areas (frameworks). Such areas, following the gestalt theorists, are defined by the regions of common illumination. The key aspect of the image perception is the estimation of lightness within each framework through the anchoring to the luminance perceived as white, followed by the computation of the global lightness. In this paper we provide a computational model for automatic decomposition of HDR images into frameworks. We derive a tone mapping operator which predicts lightness perception of the real world scenes and aims at its accurate reproduction on low dynamic range displays. Furthermore, such a decomposition into frameworks opens new grounds for local image analysis in view of human perception.

Imaging angiogenesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Charnley, Natalie; Donaldson, Stephanie; Price, Pat

2009-01-01

There is a need for direct imaging of effects on tumor vasculature in assessment of response to antiangiogenic drugs and vascular disrupting agents. Imaging tumor vasculature depends on differences in permeability of vasculature of tumor and normal tissue, which cause changes in penetration of contrast agents. Angiogenesis imaging may be defined in terms of measurement of tumor perfusion and direct imaging of the molecules involved in angiogenesis. In addition, assessment of tumor hypoxia will give an indication of tumor vasculature. The range of imaging techniques available for these processes includes positron emission tomography (PET), dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI), perfusion computed tomography (CT), and ultrasound (US).

Fusing range and intensity images for generating dense models of three-dimensional environments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ellekilde, Lars-Peter; Miró, Jaime Valls; Dissanayake., Gamini

This paper presents a novel strategy for the construction of dense three-dimensional environment models by combining images from a conventional camera and a range imager. Ro- bust data association is ?rst accomplished by exploiting the Scale Invariant Feature Transformation (SIFT) technique...

Effect of the magnetic field on positron range using GATE for PET-MR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eleftheriou, Afroditi; Tsoumpas, Charalampos; Bertolli, Ottavia; Stiliaris, Efstathios

2014-01-01

Positron range is an important spatial resolution limiting factor in PET. When imaging inside a magnetic field the positron range is non-uniformly affected. A decrease of the positron range is expected in the directions perpendicular to the direction of the magnetic field, whereas no variation is expected in the direction of the magnetic field. Monte Carlo simulations were performed to validate these expectations.

Interferometric Imaging Directly with Closure Phases and Closure Amplitudes

Science.gov (United States)

Chael, Andrew A.; Johnson, Michael D.; Bouman, Katherine L.; Blackburn, Lindy L.; Akiyama, Kazunori; Narayan, Ramesh

2018-04-01

Interferometric imaging now achieves angular resolutions as fine as ∼10 μas, probing scales that are inaccessible to single telescopes. Traditional synthesis imaging methods require calibrated visibilities; however, interferometric calibration is challenging, especially at high frequencies. Nevertheless, most studies present only a single image of their data after a process of “self-calibration,” an iterative procedure where the initial image and calibration assumptions can significantly influence the final image. We present a method for efficient interferometric imaging directly using only closure amplitudes and closure phases, which are immune to station-based calibration errors. Closure-only imaging provides results that are as noncommittal as possible and allows for reconstructing an image independently from separate amplitude and phase self-calibration. While closure-only imaging eliminates some image information (e.g., the total image flux density and the image centroid), this information can be recovered through a small number of additional constraints. We demonstrate that closure-only imaging can produce high-fidelity results, even for sparse arrays such as the Event Horizon Telescope, and that the resulting images are independent of the level of systematic amplitude error. We apply closure imaging to VLBA and ALMA data and show that it is capable of matching or exceeding the performance of traditional self-calibration and CLEAN for these data sets.

Positron range in PET imaging: an alternative approach for assessing and correcting the blurring

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jødal, Lars; Le Loirec, Cindy; Champion, Christophe

2012-01-01

Background: Positron range impairs resolution in PET imaging, especially for high-energy emitters and for small-animal PET. De-blurring in image reconstruction is possible if the blurring distribution is known. Further, the percentage of annihilation events within a given distance from the point...... on allowed-decay isotopes. Methods: It is argued that blurring at the detection level should not be described by positron range r, but instead the 2D-projected distance δ (equal to the closest distance between decay and line-of-response). To determine these 2D distributions, results from a dedicated positron...... is important for improved resolution in PET imaging. Relevant distributions for positron range have been derived for seven isotopes. Distributions for other allowed-decay isotopes may be estimated with the above formulas....

Maximum Interconnectedness and Availability for Directional Airborne Range Extension Networks

Science.gov (United States)

2016-08-29

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS 1 Maximum Interconnectedness and Availability for Directional Airborne Range Extension Networks Thomas...2 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS I. INTRODUCTION Tactical military networks both on land and at sea often have restricted transmission...a standard definition in graph theoretic and networking literature that is related to, but different from, the metric we consider. August 29, 2016

New segmentation-based tone mapping algorithm for high dynamic range image

Science.gov (United States)

Duan, Weiwei; Guo, Huinan; Zhou, Zuofeng; Huang, Huimin; Cao, Jianzhong

2017-07-01

The traditional tone mapping algorithm for the display of high dynamic range (HDR) image has the drawback of losing the impression of brightness, contrast and color information. To overcome this phenomenon, we propose a new tone mapping algorithm based on dividing the image into different exposure regions in this paper. Firstly, the over-exposure region is determined using the Local Binary Pattern information of HDR image. Then, based on the peak and average gray of the histogram, the under-exposure and normal-exposure region of HDR image are selected separately. Finally, the different exposure regions are mapped by differentiated tone mapping methods to get the final result. The experiment results show that the proposed algorithm achieve the better performance both in visual quality and objective contrast criterion than other algorithms.

A Hybrid Shared-Memory Parallel Max-Tree Algorithm for Extreme Dynamic-Range Images

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Moschini, Ugo; Meijster, Arnold; Wilkinson, Michael

Max-trees, or component trees, are graph structures that represent the connected components of an image in a hierarchical way. Nowadays, many application fields rely on images with high-dynamic range or floating point values. Efficient sequential algorithms exist to build trees and compute

High-dynamic-range coherent diffractive imaging: ptychography using the mixed-mode pixel array detector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Giewekemeyer, Klaus, E-mail: klaus.giewekemeyer@xfel.eu [European XFEL GmbH, Hamburg (Germany); Philipp, Hugh T. [Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (United States); Wilke, Robin N. [Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen (Germany); Aquila, Andrew [European XFEL GmbH, Hamburg (Germany); Osterhoff, Markus [Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen (Germany); Tate, Mark W.; Shanks, Katherine S. [Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (United States); Zozulya, Alexey V. [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg (Germany); Salditt, Tim [Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen (Germany); Gruner, Sol M. [Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (United States); Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (United States); Kavli Institute of Cornell for Nanoscience, Ithaca, NY (United States); Mancuso, Adrian P. [European XFEL GmbH, Hamburg (Germany)

2014-08-07

The advantages of a novel wide dynamic range hard X-ray detector are demonstrated for (ptychographic) coherent X-ray diffractive imaging. Coherent (X-ray) diffractive imaging (CDI) is an increasingly popular form of X-ray microscopy, mainly due to its potential to produce high-resolution images and the lack of an objective lens between the sample and its corresponding imaging detector. One challenge, however, is that very high dynamic range diffraction data must be collected to produce both quantitative and high-resolution images. In this work, hard X-ray ptychographic coherent diffractive imaging has been performed at the P10 beamline of the PETRA III synchrotron to demonstrate the potential of a very wide dynamic range imaging X-ray detector (the Mixed-Mode Pixel Array Detector, or MM-PAD). The detector is capable of single photon detection, detecting fluxes exceeding 1 × 10{sup 8} 8-keV photons pixel{sup −1} s{sup −1}, and framing at 1 kHz. A ptychographic reconstruction was performed using a peak focal intensity on the order of 1 × 10{sup 10} photons µm{sup −2} s{sup −1} within an area of approximately 325 nm × 603 nm. This was done without need of a beam stop and with a very modest attenuation, while ‘still’ images of the empty beam far-field intensity were recorded without any attenuation. The treatment of the detector frames and CDI methodology for reconstruction of non-sensitive detector regions, partially also extending the active detector area, are described.

Imaging diagnosis of dural and direct cavernous carotid fistulae

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Santos, Daniela dos; Monsignore, Lucas Moretti; Nakiri, Guilherme Seizem; Cruz, Antonio Augusto Velasco e; Colli, Benedicto Oscar; Abud, Daniel Giansante, E-mail: danisantos2404@gmail.com [Universidade de Sao Paulo (HCFMRP/USP), Ribeirao Preto, SP (Brazil). Faculdade de Medicina. Hospital das Clinicas

2014-07-15

Arteriovenous fistulae of the cavernous sinus are rare and difficult to diagnose. They are classified into dural cavernous sinus fistulae or direct carotid-cavernous fistulae. Despite the similarity of symptoms between both types, a precise diagnosis is essential since the treatment is specific for each type of fistula. Imaging findings are remarkably similar in both dural cavernous sinus fistulae and carotid-cavernous fistulae, but it is possible to differentiate one type from the other. Amongst the available imaging methods (Doppler ultrasonography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and digital subtraction angiography), angiography is considered the gold standard for the diagnosis and classification of cavernous sinus arteriovenous fistulae. The present essay is aimed at didactically presenting the classification and imaging findings of cavernous sinus arteriovenous fistulae. (author)

Local contrast-enhanced MR images via high dynamic range processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Chandra, Shekhar S; Engstrom, Craig; Fripp, Jurgen; Neubert, Ales; Jin, Jin; Walker, Duncan; Salvado, Olivier; Ho, Charles; Crozier, Stuart

2018-09-01

To develop a local contrast-enhancing and feature-preserving high dynamic range (HDR) image processing algorithm for multichannel and multisequence MR images of multiple body regions and tissues, and to evaluate its performance for structure visualization, bias field (correction) mitigation, and automated tissue segmentation. A multiscale-shape and detail-enhancement HDR-MRI algorithm is applied to data sets of multichannel and multisequence MR images of the brain, knee, breast, and hip. In multisequence 3T hip images, agreement between automatic cartilage segmentations and corresponding synthesized HDR-MRI series were computed for mean voxel overlap established from manual segmentations for a series of cases. Qualitative comparisons between the developed HDR-MRI and standard synthesis methods were performed on multichannel 7T brain and knee data, and multisequence 3T breast and knee data. The synthesized HDR-MRI series provided excellent enhancement of fine-scale structure from multiple scales and contrasts, while substantially reducing bias field effects in 7T brain gradient echo, T 1 and T 2 breast images and 7T knee multichannel images. Evaluation of the HDR-MRI approach on 3T hip multisequence images showed superior outcomes for automatic cartilage segmentations with respect to manual segmentation, particularly around regions with hyperintense synovial fluid, across a set of 3D sequences. The successful combination of multichannel/sequence MR images into a single-fused HDR-MR image format provided consolidated visualization of tissues within 1 omnibus image, enhanced definition of thin, complex anatomical structures in the presence of variable or hyperintense signals, and improved tissue (cartilage) segmentation outcomes. © 2018 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

A wide-range direction neutron spectrometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luszik-Bhadra, M.; D'Errico, F.; Hecker, O.; Matzke, M.

2002-01-01

A new device is presented which has been developed for measuring the energy and direction of distribution of neutron fluence in fields of broad energy spectra (thermal to 100 MeV) and with a high background of photon, electron and muon radiation. The device was tested in reference fields with different energy and direction distributions of neutron fluence. The direction-integrated fluence spectra agree fairly well with reference spectra. In all cases, the ambient and personal dose equivalent values calculated from measured direction-differential spectra are within 35% of the reference values. Independent measurements of the directional dose equivalent were performed with a directional dose equivalent monitor based on superheated drop detectors

Registration of partially overlapping surfaces for range image based augmented reality on mobile devices

Science.gov (United States)

Kilgus, T.; Franz, A. M.; Seitel, A.; Marz, K.; Bartha, L.; Fangerau, M.; Mersmann, S.; Groch, A.; Meinzer, H.-P.; Maier-Hein, L.

2012-02-01

Visualization of anatomical data for disease diagnosis, surgical planning, or orientation during interventional therapy is an integral part of modern health care. However, as anatomical information is typically shown on monitors provided by a radiological work station, the physician has to mentally transfer internal structures shown on the screen to the patient. To address this issue, we recently presented a new approach to on-patient visualization of 3D medical images, which combines the concept of augmented reality (AR) with an intuitive interaction scheme. Our method requires mounting a range imaging device, such as a Time-of-Flight (ToF) camera, to a portable display (e.g. a tablet PC). During the visualization process, the pose of the camera and thus the viewing direction of the user is continuously determined with a surface matching algorithm. By moving the device along the body of the patient, the physician is given the impression of looking directly into the human body. In this paper, we present and evaluate a new method for camera pose estimation based on an anisotropic trimmed variant of the well-known iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm. According to in-silico and in-vivo experiments performed with computed tomography (CT) and ToF data of human faces, knees and abdomens, our new method is better suited for surface registration with ToF data than the established trimmed variant of the ICP, reducing the target registration error (TRE) by more than 60%. The TRE obtained (approx. 4-5 mm) is promising for AR visualization, but clinical applications require maximization of robustness and run-time.

Image denoising by a direct variational minimization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pilipović Stevan

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract In this article we introduce a novel method for the image de-noising which combines a mathematically well-posdenes of the variational modeling with the efficiency of a patch-based approach in the field of image processing. It based on a direct minimization of an energy functional containing a minimal surface regularizer that uses fractional gradient. The minimization is obtained on every predefined patch of the image, independently. By doing so, we avoid the use of an artificial time PDE model with its inherent problems of finding optimal stopping time, as well as the optimal time step. Moreover, we control the level of image smoothing on each patch (and thus on the whole image by adapting the Lagrange multiplier using the information on the level of discontinuities on a particular patch, which we obtain by pre-processing. In order to reduce the average number of vectors in the approximation generator and still to obtain the minimal degradation, we combine a Ritz variational method for the actual minimization on a patch, and a complementary fractional variational principle. Thus, the proposed method becomes computationally feasible and applicable for practical purposes. We confirm our claims with experimental results, by comparing the proposed method with a couple of PDE-based methods, where we get significantly better denoising results specially on the oscillatory regions.

Range and Image Based Modelling: a way for Frescoed Vault Texturing Optimization

Science.gov (United States)

Caroti, G.; Martínez-Espejo Zaragoza, I.; Piemonte, A.

2015-02-01

In the restoration of the frescoed vaults it is not only important to know the geometric shape of the painted surface, but it is essential to document its chromatic characterization and conservation status. The new techniques of range-based and image-based modelling, each with its limitations and advantages, offer a wide range of methods to obtain the geometric shape. In fact, several studies widely document that laser scanning enable obtaining three-dimensional models with high morphological precision. However, the quality level of the colour obtained with built-in laser scanner cameras is not comparable to that obtained for the shape. It is possible to improve the texture quality by means of a dedicated photographic campaign. This procedure, however, requires to calculate the external orientation of each image identifying the control points on it and on the model through a costly step of post processing. With image-based modelling techniques it is possible to obtain models that maintain the colour quality of the original images, but with variable geometric precision, locally lower than the laser scanning model. This paper presents a methodology that uses the camera external orientation parameters calculated by image based modelling techniques to project the same image on the model obtained from the laser scan. This methodology is tested on an Italian mirror (a schifo) frescoed vault. In the paper the different models, the analysis of precision and the efficiency evaluation of proposed methodology are presented.

An improved method to estimate reflectance parameters for high dynamic range imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Shiying; Deguchi, Koichiro; Li, Renfa; Manabe, Yoshitsugu; Chihara, Kunihiro

2008-01-01

Two methods are described to accurately estimate diffuse and specular reflectance parameters for colors, gloss intensity and surface roughness, over the dynamic range of the camera used to capture input images. Neither method needs to segment color areas on an image, or to reconstruct a high dynamic range (HDR) image. The second method improves on the first, bypassing the requirement for specific separation of diffuse and specular reflection components. For the latter method, diffuse and specular reflectance parameters are estimated separately, using the least squares method. Reflection values are initially assumed to be diffuse-only reflection components, and are subjected to the least squares method to estimate diffuse reflectance parameters. Specular reflection components, obtained by subtracting the computed diffuse reflection components from reflection values, are then subjected to a logarithmically transformed equation of the Torrance-Sparrow reflection model, and specular reflectance parameters for gloss intensity and surface roughness are finally estimated using the least squares method. Experiments were carried out using both methods, with simulation data at different saturation levels, generated according to the Lambert and Torrance-Sparrow reflection models, and the second method, with spectral images captured by an imaging spectrograph and a moving light source. Our results show that the second method can estimate the diffuse and specular reflectance parameters for colors, gloss intensity and surface roughness more accurately and faster than the first one, so that colors and gloss can be reproduced more efficiently for HDR imaging.

Directional and short-range ordering kinetics in metallic alloys, crystalline and amorphous

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hillairet, J.

1985-01-01

This presentation describes the methods (resistometric and anelastic) based on analysis of stress-induced directional ordering and short-range ordering and their application to the study of metallic alloys, crystalline and amorphous. It focuses on the determination of the atomic mobility and point defect properties. It discusses also the structural information which can be gained by Zener relaxation studies about the order-disorder transition and self-induced directional ordering phenomena

Estimating Accurate Target Coordinates with Magnetic Resonance Images by Using Multiple Phase-Encoding Directions during Acquisition.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Minsoo; Jung, Na Young; Park, Chang Kyu; Chang, Won Seok; Jung, Hyun Ho; Chang, Jin Woo

2018-06-01

Stereotactic procedures are image guided, often using magnetic resonance (MR) images limited by image distortion, which may influence targets for stereotactic procedures. The aim of this work was to assess methods of identifying target coordinates for stereotactic procedures with MR in multiple phase-encoding directions. In 30 patients undergoing deep brain stimulation, we acquired 5 image sets: stereotactic brain computed tomography (CT), T2-weighted images (T2WI), and T1WI in both right-to-left (RL) and anterior-to-posterior (AP) phase-encoding directions. Using CT coordinates as a reference, we analyzed anterior commissure and posterior commissure coordinates to identify any distortion relating to phase-encoding direction. Compared with CT coordinates, RL-directed images had more positive x-axis values (0.51 mm in T1WI, 0.58 mm in T2WI). AP-directed images had more negative y-axis values (0.44 mm in T1WI, 0.59 mm in T2WI). We adopted 2 methods to predict CT coordinates with MR image sets: parallel translation and selective choice of axes according to phase-encoding direction. Both were equally effective at predicting CT coordinates using only MR; however, the latter may be easier to use in clinical settings. Acquiring MR in multiple phase-encoding directions and selecting axes according to the phase-encoding direction allows identification of more accurate coordinates for stereotactic procedures. © 2018 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Multisensor Super Resolution Using Directionally-Adaptive Regularization for UAV Images.

Science.gov (United States)

Kang, Wonseok; Yu, Soohwan; Ko, Seungyong; Paik, Joonki

2015-05-22

In various unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imaging applications, the multisensor super-resolution (SR) technique has become a chronic problem and attracted increasing attention. Multisensor SR algorithms utilize multispectral low-resolution (LR) images to make a higher resolution (HR) image to improve the performance of the UAV imaging system. The primary objective of the paper is to develop a multisensor SR method based on the existing multispectral imaging framework instead of using additional sensors. In order to restore image details without noise amplification or unnatural post-processing artifacts, this paper presents an improved regularized SR algorithm by combining the directionally-adaptive constraints and multiscale non-local means (NLM) filter. As a result, the proposed method can overcome the physical limitation of multispectral sensors by estimating the color HR image from a set of multispectral LR images using intensity-hue-saturation (IHS) image fusion. Experimental results show that the proposed method provides better SR results than existing state-of-the-art SR methods in the sense of objective measures.

Dosimetry and image quality assessment in a direct radiography system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oliveira, Bruno Beraldo; Paixao, Lucas; Nogueira, Maria do Socorro, E-mail: boliveira.mg@gmail.com [Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear (CDTN/CNEN-MG), Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil); Oliveira, Marcio Alves de [Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil). Fac. de Medicina. Dept. de Anatomia e Imagem; Teixeira, Maria Helena Araujo [Clinica Dra. Maria Helena Araujo Teixeira, Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil)

2014-11-15

Objective: to evaluate the mean glandular dose with a solid state detector and the image quality in a direct radiography system, utilizing phantoms. Materials and methods: Irradiations were performed with automatic exposure control and polymethyl methacrylate slabs with different thicknesses to calculate glandular dose values. The image quality was evaluated by means of the structures visualized on the images of the phantoms. Results: considering the uncertainty of the measurements, the mean glandular dose results are in agreement with the values provided by the equipment and with internationally adopted reference levels. Results obtained from images of the phantoms were in agreement with the reference values. Conclusion: the present study contributes to verify the equipment conformity as regards dose values and image quality. (author)

Increasing Linear Dynamic Range of a CMOS Image Sensor

Science.gov (United States)

Pain, Bedabrata

2007-01-01

A generic design and a corresponding operating sequence have been developed for increasing the linear-response dynamic range of a complementary metal oxide/semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor. The design provides for linear calibrated dual-gain pixels that operate at high gain at a low signal level and at low gain at a signal level above a preset threshold. Unlike most prior designs for increasing dynamic range of an image sensor, this design does not entail any increase in noise (including fixed-pattern noise), decrease in responsivity or linearity, or degradation of photometric calibration. The figure is a simplified schematic diagram showing the circuit of one pixel and pertinent parts of its column readout circuitry. The conventional part of the pixel circuit includes a photodiode having a small capacitance, CD. The unconventional part includes an additional larger capacitance, CL, that can be connected to the photodiode via a transfer gate controlled in part by a latch. In the high-gain mode, the signal labeled TSR in the figure is held low through the latch, which also helps to adapt the gain on a pixel-by-pixel basis. Light must be coupled to the pixel through a microlens or by back illumination in order to obtain a high effective fill factor; this is necessary to ensure high quantum efficiency, a loss of which would minimize the efficacy of the dynamic- range-enhancement scheme. Once the level of illumination of the pixel exceeds the threshold, TSR is turned on, causing the transfer gate to conduct, thereby adding CL to the pixel capacitance. The added capacitance reduces the conversion gain, and increases the pixel electron-handling capacity, thereby providing an extension of the dynamic range. By use of an array of comparators also at the bottom of the column, photocharge voltages on sampling capacitors in each column are compared with a reference voltage to determine whether it is necessary to switch from the high-gain to the low-gain mode. Depending upon

Behavioral and Neural Representations of Spatial Directions across Words, Schemas, and Images.

Science.gov (United States)

Weisberg, Steven M; Marchette, Steven A; Chatterjee, Anjan

2018-05-23

Modern spatial navigation requires fluency with multiple representational formats, including visual scenes, signs, and words. These formats convey different information. Visual scenes are rich and specific but contain extraneous details. Arrows, as an example of signs, are schematic representations in which the extraneous details are eliminated, but analog spatial properties are preserved. Words eliminate all spatial information and convey spatial directions in a purely abstract form. How does the human brain compute spatial directions within and across these formats? To investigate this question, we conducted two experiments on men and women: a behavioral study that was preregistered and a neuroimaging study using multivoxel pattern analysis of fMRI data to uncover similarities and differences among representational formats. Participants in the behavioral study viewed spatial directions presented as images, schemas, or words (e.g., "left"), and responded to each trial, indicating whether the spatial direction was the same or different as the one viewed previously. They responded more quickly to schemas and words than images, despite the visual complexity of stimuli being matched. Participants in the fMRI study performed the same task but responded only to occasional catch trials. Spatial directions in images were decodable in the intraparietal sulcus bilaterally but were not in schemas and words. Spatial directions were also decodable between all three formats. These results suggest that intraparietal sulcus plays a role in calculating spatial directions in visual scenes, but this neural circuitry may be bypassed when the spatial directions are presented as schemas or words. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Human navigators encounter spatial directions in various formats: words ("turn left"), schematic signs (an arrow showing a left turn), and visual scenes (a road turning left). The brain must transform these spatial directions into a plan for action. Here, we investigate

Application range of micro focus radiographic devices associated to image processors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cappabianca, C.; Ferriani, S.; Verre, F.

1987-01-01

X-ray devices having a focus area less than 100 μ are called micro focus X-ray equipment. Here the range of application and the characteristics of these devices including the possibility of employing the coupling with real time image enhancement computers are defined

FIRST IMAGES FROM THE FOCUSING OPTICS X-RAY SOLAR IMAGER

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Krucker, Säm; Glesener, Lindsay; Turin, Paul; McBride, Stephen; Glaser, David; Fermin, Jose; Lin, Robert [Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA (United States); Christe, Steven [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States); Ishikawa, Shin-nosuke [National Astronomical Observatory, Mitaka (Japan); Ramsey, Brian; Gubarev, Mikhail; Kilaru, Kiranmayee [NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL (United States); Takahashi, Tadayuki; Watanabe, Shin; Saito, Shinya [Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS)/JAXA, Sagamihara (Japan); Tajima, Hiroyasu [Solar-Terrestial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Nagoya (Japan); Tanaka, Takaaki [Department of Physics, Kyoto University, Kyoto (Japan); White, Stephen [Air Force Research Laboratory, Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2014-10-01

The Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) sounding rocket payload flew for the first time on 2012 November 2, producing the first focused images of the Sun above 5 keV. To enable hard X-ray (HXR) imaging spectroscopy via direct focusing, FOXSI makes use of grazing-incidence replicated optics combined with fine-pitch solid-state detectors. On its first flight, FOXSI observed several targets that included active regions, the quiet Sun, and a GOES-class B2.7 microflare. This Letter provides an introduction to the FOXSI instrument and presents its first solar image. These data demonstrate the superiority in sensitivity and dynamic range that is achievable with a direct HXR imager with respect to previous, indirect imaging methods, and illustrate the technological readiness for a spaceborne mission to observe HXRs from solar flares via direct focusing optics.

Tie Points Extraction for SAR Images Based on Differential Constraints

Science.gov (United States)

Xiong, X.; Jin, G.; Xu, Q.; Zhang, H.

2018-04-01

Automatically extracting tie points (TPs) on large-size synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images is still challenging because the efficiency and correct ratio of the image matching need to be improved. This paper proposes an automatic TPs extraction method based on differential constraints for large-size SAR images obtained from approximately parallel tracks, between which the relative geometric distortions are small in azimuth direction and large in range direction. Image pyramids are built firstly, and then corresponding layers of pyramids are matched from the top to the bottom. In the process, the similarity is measured by the normalized cross correlation (NCC) algorithm, which is calculated from a rectangular window with the long side parallel to the azimuth direction. False matches are removed by the differential constrained random sample consensus (DC-RANSAC) algorithm, which appends strong constraints in azimuth direction and weak constraints in range direction. Matching points in the lower pyramid images are predicted with the local bilinear transformation model in range direction. Experiments performed on ENVISAT ASAR and Chinese airborne SAR images validated the efficiency, correct ratio and accuracy of the proposed method.

High resolution axicon-based endoscopic FD OCT imaging with a large depth range

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Kye-Sung; Hurley, William; Deegan, John; Dean, Scott; Rolland, Jannick P.

2010-02-01

Endoscopic imaging in tubular structures, such as the tracheobronchial tree, could benefit from imaging optics with an extended depth of focus (DOF). This optics could accommodate for varying sizes of tubular structures across patients and along the tree within a single patient. In the paper, we demonstrate an extended DOF without sacrificing resolution showing rotational images in biological tubular samples with 2.5 μm axial resolution, 10 ìm lateral resolution, and > 4 mm depth range using a custom designed probe.

PROCESSING OF UAV BASED RANGE IMAGING DATA TO GENERATE DETAILED ELEVATION MODELS OF COMPLEX NATURAL STRUCTURES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. K. Kohoutek

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs are more and more used in civil areas like geomatics. Autonomous navigated platforms have a great flexibility in flying and manoeuvring in complex environments to collect remote sensing data. In contrast to standard technologies such as aerial manned platforms (airplanes and helicopters UAVs are able to fly closer to the object and in small-scale areas of high-risk situations such as landslides, volcano and earthquake areas and floodplains. Thus, UAVs are sometimes the only practical alternative in areas where access is difficult and where no manned aircraft is available or even no flight permission is given. Furthermore, compared to terrestrial platforms, UAVs are not limited to specific view directions and could overcome occlusions from trees, houses and terrain structures. Equipped with image sensors and/or laser scanners they are able to provide elevation models, rectified images, textured 3D-models and maps. In this paper we will describe a UAV platform, which can carry a range imaging (RIM camera including power supply and data storage for the detailed mapping and monitoring of complex structures, such as alpine riverbed areas. The UAV platform NEO from Swiss UAV was equipped with the RIM camera CamCube 2.0 by PMD Technologies GmbH to capture the surface structures. Its navigation system includes an autopilot. To validate the UAV-trajectory a 360° prism was installed and tracked by a total station. Within the paper a workflow for the processing of UAV-RIM data is proposed, which is based on the processing of differential GNSS data in combination with the acquired range images. Subsequently, the obtained results for the trajectory are compared and verified with a track of a UAV (Falcon 8, Ascending Technologies carried out with a total station simultaneously to the GNSS data acquisition. The results showed that the UAV's position using differential GNSS could be determined in the centimetre to the decimetre

Cardiac-gated parametric images from 82 Rb PET from dynamic frames and direct 4D reconstruction.

Science.gov (United States)

Germino, Mary; Carson, Richard E

2018-02-01

Cardiac perfusion PET data can be reconstructed as a dynamic sequence and kinetic modeling performed to quantify myocardial blood flow, or reconstructed as static gated images to quantify function. Parametric images from dynamic PET are conventionally not gated, to allow use of all events with lower noise. An alternative method for dynamic PET is to incorporate the kinetic model into the reconstruction algorithm itself, bypassing the generation of a time series of emission images and directly producing parametric images. So-called "direct reconstruction" can produce parametric images with lower noise than the conventional method because the noise distribution is more easily modeled in projection space than in image space. In this work, we develop direct reconstruction of cardiac-gated parametric images for 82 Rb PET with an extension of the Parametric Motion compensation OSEM List mode Algorithm for Resolution-recovery reconstruction for the one tissue model (PMOLAR-1T). PMOLAR-1T was extended to accommodate model terms to account for spillover from the left and right ventricles into the myocardium. The algorithm was evaluated on a 4D simulated 82 Rb dataset, including a perfusion defect, as well as a human 82 Rb list mode acquisition. The simulated list mode was subsampled into replicates, each with counts comparable to one gate of a gated acquisition. Parametric images were produced by the indirect (separate reconstructions and modeling) and direct methods for each of eight low-count and eight normal-count replicates of the simulated data, and each of eight cardiac gates for the human data. For the direct method, two initialization schemes were tested: uniform initialization, and initialization with the filtered iteration 1 result of the indirect method. For the human dataset, event-by-event respiratory motion compensation was included. The indirect and direct methods were compared for the simulated dataset in terms of bias and coefficient of variation as a

Performance Analysis and Experimental Validation of the Direct Strain Imaging Method

Science.gov (United States)

Athanasios Iliopoulos; John G. Michopoulos; John C. Hermanson

2013-01-01

Direct Strain Imaging accomplishes full field measurement of the strain tensor on the surface of a deforming body, by utilizing arbitrarily oriented engineering strain measurements originating from digital imaging. In this paper an evaluation of the method’s performance with respect to its operating parameter space is presented along with a preliminary...

Effective Alternating Direction Optimization Methods for Sparsity-Constrained Blind Image Deblurring

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Naixue Xiong

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Single-image blind deblurring for imaging sensors in the Internet of Things (IoT is a challenging ill-conditioned inverse problem, which requires regularization techniques to stabilize the image restoration process. The purpose is to recover the underlying blur kernel and latent sharp image from only one blurred image. Under many degraded imaging conditions, the blur kernel could be considered not only spatially sparse, but also piecewise smooth with the support of a continuous curve. By taking advantage of the hybrid sparse properties of the blur kernel, a hybrid regularization method is proposed in this paper to robustly and accurately estimate the blur kernel. The effectiveness of the proposed blur kernel estimation method is enhanced by incorporating both the L 1 -norm of kernel intensity and the squared L 2 -norm of the intensity derivative. Once the accurate estimation of the blur kernel is obtained, the original blind deblurring can be simplified to the direct deconvolution of blurred images. To guarantee robust non-blind deconvolution, a variational image restoration model is presented based on the L 1 -norm data-fidelity term and the total generalized variation (TGV regularizer of second-order. All non-smooth optimization problems related to blur kernel estimation and non-blind deconvolution are effectively handled by using the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM-based numerical methods. Comprehensive experiments on both synthetic and realistic datasets have been implemented to compare the proposed method with several state-of-the-art methods. The experimental comparisons have illustrated the satisfactory imaging performance of the proposed method in terms of quantitative and qualitative evaluations.

MO-FG-CAMPUS-JeP1-03: Luminescence Imaging of Water During Proton Beam Irradiation for Range Estimation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamamoto, S; Komori, M; Toshito, T; Watabe, H

2016-01-01

Purpose: Since proton therapy has the ability to selectively deliver a dose to a target tumor, the dose distribution should be accurately measured. A precise and efficient method to evaluate the dose distribution is desired. We found that luminescence was emitted from water during proton irradiation and thought this phenomenon could be used for estimating the dose distribution. Methods: For this purpose, we placed water phantoms set on a table with a spot-scanning proton-therapy system, and luminescence images of these phantoms were measured with a high-sensitivity cooled charge coupled device (CCD) camera during proton-beam irradiation. We also conducted the imaging of phantoms of pure-water, fluorescein solution and acrylic block. We made three dimensional images from the projection data. Results: The luminescence images of water phantoms during the proton-beam irradiations showed clear Bragg peaks, and the measured proton ranges from the images were almost the same as those obtained with an ionization chamber. The image of the pure-water phantom also showed almost the same distribution as the tap-water phantom, indicating that the luminescence image was not related to impurities in the water. The luminescence image of fluorescein solution had ∼3 times higher intensity than water, with the same proton range as that of water. The luminescence image of the acrylic phantom had 14.5% shorter proton range than that of water; the proton range in the acrylic phantom was relatively matched with the calculated value. The luminescence images of the tap-water phantom during proton irradiation could be obtained in less than 2 sec. Three dimensional images were successfully obtained which have more quantitative information. Conclusion: Luminescence imaging during proton-beam irradiation has the potential to be a new method for range estimations in proton therapy.

MO-FG-CAMPUS-JeP1-03: Luminescence Imaging of Water During Proton Beam Irradiation for Range Estimation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yamamoto, S; Komori, M [Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi (Japan); Toshito, T [Nagoya Proton Therapy Center, Nagoya, Aichi (Japan); Watabe, H [Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi (Japan)

2016-06-15

Purpose: Since proton therapy has the ability to selectively deliver a dose to a target tumor, the dose distribution should be accurately measured. A precise and efficient method to evaluate the dose distribution is desired. We found that luminescence was emitted from water during proton irradiation and thought this phenomenon could be used for estimating the dose distribution. Methods: For this purpose, we placed water phantoms set on a table with a spot-scanning proton-therapy system, and luminescence images of these phantoms were measured with a high-sensitivity cooled charge coupled device (CCD) camera during proton-beam irradiation. We also conducted the imaging of phantoms of pure-water, fluorescein solution and acrylic block. We made three dimensional images from the projection data. Results: The luminescence images of water phantoms during the proton-beam irradiations showed clear Bragg peaks, and the measured proton ranges from the images were almost the same as those obtained with an ionization chamber. The image of the pure-water phantom also showed almost the same distribution as the tap-water phantom, indicating that the luminescence image was not related to impurities in the water. The luminescence image of fluorescein solution had ∼3 times higher intensity than water, with the same proton range as that of water. The luminescence image of the acrylic phantom had 14.5% shorter proton range than that of water; the proton range in the acrylic phantom was relatively matched with the calculated value. The luminescence images of the tap-water phantom during proton irradiation could be obtained in less than 2 sec. Three dimensional images were successfully obtained which have more quantitative information. Conclusion: Luminescence imaging during proton-beam irradiation has the potential to be a new method for range estimations in proton therapy.

Connecting Young Brown Dwarfs and Directly Imaged Gas-Giant Planets

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Michael; Dupuy, Trent; Allers, Katelyn; Aller, Kimberly; Best, William; Magnier, Eugene

2015-12-01

Direct detections of gas-giant exoplanets and discoveries of young (~10-100 Myr) field brown dwarfs from all-sky surveys are strengthening the link between the exoplanet and brown dwarf populations, given the overlapping ages, masses, temperatures, and surface gravities. In light of the relatively small number of directly imaged planets and the modest associated datasets, the large census of young field brown dwarfsprovides a compelling laboratory for enriching our understanding of both classes of objects. However, work to date on young field objects has typically focused on individual discoveries.We present a large comprehensive study of the youngest field brown dwarfs, comprising both previously known objects and our new discoveries from the latest wide-field surveys (Pan-STARRS-1 and WISE). With masses now extending down to ~5 Jupiter masses, these objects have physical properties that largely overlap young gas-giant planets and thus are promising analogs for studying exoplanet atmospheres at unparalleled S/N, spectral resolution, and wavelength coverage. We combine high-quality spectra and parallaxes to determine spectral energy distributions, luminosities, temperatures, and ages for young field objects. We demonstrate that this population spans a continuum in the color-magnitude diagram, thereby forming a bridge between the hot and cool extremes of directly imaged planets. We find that the extremely dusty properties of the planets around 2MASS J1207-39 and HR 8799 do occur in some young brown dwarfs, but these properties do not have a simple correspondence with age, perhaps contrary to expectations. We find young field brown dwarfs can have unusually low temperatures and suggest a new spectral type-temperature scale appropriate for directly imaged planets.To help provide a reference for extreme-contrast imaging surveys, we establish a grid of spectral standards and benchmarks, based on membership in nearby young moving groups, in order to calibrate gravity

Direct aperture deformation: An interfraction image guidance strategy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feng Yuanming; Castro-Pareja, Carlos; Shekhar, Raj; Yu, Cedric

2006-01-01

A new scheme, called direct aperture deformation (DAD), for online correction of interfraction geometric uncertainties under volumetric imaging guidance is presented. Using deformable image registration, the three-dimensional geometric transformation matrix can be derived that associates the planning image set and the images acquired on the day of treatment. Rather than replanning or moving the patient, we use the deformation matrix to morph the treatment apertures as a potential online correction method. A proof-of-principle study using an intensity-modulated radiation therapy plan for a prostate cancer patient was conducted. The method, procedure, and algorithm of DAD are described. The dose-volume histograms from the original plan, reoptimized plan, and rigid-body translation plan are compared with the ones from the DAD plan. The study showed the feasibility of the DAD as a general method for both target dislocation and deformation. As compared with using couch translation to move the patient, DAD is capable of correcting both target dislocation and deformations. As compared with reoptimization, online correction using the DAD scheme could be completed within a few minutes rather than tens of minutes and the speed gain would be at a very small cost of plan quality

Image simulation and a model of noise power spectra across a range of mammographic beam qualities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mackenzie, Alistair, E-mail: alistairmackenzie@nhs.net; Dance, David R.; Young, Kenneth C. [National Coordinating Centre for the Physics of Mammography, Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford GU2 7XX, United Kingdom and Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH (United Kingdom); Diaz, Oliver [Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, United Kingdom and Computer Vision and Robotics Research Institute, University of Girona, Girona 17071 (Spain)

2014-12-15

Purpose: The aim of this work is to create a model to predict the noise power spectra (NPS) for a range of mammographic radiographic factors. The noise model was necessary to degrade images acquired on one system to match the image quality of different systems for a range of beam qualities. Methods: Five detectors and x-ray systems [Hologic Selenia (ASEh), Carestream computed radiography CR900 (CRc), GE Essential (CSI), Carestream NIP (NIPc), and Siemens Inspiration (ASEs)] were characterized for this study. The signal transfer property was measured as the pixel value against absorbed energy per unit area (E) at a reference beam quality of 28 kV, Mo/Mo or 29 kV, W/Rh with 45 mm polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) at the tube head. The contributions of the three noise sources (electronic, quantum, and structure) to the NPS were calculated by fitting a quadratic at each spatial frequency of the NPS against E. A quantum noise correction factor which was dependent on beam quality was quantified using a set of images acquired over a range of radiographic factors with different thicknesses of PMMA. The noise model was tested for images acquired at 26 kV, Mo/Mo with 20 mm PMMA and 34 kV, Mo/Rh with 70 mm PMMA for three detectors (ASEh, CRc, and CSI) over a range of exposures. The NPS were modeled with and without the noise correction factor and compared with the measured NPS. A previous method for adapting an image to appear as if acquired on a different system was modified to allow the reference beam quality to be different from the beam quality of the image. The method was validated by adapting the ASEh flat field images with two thicknesses of PMMA (20 and 70 mm) to appear with the imaging characteristics of the CSI and CRc systems. Results: The quantum noise correction factor rises with higher beam qualities, except for CR systems at high spatial frequencies, where a flat response was found against mean photon energy. This is due to the dominance of secondary quantum noise

Colors of Alien Worlds from Direct Imaging Exoplanet Missions

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Renyu

2016-01-01

Future direct-imaging exoplanet missions such as WFIRST will measure the reflectivity of exoplanets at visible wavelengths. Most of the exoplanets to be observed will be located further away from their parent stars than is Earth from the Sun. These "cold" exoplanets have atmospheric environments conducive for the formation of water and/or ammonia clouds, like Jupiter in the Solar System. I find the mixing ratio of methane and the pressure level of the uppermost cloud deck on these planets can be uniquely determined from their reflection spectra, with moderate spectral resolution, if the cloud deck is between 0.6 and 1.5 bars. The existence of this unique solution is useful for exoplanet direct imaging missions for several reasons. First, the weak bands and strong bands of methane enable the measurement of the methane mixing ratio and the cloud pressure, although an overlying haze layer can bias the estimate of the latter. Second, the cloud pressure, once derived, yields an important constraint on the internal heat flux from the planet, and thus indicating its thermal evolution. Third, water worlds having H2O-dominated atmospheres are likely to have water clouds located higher than the 10-3 bar pressure level, and muted spectral absorption features. These planets would occupy a confined phase space in the color-color diagrams, likely distinguishable from H2-rich giant exoplanets by broadband observations. Therefore, direct-imaging exoplanet missions may offer the capability to broadly distinguish H2-rich giant exoplanets versus H2O-rich super-Earth exoplanets, and to detect ammonia and/or water clouds and methane gas in their atmospheres.

TIE POINTS EXTRACTION FOR SAR IMAGES BASED ON DIFFERENTIAL CONSTRAINTS

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X. Xiong

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Automatically extracting tie points (TPs on large-size synthetic aperture radar (SAR images is still challenging because the efficiency and correct ratio of the image matching need to be improved. This paper proposes an automatic TPs extraction method based on differential constraints for large-size SAR images obtained from approximately parallel tracks, between which the relative geometric distortions are small in azimuth direction and large in range direction. Image pyramids are built firstly, and then corresponding layers of pyramids are matched from the top to the bottom. In the process, the similarity is measured by the normalized cross correlation (NCC algorithm, which is calculated from a rectangular window with the long side parallel to the azimuth direction. False matches are removed by the differential constrained random sample consensus (DC-RANSAC algorithm, which appends strong constraints in azimuth direction and weak constraints in range direction. Matching points in the lower pyramid images are predicted with the local bilinear transformation model in range direction. Experiments performed on ENVISAT ASAR and Chinese airborne SAR images validated the efficiency, correct ratio and accuracy of the proposed method.

Autonomous Target Ranging Techniques

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Peter Siegbjørn; Jørgensen, John Leif; Denver, Troelz

2003-01-01

of this telescope, a fast determination of the range to and the motion of the detected targets are important. This is needed in order to prepare the future observation strategy for each target, i.e. when is the closest approach where imaging will be optimal. In order to quickly obtain such a determination two...... ranging strategies are presented. One is an improved laser ranger with an effective range with non-cooperative targets of at least 10,000 km, demonstrated in ground tests. The accuracy of the laser ranging will be approximately 1 m. The laser ranger may furthermore be used for trajectory determination...... of nano-gravity probes, which will perform direct mass measurements of selected targets. The other is triangulation from two spacecraft. For this method it is important to distinguish between detection and tracking range, which will be different for Bering since different instruments are used...

High-speed Imaging of Global Surface Temperature Distributions on Hypersonic Ballistic-Range Projectiles

Science.gov (United States)

Wilder, Michael C.; Reda, Daniel C.

2004-01-01

The NASA-Ames ballistic range provides a unique capability for aerothermodynamic testing of configurations in hypersonic, real-gas, free-flight environments. The facility can closely simulate conditions at any point along practically any trajectory of interest experienced by a spacecraft entering an atmosphere. Sub-scale models of blunt atmospheric entry vehicles are accelerated by a two-stage light-gas gun to speeds as high as 20 times the speed of sound to fly ballistic trajectories through an 24 m long vacuum-rated test section. The test-section pressure (effective altitude), the launch velocity of the model (flight Mach number), and the test-section working gas (planetary atmosphere) are independently variable. The model travels at hypersonic speeds through a quiescent test gas, creating a strong bow-shock wave and real-gas effects that closely match conditions achieved during actual atmospheric entry. The challenge with ballistic range experiments is to obtain quantitative surface measurements from a model traveling at hypersonic speeds. The models are relatively small (less than 3.8 cm in diameter), which limits the spatial resolution possible with surface mounted sensors. Furthermore, since the model is in flight, surface-mounted sensors require some form of on-board telemetry, which must survive the massive acceleration loads experienced during launch (up to 500,000 gravities). Finally, the model and any on-board instrumentation will be destroyed at the terminal wall of the range. For these reasons, optical measurement techniques are the most practical means of acquiring data. High-speed thermal imaging has been employed in the Ames ballistic range to measure global surface temperature distributions and to visualize the onset of transition to turbulent-flow on the forward regions of hypersonic blunt bodies. Both visible wavelength and infrared high-speed cameras are in use. The visible wavelength cameras are intensified CCD imagers capable of integration

Realtime identification of the propagation direction of received echoes in long range ultrasonic testing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Myoung Seon; Heo, Won Nyoung

2013-01-01

In long range ultrasonic testing, a phased array probe composed of multiple identical transducers with an uniform interval of one quarter wavelength is usually used for the transmission or reception directivity control. This paper shows that the propagation directions of individual echoes can be identified in real time by displaying the inputs of a process for summing the constitution reception signals after compensating the phase difference due to the transducer interval, together with the output of the process. A constructive interference of the constitution echoes indicates a forward direction echo propagating along an intended direction while a destructive interference implies a reverse direction echo propagating along the direction opposite to the intended one

Direct trabecular meshwork imaging in porcine eyes through multiphoton gonioscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Masihzadeh, Omid; Ammar, David A.; Kahook, Malik Y.; Gibson, Emily A.; Lei, Tim C.

2013-03-01

The development of technologies to characterize the ocular aqueous outflow system (AOS) is important for the understanding of the pathophysiology of glaucoma. Multiphoton microscopy (MPM) offers the advantage of high-resolution, label-free imaging with intrinsic image contrast because the emitted signals result from the specific biomolecular content of the tissue. Previous attempts to use MPM to image the murine irido-corneal region directly through the sclera have suffered from degradation in image resolution due to scattering of the focused laser light. As a result, transscleral MPM has limited ability to observe fine structures in the AOS. In this work, the porcine irido-corneal angle was successfully imaged through the transparent cornea using a gonioscopic lens to circumvent the highly scattering scleral tissue. The resulting high-resolution images allowed the detailed structures in the trabecular meshwork (TM) to be observed. Multimodal imaging by two-photon autofluorescence and second harmonic generation allowed visualization of different features in the TM without labels and without disruption of the TM or surrounding tissues. MPM gonioscopy is a promising noninvasive imaging tool for high-resolution studies of the AOS, and research continues to explore the potential for future clinical applications in humans.

Application of lidar techniques to time-of-flight range imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Whyte, Refael; Streeter, Lee; Cree, Michael J; Dorrington, Adrian A

2015-11-20

Amplitude-modulated continuous wave (AMCW) time-of-flight (ToF) range imaging cameras measure distance by illuminating the scene with amplitude-modulated light and measuring the phase difference between the transmitted and reflected modulation envelope. This method of optical range measurement suffers from errors caused by multiple propagation paths, motion, phase wrapping, and nonideal amplitude modulation. In this paper a ToF camera is modified to operate in modes analogous to continuous wave (CW) and stepped frequency continuous wave (SFCW) lidar. In CW operation the velocity of objects can be measured. CW measurement of velocity was linear with true velocity (R2=0.9969). Qualitative analysis of a complex scene confirms that range measured by SFCW is resilient to errors caused by multiple propagation paths, phase wrapping, and nonideal amplitude modulation which plague AMCW operation. In viewing a complicated scene through a translucent sheet, quantitative comparison of AMCW with SFCW demonstrated a reduction in the median error from -1.3  m to -0.06  m with interquartile range of error reduced from 4.0 m to 0.18 m.

Space telescope design to directly image the habitable zone of Alpha Centauri

Science.gov (United States)

Bendek, Eduardo A.; Belikov, Ruslan; Lozi, Julien; Thomas, Sandrine; Males, Jared; Weston, Sasha; McElwain, Michael

2015-09-01

The scientific interest in directly imaging and identifying Earth-like planets within the Habitable Zone (HZ) around nearby stars is driving the design of specialized direct imaging missions such as ACESAT, EXO-C, EXO-S and AFTA-C. The inner edge of Alpha Cen A and B Habitable Zone is found at exceptionally large angular separations of 0.7" and 0.4" respectively. This enables direct imaging of the system with a 0.3m class telescope. Contrast ratios on the order of 1010 are needed to image Earth-brightness planets. Low-resolution (5-band) spectra of all planets may allow establishing the presence and amount of an atmosphere. This star system configuration is optimal for a specialized small, and stable space telescope that can achieve high-contrast but has limited resolution. This paper describes an innovative instrument design and a mission concept based on a full Silicon Carbide off-axis telescope, which has a Phase Induced Amplitude Apodization coronagraph embedded in the telescope. This architecture maximizes stability and throughput. A Multi-Star Wave Front algorithm is implemented to drive a deformable mirror controlling simultaneously diffracted light from the on-axis and binary companion star. The instrument has a Focal Plane Occulter to reject starlight into a highprecision pointing control camera. Finally we utilize a Orbital Differential Imaging (ODI) post-processing method that takes advantage of a highly stable environment (Earth-trailing orbit) and a continuous sequence of images spanning 2 years, to reduce the final noise floor in post processing to ~2e-11 levels, enabling high confidence and at least 90% completeness detections of Earth-like planets.

Towards the intrahour forecasting of direct normal irradiance using sky-imaging data.

Science.gov (United States)

Nou, Julien; Chauvin, Rémi; Eynard, Julien; Thil, Stéphane; Grieu, Stéphane

2018-04-01

Increasing power plant efficiency through improved operation is key in the development of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technologies. To this end, one of the most challenging topics remains accurately forecasting the solar resource at a short-term horizon. Indeed, in CSP plants, production is directly impacted by both the availability and variability of the solar resource and, more specifically, by Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI). The present paper deals with a new approach to the intrahour forecasting (the forecast horizon [Formula: see text] is up to [Formula: see text] ahead) of DNI, taking advantage of the fact that this quantity can be split into two terms, i.e. clear-sky DNI and the clear sky index. Clear-sky DNI is forecasted from DNI measurements, using an empirical model (Ineichen and Perez, 2002) combined with a persistence of atmospheric turbidity. Moreover, in the framework of the CSPIMP (Concentrating Solar Power plant efficiency IMProvement) research project, PROMES-CNRS has developed a sky imager able to provide High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. So, regarding the clear-sky index, it is forecasted from sky-imaging data, using an Adaptive Network-based Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). A hybrid algorithm that takes inspiration from the classification algorithm proposed by Ghonima et al. (2012) when clear-sky anisotropy is known and from the hybrid thresholding algorithm proposed by Li et al. (2011) in the opposite case has been developed to the detection of clouds. Performance is evaluated via a comparative study in which persistence models - either a persistence of DNI or a persistence of the clear-sky index - are included. Preliminary results highlight that the proposed approach has the potential to outperform these models (both persistence models achieve similar performance) in terms of forecasting accuracy: over the test data used, RMSE (the Root Mean Square Error) is reduced of about [Formula: see text], with [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see

Image Quality Enhancement Using the Direction and Thickness of Vein Lines for Finger-Vein Recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Young Ho Park

2012-10-01

Full Text Available On the basis of the increased emphasis placed on the protection of privacy, biometric recognition systems using physical or behavioural characteristics such as fingerprints, facial characteristics, iris and finger-vein patterns or the voice have been introduced in applications including door access control, personal certification, Internet banking and ATM machines. Among these, finger-vein recognition is advantageous in that it involves the use of inexpensive and small devices that are difficult to counterfeit. In general, finger-vein recognition systems capture images by using near infrared (NIR illumination in conjunction with a camera. However, such systems can face operational difficulties, since the scattering of light from the skin can make capturing a clear image difficult. To solve this problem, we proposed new image quality enhancement method that measures the direction and thickness of vein lines. This effort represents novel research in four respects. First, since vein lines are detected in input images based on eight directional profiles of a grey image instead of binarized images, the detection error owing to the non-uniform illumination of the finger area can be reduced. Second, our method adaptively determines a Gabor filter for the optimal direction and width on the basis of the estimated direction and thickness of a detected vein line. Third, by applying this optimized Gabor filter, a clear vein image can be obtained. Finally, the further processing of the morphological operation is applied in the Gabor filtered image and the resulting image is combined with the original one, through which finger-vein image of a higher quality is obtained. Experimental results from application of our proposed image enhancement method show that the equal error rate (EER of finger-vein recognition decreases to approximately 0.4% in the case of a local binary pattern-based recognition and to approximately 0.3% in the case of a wavelet transform

Improved linearity using harmonic error rejection in a full-field range imaging system

Science.gov (United States)

Payne, Andrew D.; Dorrington, Adrian A.; Cree, Michael J.; Carnegie, Dale A.

2008-02-01

Full field range imaging cameras are used to simultaneously measure the distance for every pixel in a given scene using an intensity modulated illumination source and a gain modulated receiver array. The light is reflected from an object in the scene, and the modulation envelope experiences a phase shift proportional to the target distance. Ideally the waveforms are sinusoidal, allowing the phase, and hence object range, to be determined from four measurements using an arctangent function. In practice these waveforms are often not perfectly sinusoidal, and in some cases square waveforms are instead used to simplify the electronic drive requirements. The waveforms therefore commonly contain odd harmonics which contribute a nonlinear error to the phase determination, and therefore an error in the range measurement. We have developed a unique sampling method to cancel the effect of these harmonics, with the results showing an order of magnitude improvement in the measurement linearity without the need for calibration or lookup tables, while the acquisition time remains unchanged. The technique can be applied to existing range imaging systems without having to change or modify the complex illumination or sensor systems, instead only requiring a change to the signal generation and timing electronics.

New strain measurement method at axial tensile test of thin films through direct imaging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ha, Jong-Eun [Department of Automotive Engineering, Seoul National Uinversity of Technolgy, 172 Gongneung-2 Dong, Nowon-Gu, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Park, Jun-Hyub [Department of Mechatronics Engineering, College of Engineering, Tongmyong University, 535, Yongdang-Dong, Nam-Gu, Busan 608-711 (Korea, Republic of); Kang, Dong-Joong [School of Mechanical Eng., Pusan National University, Jangjeon-dong, Geumjeong-gu, Busan 609-735 (Korea, Republic of)], E-mail: jhyubpark@korea.com

2008-09-07

This paper proposes a new method for measuring strain during a tensile test of the specimen with micrometre size through direct imaging. A specimen was newly designed for adoption of direct imaging which was the main contribution of the proposed system. The structure of the specimen has eight indicators that make it possible to adopt direct imaging and it is fabricated using the same process of microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices to guarantee the feasibility of the tensile test. We implemented a system for non-contact in situ measurement of strain with the specimen, the image-based displacement measurement system. Extension of the gauge length in the specimen could be found robustly by computing the positions of the eight rectangular-shape indicators on the image. Also, for an easy setup procedure, the region of interest was found automatically through the analysis of the edge projection profile along the horizontal direction. To gain confidence in the reliability of the system, the tensile test for the Al-3%Ti thin film was performed, which is widely used as a material in MEMS devices. Tensile tests were performed and displacements were measured using the proposed method and also the capacitance type displacement sensor for comparison. It is demonstrated that the new strain measurement system can be effectively used in the tensile test of the specimen at microscale with easy setup and better accuracy.

Advanced Spectroscopic and Thermal Imaging Instrumentation for Shock Tube and Ballistic Range Facilities

Science.gov (United States)

Grinstead, Jay H.; Wilder, Michael C.; Reda, Daniel C.; Cruden, Brett A.; Bogdanoff, David W.

2010-01-01

The Electric Arc Shock Tube (EAST) facility and Hypervelocity Free Flight Aerodynamic Facility (HFFAF, an aeroballistic range) at NASA Ames support basic research in aerothermodynamic phenomena of atmospheric entry, specifically shock layer radiation spectroscopy, convective and radiative heat transfer, and transition to turbulence. Innovative optical instrumentation has been developed and implemented to meet the challenges posed from obtaining such data in these impulse facilities. Spatially and spectrally resolved measurements of absolute radiance of a travelling shock wave in EAST are acquired using multiplexed, time-gated imaging spectrographs. Nearly complete spectral coverage from the vacuum ultraviolet to the near infrared is possible in a single experiment. Time-gated thermal imaging of ballistic range models in flight enables quantitative, global measurements of surface temperature. These images can be interpreted to determine convective heat transfer rates and reveal transition to turbulence due to isolated and distributed surface roughness at hypersonic velocities. The focus of this paper is a detailed description of the optical instrumentation currently in use in the EAST and HFFAF.

High-content analysis of single cells directly assembled on CMOS sensor based on color imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Tanaka, Tsuyoshi; Saeki, Tatsuya; Sunaga, Yoshihiko; Matsunaga, Tadashi

2010-12-15

A complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor was applied to high-content analysis of single cells which were assembled closely or directly onto the CMOS sensor surface. The direct assembling of cell groups on CMOS sensor surface allows large-field (6.66 mm×5.32 mm in entire active area of CMOS sensor) imaging within a second. Trypan blue-stained and non-stained cells in the same field area on the CMOS sensor were successfully distinguished as white- and blue-colored images under white LED light irradiation. Furthermore, the chemiluminescent signals of each cell were successfully visualized as blue-colored images on CMOS sensor only when HeLa cells were placed directly on the micro-lens array of the CMOS sensor. Our proposed approach will be a promising technique for real-time and high-content analysis of single cells in a large-field area based on color imaging. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Direct microscopic image and measurement of the atomization process of a port fuel injector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Esmail, Mohamed; Kawahara, Nobuyuki; Tomita, Eiji; Sumida, Mamoru

2010-01-01

The main objective of this study is to observe and investigate the phenomena of atomization, i.e. the fuel break-up process very close to the nozzle exit of a practical port fuel injector (PFI). In order to achieve this objective, direct microscopic images of the atomization process were obtained using an ultra-high-speed video camera that could record 102 frames at rates of up to 1 Mfps, coupled with a long-distance microscope and Barlow lens. The experiments were carried out using a PFI in a closed chamber at atmospheric pressure. Time-series images of the spray behaviour were obtained with a high temporal resolution using backlighting. The direct microscopic images of a liquid column break-up were compared with experimental results from laser-induced exciplex fluorescence (LIEF), and the wavelength obtained from the experimental results compared with that predicated from the Kelvin–Helmholtz break-up model. The droplet size diameters from a ligament break-up were compared with results predicated from Weber's analysis. Furthermore, experimental results of the mean droplet diameter from a direct microscopic image were compared with the results obtained from phase Doppler anemometry (PDA) experimental results. Three conclusions were obtained from this study. The atomization processes and detailed characterizations of the break-up of a liquid column were identified; the direct microscopic image results were in good agreement with the results obtained from LIEF, experimental results of the wavelength were in good agreement with those from the Kelvin–Helmholtz break-up model. The break-up process of liquid ligaments into droplets was investigated, and Weber's analysis of the predicated droplet diameter from ligament break-up was found to be applicable only at larger wavelengths. Finally, the direct microscopic image method and PDA method give qualitatively similar trends for droplet size distribution and quantitatively similar values of Sauter mean diameter

Direct microscopic image and measurement of the atomization process of a port fuel injector

Science.gov (United States)

Esmail, Mohamed; Kawahara, Nobuyuki; Tomita, Eiji; Sumida, Mamoru

2010-07-01

The main objective of this study is to observe and investigate the phenomena of atomization, i.e. the fuel break-up process very close to the nozzle exit of a practical port fuel injector (PFI). In order to achieve this objective, direct microscopic images of the atomization process were obtained using an ultra-high-speed video camera that could record 102 frames at rates of up to 1 Mfps, coupled with a long-distance microscope and Barlow lens. The experiments were carried out using a PFI in a closed chamber at atmospheric pressure. Time-series images of the spray behaviour were obtained with a high temporal resolution using backlighting. The direct microscopic images of a liquid column break-up were compared with experimental results from laser-induced exciplex fluorescence (LIEF), and the wavelength obtained from the experimental results compared with that predicated from the Kelvin-Helmholtz break-up model. The droplet size diameters from a ligament break-up were compared with results predicated from Weber's analysis. Furthermore, experimental results of the mean droplet diameter from a direct microscopic image were compared with the results obtained from phase Doppler anemometry (PDA) experimental results. Three conclusions were obtained from this study. The atomization processes and detailed characterizations of the break-up of a liquid column were identified; the direct microscopic image results were in good agreement with the results obtained from LIEF, experimental results of the wavelength were in good agreement with those from the Kelvin-Helmholtz break-up model. The break-up process of liquid ligaments into droplets was investigated, and Weber's analysis of the predicated droplet diameter from ligament break-up was found to be applicable only at larger wavelengths. Finally, the direct microscopic image method and PDA method give qualitatively similar trends for droplet size distribution and quantitatively similar values of Sauter mean diameter.

AUTOMATIC 3D MAPPING USING MULTIPLE UNCALIBRATED CLOSE RANGE IMAGES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Rafiei

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Automatic three-dimensions modeling of the real world is an important research topic in the geomatics and computer vision fields for many years. By development of commercial digital cameras and modern image processing techniques, close range photogrammetry is vastly utilized in many fields such as structure measurements, topographic surveying, architectural and archeological surveying, etc. A non-contact photogrammetry provides methods to determine 3D locations of objects from two-dimensional (2D images. Problem of estimating the locations of 3D points from multiple images, often involves simultaneously estimating both 3D geometry (structure and camera pose (motion, it is commonly known as structure from motion (SfM. In this research a step by step approach to generate the 3D point cloud of a scene is considered. After taking images with a camera, we should detect corresponding points in each two views. Here an efficient SIFT method is used for image matching for large baselines. After that, we must retrieve the camera motion and 3D position of the matched feature points up to a projective transformation (projective reconstruction. Lacking additional information on the camera or the scene makes the parallel lines to be unparalleled. The results of SfM computation are much more useful if a metric reconstruction is obtained. Therefor multiple views Euclidean reconstruction applied and discussed. To refine and achieve the precise 3D points we use more general and useful approach, namely bundle adjustment. At the end two real cases have been considered to reconstruct (an excavation and a tower.

Real-time ultrasound image classification for spine anesthesia using local directional Hadamard features.

Science.gov (United States)

Pesteie, Mehran; Abolmaesumi, Purang; Ashab, Hussam Al-Deen; Lessoway, Victoria A; Massey, Simon; Gunka, Vit; Rohling, Robert N

2015-06-01

Injection therapy is a commonly used solution for back pain management. This procedure typically involves percutaneous insertion of a needle between or around the vertebrae, to deliver anesthetics near nerve bundles. Most frequently, spinal injections are performed either blindly using palpation or under the guidance of fluoroscopy or computed tomography. Recently, due to the drawbacks of the ionizing radiation of such imaging modalities, there has been a growing interest in using ultrasound imaging as an alternative. However, the complex spinal anatomy with different wave-like structures, affected by speckle noise, makes the accurate identification of the appropriate injection plane difficult. The aim of this study was to propose an automated system that can identify the optimal plane for epidural steroid injections and facet joint injections. A multi-scale and multi-directional feature extraction system to provide automated identification of the appropriate plane is proposed. Local Hadamard coefficients are obtained using the sequency-ordered Hadamard transform at multiple scales. Directional features are extracted from local coefficients which correspond to different regions in the ultrasound images. An artificial neural network is trained based on the local directional Hadamard features for classification. The proposed method yields distinctive features for classification which successfully classified 1032 images out of 1090 for epidural steroid injection and 990 images out of 1052 for facet joint injection. In order to validate the proposed method, a leave-one-out cross-validation was performed. The average classification accuracy for leave-one-out validation was 94 % for epidural and 90 % for facet joint targets. Also, the feature extraction time for the proposed method was 20 ms for a native 2D ultrasound image. A real-time machine learning system based on the local directional Hadamard features extracted by the sequency-ordered Hadamard transform for

Incorporation of a laser range scanner into image-guided liver surgery: Surface acquisition, registration, and tracking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cash, David M.; Sinha, Tuhin K.; Chapman, William C.; Terawaki, Hiromi; Dawant, Benoit M.; Galloway, Robert L.; Miga, Michael I.

2003-01-01

As image guided surgical procedures become increasingly diverse, there will be more scenarios where point-based fiducials cannot be accurately localized for registration and rigid body assumptions no longer hold. As a result, procedures will rely more frequently on anatomical surfaces for the basis of image alignment and will require intraoperative geometric data to measure and compensate for tissue deformation in the organ. In this paper we outline methods for which a laser range scanner may be used to accomplish these tasks intraoperatively. A laser range scanner based on the optical principle of triangulation acquires a dense set of three-dimensional point data in a very rapid, noncontact fashion. Phantom studies were performed to test the ability to link range scan data with traditional modes of image-guided surgery data through localization, registration, and tracking in physical space. The experiments demonstrate that the scanner is capable of localizing point-based fiducials to within 0.2 mm and capable of achieving point and surface based registrations with target registration error of less than 2.0 mm. Tracking points in physical space with the range scanning system yields an error of 1.4±0.8 mm. Surface deformation studies were performed with the range scanner in order to determine if this device was capable of acquiring enough information for compensation algorithms. In the surface deformation studies, the range scanner was able to detect changes in surface shape due to deformation comparable to those detected by tomographic image studies. Use of the range scanner has been approved for clinical trials, and an initial intraoperative range scan experiment is presented. In all of these studies, the primary source of error in range scan data is deterministically related to the position and orientation of the surface within the scanner's field of view. However, this systematic error can be corrected, allowing the range scanner to provide a rapid, robust

Deeply trapped electrons in imaging plates and their utilization for extending the dynamic range

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohuchi, Hiroko; Kondo, Yasuhiro

2010-01-01

The absorption spectra of deep centers in an imaging plate (IP) made of BaFBr 0:85 I 0:15 :Eu 2+ have been studied in the ultraviolet region. Electrons trapped in deep centers are considered to be the cause of unerasable and reappearing latent images in IPs over-irradiated with X-rays. Deep centers showed a dominant peak at around 320 nm, followed by two small peaks at around 345 and 380 nm. By utilizing deeply trapped electrons, we have attempted to extend the dynamic range of an IP. The IP was irradiated by 150-kV X-rays with doses from 8.07 mGy to 80.7 Gy. Reading out the latent image by the stimulation of Eu 2+ luminescence with a 633-nm He-Ne laser light from a conventional Fuji reader showed a linear relationship with irradiated dose up to 0.8 Gy, but then becoming non-linear. After fully erasing with visible light, unerasable latent images were read out using 635-nm semi-conductor laser light combined with a photon-counting detection system. The dose-response curve so obtained gave a further two orders of magnitude extending the dynamic range up to 80.7 Gy. Comprehensive results indicate that electrons supplied from deep centers to the F centers provided the extended dynamic range after the F centers became saturated. Based on these facts, a model of the excitation of deeply trapped electrons and PSL processes is proposed.

Direct-Bandgap InAs Quantum-Dots Have Long-Range Electron--Hole Exchange Whereas Indirect Gap Si Dots Have Short-Range Exchange

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Juo, J.W.; Franceschetti, A.; Zunger, A.

2009-01-01

Excitons in quantum dots manifest a lower-energy spin-forbidden 'dark' state below a spin-allowed 'bright' state; this splitting originates from electron-hole (e-h) exchange interactions, which are strongly enhanced by quantum confinement. The e-h exchange interaction may have both a short-range and a long-range component. Calculating numerically the e-h exchange energies from atomistic pseudopotential wave functions, we show here that in direct-gap quantum dots (such as InAs) the e-h exchange interaction is dominated by the long-range component, whereas in indirect-gap quantum dots (such as Si) only the short-range component survives. As a result, the exciton dark/bright splitting scales as 1/R 2 in InAs dots and 1/R 3 in Si dots, where R is the quantum-dot radius.

Direct parametric reconstruction in dynamic PET myocardial perfusion imaging: in vivo studies

Science.gov (United States)

Petibon, Yoann; Rakvongthai, Yothin; El Fakhri, Georges; Ouyang, Jinsong

2017-05-01

Dynamic PET myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) used in conjunction with tracer kinetic modeling enables the quantification of absolute myocardial blood flow (MBF). However, MBF maps computed using the traditional indirect method (i.e. post-reconstruction voxel-wise fitting of kinetic model to PET time-activity-curves-TACs) suffer from poor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Direct reconstruction of kinetic parameters from raw PET projection data has been shown to offer parametric images with higher SNR compared to the indirect method. The aim of this study was to extend and evaluate the performance of a direct parametric reconstruction method using in vivo dynamic PET MPI data for the purpose of quantifying MBF. Dynamic PET MPI studies were performed on two healthy pigs using a Siemens Biograph mMR scanner. List-mode PET data for each animal were acquired following a bolus injection of ~7-8 mCi of 18F-flurpiridaz, a myocardial perfusion agent. Fully-3D dynamic PET sinograms were obtained by sorting the coincidence events into 16 temporal frames covering ~5 min after radiotracer administration. Additionally, eight independent noise realizations of both scans—each containing 1/8th of the total number of events—were generated from the original list-mode data. Dynamic sinograms were then used to compute parametric maps using the conventional indirect method and the proposed direct method. For both methods, a one-tissue compartment model accounting for spillover from the left and right ventricle blood-pools was used to describe the kinetics of 18F-flurpiridaz. An image-derived arterial input function obtained from a TAC taken in the left ventricle cavity was used for tracer kinetic analysis. For the indirect method, frame-by-frame images were estimated using two fully-3D reconstruction techniques: the standard ordered subset expectation maximization (OSEM) reconstruction algorithm on one side, and the one-step late maximum a posteriori (OSL-MAP) algorithm on the other

Direct parametric reconstruction in dynamic PET myocardial perfusion imaging: in-vivo studies

Science.gov (United States)

Petibon, Yoann; Rakvongthai, Yothin; Fakhri, Georges El; Ouyang, Jinsong

2017-01-01

Dynamic PET myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) used in conjunction with tracer kinetic modeling enables the quantification of absolute myocardial blood flow (MBF). However, MBF maps computed using the traditional indirect method (i.e. post-reconstruction voxel-wise fitting of kinetic model to PET time-activity-curves -TACs) suffer from poor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Direct reconstruction of kinetic parameters from raw PET projection data has been shown to offer parametric images with higher SNR compared to the indirect method. The aim of this study was to extend and evaluate the performance of a direct parametric reconstruction method using in-vivo dynamic PET MPI data for the purpose of quantifying MBF. Dynamic PET MPI studies were performed on two healthy pigs using a Siemens Biograph mMR scanner. List-mode PET data for each animal were acquired following a bolus injection of ~7-8 mCi of 18F-flurpiridaz, a myocardial perfusion agent. Fully-3D dynamic PET sinograms were obtained by sorting the coincidence events into 16 temporal frames covering ~5 min after radiotracer administration. Additionally, eight independent noise realizations of both scans - each containing 1/8th of the total number of events - were generated from the original list-mode data. Dynamic sinograms were then used to compute parametric maps using the conventional indirect method and the proposed direct method. For both methods, a one-tissue compartment model accounting for spillover from the left and right ventricle blood-pools was used to describe the kinetics of 18F-flurpiridaz. An image-derived arterial input function obtained from a TAC taken in the left ventricle cavity was used for tracer kinetic analysis. For the indirect method, frame-by-frame images were estimated using two fully-3D reconstruction techniques: the standard Ordered Subset Expectation Maximization (OSEM) reconstruction algorithm on one side, and the One-Step Late Maximum a Posteriori (OSL-MAP) algorithm on the other

The influence of CT image noise on proton range calculation in radiotherapy planning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chvetsov, Alexei V; Paige, Sandra L

2010-01-01

The purpose of this note is to evaluate the relationship between the stochastic errors in CT numbers and the standard deviation of the computed proton beam range in radiotherapy planning. The stochastic voxel-to-voxel variation in CT numbers called 'noise,' may be due to signal registration, processing and numerical image reconstruction technique. Noise in CT images may cause a deviation in the computed proton range from the physical proton range, even assuming that the error due to CT number-stopping power calibration is removed. To obtain the probability density function (PDF) of the computed proton range, we have used the continuing slowing down approximation (CSDA) and the uncorrelated white Gaussian noise along the proton path. The model of white noise was accepted because for the slice-based fan-beam CT scanner; the power-spectrum properties apply only to the axial (x, y) domain and the noise is uncorrelated in the z domain. However, the possible influence of the noise power spectrum on the standard deviation of the range should be investigated in the future. A random number generator was utilized for noise simulation and this procedure was iteratively repeated to obtain convergence of range PDF, which approached a Gaussian distribution. We showed that the standard deviation of the range, σ, increases linearly with the initial proton energy, computational grid size and standard deviation of the voxel values. The 95% confidence interval width of the range PDF, which is defined as 4σ, may reach 0.6 cm for the initial proton energy of 200 MeV, computational grid 0.25 cm and 5% standard deviation of CT voxel values. Our results show that the range uncertainty due to random errors in CT numbers may be significant and comparable to the uncertainties due to calibration of CT numbers. (note)

Quantitative imaging of turbulent and reacting flows

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Paul, P.H. [Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA (United States)

1993-12-01

Quantitative digital imaging, using planar laser light scattering techniques is being developed for the analysis of turbulent and reacting flows. Quantitative image data, implying both a direct relation to flowfield variables as well as sufficient signal and spatial dynamic range, can be readily processed to yield two-dimensional distributions of flowfield scalars and in turn two-dimensional images of gradients and turbulence scales. Much of the development of imaging techniques to date has concentrated on understanding the requisite molecular spectroscopy and collision dynamics to be able to determine how flowfield variable information is encoded into the measured signal. From this standpoint the image is seen as a collection of single point measurements. The present effort aims at realizing necessary improvements in signal and spatial dynamic range, signal-to-noise ratio and spatial resolution in the imaging system as well as developing excitation/detection strategies which provide for a quantitative measure of particular flowfield scalars. The standard camera used for the study is an intensified CCD array operated in a conventional video format. The design of the system was based on detailed modeling of signal and image transfer properties of fast UV imaging lenses, image intensifiers and CCD detector arrays. While this system is suitable for direct scalar imaging, derived quantities (e.g. temperature or velocity images) require an exceptionally wide dynamic range imaging detector. To apply these diagnostics to reacting flows also requires a very fast shuttered camera. The authors have developed and successfully tested a new type of gated low-light level detector. This system relies on fast switching of proximity focused image-diode which is direct fiber-optic coupled to a cooled CCD array. Tests on this new detector show significant improvements in detection limit, dynamic range and spatial resolution as compared to microchannel plate intensified arrays.

Bound Alternative Direction Optimization for Image Deblurring

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiangrong Zeng

2014-01-01

the ℓp regularizer by a novel majorizer and then, based on a variable splitting, to reformulate the bound unconstrained problem into a constrained one, which is then addressed via an augmented Lagrangian method. The proposed algorithm actually combines the reweighted ℓ1 minimization method and the alternating direction method of multiples (ADMM such that it succeeds in extending the application of ADMM to ℓp minimization problems. The conducted experimental studies demonstrate the superiority of the proposed algorithm for the synthesis ℓp minimization over the state-of-the-art algorithms for the synthesis ℓ1 minimization on image deblurring.

Direct reconstruction of cardiac PET kinetic parametric images using a preconditioned conjugate gradient approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Rakvongthai, Yothin; Ouyang, Jinsong; Guerin, Bastien; Li, Quanzheng; Alpert, Nathaniel M; El Fakhri, Georges

2013-10-01

Our research goal is to develop an algorithm to reconstruct cardiac positron emission tomography (PET) kinetic parametric images directly from sinograms and compare its performance with the conventional indirect approach. Time activity curves of a NCAT phantom were computed according to a one-tissue compartmental kinetic model with realistic kinetic parameters. The sinograms at each time frame were simulated using the activity distribution for the time frame. The authors reconstructed the parametric images directly from the sinograms by optimizing a cost function, which included the Poisson log-likelihood and a spatial regularization terms, using the preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG) algorithm with the proposed preconditioner. The proposed preconditioner is a diagonal matrix whose diagonal entries are the ratio of the parameter and the sensitivity of the radioactivity associated with parameter. The authors compared the reconstructed parametric images using the direct approach with those reconstructed using the conventional indirect approach. At the same bias, the direct approach yielded significant relative reduction in standard deviation by 12%-29% and 32%-70% for 50 × 10(6) and 10 × 10(6) detected coincidences counts, respectively. Also, the PCG method effectively reached a constant value after only 10 iterations (with numerical convergence achieved after 40-50 iterations), while more than 500 iterations were needed for CG. The authors have developed a novel approach based on the PCG algorithm to directly reconstruct cardiac PET parametric images from sinograms, and yield better estimation of kinetic parameters than the conventional indirect approach, i.e., curve fitting of reconstructed images. The PCG method increases the convergence rate of reconstruction significantly as compared to the conventional CG method.

Myocardial imaging by direct injection of thallium-201 into coronary artery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sugihara, Hiroki; Inagaki, Suetsugu; Kubota, Yasushi

1988-01-01

Myocardial perfusion images were evaluated by direct injection of Thallium (Tl)-201 into coronary artery. Approximately 0.5 - 1 mCi of Tl-201 were instilled into the right coronary artery and/or the left coronary artery after coronary arteriography. Three images were obtained in the anterior, left anterior oblique and left lateral projections. Myocardial perfusion images of single photon emission computed tomography were also acquired in some patients. An image of supreme quality could be obtained in spite of small dose of Tl-201 since there was a lack of interference from background activity. Myocardial perfusion images corresponded to areas which were supplied by left or right coronary artery respectively. And the regional myocardial blood flow distribution of a coronary artery bypass graft could be revealed by instilling Tl-201 into the graft. Further, contribution of collateral channels to myocardial perfusion was showed. Not only left ventricle but also right ventricle was clearly visualized by injection of Tl-201 into right coronary artery. But in a case with arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia, there was an area of decreased tracer uptake in the apex of the right ventricle which was identified as the site of dysplasia by electrophysiologic study. We conclude that direct injection of Tl-201 into coronary artery is an useful method to clarify the correlation between coronary anatomical findings and coronary perfusion and contribution of collaterals to myocardial perfusion, and also to detect the right ventricular myopathic site. (author)

A Low-Noise Direct Incremental A/D Converter for FET-Based THz Imaging Detectors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Moustafa Khatib

2018-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the design, implementation and characterization results of a pixel-level readout chain integrated with a FET-based terahertz (THz detector for imaging applications. The readout chain is fabricated in a standard 150-nm CMOS technology and contains a cascade of a preamplification and noise reduction stage based on a parametric chopper amplifier and a direct analog-to-digital conversion by means of an incremental ΣΔ converter, performing a lock-in operation with modulated sources. The FET detector is integrated with an on-chip antenna operating in the frequency range of 325–375 GHz and compliant with all process design rules. The cascade of the FET THz detector and readout chain is evaluated in terms of responsivity and Noise Equivalent Power (NEP measurements. The measured readout input-referred noise of 1.6 μ V r m s allows preserving the FET detector sensitivity by achieving a minimum NEP of 376 pW/ Hz in the optimum bias condition, while directly providing a digital output. The integrated readout chain features 65-dB peak-SNR and 80-μ W power consumption from a 1.8-V supply. The area of the antenna-coupled FET detector and the readout chain fits a pixel pitch of 455 μm, which is suitable for pixel array implementation. The proposed THz pixel has been successfully applied for imaging of concealed objects in a paper envelope under continuous-wave illumination.

Enhancing swimming pool safety by the use of range-imaging cameras

Science.gov (United States)

Geerardyn, D.; Boulanger, S.; Kuijk, M.

2015-05-01

Drowning is the cause of death of 372.000 people, each year worldwide, according to the report of November 2014 of the World Health Organization.1 Currently, most swimming pools only use lifeguards to detect drowning people. In some modern swimming pools, camera-based detection systems are nowadays being integrated. However, these systems have to be mounted underwater, mostly as a replacement of the underwater lighting. In contrast, we are interested in range imaging cameras mounted on the ceiling of the swimming pool, allowing to distinguish swimmers at the surface from drowning people underwater, while keeping the large field-of-view and minimizing occlusions. However, we have to take into account that the water surface of a swimming pool is not a flat, but mostly rippled surface, and that the water is transparent for visible light, but less transparent for infrared or ultraviolet light. We investigated the use of different types of 3D cameras to detect objects underwater at different depths and with different amplitudes of surface perturbations. Specifically, we performed measurements with a commercial Time-of-Flight camera, a commercial structured-light depth camera and our own Time-of-Flight system. Our own system uses pulsed Time-of-Flight and emits light of 785 nm. The measured distances between the camera and the object are influenced through the perturbations on the water surface. Due to the timing of our Time-of-Flight camera, our system is theoretically able to minimize the influence of the reflections of a partially-reflecting surface. The combination of a post image-acquisition filter compensating for the perturbations and the use of a light source with shorter wavelengths to enlarge the depth range can improve the current commercial cameras. As a result, we can conclude that low-cost range imagers can increase swimming pool safety, by inserting a post-processing filter and the use of another light source.

Direct imaging of plant metabolites in leaves and petals by Desorption Electrospray Ionization mass spectrometry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Bin; Hansen, Steen Honore'; Janfelt, Christian

2013-01-01

and demonstrated on leaves and petals of Hypericum perforatum. The direct imaging approaches are in contrast to previous DESI imaging studies where indirect analysis via imprints were used in order to overcome the morphological barrier presented by the layer of cuticular waxes covering the surface of a leaf...... of very long chain fatty acids (VLCFAs), a significant class of metabolites located in the cuticle layer in leaves and petals, as well as other plant metabolites. In the case of the petals of H. perforatum, all common metabolites could be imaged directly using the ternary solvent, whereas in the case...... of leaves from the same plant, only some of the metabolites were accessible, even with the ternary solvent system. For these samples, the leaves could be imaged with direct DESI after chloroform had been used to remove most of the cuticle, thus exposing lower layers in the leaf structure. A number...

Modeling a color-rendering operator for high dynamic range images using a cone-response function

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Ho-Hyoung; Kim, Gi-Seok; Yun, Byoung-Ju

2015-09-01

Tone-mapping operators are the typical algorithms designed to produce visibility and the overall impression of brightness, contrast, and color of high dynamic range (HDR) images on low dynamic range (LDR) display devices. Although several new tone-mapping operators have been proposed in recent years, the results of these operators have not matched those of the psychophysical experiments based on the human visual system. A color-rendering model that is a combination of tone-mapping and cone-response functions using an XYZ tristimulus color space is presented. In the proposed method, the tone-mapping operator produces visibility and the overall impression of brightness, contrast, and color in HDR images when mapped onto relatively LDR devices. The tone-mapping resultant image is obtained using chromatic and achromatic colors to avoid well-known color distortions shown in the conventional methods. The resulting image is then processed with a cone-response function wherein emphasis is placed on human visual perception (HVP). The proposed method covers the mismatch between the actual scene and the rendered image based on HVP. The experimental results show that the proposed method yields an improved color-rendering performance compared to conventional methods.

Image matching for digital close-range stereo photogrammetry based on constraints of Delaunay triangulated network and epipolar-line

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, K.; Sheng, Y. H.; Li, Y. Q.; Han, B.; Liang, Ch.; Sha, W.

2006-10-01

In the field of digital photogrammetry and computer vision, the determination of conjugate points in a stereo image pair, referred to as "image matching," is the critical step to realize automatic surveying and recognition. Traditional matching methods encounter some problems in the digital close-range stereo photogrammetry, because the change of gray-scale or texture is not obvious in the close-range stereo images. The main shortcoming of traditional matching methods is that geometric information of matching points is not fully used, which will lead to wrong matching results in regions with poor texture. To fully use the geometry and gray-scale information, a new stereo image matching algorithm is proposed in this paper considering the characteristics of digital close-range photogrammetry. Compared with the traditional matching method, the new algorithm has three improvements on image matching. Firstly, shape factor, fuzzy maths and gray-scale projection are introduced into the design of synthetical matching measure. Secondly, the topology connecting relations of matching points in Delaunay triangulated network and epipolar-line are used to decide matching order and narrow the searching scope of conjugate point of the matching point. Lastly, the theory of parameter adjustment with constraint is introduced into least square image matching to carry out subpixel level matching under epipolar-line constraint. The new algorithm is applied to actual stereo images of a building taken by digital close-range photogrammetric system. The experimental result shows that the algorithm has a higher matching speed and matching accuracy than pyramid image matching algorithm based on gray-scale correlation.

A performance comparison of direct- and indirect-detection flat-panel imagers

CERN Document Server

Partridge, M; Müller, L

2002-01-01

A comparison of the performance of a direct- and an indirect-detection amorphous silicon flat-panel X-ray imager is presented for a 6 MV beam. Experimental measurements of the noise characteristics, image lag, spectral response, spatial resolution and quantum efficiency are described, compared and discussed. The two systems are comprised of 512x512 pixel, 400 mu m pitch, arrays of a-Si:H p-i-n photodiodes and thin-film transistors. In the direct-detection system, X-rays interact to produce electron/hole pairs directly in the silicon photodiodes. For the indirect-detection system, a phosphor screen converts energy from the incident X-rays into visible light, which is then detected by the photodiodes. Both systems are shown to be quantum noise limited, with the total electronic noise in the detector 10-15 times smaller than the Poisson noise level in detected signal. The measured lag for both systems is 1.0+-0.1% or less in the first frame with subsequent signals decaying exponentially with frame read-out, with...

SINGLE IMAGE CAMERA CALIBRATION IN CLOSE RANGE PHOTOGRAMMETRY FOR SOLDER JOINT ANALYSIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. Heinemann

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Printed Circuit Boards (PCB play an important role in the manufacturing of electronic devices. To ensure a correct function of the PCBs a certain amount of solder paste is needed during the placement of components. The aim of the current research is to develop an real-time, closed-loop solution for the analysis of the printing process where solder is printed onto PCBs. Close range photogrammetry allows for determination of the solder volume and a subsequent correction if necessary. Photogrammetry is an image based method for three dimensional reconstruction from two dimensional image data of an object. A precise camera calibration is indispensable for an accurate reconstruction. In our certain application it is not possible to use calibration methods with two dimensional calibration targets. Therefore a special calibration target was developed and manufactured, which allows for single image camera calibration.

Metrological large range scanning probe microscope

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dai Gaoliang; Pohlenz, Frank; Danzebrink, Hans-Ulrich; Xu Min; Hasche, Klaus; Wilkening, Guenter

2004-01-01

We describe a metrological large range scanning probe microscope (LR-SPM) with an Abbe error free design and direct interferometric position measurement capability, aimed at versatile traceable topographic measurements that require nanometer accuracy. A dual-stage positioning system was designed to achieve both a large measurement range and a high measurement speed. This dual-stage system consists of a commercially available stage, referred to as nanomeasuring machine (NMM), with a motion range of 25 mmx25 mmx5 mm along x, y, and z axes, and a compact z-axis piezoelectric positioning stage (compact z stage) with an extension range of 2 μm. The metrological LR-SPM described here senses the surface using a stationary fixed scanning force microscope (SFM) head working in contact mode. During operation, lateral scanning of the sample is performed solely by the NMM. Whereas the z motion, controlled by the SFM signal, is carried out by a combination of the NMM and the compact z stage. In this case the compact z stage, with its high mechanical resonance frequency (greater than 20 kHz), is responsible for the rapid motion while the NMM simultaneously makes slower movements over a larger motion range. To reduce the Abbe offset to a minimum the SFM tip is located at the intersection of three interferometer measurement beams orientated in x, y, and z directions. To improve real time performance two high-end digital signal processing (DSP) systems are used for NMM positioning and SFM servocontrol. Comprehensive DSP firmware and Windows XP-based software are implemented, providing a flexible and user-friendly interface. The instrument is able to perform large area imaging or profile scanning directly without stitching small scanned images. Several measurements on different samples such as flatness standards, nanostep height standards, roughness standards as well as sharp nanoedge samples and 1D gratings demonstrate the outstanding metrological capabilities of the instrument

Multiple Constraints Based Robust Matching of Poor-Texture Close-Range Images for Monitoring a Simulated Landslide

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gang Qiao

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Landslides are one of the most destructive geo-hazards that can bring about great threats to both human lives and infrastructures. Landslide monitoring has been always a research hotspot. In particular, landslide simulation experimentation is an effective tool in landslide research to obtain critical parameters that help understand the mechanism and evaluate the triggering and controlling factors of slope failure. Compared with other traditional geotechnical monitoring approaches, the close-range photogrammetry technique shows potential in tracking and recording the 3D surface deformation and failure processes. In such cases, image matching usually plays a critical role in stereo image processing for the 3D geometric reconstruction. However, the complex imaging conditions such as rainfall, mass movement, illumination, and ponding will reduce the texture quality of the stereo images, bringing about difficulties in the image matching process and resulting in very sparse matches. To address this problem, this paper presents a multiple-constraints based robust image matching approach for poor-texture close-range images particularly useful in monitoring a simulated landslide. The Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT algorithm was first applied to the stereo images for generation of scale-invariate feature points, followed by a two-step matching process: feature-based image matching and area-based image matching. In the first feature-based matching step, the triangulation process was performed based on the SIFT matches filtered by the Fundamental Matrix (FM and a robust checking procedure, to serve as the basic constraints for feature-based iterated matching of all the non-matched SIFT-derived feature points inside each triangle. In the following area-based image-matching step, the corresponding points of the non-matched features in each triangle of the master image were predicted in the homologous triangle of the searching image by using geometric

Fluctuation microscopy: a probe of medium range order

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Treacy, M M J; Gibson, J M; Fan, L; Paterson, D J; McNulty, I

2005-01-01

Fluctuation microscopy is a hybrid diffraction-imaging technique that detects medium range order in amorphous materials by examining spatial fluctuations in coherent scattering. These fluctuations appear as speckle in images and diffraction patterns. The volume of material contributing to the speckle is determined by the point-spread function (the resolution) of the imaging optics and the sample thickness. The spatial periodicities being probed are related to the diffraction vector. Statistical analysis of the speckle allows the random and non-random (ordered) contributions to be discriminated. The image resolution that gives the maximum speckle contrast, as determined by the normalized variance of the image intensity, is determined by the characteristic length scale of the ordering. Because medium range ordering length scales can extend out to about the tenth coordination shell, fluctuation microscopy tends to be a low image resolution technique. This review presents the kinematical scattering theory underpinning fluctuation microscopy and a description of fluctuation electron microscopy as it has been employed in the transmission electron microscope for studying amorphous materials. Recent results using soft x-rays for studying nanoscale materials are also presented. We summarize outstanding issues and point to possible future directions for fluctuation microscopy as a technique

Effective Clipart Image Vectorization through Direct Optimization of Bezigons.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Ming; Chao, Hongyang; Zhang, Chi; Guo, Jun; Yuan, Lu; Sun, Jian

2016-02-01

Bezigons, i.e., closed paths composed of Bézier curves, have been widely employed to describe shapes in image vectorization results. However, most existing vectorization techniques infer the bezigons by simply approximating an intermediate vector representation (such as polygons). Consequently, the resultant bezigons are sometimes imperfect due to accumulated errors, fitting ambiguities, and a lack of curve priors, especially for low-resolution images. In this paper, we describe a novel method for vectorizing clipart images. In contrast to previous methods, we directly optimize the bezigons rather than using other intermediate representations; therefore, the resultant bezigons are not only of higher fidelity compared with the original raster image but also more reasonable because they were traced by a proficient expert. To enable such optimization, we have overcome several challenges and have devised a differentiable data energy as well as several curve-based prior terms. To improve the efficiency of the optimization, we also take advantage of the local control property of bezigons and adopt an overlapped piecewise optimization strategy. The experimental results show that our method outperforms both the current state-of-the-art method and commonly used commercial software in terms of bezigon quality.

Design of a monolithic Michelson interferometer for fringe imaging in a near-field, UV, direct-detection Doppler wind lidar.

Science.gov (United States)

Herbst, Jonas; Vrancken, Patrick

2016-09-01

The low-biased, fast, airborne, short-range, and range-resolved determination of atmospheric wind speeds plays a key role in wake vortex and turbulence mitigation strategies and would improve flight safety, comfort, and economy. In this work, a concept for an airborne, UV, direct-detection Doppler wind lidar receiver is presented. A monolithic, tilted, field-widened, fringe-imaging Michelson interferometer (FWFIMI) combines the advantages of low angular sensitivity, high thermo-mechanical stability, independence of the specific atmospheric conditions, and potential for fast data evaluation. Design and integration of the FWFIMI into a lidar receiver concept are described. Simulations help to evaluate the receiver design and prospect sufficient performance under different atmospheric conditions.

Exoplanet Classification and Yield Estimates for Direct Imaging Missions

Science.gov (United States)

Kopparapu, Ravi Kumar; Hébrard, Eric; Belikov, Rus; Batalha, Natalie M.; Mulders, Gijs D.; Stark, Chris; Teal, Dillon; Domagal-Goldman, Shawn; Mandell, Avi

2018-04-01

Future NASA concept missions that are currently under study, like the Habitable Exoplanet Imaging Mission (HabEx) and the Large Ultra-violet Optical Infra Red Surveyor, could discover a large diversity of exoplanets. We propose here a classification scheme that distinguishes exoplanets into different categories based on their size and incident stellar flux, for the purpose of providing the expected number of exoplanets observed (yield) with direct imaging missions. The boundaries of this classification can be computed using the known chemical behavior of gases and condensates at different pressures and temperatures in a planetary atmosphere. In this study, we initially focus on condensation curves for sphalerite ZnS, {{{H}}}2{{O}}, {CO}}2, and {CH}}4. The order in which these species condense in a planetary atmosphere define the boundaries between different classes of planets. Broadly, the planets are divided into rocky planets (0.5–1.0 R ⊕), super-Earths (1.0–1.75 R ⊕), sub-Neptunes (1.75–3.5 R ⊕), sub-Jovians (3.5–6.0 R ⊕), and Jovians (6–14.3 R ⊕) based on their planet sizes, and “hot,” “warm,” and “cold” based on the incident stellar flux. We then calculate planet occurrence rates within these boundaries for different kinds of exoplanets, η planet, using the community coordinated results of NASA’s Exoplanet Program Analysis Group’s Science Analysis Group-13 (SAG-13). These occurrence rate estimates are in turn used to estimate the expected exoplanet yields for direct imaging missions of different telescope diameters.

Counting and integrating microelectronics development for direct conversion X-ray imaging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kraft, E.

2008-02-15

A novel signal processing concept for X-ray imaging with directly converting pixelated semiconductor sensors is presented. The novelty of this approach compared to existing concepts is the combination of charge integration and photon counting in every single pixel. Simultaneous operation of both signal processing chains extends the dynamic range beyond the limits of the individual schemes and allows determination of the mean photon energy. Medical applications such as X-ray computed tomography can benefit from this additional spectral information through improved contrast and the ability to determine the hardening of the tube spectrum due to attenuation by the scanned object. A prototype chip in 0.35-micrometer technology has been successfully tested. The pixel electronics are designed using a low-swing differential current mode logic. Key element is a configurable feedback circuit for the charge sensitive amplifier which provides continuous reset, leakage current compensation and replicates the input signal for the integrator. The thesis focusses on the electronic characterization of a second generation prototype chip and gives a detailed discussion of the circuit design. (orig.)

Counting and integrating microelectronics development for direct conversion X-ray imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kraft, E.

2008-02-01

A novel signal processing concept for X-ray imaging with directly converting pixelated semiconductor sensors is presented. The novelty of this approach compared to existing concepts is the combination of charge integration and photon counting in every single pixel. Simultaneous operation of both signal processing chains extends the dynamic range beyond the limits of the individual schemes and allows determination of the mean photon energy. Medical applications such as X-ray computed tomography can benefit from this additional spectral information through improved contrast and the ability to determine the hardening of the tube spectrum due to attenuation by the scanned object. A prototype chip in 0.35-micrometer technology has been successfully tested. The pixel electronics are designed using a low-swing differential current mode logic. Key element is a configurable feedback circuit for the charge sensitive amplifier which provides continuous reset, leakage current compensation and replicates the input signal for the integrator. The thesis focusses on the electronic characterization of a second generation prototype chip and gives a detailed discussion of the circuit design. (orig.)

Direct imaging and spectrophotometry of Comet P/Tempel 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boehnhardt, H.; Beisser, K.; Vanysek, V.; Mueller, B.E.A.; Weiss, M.

1990-01-01

Both direct imaging and spectrophotometry of Comet P/Tempel 2 during May-November 1988 have led to a nuclear diameter determination of the order of about 10 km. Sekanina's (1987) spin-vector model for this comet is judged capable of qualitatively accounting for both the visual light curve of the comet during this period, which exhibited a steep increase perihelion despite the normal, moderate-decrease perihelion, and an asymmetric extension of the fanlike coma in the solar direction. The late activity onset, the possible constant visual brightness immediately afterward, and the deviation of the fan axis orientation from the predicted value in May 1988, may all furnish additional constraints for P/Tempel 2 nucleus modeling. 24 refs

Positron range in PET imaging: an alternative approach for assessing and correcting the blurring

Science.gov (United States)

Jødal, L.; Le Loirec, C.; Champion, C.

2012-06-01

Positron range impairs resolution in PET imaging, especially for high-energy emitters and for small-animal PET. De-blurring in image reconstruction is possible if the blurring distribution is known. Furthermore, the percentage of annihilation events within a given distance from the point of positron emission is relevant for assessing statistical noise. This paper aims to determine the positron range distribution relevant for blurring for seven medically relevant PET isotopes, 18F, 11C, 13N, 15O, 68Ga, 62Cu and 82Rb, and derive empirical formulas for the distributions. This paper focuses on allowed-decay isotopes. It is argued that blurring at the detection level should not be described by the positron range r, but instead the 2D projected distance δ (equal to the closest distance between decay and line of response). To determine these 2D distributions, results from a dedicated positron track-structure Monte Carlo code, Electron and POsitron TRANsport (EPOTRAN), were used. Materials other than water were studied with PENELOPE. The radial cumulative probability distribution G2D(δ) and the radial probability density distribution g2D(δ) were determined. G2D(δ) could be approximated by the empirical function 1 - exp(-Aδ2 - Bδ), where A = 0.0266 (Emean)-1.716 and B = 0.1119 (Emean)-1.934, with Emean being the mean positron energy in MeV and δ in mm. The radial density distribution g2D(δ) could be approximated by differentiation of G2D(δ). Distributions in other media were very similar to water. The positron range is important for improved resolution in PET imaging. Relevant distributions for the positron range have been derived for seven isotopes. Distributions for other allowed-decay isotopes may be estimated with the above formulas.

Automatic grading of appearance retention of carpets using intensity and range images

Science.gov (United States)

Orjuela Vargas, Sergio Alejandro; Ortiz-Jaramillo, Benhur; Vansteenkiste, Ewout; Rooms, Filip; De Meulemeester, Simon; de Keyser, Robain; Van Langenhove, Lieva; Philips, Wilfried

2012-04-01

Textiles are mainly used for decoration and protection. In both cases, their original appearance and its retention are important factors for customers. Therefore, evaluation of appearance parameters are critical for quality assurance purposes, during and after manufacturing, to determine the lifetime and/or beauty of textile products. In particular, appearance retention of textile products is commonly certified with grades, which are currently assigned by human experts. However, manufacturers would prefer a more objective system. We present an objective system for grading appearance retention, particularly, for textile floor coverings. Changes in appearance are quantified by using linear regression models on texture features extracted from intensity and range images. Range images are obtained by our own laser scanner, reconstructing the carpet surface using two methods that have been previously presented. We extract texture features using a variant of the local binary pattern technique based on detecting those patterns whose frequencies are related to the appearance retention grades. We test models for eight types of carpets. Results show that the proposed approach describes the degree of wear with a precision within the range allowed to human inspectors by international standards. The methodology followed in this experiment has been designed to be general for evaluating global deviation of texture in other types of textiles, as well as other surface materials.

Investigating Non-Equilibrium Fluctuations of Nanocolloids in a Magnetic Field Using Direct Imaging Methods

Science.gov (United States)

Rice, Ashley; Oprisan, Ana; Oprisan, Sorinel; Rice-Oprisan College of Charleston Team

Nanoparticles of iron oxide have a high surface area and can be controlled by an external magnetic field. Since they have a fast response to the applied magnetic field, these systems have been used for numerous in vivo applications, such as MRI contrast enhancement, tissue repair, immunoassay, detoxification of biological fluids, hyperthermia, drug delivery, and cell separation. We performed three direct imaging experiments in order to investigate the concentration-driven fluctuations using magnetic nanoparticles in the absence and in the presence of magnetic field. Our direct imaging experimental setup involved a glass cell filled with magnetic nanocolloidal suspension and water with the concentration gradient oriented against the gravitational field and a superluminescent diode (SLD) as the light source. Nonequilibrium concentration-driven fluctuations were recorded using a direct imaging technique. We used a dynamic structure factor algorithm for image processing in order to compute the structure factor and to find the power law exponents. We saw evidence of large concentration fluctuations and permanent magnetism. Further research will use the correlation time to approximate the diffusion coefficient for the free diffusion experiment. Funded by College of Charleston Department of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities SURF grant.

Multi-Wave and Hybrid Imaging Techniques: A New Direction for Nondestructive Testing and Structural Health Monitoring

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuhua Cheng

2013-11-01

Full Text Available In this article, the state-of-the-art multi-wave and hybrid imaging techniques in the field of nondestructive evaluation and structural health monitoring were comprehensively reviewed. A new direction for assessment and health monitoring of various structures by capitalizing the advantages of those imaging methods was discussed. Although sharing similar system configurations, the imaging physics and principles of multi-wave phenomena and hybrid imaging methods are inherently different. After a brief introduction of nondestructive evaluation (NDE , structure health monitoring (SHM and their related challenges, several recent advances that have significantly extended imaging methods from laboratory development into practical applications were summarized, followed by conclusions and discussion on future directions.

Pilot Signal Design and Direct Ranging Methods for Radio Localization Using OFDM Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jing, Lishuai

Having accurate localization capability is becoming important for existing and future terrestrial wireless communication systems, in particular for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, such as WiMAX, wireless local area network, long-term evolution (LTE) and its extension LTE......-Advanced. To obtain accurate position estimates, not only advanced estimation algorithms are needed but also the transmitted signals should be scrutinized. In this dissertation, we investigate how to design OFDM pilot signals and propose and evaluate high accuracy ranging techniques with tractable computational....... For scenarios where the number of path components is unknown and these components are not necessary separable, we propose a direct ranging technique using the received frequency-domain OFDM pilot signals. Compared to conventional (two-step) ranging methods, which estimate intermediate parameters...

Illuminant direction estimation for a single image based on local region complexity analysis and average gray value.

Science.gov (United States)

Yi, Jizheng; Mao, Xia; Chen, Lijiang; Xue, Yuli; Compare, Angelo

2014-01-10

Illuminant direction estimation is an important research issue in the field of image processing. Due to low cost for getting texture information from a single image, it is worthwhile to estimate illuminant direction by employing scenario texture information. This paper proposes a novel computation method to estimate illuminant direction on both color outdoor images and the extended Yale face database B. In our paper, the luminance component is separated from the resized YCbCr image and its edges are detected with the Canny edge detector. Then, we divide the binary edge image into 16 local regions and calculate the edge level percentage in each of them. Afterward, we use the edge level percentage to analyze the complexity of each local region included in the luminance component. Finally, according to the error function between the measured intensity and the calculated intensity, and the constraint function for an infinite light source model, we calculate the illuminant directions of the luminance component's three local regions, which meet the requirements of lower complexity and larger average gray value, and synthesize them as the final illuminant direction. Unlike previous works, the proposed method requires neither all of the information of the image nor the texture that is included in the training set. Experimental results show that the proposed method works better at the correct rate and execution time than the existing ones.

A Hybrid Shared-Memory Parallel Max-Tree Algorithm for Extreme Dynamic-Range Images.

Science.gov (United States)

Moschini, Ugo; Meijster, Arnold; Wilkinson, Michael H F

2018-03-01

Max-trees, or component trees, are graph structures that represent the connected components of an image in a hierarchical way. Nowadays, many application fields rely on images with high-dynamic range or floating point values. Efficient sequential algorithms exist to build trees and compute attributes for images of any bit depth. However, we show that the current parallel algorithms perform poorly already with integers at bit depths higher than 16 bits per pixel. We propose a parallel method combining the two worlds of flooding and merging max-tree algorithms. First, a pilot max-tree of a quantized version of the image is built in parallel using a flooding method. Later, this structure is used in a parallel leaf-to-root approach to compute efficiently the final max-tree and to drive the merging of the sub-trees computed by the threads. We present an analysis of the performance both on simulated and actual 2D images and 3D volumes. Execution times are about better than the fastest sequential algorithm and speed-up goes up to on 64 threads.

Direct Imaging of Warm Extrasolar Planets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Macintosh, B

2005-01-01

One of the most exciting scientific discoveries in the last decade of the twentieth century was the first detection of planets orbiting a star other than our own. By now more than 130 extrasolar planets have been discovered indirectly, by observing the gravitational effects of the planet on the radial velocity of its parent star. This technique has fundamental limitations: it is most sensitive to planets close to their star, and it determines only a planet's orbital period and a lower limit on the planet's mass. As a result, all the planetary systems found so far are very different from our own--they have giant Jupiter-sized planets orbiting close to their star, where the terrestrial planets are found in our solar system. Such systems have overturned the conventional paradigm of planet formation, but have no room in them for habitable Earth-like planets. A powerful complement to radial velocity detections of extrasolar planets will be direct imaging--seeing photons from the planet itself. Such a detection would allow photometric measurements to determine the temperature and radius of a planet. Also, direct detection is most sensitive to planets in wide orbits, and hence more capable of seeing solar systems resembling our own, since a giant planet in a wide orbit does not preclude the presence of an Earth-like planet closer to the star. Direct detection, however, is extremely challenging. Jupiter is roughly a billion times fainter than our sun. Two techniques allowed us to overcome this formidable contrast and attempt to see giant planets directly. The first is adaptive optics (AO) which allows giant earth-based telescopes, such as the 10 meter W.M. Keck telescope, to partially overcome the blurring effects of atmospheric turbulence. The second is looking for young planets: by searching in the infrared for companions to young stars, we can see thermal emission from planets that are still warm with the heat of their formation. Together with a UCLA team that leads the

TU-F-18C-02: Increasing Amorphous Selenium Thickness in Direct Conversion Flat-Panel Imagers for Contrast-Enhanced Dual-Energy Breast Imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scaduto, DA; Hu, Y-H; Zhao, W

2014-01-01

Purpose: Contrast-enhanced (CE) breast imaging using iodinated contrast agents requires imaging with x-ray spectra at energies greater than those used in mammography. Optimizing amorphous selenium (a-Se) flat panel imagers (FPI) for this higher energy range may increase lesion conspicuity. Methods: We compare imaging performance of a conventional FPI with 200 μm a-Se conversion layer to a prototype FPI with 300 μm a-Se layer. Both detectors are evaluated in a Siemens MAMMOMAT Inspiration prototype digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) system using low-energy (W/Rh 28 kVp) and high-energy (W/Cu 49 kVp) x-ray spectra. Detectability of iodinated lesions in dual-energy images is evaluated using an iodine contrast phantom. Effects of beam obliquity are investigated in projection and reconstructed images using different reconstruction methods. The ideal observer signal-to-noise ratio is used as a figure-of-merit to predict the optimal a-Se thickness for CE lesion detectability without compromising conventional full-field digital mammography (FFDM) and DBT performance. Results: Increasing a-Se thickness from 200 μm to 300 μm preserves imaging performance at typical mammographic energies (e.g. W/Rh 28 kVp), and improves the detective quantum efficiency (DQE) for high energy (W/Cu 49 kVp) by 30%. While the more penetrating high-energy x-ray photons increase geometric blur due to beam obliquity in the FPI with thicker a-Se layer, the effect on lesion detectability in FBP reconstructions is negligible due to the reconstruction filters employed. Ideal observer SNR for CE objects shows improvements in in-plane detectability with increasing a-Se thicknesses, though small lesion detectability begins to degrade in oblique projections for a-Se thickness above 500 μm. Conclusion: Increasing a-Se thickness in direct conversion FPI from 200 μm to 300 μm improves lesion detectability in CE breast imaging with virtually no cost to conventional FFDM and DBT. This work was partially

[Influence of human body target's spectral characteristics on visual range of low light level image intensifiers].

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Jun-Ju; Yang, Wen-Bin; Xu, Hui; Liu, Lei; Tao, Yuan-Yaun

2013-11-01

To study the effect of different human target's spectral reflective characteristic on low light level (LLL) image intensifier's distance, based on the spectral characteristics of the night-sky radiation and the spectral reflective coefficients of common clothes, we established a equation of human body target's spectral reflective distribution, and analyzed the spectral reflective characteristics of different human targets wearing the clothes of different color and different material, and from the actual detection equation of LLL image intensifier distance, discussed the detection capability of LLL image intensifier for different human target. The study shows that the effect of different human target's spectral reflective characteristic on LLL image intensifier distance is mainly reflected in the average reflectivity rho(-) and the initial contrast of the target and the background C0. Reflective coefficient and spectral reflection intensity of cotton clothes are higher than polyester clothes, and detection capability of LLL image intensifier is stronger for the human target wearing cotton clothes. Experimental results show that the LLL image intensifiers have longer visual ranges for targets who wear cotton clothes than targets who wear same color but polyester clothes, and have longer visual ranges for targets who wear light-colored clothes than targets who wear dark-colored clothes. And in the full moon illumination conditions, LLL image intensifiers are more sensitive to the clothes' material.

Test of the Practicality and Feasibility of EDoF-Empowered Image Sensors for Long-Range Biometrics.

Science.gov (United States)

Hsieh, Sheng-Hsun; Li, Yung-Hui; Tien, Chung-Hao

2016-11-25

For many practical applications of image sensors, how to extend the depth-of-field (DoF) is an important research topic; if successfully implemented, it could be beneficial in various applications, from photography to biometrics. In this work, we want to examine the feasibility and practicability of a well-known "extended DoF" (EDoF) technique, or "wavefront coding," by building real-time long-range iris recognition and performing large-scale iris recognition. The key to the success of long-range iris recognition includes long DoF and image quality invariance toward various object distance, which is strict and harsh enough to test the practicality and feasibility of EDoF-empowered image sensors. Besides image sensor modification, we also explored the possibility of varying enrollment/testing pairs. With 512 iris images from 32 Asian people as the database, 400-mm focal length and F/6.3 optics over 3 m working distance, our results prove that a sophisticated coding design scheme plus homogeneous enrollment/testing setups can effectively overcome the blurring caused by phase modulation and omit Wiener-based restoration. In our experiments, which are based on 3328 iris images in total, the EDoF factor can achieve a result 3.71 times better than the original system without a loss of recognition accuracy.

Performance evaluation of compounding and directional beamforming techniques for carotid strain imaging using plane wave transmissions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Hendrik H.G.; Stuart, Matthias Bo; Villagómez Hoyos, Carlos Armando

2014-01-01

Carotid strain imaging in 3D is not possible with conventional focused imaging, because the frame rate is too low. Plane wave ultrasound provides sufficiently high frame rates, albeit at t he cost of image quality, especially in the off - axis direction due to the lack of focusing . Multiple...... techniques have been developed to cope with the low off - axis image quality when performing 2D (and in future 3D) motion estimation: cross correlation with directional beamforming (with or without RF (coherent) compounding) and displacement compounding. This study compares the precision of these techniques...... with RF compounding and 2D displacement compounding with θ = ~20 ° per formed equally and best with a relative root - mean - squared error of ~2% with respect to the analytical solution . The mean and standard deviation of the estimated motion direction for 2D displacement compounding with θ = 20 ° was 0...

Stochastic calculus analysis of optical time-of-flight range imaging and estimation of radial motion.

Science.gov (United States)

Streeter, Lee

2017-07-01

Time-of-flight range imaging is analyzed using stochastic calculus. Through a series of interpretations and simplifications, the stochastic model leads to two methods for estimating linear radial velocity: maximum likelihood estimation on the transition probability distribution between measurements, and a new method based on analyzing the measured correlation waveform and its first derivative. The methods are tested in a simulated motion experiment from (-40)-(+40)  m/s, with data from a camera imaging an object on a translation stage. In tests maximum likelihood is slow and unreliable, but when it works it estimates the linear velocity with standard deviation of 1 m/s or better. In comparison the new method is fast and reliable but works in a reduced velocity range of (-20)-(+20)  m/s with standard deviation ranging from 3.5 m/s to 10 m/s.

Bi-Directional Brillouin Optical Time Domain Analyzer System for Long Range Distributed Sensing

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Nan; Wang, Liang; Wang, Jie; Jin, Chao; Tam, Hwa-Yaw; Zhang, A. Ping; Lu, Chao

2016-01-01

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel scheme of bi-directional Brillouin time domain analyzer (BD-BOTDA) to extend the sensing range. By deploying two pump-probe pairs at two different wavelengths, the Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) distribution over each half of the whole fiber can be obtained with the simultaneous detection of Brillouin signals in both channels. Compared to the conventional unidirectional BOTDA system of the same sensing range, the proposed BD-BOTDA scheme enables distributed sensing with a performance level comparable to the conventional one with half of the sensing range and a spatial resolution of 2 m, while maintaining the Brillouin signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the BFS uncertainty. Based on this technique, we have achieved distributed temperature sensing with a measurement range of 81.9 km fiber at a spatial resolution of 2 m and BFS uncertainty of ~0.44 MHz without introducing any complicated components or schemes. PMID:27999250

Bi-Directional Brillouin Optical Time Domain Analyzer System for Long Range Distributed Sensing.

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Nan; Wang, Liang; Wang, Jie; Jin, Chao; Tam, Hwa-Yaw; Zhang, A Ping; Lu, Chao

2016-12-16

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel scheme of bi-directional Brillouin time domain analyzer (BD-BOTDA) to extend the sensing range. By deploying two pump-probe pairs at two different wavelengths, the Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) distribution over each half of the whole fiber can be obtained with the simultaneous detection of Brillouin signals in both channels. Compared to the conventional unidirectional BOTDA system of the same sensing range, the proposed BD-BOTDA scheme enables distributed sensing with a performance level comparable to the conventional one with half of the sensing range and a spatial resolution of 2 m, while maintaining the Brillouin signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the BFS uncertainty. Based on this technique, we have achieved distributed temperature sensing with a measurement range of 81.9 km fiber at a spatial resolution of 2 m and BFS uncertainty of ~0.44 MHz without introducing any complicated components or schemes.

A low-power high dynamic range front-end ASIC for imaging calorimeters

CERN Document Server

Bagliesi, M G; Marrocchesi, P S; Meucci, M; Millucci, V; Morsani, F; Paoletti, R; Pilo, F; Scribano, A; Turini, N; Valle, G D

2002-01-01

High granularity calorimeters with shower imaging capabilities require dedicated front-end electronics. The ICON 4CH and VA4 PMT chip-set is suitable for very high dynamic range systems with strict noise requirements. The ICON 4CH is a 4 channel input, 12 channel output ASIC designed for use in a multi-anode photomultiplier system with very large dynamic range and low-noise requirements. Each of the four input signals to the ASIC is split equally into three branches by a current conveyor. Each of the three branches is scaled differently: 1:1, 1:8 and 1:80. The signal is read out by a 12 channel low noise/low power high dynamic range charge sensitive preamplifier-shaper circuit (VA4-PMT chip), with simultaneous sample- and-hold, multiplexed analog read-out, calibration facilities. Tests performed in our lab with a PMT are reported in terms of linearity, dynamic range and cross-talk of the system. (5 refs).

Direction-dependent Corrections in Polarimetric Radio Imaging. I. Characterizing the Effects of the Primary Beam on Full-Stokes Imaging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jagannathan, P.; Bhatnagar, S.; Rau, U. [National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro (United States); Taylor, A. R., E-mail: pjaganna@nrao.edu [Department of Astronomy, University of Cape Town (South Africa)

2017-08-01

Next generation radio telescope arrays are being designed and commissioned to accurately measure polarized intensity and rotation measures (RMs) across the entire sky through deep, wide-field radio interferometric surveys. Radio interferometer dish antenna arrays are affected by direction-dependent (DD) gains due to both instrumental and atmospheric effects. In this paper, we demonstrate the effect of DD errors of the parabolic dish antenna array on the measured polarized intensities of radio sources in interferometric images. We characterize the extent of polarimetric image degradation due to the DD gains through wide-band VLA simulations of representative point-source simulations of the radio sky at L band (1–2 GHz). We show that at the 0.5 gain level of the primary beam there is significant flux leakage from Stokes I to Q , U amounting to 10% of the total intensity. We further demonstrate that while the instrumental response averages down for observations over large parallactic angle intervals, full-polarization DD correction is required to remove the effects of DD leakage. We also explore the effect of the DD beam on the RM signals and show that while the instrumental effect is primarily centered around 0 rad-m{sup −2}, the effect is significant over a broad range of RM requiring full polarization DD correction to accurately reconstruct the RM synthesis signal.

Archaeology and direct imaging of exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, John B.

The search for extraterrestrial technology effectively began 45 years ago with Frank Drake's Project Ozma and a radioastronomy start to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Eventually searches began for possible interstellar probes in stable orbits in the Solar System, as well as for infrared excesses from possible Dyson spheres round Sun-like stars. Whilst the Cold War was still underway, some scientists looked for evidence of nuclear waste dumps and nuclear wars elsewhere in the Milky Way. None of this work was carried out by archaeologists, even though by their very nature archaeologists are experts in the detection of ancient technologies. The technologies being searched for would have been partly ancient in age though advanced in techniques and science. The development of ESA's Darwin and NASA's TPF for detection and imaging of Earth-like exoplanets in our galactic neighbourhood represents an opportunity for the testing of techniques for detecting signatures of technological activities. Ideally, both Darwin and TPF might be able to provide spectroscopic data on the chemistry and biochemistry of the atmospheres of Earth-like exoplanets, and thus to detect some of the signs of life. If this can be accomplished successfully, then in theory evidence for pollution and nuclear accidents and wars should be detectable. Some infrared signatures of ETT on or round exoplanets might be detectable. Direct visual imaging of ETT structures will probably not be feasible till we have extremely powerful interstellar telescopes or actually send orbital craft.

Comparison of imaging properties of direct-type and indirect-type of flat-panel detector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matsumoto, Masao; Suekane, Koji; Ichimaru, Yasunobu; Ogata, Yuji; Inamura, Kiyonari; Kanai, Kouzou; Kanamori, Hitoshi

2002-01-01

A Flat-Panel Detector (FPD) has many advantages such as eliminating cassette handling and being able to display a preview image immediately in addition to the digital image processing and the networking. Thus, the FPD has ability to innovate the radiology department. We measured and evaluated the digital and over-all imaging properties (characteristic curves, modulation Transfer Functions, Wiener spectra and Noise Equivalent Quanta (NEQ) for the direct-type and indirect-type of FPD. The pre-sampling and overall NEQ of the indirect-type of FPD were better than the NEQ of the direct-type of FPD at lower spatial frequencies, but were worse at higher spatial frequencies. The FPD can take image data at real-time and be easy to digitalize. From these results, Screen/Film system and Computed Radiography system will be replaced by the FPD system, together with diffusion of CAD, cone beam Computed Tomography (CT) system and open-type Magnetic Resonance Imagining (MRI) system. (T. Tanaka)

Liquid-Metal/Water Direct Contact Heat Exchange: Flow Visualization, Flow Stability, and Heat Transfer Using Real-Time X-Ray Imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abdulla, Sherif H.; Liu Xin; Anderson, Mark H.; Bonazza, Riccardo; Corradini, Michael L.; Cho, Dae; Page, Richard

2005-01-01

Advanced reactor system designs are being considered with liquid-metal cooling connected to a steam power cycle. In addition, current reactor safety systems are considering auxiliary cooling schemes that assure ex-vessel debris coolability utilizing direct water injection into molten material pools to achieve core quenching and eventual coolability. The phenomenon common in both applications is direct contact heat exchange. The current study focuses on detailed measurements of liquid-metal/water direct contact heat exchange that is directly applicable to improvements in effective heat transfer in devices that are being considered for both of these purposes.In this study, a test facility was designed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to map the operating range of liquid-metal/water direct contact heat exchange. The test section (184-cm height, 45.75-cm width, and 10-cm depth) is a rectangular slice of a larger heat exchange device. This apparatus was used not only to provide measurements of integral thermal performance (i.e., volumetric heat transfer coefficient), but also local heat transfer coefficients in a bubbly flow regime with X-ray imaging based on measured parameters such as bubble formation time, bubble rise velocity, and bubble diameters.To determine these local heat transfer coefficients, a complete methodology of the X-ray radiography for two-phase flow measurement has been developed. With this methodology, a high-energy X-ray imaging system is optimized for our heat exchange experiments. With this real-time, large-area, high-energy X-ray imaging system, the two-phase flow was quantitatively visualized. An efficient image processing strategy was developed by combining several optimal digital image-processing algorithms into a software computational tool written in MATLAB called T-XIP. Time-dependent heat transfer-related variables such as bubble volumes and velocities, were determined. Finally, an error analysis associated with these measurements

Long-range effects of direct-hit ultraviolet and particle radiation in oncogene activation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ladik, J.J.

1990-01-01

A simple statistical analysis shows that the oncogene-activation effect of chemical carcinogens cannot be explained if one takes into account only short-range effects. As one of the most probable solid state physical long-range effects, the generation at the site of carcinogen binding of travelling solitary waves, which can interfere with DNA-blocking protein interactions, is discussed. It has been shown that the direct hit carcinogenic effects on DNA by ultraviolet--or particle radiation can also be explained by the generation of solitary waves (in the latter case the first step is a collective plasma oscillation which decays to individual local excitations and ionizations)

A theoretical study on directivity control of multiple-loudspeaker system with a quadrupole radiation pattern in low frequency range

Science.gov (United States)

Irwansyah, Kuse, Naoyuki; Usagawa, Tsuyoshi

2017-08-01

Directivity pattern of an ordinary loudspeaker becomes more directive at higher frequencies. However, because a single loudspeaker tends to radiate uniformly in all directions at low frequencies, reverberation from surrounding building walls may affect speech intelligibility when installing a multiple-loudspeaker system at crossroads. As an alternative, a sharply directive sound source is recommended to be used, but in many cases the directivity of an ordinary loudspeaker is less sharp at lower frequencies. Therefore, in order to overcome such a limitation, this paper discusses the possibility of using four loudspeakers under active control to realize a quadrupole radiation pattern in low frequency range. In this study, the radiation pattern of a primary loudspeaker and three secondary loudspeakers has been modelled. By placing the loudspeakers close together in the direction of 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°, it was theoretically demonstrated that a quadrupole radiation pattern can be shaped in the target frequency range up to 600 Hz by simply controlling the directivity in three of four directions which are 45°, 135°, 225°, and 315°. Although, the radiation pattern model is far from realistic configurations and conditions, it is possible to realize a quadrupole radiation pattern in the low frequency range.

3D range-gated super-resolution imaging based on stereo matching for moving platforms and targets

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Liang; Wang, Xinwei; Zhou, Yan

2017-11-01

3D range-gated superresolution imaging is a novel 3D reconstruction technique for target detection and recognition with good real-time performance. However, for moving targets or platforms such as airborne, shipborne, remote operated vehicle and autonomous vehicle, 3D reconstruction has a large error or failure. In order to overcome this drawback, we propose a method of stereo matching for 3D range-gated superresolution reconstruction algorithm. In experiment, the target is a doll of Mario with a height of 38cm at the location of 34m, and we obtain two successive frame images of the Mario. To confirm our method is effective, we transform the original images with translation, rotation, scale and perspective, respectively. The experimental result shows that our method has a good result of 3D reconstruction for moving targets or platforms.

Artifact reduction of compressed images and video combining adaptive fuzzy filtering and directional anisotropic diffusion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nadernejad, Ehsan; Forchhammer, Søren; Korhonen, Jari

2011-01-01

and ringing artifacts, we have applied directional anisotropic diffusion. Besides that, the selection of the adaptive threshold parameter for the diffusion coefficient has also improved the performance of the algorithm. Experimental results on JPEG compressed images as well as MJPEG and H.264 compressed......Fuzzy filtering is one of the recently developed methods for reducing distortion in compressed images and video. In this paper, we combine the powerful anisotropic diffusion equations with fuzzy filtering in order to reduce the impact of artifacts. Based on the directional nature of the blocking...... videos show improvement in artifact reduction of the proposed algorithm over other directional and spatial fuzzy filters....

Test of the Practicality and Feasibility of EDoF-Empowered Image Sensors for Long-Range Biometrics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sheng-Hsun Hsieh

2016-11-01

Full Text Available For many practical applications of image sensors, how to extend the depth-of-field (DoF is an important research topic; if successfully implemented, it could be beneficial in various applications, from photography to biometrics. In this work, we want to examine the feasibility and practicability of a well-known “extended DoF” (EDoF technique, or “wavefront coding,” by building real-time long-range iris recognition and performing large-scale iris recognition. The key to the success of long-range iris recognition includes long DoF and image quality invariance toward various object distance, which is strict and harsh enough to test the practicality and feasibility of EDoF-empowered image sensors. Besides image sensor modification, we also explored the possibility of varying enrollment/testing pairs. With 512 iris images from 32 Asian people as the database, 400-mm focal length and F/6.3 optics over 3 m working distance, our results prove that a sophisticated coding design scheme plus homogeneous enrollment/testing setups can effectively overcome the blurring caused by phase modulation and omit Wiener-based restoration. In our experiments, which are based on 3328 iris images in total, the EDoF factor can achieve a result 3.71 times better than the original system without a loss of recognition accuracy.

Full-direct method for imaging pharmacokinetic parameters in dynamic fluorescence molecular tomography

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, Guanglei, E-mail: guangleizhang@bjtu.edu.cn [Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China); Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Computer and Information Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044 (China); Pu, Huangsheng; Liu, Fei; Bai, Jing [Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China); He, Wei [China Institute of Sport Science, Beijing 100061 (China); Luo, Jianwen, E-mail: luo-jianwen@tsinghua.edu.cn [Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China); Center for Biomedical Imaging Research, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China)

2015-02-23

Images of pharmacokinetic parameters (also known as parametric images) in dynamic fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) can provide three-dimensional metabolic information for biological studies and drug development. However, the ill-posed nature of FMT and the high temporal variation of fluorophore concentration together make it difficult to obtain accurate parametric images in small animals in vivo. In this letter, we present a method to directly reconstruct the parametric images from the boundary measurements based on hybrid FMT/X-ray computed tomography (XCT) system. This method can not only utilize structural priors obtained from the XCT system to mitigate the ill-posedness of FMT but also make full use of the temporal correlations of boundary measurements to model the high temporal variation of fluorophore concentration. The results of numerical simulation and mouse experiment demonstrate that the proposed method leads to significant improvements in the reconstruction quality of parametric images.

Frequency Diverse Array Radar Cramér-Rao Lower Bounds for Estimating Direction, Range, and Velocity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yongbing Wang

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Different from phased-array radar, frequency diverse array (FDA radar offers range-dependent beampattern and thus provides new application potentials. But there is a fundamental question: what estimation performance can achieve for an FDA radar? In this paper, we derive FDA radar Cramér-Rao lower bounds (CRLBs for estimating direction, range (time delay, and velocity (Doppler shift. Two different data models including pre- and postmatched filtering are investigated separately. As the FDA radar has range-angle coupling, we use a simple transmit subaperturing strategy which divides the whole array into two subarrays, each uses a distinct frequency increment. Assuming temporally white Gaussian noise and linear frequency modulated transmit signal, extensive simulation examples are performed. When compared to conventional phased-array radar, FDA can yield better CRLBs for estimating the direction, range, and velocity. Moreover, the impacts of the element number and frequency increment are also analyzed. Simulation results show that the CRLBs decrease with the increase of the elements number and frequency increment.

Analysis of image versus position, scale and direction reveals pattern texture anisotropy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roland eLehoucq

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Pattern heterogeneities and anisotropies often carry significant physical information. We provide a toolbox which: (i cumulates analysis in terms of position, direction and scale; (ii is as general as possible; (iii is simple and fast to understand, implement, execute and exploit.It consists in dividing the image into analysis boxes at a chosen scale; in each box an ellipse (the inertia tensor is fitted to the signal and thus determines the direction in which the signal is more present. This tensor can be averaged in position and/or be used to study the dependence with scale. This choice is formally linked with Leray transforms and anisotropic wavelet analysis. Such protocol is intutively interpreted and consistent with what the eye detects: relevant scales, local variations in space, priviledged directions. It is fast and parallelizable.Its several variants are adaptable to the user's data and needs. It is useful to statistically characterize anisotropies of 2D or 3D patterns in which individual objects are not easily distinguished, with only minimal pre-processing of the raw image, and more generally applies to data in higher dimensions.It is less sensitive to edge effects, and thus better adapted for a multiscale analysis down to small scale boxes, than pair correlation function or Fourier transform.Easy to understand and implement,it complements more sophisticated methods such as Hough transform or diffusion tensor imaging.We use it on various fracture patterns (sea ice cover, thin sections of granite, granular materials, to pinpoint the maximal anisotropy scales. The results are robust to noise and to user choices. This toolbox could turn also useful for granular materials, hard condensed matter, geophysics, thin films, statistical mechanics, characterisation of networks, fluctuating amorphous systems, inhomogeneous and disordered systems, or medical imaging, among others.

Development of a Compact Range-gated Vision System to Monitor Structures in Low-visibility Environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahn, Yong-Jin; Park, Seung-Kyu; Baik, Sung-Hoon; Kim, Dong-Lyul; Choi, Young-Soo; Jeong, Kyung-Min

2015-01-01

Image acquisition in disaster area or radiation area of nuclear industry is an important function for safety inspection and preparing appropriate damage control plans. So, automatic vision system to monitor structures and facilities in blurred smoking environments such as the places of a fire and detonation is essential. Vision systems can't acquire an image when the illumination light is blocked by disturbance materials, such as smoke, fog and dust. To overcome the imaging distortion caused by obstacle materials, robust vision systems should have extra-functions, such as active illumination through disturbance materials. One of active vision system is a range-gated imaging system. The vision system based on the range-gated imaging system can acquire image data from the blurred and darken light environments. Range-gated imaging (RGI) is a direct active visualization technique using a highly sensitive image sensor and a high intensity illuminant. Currently, the range-gated imaging technique providing 2D and range image data is one of emerging active vision technologies. The range-gated imaging system gets vision information by summing time sliced vision images. In the RGI system, a high intensity illuminant illuminates for ultra-short time and a highly sensitive image sensor is gated by ultra-short exposure time to only get the illumination light. Here, the illuminant illuminates objects by flashing strong light through disturbance materials, such as smoke particles and dust particles. In contrast to passive conventional vision systems, the RGI active vision technology enables operation even in harsh environments like low-visibility smoky environment. In this paper, a compact range-gated vision system is developed to monitor structures in low-visibility environment. The system consists of illumination light, a range-gating camera and a control computer. Visualization experiments are carried out in low-visibility foggy environment to see imaging capability

Development of a Compact Range-gated Vision System to Monitor Structures in Low-visibility Environments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ahn, Yong-Jin; Park, Seung-Kyu; Baik, Sung-Hoon; Kim, Dong-Lyul; Choi, Young-Soo; Jeong, Kyung-Min [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2015-05-15

Image acquisition in disaster area or radiation area of nuclear industry is an important function for safety inspection and preparing appropriate damage control plans. So, automatic vision system to monitor structures and facilities in blurred smoking environments such as the places of a fire and detonation is essential. Vision systems can't acquire an image when the illumination light is blocked by disturbance materials, such as smoke, fog and dust. To overcome the imaging distortion caused by obstacle materials, robust vision systems should have extra-functions, such as active illumination through disturbance materials. One of active vision system is a range-gated imaging system. The vision system based on the range-gated imaging system can acquire image data from the blurred and darken light environments. Range-gated imaging (RGI) is a direct active visualization technique using a highly sensitive image sensor and a high intensity illuminant. Currently, the range-gated imaging technique providing 2D and range image data is one of emerging active vision technologies. The range-gated imaging system gets vision information by summing time sliced vision images. In the RGI system, a high intensity illuminant illuminates for ultra-short time and a highly sensitive image sensor is gated by ultra-short exposure time to only get the illumination light. Here, the illuminant illuminates objects by flashing strong light through disturbance materials, such as smoke particles and dust particles. In contrast to passive conventional vision systems, the RGI active vision technology enables operation even in harsh environments like low-visibility smoky environment. In this paper, a compact range-gated vision system is developed to monitor structures in low-visibility environment. The system consists of illumination light, a range-gating camera and a control computer. Visualization experiments are carried out in low-visibility foggy environment to see imaging capability.

Diffusion tensor imaging of the brain. Effects of distortion correction with correspondence to numbers of encoding directions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoshikawa, Takeharu; Aoki, Shigeki; Abe, Osamu; Hayashi, Naoto; Masutani, Yoshitaka; Masumoto, Tomohiko; Mori, Harushi; Satake, Yoshiroh; Ohtomo, Kuni

2008-01-01

The aim of the study was to estimate the effect of distortion correction with correspondence to numbers of encoding directions to acquire diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of improved quality. Ten volunteers underwent DTI of the head using echo planar imaging with 6, 13, 27, and 55 encoding directions. Fractional anisotropy (FA) maps and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps were created before and after distortion correction. Regions of interest were placed in the corpus callosum on each map, and standard deviations of FA and ADC were calculated. FA maps were also evaluated visually by experienced neuroradiologists. Dispersion of standard deviations tended to be reduced after distortion correction, with significant differences found in FA maps with 6 encoding directions, ADC maps with 6 directions, and ADC maps with 13 directions (P<0.001, P<0.005, and P<0.05, respectively). Visual image quality was improved after distortion correction (P<0.01 for all of the visual comparisons). Distortion correction is effective in providing DTI of enhanced quality, notwithstanding the number of encoding directions. (author)

Effect of phase-encoding direction on group analysis of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Mori, Yasuo; Miyata, Jun; Isobe, Masanori; Son, Shuraku; Yoshihara, Yujiro; Aso, Toshihiko; Kouchiyama, Takanori; Murai, Toshiya; Takahashi, Hidehiko

2018-05-17

Echo-planar imaging is a common technique used in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), however it suffers from image distortion and signal loss because of large susceptibility effects that are related to the phase-encoding direction of the scan. Despite this relationship, the majority of neuroimaging studies have not considered the influence of phase-encoding direction. Here, we aimed to clarify how phase-encoding direction can affect the outcome of an fMRI connectivity study of schizophrenia. Resting-state fMRI using anterior to posterior (A-P) and posterior to anterior (P-A) directions was used to examine 25 patients with schizophrenia (SC) and 37 matched healthy controls (HC). We conducted a functional connectivity analysis using independent component analysis and performed three group comparisons: A-P vs. P-A (all participants), SC vs. HC for the A-P and P-A datasets, and the interaction between phase-encoding direction and participant group. The estimated functional connectivity differed between the two phase-encoding directions in areas that were more extensive than those where signal loss has been reported. Although functional connectivity in the SC group was lower than that in the HC group for both directions, the A-P and P-A conditions did not exhibit the same specific pattern of differences. Further, we observed an interaction between participant group and the phase-encoding direction in the left temporo-parietal junction and left fusiform gyrus. Phase-encoding direction can influence the results of functional connectivity studies. Thus, appropriate selection and documentation of phase-encoding direction will be important in future resting-state fMRI studies. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

A hydrophobic organelle probe based on aggregation-induced emission: Nanosuspension preparation and direct use for endoplasmic reticulum imaging in living cells

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Sichao; Huang, Cuihong; Zhao, Xuyan; Zhang, Yong; Liu, Shuwen; Zhu, Qiuhua

2018-01-01

Organic fluorophores have a wide range of biological uses and are usually needed to be prepared as water-soluble compounds or nanoparticles for applications in aqueous biosystems owing to their hydrophobic properties, which often is a complex, time-consuming and high-cost process. Here, the nanoparticle preparation of hydrophobic fluorophores and their application in cell imaging have been investigated. It was found: a) fetal bovine serum (FBS) shows an excellent dispersion effect on hydrophobic small-molecule organic compounds; b) a hydrophobic C6-unsubstituted tetrahydropyrimidine (Me-THP-Naph) can be prepared as nanosuspensions utilizing cell culture medium with 10% FBS and directly be used as a specific real-time imaging probe for the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), a dynamic organelle playing a crucial role in many cellular processes. Compared with existing ER-targeted organic fluorescent probes, Me-THP-Naph, a product of an efficient five-component reaction that we developed, has unconventional aggregation-induced emission characteristics and shows advantages of low cost, long-term staining, good photostability, high signal-to-noise ratio and excellent biocompatibility, which make it a potential specific probe for real-time ER imaging. More importantly, this work affords a simple strategy for direct application of hydrophobic organic compounds in aqueous biological systems.

A comparison of interest point and region detectors on structured, range and texture images

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kazmi, Wajahat; Andersen, Hans Jørgen

2015-01-01

)) and corner based detectors (such as Hessian and Harris with both Affine/Laplace variants, SURF with determinant of Hessian based corners and SIFT with difference of Gaussians) acquired more than 90% mean average precision, whereas on range images, homogeneous region detector did not work well. TLR offered...... and textured images. It is also shown that in a bi-channel approach, combining surface and edge regions (MSER and TLR) boosts the overall performance. Among the descriptors, SIFT and SURF generally offer higher performance but low dimensional descriptors such as Steerable Filters follow closely....

SU-D-BRA-04: Computerized Framework for Marker-Less Localization of Anatomical Feature Points in Range Images Based On Differential Geometry Features for Image-Guided Radiation Therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soufi, M; Arimura, H; Toyofuku, F; Nakamura, K; Hirose, T; Umezu, Y; Shioyama, Y

2016-01-01

Purpose: To propose a computerized framework for localization of anatomical feature points on the patient surface in infrared-ray based range images by using differential geometry (curvature) features. Methods: The general concept was to reconstruct the patient surface by using a mathematical modeling technique for the computation of differential geometry features that characterize the local shapes of the patient surfaces. A region of interest (ROI) was firstly extracted based on a template matching technique applied on amplitude (grayscale) images. The extracted ROI was preprocessed for reducing temporal and spatial noises by using Kalman and bilateral filters, respectively. Next, a smooth patient surface was reconstructed by using a non-uniform rational basis spline (NURBS) model. Finally, differential geometry features, i.e. the shape index and curvedness features were computed for localizing the anatomical feature points. The proposed framework was trained for optimizing shape index and curvedness thresholds and tested on range images of an anthropomorphic head phantom. The range images were acquired by an infrared ray-based time-of-flight (TOF) camera. The localization accuracy was evaluated by measuring the mean of minimum Euclidean distances (MMED) between reference (ground truth) points and the feature points localized by the proposed framework. The evaluation was performed for points localized on convex regions (e.g. apex of nose) and concave regions (e.g. nasofacial sulcus). Results: The proposed framework has localized anatomical feature points on convex and concave anatomical landmarks with MMEDs of 1.91±0.50 mm and 3.70±0.92 mm, respectively. A statistically significant difference was obtained between the feature points on the convex and concave regions (P<0.001). Conclusion: Our study has shown the feasibility of differential geometry features for localization of anatomical feature points on the patient surface in range images. The proposed

SU-D-BRA-04: Computerized Framework for Marker-Less Localization of Anatomical Feature Points in Range Images Based On Differential Geometry Features for Image-Guided Radiation Therapy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Soufi, M; Arimura, H; Toyofuku, F [Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Fukuoka (Japan); Nakamura, K [Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka (Japan); Hirose, T; Umezu, Y [Kyushu University Hospital, Fukuoka, Fukuoka (Japan); Shioyama, Y [Saga Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Tosu, Tosu, Saga (Japan)

2016-06-15

Purpose: To propose a computerized framework for localization of anatomical feature points on the patient surface in infrared-ray based range images by using differential geometry (curvature) features. Methods: The general concept was to reconstruct the patient surface by using a mathematical modeling technique for the computation of differential geometry features that characterize the local shapes of the patient surfaces. A region of interest (ROI) was firstly extracted based on a template matching technique applied on amplitude (grayscale) images. The extracted ROI was preprocessed for reducing temporal and spatial noises by using Kalman and bilateral filters, respectively. Next, a smooth patient surface was reconstructed by using a non-uniform rational basis spline (NURBS) model. Finally, differential geometry features, i.e. the shape index and curvedness features were computed for localizing the anatomical feature points. The proposed framework was trained for optimizing shape index and curvedness thresholds and tested on range images of an anthropomorphic head phantom. The range images were acquired by an infrared ray-based time-of-flight (TOF) camera. The localization accuracy was evaluated by measuring the mean of minimum Euclidean distances (MMED) between reference (ground truth) points and the feature points localized by the proposed framework. The evaluation was performed for points localized on convex regions (e.g. apex of nose) and concave regions (e.g. nasofacial sulcus). Results: The proposed framework has localized anatomical feature points on convex and concave anatomical landmarks with MMEDs of 1.91±0.50 mm and 3.70±0.92 mm, respectively. A statistically significant difference was obtained between the feature points on the convex and concave regions (P<0.001). Conclusion: Our study has shown the feasibility of differential geometry features for localization of anatomical feature points on the patient surface in range images. The proposed

THE LEECH EXOPLANET IMAGING SURVEY: CHARACTERIZATION OF THE COLDEST DIRECTLY IMAGED EXOPLANET, GJ 504 b, AND EVIDENCE FOR SUPERSTELLAR METALLICITY

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Skemer, Andrew J.; Leisenring, Jarron; Bailey, Vanessa; Hinz, Philip; Defrére, Denis; Apai, Dániel; Close, Laird; Eisner, Josh [Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Ave. Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States); Morley, Caroline V.; Fortney, Jonathan [University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High St. Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States); Zimmerman, Neil T.; Buenzli, Esther; Bonnefoy, Mickael; Biller, Beth; Brandner, Wolfgang [Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg (Germany); Skrutskie, Michael F. [University of Virginia, 530 McCormick Rd., Charlottesville, VA 22904 (United States); Esposito, Simone [Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica-Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, Largo Enrico Fermi 5, 50125, Florence (Italy); Crepp, Justin R. [Notre Dame University, 225 Nieuwland Science Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (United States); De Rosa, Robert J. [Arizona State University, 781 South Terrace Rd, Tempe, AZ 85281 (United States); Desidera, Silvano [Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica-Padova Astronomical Observatory, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 5, 35122 Padova (Italy); and others

2016-02-01

As gas giant planets and brown dwarfs radiate away the residual heat from their formation, they cool through a spectral type transition from L to T, which encompasses the dissipation of cloud opacity and the appearance of strong methane absorption. While there are hundreds of known T-type brown dwarfs, the first generation of directly imaged exoplanets were all L type. Recently, Kuzuhara et al. announced the discovery of GJ 504 b, the first T dwarf exoplanet. GJ 504 b provides a unique opportunity to study the atmosphere of a new type of exoplanet with a ∼500 K temperature that bridges the gap between the first directly imaged planets (∼1000 K) and our own solar system's Jupiter (∼130 K). We observed GJ 504 b in three narrow L-band filters (3.71, 3.88, and 4.00 μm), spanning the red end of the broad methane fundamental absorption feature (3.3 μm) as part of the LBTI Exozodi Exoplanet Common Hunt (LEECH) exoplanet imaging survey. By comparing our new photometry and literature photometry with a grid of custom model atmospheres, we were able to fit GJ 504 b's unusual spectral energy distribution for the first time. We find that GJ 504 b is well fit by models with the following parameters: T{sub eff} = 544 ± 10 K, g < 600 m s{sup −2}, [M/H] = 0.60 ± 0.12, cloud opacity parameter of f{sub sed} = 2–5, R = 0.96 ± 0.07 R{sub Jup}, and log(L) = −6.13 ± 0.03 L{sub ⊙}, implying a hot start mass of 3–30 M{sub jup} for a conservative age range of 0.1–6.5 Gyr. Of particular interest, our model fits suggest that GJ 504 b has a superstellar metallicity. Since planet formation can create objects with nonstellar metallicities, while binary star formation cannot, this result suggests that GJ 504 b formed like a planet, not like a binary companion.

The effect of fog on the probability density distribution of the ranging data of imaging laser radar

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wenhua Song

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This paper outlines theoretically investigations of the probability density distribution (PDD of ranging data for the imaging laser radar (ILR system operating at a wavelength of 905 nm under the fog condition. Based on the physical model of the reflected laser pulses from a standard Lambertian target, a theoretical approximate model of PDD of the ranging data is developed under different fog concentrations, which offer improved precision target ranging and imaging. An experimental test bed for the ILR system is developed and its performance is evaluated using a dedicated indoor atmospheric chamber under homogeneously controlled fog conditions. We show that the measured results are in good agreement with both the accurate and approximate models within a given margin of error of less than 1%.

The effect of fog on the probability density distribution of the ranging data of imaging laser radar

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Wenhua; Lai, JianCheng; Ghassemlooy, Zabih; Gu, Zhiyong; Yan, Wei; Wang, Chunyong; Li, Zhenhua

2018-02-01

This paper outlines theoretically investigations of the probability density distribution (PDD) of ranging data for the imaging laser radar (ILR) system operating at a wavelength of 905 nm under the fog condition. Based on the physical model of the reflected laser pulses from a standard Lambertian target, a theoretical approximate model of PDD of the ranging data is developed under different fog concentrations, which offer improved precision target ranging and imaging. An experimental test bed for the ILR system is developed and its performance is evaluated using a dedicated indoor atmospheric chamber under homogeneously controlled fog conditions. We show that the measured results are in good agreement with both the accurate and approximate models within a given margin of error of less than 1%.

Analysis and classification of commercial ham slice images using directional fractal dimension features.

Science.gov (United States)

Mendoza, Fernando; Valous, Nektarios A; Allen, Paul; Kenny, Tony A; Ward, Paddy; Sun, Da-Wen

2009-02-01

This paper presents a novel and non-destructive approach to the appearance characterization and classification of commercial pork, turkey and chicken ham slices. Ham slice images were modelled using directional fractal (DF(0°;45°;90°;135°)) dimensions and a minimum distance classifier was adopted to perform the classification task. Also, the role of different colour spaces and the resolution level of the images on DF analysis were investigated. This approach was applied to 480 wafer thin ham slices from four types of hams (120 slices per type): i.e., pork (cooked and smoked), turkey (smoked) and chicken (roasted). DF features were extracted from digitalized intensity images in greyscale, and R, G, B, L(∗), a(∗), b(∗), H, S, and V colour components for three image resolution levels (100%, 50%, and 25%). Simulation results show that in spite of the complexity and high variability in colour and texture appearance, the modelling of ham slice images with DF dimensions allows the capture of differentiating textural features between the four commercial ham types. Independent DF features entail better discrimination than that using the average of four directions. However, DF dimensions reveal a high sensitivity to colour channel, orientation and image resolution for the fractal analysis. The classification accuracy using six DF dimension features (a(90°)(∗),a(135°)(∗),H(0°),H(45°),S(0°),H(90°)) was 93.9% for training data and 82.2% for testing data.

Two dimensional estimates from ocean SAR images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. M. Le Caillec

1996-01-01

Full Text Available Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR images of the ocean yield a lot of information on the sea-state surface providing that the mapping process between the surface and the image is clearly defined. However it is well known that SAR images exhibit non-gaussian statistics and that the motion of the scatterers on the surface, while the image is being formed, may yield to nonlinearities. The detection and quantification of these nonlinearities are made possible by using Higher Order Spectra (HOS methods and more specifically, bispectrum estimation. The development of the latter method allowed us to find phase relations between different parts of the image and to recognise their level of coupling, i.e. if and how waves of different wavelengths interacted nonlinearly. This information is quite important as the usual models assume strong nonlinearities when the waves are propagating in the azimuthal direction (i.e. along the satellite track and almost no nonlinearities when propagating in the range direction. In this paper, the mapping of the ocean surface to the SAR image is reinterpreted and a specific model (i.e. a Second Order Volterra Model is introduced. The nonlinearities are thus explained as either produced by a nonlinear system or due to waves propagating into selected directions (azimuth or range and interacting during image formation. It is shown that quadratic nonlinearities occur for waves propagating near the range direction while for those travelling in the azimuthal direction the nonlinearities, when present, are mostly due to wave interactions but are almost completely removed by the filtering effect coming from the surface motion itself (azimuth cut-off. An inherent quadratic interaction filtering (azimuth high pass filter is also present. But some other effects, apparently nonlinear, are not detected with the methods described here, meaning that either the usual relation developed for the Ocean-to-SAR transform is somewhat incomplete

Mid-callosal plane determination using preferred directions from diffusion tensor images

Science.gov (United States)

Costa, André L.; Rittner, Letícia; Lotufo, Roberto A.; Appenzeller, Simone

2015-03-01

The corpus callosum is the major brain structure responsible for inter{hemispheric communication between neurons. Many studies seek to relate corpus callosum attributes to patient characteristics, cerebral diseases and psychological disorders. Most of those studies rely on 2D analysis of the corpus callosum in the mid-sagittal plane. However, it is common to find conflicting results among studies, once many ignore methodological issues and define the mid-sagittal plane based on precary or invalid criteria with respect to the corpus callosum. In this work we propose a novel method to determine the mid-callosal plane using the corpus callosum internal preferred diffusion directions obtained from diffusion tensor images. This plane is analogous to the mid-sagittal plane, but intended to serve exclusively as the corpus callosum reference. Our method elucidates the great potential the directional information of the corpus callosum fibers have to indicate its own referential. Results from experiments with five image pairs from distinct subjects, obtained under the same conditions, demonstrate the method effectiveness to find the corpus callosum symmetric axis relative to the axial plane.

Direct bolus imaging of cervical blood vessels by means of MRI

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Satoh, Toshihiko; Fujioka, Mutsuhisa; Watari, Tsutomu; Nishimura, Gen; Matsumoto, Toshihiko; Washiya, Sumio; Inoue, Kiyoshi; Horita, Masatoshi; Shimizu, Kohji.

1991-01-01

Direct bolus imaging (DBI) is one of the non-invasive method for flow measurements which is based on the bolus tracking technique. DBI permits the direct visualization of flow velocity profiles and vessel band width. We performed screening for cervical vessel disease in patients with vertigo by means of DBI. MR system used here was 0.5 T superconducting imager-SMT-50A (Shimazu Co. Ltd). Pulse sequence parameters were TR= 60 ms, TE= 50 ms, NEX= 1, acquisition matrix; 128 x 256, slice thickness= 5 mm, with cardiac gating. Pulse sequence employed a slice selective RF pulse at the level of C5 vertebral body to tag a disk of fluid perpendicular to the direction of flow, followed by a gradient reforcussed echo. We evaluated each peak high and band width of the common-carotid arteries and the vertebral arteries. Seventy nine of 83 cases had optimal examinations. Abnormal findings of DBI were seen in 15 of 79 cases, (including 2 of subclavian steal syndrome, 1 of carotid obstruction, 5 of vertebral obstruction, 1 of basilar artery obstruction, and 6 of hypoplasia of vertebral artery). The abnormal findings of DBI were well correlated with those of angiographic examinations. We concluded that DBI was suitable to the screening for cervical vessel diseases in patients with vertigo, and should be added to the routine MR studies. (author)

WFIRST: Retrieval Studies of Directly Imaged Extrasolar Giant Planets

Science.gov (United States)

Marley, Mark; Lupu, Roxana; Lewis, Nikole K.; WFIRST Coronagraph SITs

2018-01-01

The typical direct imaging and spectroscopy target for the WFIRST Coronagraph will be a mature Jupiter-mass giant planet at a few AU from an FGK star. The spectra of such planets is expected to be shaped primarily by scattering from H2O clouds and absorption by gaseous NH3 and CH4. We have computed forward model spectra of such typical planets and applied noise models to understand the quality of photometry and spectra we can expect. Using such simulated datasets we have conducted Markov Chain Monte Carlo and MultiNest retrievals to derive atmospheric abundance of CH4, cloud scattering properties, gravity, and other parameters for various planets and observing modes. Our focus has primarily been to understand which combinations of photometry and spectroscopy at what SNR allow retrievals of atmospheric methane mixing ratios to within a factor of ten of the true value. This is a challenging task for directly imaged planets as the planet mass and radius--and thus surface gravity--are not as well constrained as in the case of transiting planets. We find that for plausible planets and datasets of the quality expected to be obtained by WFIRST it should be possible to place such constraints, at least for some planets. We present some examples of our retrieval results and explain how they have been utilized to help set design requirements on the coronagraph camera and integrated field spectrometer.

NUFFT-Based Iterative Image Reconstruction via Alternating Direction Total Variation Minimization for Sparse-View CT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bin Yan

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Sparse-view imaging is a promising scanning method which can reduce the radiation dose in X-ray computed tomography (CT. Reconstruction algorithm for sparse-view imaging system is of significant importance. The adoption of the spatial iterative algorithm for CT image reconstruction has a low operation efficiency and high computation requirement. A novel Fourier-based iterative reconstruction technique that utilizes nonuniform fast Fourier transform is presented in this study along with the advanced total variation (TV regularization for sparse-view CT. Combined with the alternating direction method, the proposed approach shows excellent efficiency and rapid convergence property. Numerical simulations and real data experiments are performed on a parallel beam CT. Experimental results validate that the proposed method has higher computational efficiency and better reconstruction quality than the conventional algorithms, such as simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique using TV method and the alternating direction total variation minimization approach, with the same time duration. The proposed method appears to have extensive applications in X-ray CT imaging.

DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING IN A DIRECT-ACCESS SPORTS PHYSICAL THERAPY CLINIC: A 2-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE PRACTICE ANALYSIS.

Science.gov (United States)

Crowell, Michael S; Dedekam, Erik A; Johnson, Michael R; Dembowski, Scott C; Westrick, Richard B; Goss, Donald L

2016-10-01

While advanced diagnostic imaging is a large contributor to the growth in health care costs, direct-access to physical therapy is associated with decreased rates of diagnostic imaging. No study has systematically evaluated with evidence-based criteria the appropriateness of advanced diagnostic imaging, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), when ordered by physical therapists. The primary purpose of this study was to describe the appropriateness of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or magnetic resonance arthrogram (MRA) exams ordered by physical therapists in a direct-access sports physical therapy clinic. Retrospective observational study of practice. Greater than 80% of advanced diagnostic imaging orders would have an American College of Radiology (ACR) Appropriateness Criteria rating of greater than 6, indicating an imaging order that is usually appropriate. A 2-year retrospective analysis identified 108 MRI/MRA examination orders from four physical therapists. A board-certified radiologist determined the appropriateness of each order based on ACR appropriateness criteria. The principal investigator and co-investigator radiologist assessed agreement between the clinical diagnosis and MRI/surgical findings. Knee (31%) and shoulder (25%) injuries were the most common. Overall, 55% of injuries were acute. The mean ACR rating was 7.7; scores from six to nine have been considered appropriate orders and higher ratings are better. The percentage of orders complying with ACR appropriateness criteria was 83.2%. Physical therapist's clinical diagnosis was confirmed by MRI/MRA findings in 64.8% of cases and was confirmed by surgical findings in 90% of cases. Physical therapists providing musculoskeletal primary care in a direct-access sports physical therapy clinic appropriately ordered advanced diagnostic imaging in over 80% of cases. Future research should prospectively compare physical therapist appropriateness and utilization to other groups of providers and

A new approach towards image based virtual 3D city modeling by using close range photogrammetry

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, S. P.; Jain, K.; Mandla, V. R.

2014-05-01

3D city model is a digital representation of the Earth's surface and it's related objects such as building, tree, vegetation, and some manmade feature belonging to urban area. The demand of 3D city modeling is increasing day to day for various engineering and non-engineering applications. Generally three main image based approaches are using for virtual 3D city models generation. In first approach, researchers used Sketch based modeling, second method is Procedural grammar based modeling and third approach is Close range photogrammetry based modeling. Literature study shows that till date, there is no complete solution available to create complete 3D city model by using images. These image based methods also have limitations This paper gives a new approach towards image based virtual 3D city modeling by using close range photogrammetry. This approach is divided into three sections. First, data acquisition process, second is 3D data processing, and third is data combination process. In data acquisition process, a multi-camera setup developed and used for video recording of an area. Image frames created from video data. Minimum required and suitable video image frame selected for 3D processing. In second section, based on close range photogrammetric principles and computer vision techniques, 3D model of area created. In third section, this 3D model exported to adding and merging of other pieces of large area. Scaling and alignment of 3D model was done. After applying the texturing and rendering on this model, a final photo-realistic textured 3D model created. This 3D model transferred into walk-through model or in movie form. Most of the processing steps are automatic. So this method is cost effective and less laborious. Accuracy of this model is good. For this research work, study area is the campus of department of civil engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. This campus acts as a prototype for city. Aerial photography is restricted in many country

Metabolic Profiling Directly from the Petri Dish Using Nanospray Desorption Electrospray Ionization Imaging Mass Spectrometry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Watrous, Jeramie D.; Roach, Patrick J.; Heath, Brandi S.; Alexandrov, Theodore; Laskin, Julia; Dorrestein, Pieter C.

2013-11-05

Understanding molecular interaction pathways in complex biological systems constitutes a treasure trove of knowledge that might facilitate the specific, chemical manipulation of the countless microbiological systems that occur throughout our world. However, there is a lack of methodologies that allow the direct investigation of chemical gradients and interactions in living biological systems, in real time. Here, we report the use of nanospray desorption electrospray ionization (nanoDESI) imaging mass spectrometry for in vivo metabolic profiling of living bacterial colonies directly from the Petri dish with absolutely no sample preparation needed. Using this technique, we investigated single colonies of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, Bacillus subtilis 3610, and Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) as well as a mixed biofilm of S. oneidensis MR-1 and B. subtilis 3610. Data from B. subtilis 3610 and S. coelicolor A3(2) provided a means of validation for the method while data from S. oneidensis MR-1 and the mixed biofilm showed a wide range of compounds that this bacterium uses for the dissimilatory reduction of extracellular metal oxides, including riboflavin, iron-bound heme and heme biosynthetic intermediates, and the siderophore putrebactin.

An alternative approach to determine attainable resolution directly from HREM images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, A.; Turner, S.; Van Aert, S.; Van Dyck, D.

2013-01-01

The concept of resolution in high-resolution electron microscopy (HREM) is the power to resolve neighboring atoms. Since the resolution is related to the width of the point spread function of the microscope, it could in principle be determined from the image of a point object. However, in electron microscopy there are no ideal point objects. The smallest object is an individual atom. If the width of an atom is much smaller than the resolution of the microscope, this atom can still be considered as a point object. As the resolution of the microscope enters the sub-Å regime, information about the microscope is strongly entangled with the information about the atoms in HREM images. Therefore, we need to find an alternative method to determine the resolution in an object-independent way. In this work we propose to use the image wave of a crystalline object in zone axis orientation. Under this condition, the atoms of a column act as small lenses so that the electron beam channels through the atom column periodically. Because of this focusing, the image wave of the column can be much more peaked than the constituting atoms and can thus be a much more sensitive probe to measure the resolution. Our approach is to use the peakiness of the image wave of the atom column to determine the resolution. We will show that the resolution can be directly linked to the total curvature of the atom column wave. Moreover, we can then directly obtain the resolution of the microscope given that the contribution from the object is known, which is related to the bounding energy of the atom. The method is applied on an experimental CaTiO 3 image wave. - Highlights: • Microscope aberrations and the size of the atoms influence the resolution at the sub-Å level. • In channeling condition the atoms in the column focus the electron beam into a narrow peak at the exit face. • The shape of this peak can be used to determine the resolution in an object independent way. • This results in a

Direct imaging of neural currents using ultra-low field magnetic resonance techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Volegov, Petr L [Los Alamos, NM; Matlashov, Andrei N [Los Alamos, NM; Mosher, John C [Los Alamos, NM; Espy, Michelle A [Los Alamos, NM; Kraus, Jr., Robert H.

2009-08-11

Using resonant interactions to directly and tomographically image neural activity in the human brain using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques at ultra-low field (ULF), the present inventors have established an approach that is sensitive to magnetic field distributions local to the spin population in cortex at the Larmor frequency of the measurement field. Because the Larmor frequency can be readily manipulated (through varying B.sub.m), one can also envision using ULF-DNI to image the frequency distribution of the local fields in cortex. Such information, taken together with simultaneous acquisition of MEG and ULF-NMR signals, enables non-invasive exploration of the correlation between local fields induced by neural activity in cortex and more `distant` measures of brain activity such as MEG and EEG.

Effect of direct neuroradiologist participation in physician marketing on imaging volumes in outpatient radiology.

Science.gov (United States)

Grignon, L; Keiper, M; Vavricek, J; Horsley, W; Murphy, R; Grignon, A; Yu, F

2014-08-01

Over the past several years, decreased demand for and increased supply of imaging services has increased competition among outpatient imaging centers in the United States. This study hypothesizes that using a radiology sales representative and neuroradiologist as a team in marketing and sales will increase imaging referrals in outpatient imaging. From January to December 2009, baseline monthly physician referral data of CT and MR scans of 19 referring clinicians (neurologists, neurosurgeons, and anesthesiologists) to an outpatient radiology group were collected. During that time, a nonphysician radiology sales representative visited the referring clinicians' offices every 2 weeks. From January to June 2010, the same radiology sales representative visited the referring clinicians' offices every 2 weeks but was accompanied by a neuroradiologist once a month. From July 2010 to June 2011, the same radiology sales representative visited the referring clinicians' offices twice a month without a neuroradiologist. Cross-sectional imaging referral volumes were approximately 2.5 times greater during the 6-month period using the neuroradiologist for direct physician-to-physician marketing when compared with the volumes achieved with the sales representative alone, and continued neuroradiologist involvement in marketing and sales is required to maintain referral volumes over time. The impact on imaging referral volumes during the 6-month use of the neuroradiologist for direct physician-to-physician marketing in this study supports the assertion that neuroradiologist visits are an important element in establishing and maintaining a relationship with the referring clinician's office and thereby maximizing imaging referrals. © 2014 by American Journal of Neuroradiology.

Native-range habitats of invasive plants: are they similar to invaded-range habitats and do they differ according to the geographical direction of invasion?

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Hejda, Martin; Chytrý, M.; Pergl, Jan; Pyšek, Petr

2015-01-01

Roč. 21, č. 3 (2015), s. 312-321 ISSN 1366-9516 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP505/11/1112 Institutional support: RVO:67985939 Keywords : biological invasions * direction of invasions * native-range habitats Subject RIV: EF - Botanics Impact factor: 4.566, year: 2015

A Novel Range Compression Algorithm for Resolution Enhancement in GNSS-SARs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu Zheng

2017-06-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a novel range compression algorithm for enhancing range resolutions of a passive Global Navigation Satellite System-based Synthetic Aperture Radar (GNSS-SAR is proposed. In the proposed algorithm, within each azimuth bin, firstly range compression is carried out by correlating a reflected GNSS intermediate frequency (IF signal with a synchronized direct GNSS base-band signal in the range domain. Thereafter, spectrum equalization is applied to the compressed results for suppressing side lobes to obtain a final range-compressed signal. Both theoretical analysis and simulation results have demonstrated that significant range resolution improvement in GNSS-SAR images can be achieved by the proposed range compression algorithm, compared to the conventional range compression algorithm.

Low-power low-noise mixed-mode VLSI ASIC for infinite dynamic range imaging applications

Science.gov (United States)

Turchetta, Renato; Hu, Y.; Zinzius, Y.; Colledani, C.; Loge, A.

1998-11-01

Solid state solutions for imaging are mainly represented by CCDs and, more recently, by CMOS imagers. Both devices are based on the integration of the total charge generated by the impinging radiation, with no processing of the single photon information. The dynamic range of these devices is intrinsically limited by the finite value of noise. Here we present the design of an architecture which allows efficient, in-pixel, noise reduction to a practically zero level, thus allowing infinite dynamic range imaging. A detailed calculation of the dynamic range is worked out, showing that noise is efficiently suppressed. This architecture is based on the concept of single-photon counting. In each pixel, we integrate both the front-end, low-noise, low-power analog part and the digital part. The former consists of a charge preamplifier, an active filter for optimal noise bandwidth reduction, a buffer and a threshold comparator, and the latter is simply a counter, which can be programmed to act as a normal shift register for the readout of the counters' contents. Two different ASIC's based on this concept have been designed for different applications. The first one has been optimized for silicon edge-on microstrips detectors, used in a digital mammography R and D project. It is a 32-channel circuit, with a 16-bit binary static counter.It has been optimized for a relatively large detector capacitance of 5 pF. Noise has been measured to be equal to 100 + 7*Cd (pF) electron rms with the digital part, showing no degradation of the noise performances with respect to the design values. The power consumption is 3.8mW/channel for a peaking time of about 1 microsecond(s) . The second circuit is a prototype for pixel imaging. The total active area is about (250 micrometers )**2. The main differences of the electronic architecture with respect to the first prototype are: i) different optimization of the analog front-end part for low-capacitance detectors, ii) in- pixel 4-bit comparator

Fast image acquisition and processing on a TV camera-based portal imaging system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baier, K.; Meyer, J.

2005-01-01

The present paper describes the fast acquisition and processing of portal images directly from a TV camera-based portal imaging device (Siemens Beamview Plus trademark). This approach employs not only hard- and software included in the standard package installed by the manufacturer (in particular the frame grabber card and the Matrox(tm) Intellicam interpreter software), but also a software tool developed in-house for further processing and analysis of the images. The technical details are presented, including the source code for the Matrox trademark interpreter script that enables the image capturing process. With this method it is possible to obtain raw images directly from the frame grabber card at an acquisition rate of 15 images per second. The original configuration by the manufacturer allows the acquisition of only a few images over the course of a treatment session. The approach has a wide range of applications, such as quality assurance (QA) of the radiation beam, real-time imaging, real-time verification of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) fields, and generation of movies of the radiation field (fluoroscopy mode). (orig.)

Magnetic particle imaging: current developments and future directions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Panagiotopoulos N

2015-04-01

of different theories and technical approaches on the way to the actual implementation of the basic concept of MPI have been seen in the last few years. Research groups around the world are working on different scanner geometries, from closed bore systems to single-sided scanners, and use reconstruction methods that are either based on actual calibration measurements or on theoretical models. This review aims at giving an overview of current developments and future directions in MPI about a decade after its first appearance. Keywords: magnetic particle imaging, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, magnetic particle spectrometer, peripheral nerve stimulation, cardiovascular interventions

Spatially modulated imaging system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barrett, H.H.

1975-01-01

Noncoherent radiation, such as x-rays, is spatially coded, directed through an object and spatially detected to form a spatially coded pattern, from which an image of the object may be reconstructed. The x-ray source may be formed by x-ray fluorescence and substration of the holographic images formed by two sources having energy levels predominantly above and below the maximum absorption range of an agent in the object may be used to enhance contrast in the reproduced image. (Patent Office Record)

Phase contrast image synthesis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Glückstad, J.

1996-01-01

A new method is presented for synthesizing arbitrary intensity patterns based on phase contrast imaging. The concept is grounded on an extension of the Zernike phase contrast method into the domain of full range [0; 2 pi] phase modulation. By controlling the average value of the input phase funct...... function and by choosing appropriate phase retardation at the phase contrast filter, a pure phase to intensity imaging is accomplished. The method presented is also directly applicable in dark field image synthesis....

BinCat: a Catalog of Nearby Binary Stars with Tools for Calculating Light-Leakage for Direct Imaging Missions

Science.gov (United States)

Holte, Elias Peter; Sirbu, Dan; Belikov, Ruslan

2018-01-01

Binary stars have been largely left out of direct imaging surveys for exoplanets, specifically for earth-sized planets in their star's habitable zone. Utilizing new direct imaging techniques brings us closer to being able to detect earth-like exoplanets around binary stars. In preparation for the upcoming WFIRST mission and other direct imaging-capable missions (HabEx, LUVIOR) it is important to understand the expected science yield resulting from the implementation of these imaging techniques. BinCat is a catalog of binary systems within 30 parsecs to be used as a target list for future direct imaging missions. There is a non-static component along with BinCat that allows researchers to predict the expected light-leakage between a binary component and its off-axis companion (a value critical to the aforementioned techniques) at any epoch. This is accomplished by using orbital elements from the Sixth Orbital Catalog to model the orbits of the binaries. The software was validated against the historical data used to generate the orbital parameters. When orbital information is unknown or the binaries are purely optical the proper motion of the pair taken from the Washington Double Star catalog is integrated in time to estimate expected light-leakage.

Prototype system for proton beam range measurement based on gamma electron vertex imaging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Han Rim [Neutron Utilization Technology Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 111, Daedeok-daero 989beon-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34057 (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Sung Hun; Park, Jong Hoon [Department of Nuclear Engineering, Hanyang University, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 04763 (Korea, Republic of); Jung, Won Gyun [Heavy-ion Clinical Research Division, Korean Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences, Seoul 01812 (Korea, Republic of); Lim, Hansang [Department of Electronics Convergence Engineering, Kwangwoon University, Seoul 01897 (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Chan Hyeong, E-mail: chkim@hanyang.ac.kr [Department of Nuclear Engineering, Hanyang University, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 04763 (Korea, Republic of)

2017-06-11

In proton therapy, for both therapeutic effectiveness and patient safety, it is very important to accurately measure the proton dose distribution, especially the range of the proton beam. For this purpose, recently we proposed a new imaging method named gamma electron vertex imaging (GEVI), in which the prompt gammas emitting from the nuclear reactions of the proton beam in the patient are converted to electrons, and then the converted electrons are tracked to determine the vertices of the prompt gammas, thereby producing a 2D image of the vertices. In the present study, we developed a prototype GEVI system, including dedicated signal processing and data acquisition systems, which consists of a beryllium plate (= electron converter) to convert the prompt gammas to electrons, two double-sided silicon strip detectors (= hodoscopes) to determine the trajectories of those converted electrons, and a plastic scintillation detector (= calorimeter) to measure their kinetic energies. The system uses triple coincidence logic and multiple energy windows to select only the events from prompt gammas. The detectors of the prototype GEVI system were evaluated for electronic noise level, energy resolution, and time resolution. Finally, the imaging capability of the GEVI system was tested by imaging a {sup 90}Sr beta source, a {sup 60}Co gamma source, and a 45-MeV proton beam in a PMMA phantom. The overall results of the present study generally show that the prototype GEVI system can image the vertices of the prompt gammas produced by the proton nuclear interactions.

Generation of Customizable Micro-wavy Pattern through Grayscale Direct Image Lithography.

Science.gov (United States)

He, Ran; Wang, Shunqiang; Andrews, Geoffrey; Shi, Wentao; Liu, Yaling

2016-02-23

With the increasing amount of research work in surface studies, a more effective method of producing patterned microstructures is highly desired due to the geometric limitations and complex fabricating process of current techniques. This paper presents an efficient and cost-effective method to generate customizable micro-wavy pattern using direct image lithography. This method utilizes a grayscale Gaussian distribution effect to model inaccuracies inherent in the polymerization process, which are normally regarded as trivial matters or errors. The measured surface profiles and the mathematical prediction show a good agreement, demonstrating the ability of this method to generate wavy patterns with precisely controlled features. An accurate pattern can be generated with customizable parameters (wavelength, amplitude, wave shape, pattern profile, and overall dimension). This mask-free photolithography approach provides a rapid fabrication method that is capable of generating complex and non-uniform 3D wavy patterns with the wavelength ranging from 12 μm to 2100 μm and an amplitude-to-wavelength ratio as large as 300%. Microfluidic devices with pure wavy and wavy-herringbone patterns suitable for capture of circulating tumor cells are made as a demonstrative application. A completely customized microfluidic device with wavy patterns can be created within a few hours without access to clean room or commercial photolithography equipment.

Generation of Customizable Micro-wavy Pattern through Grayscale Direct Image Lithography

Science.gov (United States)

He, Ran; Wang, Shunqiang; Andrews, Geoffrey; Shi, Wentao; Liu, Yaling

2016-02-01

With the increasing amount of research work in surface studies, a more effective method of producing patterned microstructures is highly desired due to the geometric limitations and complex fabricating process of current techniques. This paper presents an efficient and cost-effective method to generate customizable micro-wavy pattern using direct image lithography. This method utilizes a grayscale Gaussian distribution effect to model inaccuracies inherent in the polymerization process, which are normally regarded as trivial matters or errors. The measured surface profiles and the mathematical prediction show a good agreement, demonstrating the ability of this method to generate wavy patterns with precisely controlled features. An accurate pattern can be generated with customizable parameters (wavelength, amplitude, wave shape, pattern profile, and overall dimension). This mask-free photolithography approach provides a rapid fabrication method that is capable of generating complex and non-uniform 3D wavy patterns with the wavelength ranging from 12 μm to 2100 μm and an amplitude-to-wavelength ratio as large as 300%. Microfluidic devices with pure wavy and wavy-herringbone patterns suitable for capture of circulating tumor cells are made as a demonstrative application. A completely customized microfluidic device with wavy patterns can be created within a few hours without access to clean room or commercial photolithography equipment.

Design and control of multi-actuated atomic force microscope for large-range and high-speed imaging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Soltani Bozchalooi, I.; Careaga Houck, A. [Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States); AlGhamdi, J. [Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States); Department of Chemistry, College of Science, University of Dammam, Dammam (Saudi Arabia); Youcef-Toumi, K. [Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)

2016-01-15

This paper presents the design and control of a high-speed and large-range atomic force microscopy (AFM). A multi-actuation scheme is proposed where several nano-positioners cooperate to achieve the range and speed requirements. A simple data-based control design methodology is presented to effectively operate the AFM scanner components. The proposed controllers compensate for the coupled dynamics and divide the positioning responsibilities between the scanner components. As a result, the multi-actuated scanner behavior is equivalent to that of a single X–Y–Z positioner with large range and high speed. The scanner of the designed AFM is composed of five nano-positioners, features 6 μm out-of-plane and 120 μm lateral ranges and is capable of high-speed operation. The presented AFM has a modular design with laser spot size of 3.5 μm suitable for small cantilever, an optical view of the sample and probe, a conveniently large waterproof sample stage and a 20 MHz data throughput for high resolution image acquisition at high imaging speeds. This AFM is used to visualize etching of calcite in a solution of sulfuric acid. Layer-by-layer dissolution and pit formation along the crystalline lines in a low pH environment is observed in real time. - Highlights: • High-speed AFM imaging is extended to large lateral and vertical scan ranges. • A general multi-actuation approach to atomic force microscopy is presented. • A high-speed AFM is designed and implemented based on the proposed method. • Multi-actuator control is designed auxiliary to a PID unit to maintain flexibility. • Influence of calcite crystal structure on dissolution is visualized in video form.

Anisotropic conductivity tensor imaging in MREIT using directional diffusion rate of water molecules

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kwon, Oh In; Jeong, Woo Chul; Sajib, Saurav Z K; Kim, Hyung Joong; Woo, Eung Je

2014-01-01

Magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT) is an emerging method to visualize electrical conductivity and/or current density images at low frequencies (below 1 KHz). Injecting currents into an imaging object, one component of the induced magnetic flux density is acquired using an MRI scanner for isotropic conductivity image reconstructions. Diffusion tensor MRI (DT-MRI) measures the intrinsic three-dimensional diffusion property of water molecules within a tissue. It characterizes the anisotropic water transport by the effective diffusion tensor. Combining the DT-MRI and MREIT techniques, we propose a novel direct method for absolute conductivity tensor image reconstructions based on a linear relationship between the water diffusion tensor and the electrical conductivity tensor. We first recover the projected current density, which is the best approximation of the internal current density one can obtain from the measured single component of the induced magnetic flux density. This enables us to estimate a scale factor between the diffusion tensor and the conductivity tensor. Combining these values at all pixels with the acquired diffusion tensor map, we can quantitatively recover the anisotropic conductivity tensor map. From numerical simulations and experimental verifications using a biological tissue phantom, we found that the new method overcomes the limitations of each method and successfully reconstructs both the direction and magnitude of the conductivity tensor for both the anisotropic and isotropic regions. (paper)

Applications of the Integrated High-Performance CMOS Image Sensor to Range Finders — from Optical Triangulation to the Automotive Field

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joe-Air Jiang

2008-03-01

Full Text Available With their significant features, the applications of complementary metal-oxidesemiconductor (CMOS image sensors covers a very extensive range, from industrialautomation to traffic applications such as aiming systems, blind guidance, active/passiverange finders, etc. In this paper CMOS image sensor-based active and passive rangefinders are presented. The measurement scheme of the proposed active/passive rangefinders is based on a simple triangulation method. The designed range finders chieflyconsist of a CMOS image sensor and some light sources such as lasers or LEDs. Theimplementation cost of our range finders is quite low. Image processing software to adjustthe exposure time (ET of the CMOS image sensor to enhance the performance oftriangulation-based range finders was also developed. An extensive series of experimentswere conducted to evaluate the performance of the designed range finders. From theexperimental results, the distance measurement resolutions achieved by the active rangefinder and the passive range finder can be better than 0.6% and 0.25% within themeasurement ranges of 1 to 8 m and 5 to 45 m, respectively. Feasibility tests onapplications of the developed CMOS image sensor-based range finders to the automotivefield were also conducted. The experimental results demonstrated that our range finders arewell-suited for distance measurements in this field.

Cost-Effectiveness Comparison of Imaging-Guided Prostate Biopsy Techniques: Systematic Transrectal Ultrasound, Direct In-Bore MRI, and Image Fusion

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Venderink, W.; Govers, T.M.; Rooij, M. de; Futterer, J.J.; Sedelaar, J.P.M.

2017-01-01

OBJECTIVE: Three commonly used prostate biopsy approaches are systematic transrectal ultrasound guided, direct in-bore MRI guided, and image fusion guided. The aim of this study was to calculate which strategy is most cost-effective. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A decision tree and Markov model were

WE-AB-303-08: Direct Lung Tumor Tracking Using Short Imaging Arcs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shieh, C; Huang, C; Keall, P; Feain, I

2015-01-01

Purpose: Most current tumor tracking technologies rely on implanted markers, which suffer from potential toxicity of marker placement and mis-targeting due to marker migration. Several markerless tracking methods have been proposed: these are either indirect methods or have difficulties tracking lung tumors in most clinical cases due to overlapping anatomies in 2D projection images. We propose a direct lung tumor tracking algorithm robust to overlapping anatomies using short imaging arcs. Methods: The proposed algorithm tracks the tumor based on kV projections acquired within the latest six-degree imaging arc. To account for respiratory motion, an external motion surrogate is used to select projections of the same phase within the latest arc. For each arc, the pre-treatment 4D cone-beam CT (CBCT) with tumor contours are used to estimate and remove the contribution to the integral attenuation from surrounding anatomies. The position of the tumor model extracted from 4D CBCT of the same phase is then optimized to match the processed projections using the conjugate gradient method. The algorithm was retrospectively validated on two kV scans of a lung cancer patient with implanted fiducial markers. This patient was selected as the tumor is attached to the mediastinum, representing a challenging case for markerless tracking methods. The tracking results were converted to expected marker positions and compared with marker trajectories obtained via direct marker segmentation (ground truth). Results: The root-mean-squared-errors of tracking were 0.8 mm and 0.9 mm in the superior-inferior direction for the two scans. Tracking error was found to be below 2 and 3 mm for 90% and 98% of the time, respectively. Conclusions: A direct lung tumor tracking algorithm robust to overlapping anatomies was proposed and validated on two scans of a lung cancer patient. Sub-millimeter tracking accuracy was observed, indicating the potential of this algorithm for real-time guidance

A Directional Antenna in a Matching Liquid for Microwave Radar Imaging

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saeed I. Latif

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The detailed design equations and antenna parameters for a directional antenna for breast imaging are presented in this paper. The antenna was designed so that it could be immersed in canola oil to achieve efficient coupling of the electromagnetic energy to the breast tissue. Ridges were used in the horn antenna to increase the operating bandwidth. The antenna has an exponentially tapered section for impedance matching. The double-ridged horn antenna has a wideband performance from 1.5 GHz to 5 GHz (3.75 GHz or 110% of impedance bandwidth, which is suitable for breast microwave radar imaging. The fabricated antenna was tested and compared with simulated results, and similar bandwidths were obtained. Experiments were conducted on breast phantoms using these antennas, to detect a simulated breast lesion. The reconstructed image from the experiments shows distinguishable tumor responses indicating promising results for successful breast cancer detection.

Software for X-Ray Images Calculation of Hydrogen Compression Device in Megabar Pressure Range

Science.gov (United States)

Egorov, Nikolay; Bykov, Alexander; Pavlov, Valery

2007-06-01

Software for x-ray images simulation is described. The software is a part of x-ray method used for investigation of an equation of state of hydrogen in a megabar pressure range. A graphical interface that clearly and simply allows users to input data for x-ray image calculation: properties of the studied device, parameters of the x-ray radiation source, parameters of the x-ray radiation recorder, the experiment geometry; to represent the calculation results and efficiently transmit them to other software for processing. The calculation time is minimized. This makes it possible to perform calculations in a dialogue regime. The software is written in ``MATLAB'' system.

Characterizing a discrete-to-discrete X-ray transform for iterative image reconstruction with limited angular-range scanning in CT

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sidky, Emil; Jørgensen, Jakob Heide; Pan, Xiaochuan

2012-01-01

Iterative image reconstruction in computed tomography often employs a discrete-to-discrete (DD) linear data model, and many of the aspects of the image recovery relate directly to the properties of this linear model. While much is known about the properties of the continuous X-ray, the correspond...

Fourier domain optical coherence tomography achieves full range complex imaging in vivo by introducing a carrier frequency during scanning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Ruikang K

2007-01-01

The author describes a Fourier domain optical coherence tomography (FDOCT) system that is capable of full range complex imaging in vivo. This is achieved by introducing a constant carrier frequency into the OCT spectral interferograms at the time when imaging is performed. The complex functions of the spatial interferograms formed by each single wavelength are constructed before performing the Fourier transformation to localize the scatters within a sample. Two algorithms, based on Fourier filtering and Hilbert transformation, respectively, are described to achieve the full range complex FDOCT imaging. It is shown that the Hilbert transformation approach delivers better performance than the Fourier filtering method does in terms of tolerating the sample movement in vivo. The author finally demonstrates experimentally the system and algorithms for true in vivo imaging at a rate of 20 000 axial scans per second

Photopolarimetric properties of leaf and vegetation covers over a wide range of measurement directions

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Zhongqiu; Peng, Zhiyan; Wu, Di; Lv, Yunfeng

2018-02-01

The optical scattering property of the target is the essential signal for passive remote sensing applications. To deepen our understanding of the light reflected from vegetation, we present results of photopolarimetric laboratory measurements from single leaf and two vegetation covers (planophile and erectophile) over a wide range of viewing directions. The bidirectional polarized reflectance factor (BPRF) was used to characterize the polarization property of our samples. We observed positive and negative polarization (-BPRFQ) of all samples in the forward scattering and backward scattering directions, respectively. Based on the comparison of the BPRF among single leaf, planophile vegetation and erectophile vegetation, our measurements demonstrate that the orientation of the leaf is a key factor in describing the amount of polarization in the forward scattering direction. Our measurements also validated certain model results stating that (1) specular reflection generates a portion of polarization in the forward scattering direction and diffuses scattering of polarized light in all hemisphere directions, (2) BPRFU is anti-symmetric in the principal plane from a recent study in which the authors simulated the polarized reflectance of vegetation cover using the vector radiative transfer theory. These photopolarimetric measurement results, which can be completely explained by the theoretical results, are useful in remote sensing applications to vegetation.

THE STRUCTURE OF A SELF-GRAVITATING PROTOPLANETARY DISK AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR DIRECT IMAGING OBSERVATIONS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Muto, Takayuki

2011-01-01

We consider the effects of self-gravity on the hydrostatic balance in the vertical direction of a gaseous disk and discuss the possible signature of the self-gravity that may be captured by direct imaging observations of protoplanetary disks in the future. In this paper, we consider a vertically isothermal disk in order to isolate the effects of self-gravity. The specific disk model we consider in this paper is the one with a radial surface density gap, at which the Toomre's Q-parameter of the disk varies rapidly in the radial direction. We calculate the vertical structure of the disk including the effects of self-gravity. We then calculate the scattered light and the dust thermal emission. We find that if the disk is massive enough and the effects of self-gravity come into play, a weak bump-like structure at the gap edge appears in the near-infrared (NIR) scattered light, while no such bump-like structure is seen in the submillimeter (sub-mm) dust continuum image. The appearance of the bump is caused by the variation of the height of the surface in the NIR wavelength. If such a bump-like feature is detected in future direct imaging observations, combined with sub-mm observations, it will give us useful information about the physical states of the disk.

Direct imaging of grain boundaries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gronsky, R.

1979-09-01

There are currently two types of microscopes which, in principle, are capable of imaging atom positions at grain boundaries. One, the field ion microscope (FIM), yields a projection of the specimen surface (approximately stereographic) by field ionization of an imaging gas at protruding atom sites, and provides topographic information in high-index pole regions which may be interpreted atom-by-atom. The other, a transmission electron microscope (TEM), yields a projection (approximately linear) of the entire specimen thickness by electron optical imaging, and provides atomic resolution detail throughout the illuminated area. In this paper, both methods are described and compared, using examples from practical materials systems

Long axial imaging range using conventional swept source lasers in optical coherence tomography via re-circulation loops

Science.gov (United States)

Bradu, Adrian; Jackson, David A.; Podoleanu, Adrian

2018-03-01

Typically, swept source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) imaging instruments are capable of a longer axial range than their camera based (CB) counterpart. However, there are still various applications that would take advantage for an extended axial range. In this paper, we propose an interferometer configuration that can be used to extend the axial range of the OCT instruments equipped with conventional swept-source lasers up to a few cm. In this configuration, the two arms of the interferometer are equipped with adjustable optical path length rings. The use of semiconductor optical amplifiers in the two rings allows for compensating optical losses hence, multiple paths depth reflectivity profiles (Ascans) can be combined axially. In this way, extremely long overall axial ranges are possible. The use of the recirculation loops produces an effect equivalent to that of extending the coherence length of the swept source laser. Using this approach, the achievable axial imaging range in SS-OCT can reach values well beyond the limit imposed by the coherence length of the laser, to exceed in principle many centimeters. In the present work, we demonstrate axial ranges exceeding 4 cm using a commercial swept source laser and reaching 6 cm using an "in-house" swept source laser. When used in a conventional set-up alone, both these lasers can provide less than a few mm axial range.

X-ray volumetric imaging in image-guided radiotherapy: The new standard in on-treatment imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McBain, Catherine A.; Henry, Ann M.; Sykes, Jonathan; Amer, Ali; Marchant, Tom; Moore, Christopher M.; Davies, Julie; Stratford, Julia; McCarthy, Claire; Porritt, Bridget; Williams, Peter; Khoo, Vincent S.; Price, Pat

2006-01-01

Purpose: X-ray volumetric imaging (XVI) for the first time allows for the on-treatment acquisition of three-dimensional (3D) kV cone beam computed tomography (CT) images. Clinical imaging using the Synergy System (Elekta, Crawley, UK) commenced in July 2003. This study evaluated image quality and dose delivered and assessed clinical utility for treatment verification at a range of anatomic sites. Methods and Materials: Single XVIs were acquired from 30 patients undergoing radiotherapy for tumors at 10 different anatomic sites. Patients were imaged in their setup position. Radiation doses received were measured using TLDs on the skin surface. The utility of XVI in verifying target volume coverage was qualitatively assessed by experienced clinicians. Results: X-ray volumetric imaging acquisition was completed in the treatment position at all anatomic sites. At sites where a full gantry rotation was not possible, XVIs were reconstructed from projection images acquired from partial rotations. Soft-tissue definition of organ boundaries allowed direct assessment of 3D target volume coverage at all sites. Individual image quality depended on both imaging parameters and patient characteristics. Radiation dose ranged from 0.003 Gy in the head to 0.03 Gy in the pelvis. Conclusions: On-treatment XVI provided 3D verification images with soft-tissue definition at all anatomic sites at acceptably low radiation doses. This technology sets a new standard in treatment verification and will facilitate novel adaptive radiotherapy techniques

A performance comparison of direct- and indirect-detection flat-panel imagers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Partridge, M.; Hesse, B.-M.; Mueller, L.

2002-01-01

A comparison of the performance of a direct- and an indirect-detection amorphous silicon flat-panel X-ray imager is presented for a 6 MV beam. Experimental measurements of the noise characteristics, image lag, spectral response, spatial resolution and quantum efficiency are described, compared and discussed. The two systems are comprised of 512x512 pixel, 400 μm pitch, arrays of a-Si:H p-i-n photodiodes and thin-film transistors. In the direct-detection system, X-rays interact to produce electron/hole pairs directly in the silicon photodiodes. For the indirect-detection system, a phosphor screen converts energy from the incident X-rays into visible light, which is then detected by the photodiodes. Both systems are shown to be quantum noise limited, with the total electronic noise in the detector 10-15 times smaller than the Poisson noise level in detected signal. The measured lag for both systems is 1.0±0.1% or less in the first frame with subsequent signals decaying exponentially with frame read-out, with a half-life of between 3.3 and 3.8 frames. Both systems are demonstrated to have a pronounced sensitivity to low-energy multiply scattered photons, although this is shown to be effectively filtered out using a 2 mm copper build-up plate. The direct-detection system, with the 2 mm Cu build-up, shows greater sensitivity to scattered radiation than the indirect system. The spatial resolutions of both systems were effectively equal with an f 50 of 0.25 mm -1 when pixels are binned 2x2, although a slight contribution from optical scattering in the phosphor screen is seen for the indirect-detection system. The quantum efficiency of the direct-detection system is a factor of 0.45 lower than that of the indirect-detection system. The application of these detectors to megavoltage CT is discussed, with the conclusion that the indirect-detection system is to be preferred

Effects of image congruency on persuasiveness and recall in direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising.

Science.gov (United States)

Kiernicki, Kristen; Helme, Donald W

2017-01-01

Although direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertising is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, content analyses suggest advertisers may not disclose drug risks in the same way they describe drug benefits. This study tests the relationship between image congruency in televised DTC advertisements, recall of risks/benefits, and perceived persuasiveness. Advertisements for Nasonex, Advair, and Lunesta were shown to college students in either their original (image incongruent) or modified (image neutral) form. Risks were easier to recall with image-neutral advertisements. Gender also had a significant interaction effect, suggesting that males and females process DTC advertisement differently.

Incorporation of a laser range scanner into image-guided liver surgery: Surface acquisition, registration, and tracking

OpenAIRE

Cash, David M.; Sinha, Tuhin K.; Chapman, William C.; Terawaki, Hiromi; Dawant, Benoit M.; Galloway, Robert L.; Miga, Michael I.

2003-01-01

As image guided surgical procedures become increasingly diverse, there will be more scenarios where point-based fiducials cannot be accurately localized for registration and rigid body assumptions no longer hold. As a result, procedures will rely more frequently on anatomical surfaces for the basis of image alignment and will require intraoperative geometric data to measure and compensate for tissue deformation in the organ. In this paper we outline methods for which a laser range scanner may...

Direct and Indirect Effects of Marketing Effort on Brand Awareness and Brand Image.

OpenAIRE

Villarejo Ramos, Ángel Francisco; Rondán Cataluña, Francisco Javier; Sánchez Franco, Manuel Jesús

2008-01-01

The marketing effort orientated to towards strengthening the brand means to increase the degree of knowledge of the brand name. In this paper we want to show the relationship between brand awareness and brand image. Starting out from a theoretical review, we set out a model of direct and indirect effects of the marketing effort-as the brand's antecedents-on brand awareness and brand image. Via the empirical support used, a questionnaire of a sample of consumers, we try to find out how the mar...

Scannerless laser range imaging using loss modulation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sandusky, John V [Albuquerque, NM

2011-08-09

A scannerless 3-D imaging apparatus is disclosed which utilizes an amplitude modulated cw light source to illuminate a field of view containing a target of interest. Backscattered light from the target is passed through one or more loss modulators which are modulated at the same frequency as the light source, but with a phase delay .delta. which can be fixed or variable. The backscattered light is demodulated by the loss modulator and detected with a CCD, CMOS or focal plane array (FPA) detector to construct a 3-D image of the target. The scannerless 3-D imaging apparatus, which can operate in the eye-safe wavelength region 1.4-1.7 .mu.m and which can be constructed as a flash LADAR, has applications for vehicle collision avoidance, autonomous rendezvous and docking, robotic vision, industrial inspection and measurement, 3-D cameras, and facial recognition.

Close-range hyperspectral image analysis for the early detection of stress responses in individual plants in a high-throughput phenotyping platform

Science.gov (United States)

Mohd Asaari, Mohd Shahrimie; Mishra, Puneet; Mertens, Stien; Dhondt, Stijn; Inzé, Dirk; Wuyts, Nathalie; Scheunders, Paul

2018-04-01

The potential of close-range hyperspectral imaging (HSI) as a tool for detecting early drought stress responses in plants grown in a high-throughput plant phenotyping platform (HTPPP) was explored. Reflectance spectra from leaves in close-range imaging are highly influenced by plant geometry and its specific alignment towards the imaging system. This induces high uninformative variability in the recorded signals, whereas the spectral signature informing on plant biological traits remains undisclosed. A linear reflectance model that describes the effect of the distance and orientation of each pixel of a plant with respect to the imaging system was applied. By solving this model for the linear coefficients, the spectra were corrected for the uninformative illumination effects. This approach, however, was constrained by the requirement of a reference spectrum, which was difficult to obtain. As an alternative, the standard normal variate (SNV) normalisation method was applied to reduce this uninformative variability. Once the envisioned illumination effects were eliminated, the remaining differences in plant spectra were assumed to be related to changes in plant traits. To distinguish the stress-related phenomena from regular growth dynamics, a spectral analysis procedure was developed based on clustering, a supervised band selection, and a direct calculation of a spectral similarity measure against a reference. To test the significance of the discrimination between healthy and stressed plants, a statistical test was conducted using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique. The proposed analysis techniques was validated with HSI data of maize plants (Zea mays L.) acquired in a HTPPP for early detection of drought stress in maize plant. Results showed that the pre-processing of reflectance spectra with the SNV effectively reduces the variability due to the expected illumination effects. The proposed spectral analysis method on the normalized spectra successfully

Gravitational lensing and ghost images in the regular Bardeen no-horizon spacetimes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schee, Jan; Stuchlík, Zdeněk

2015-01-01

We study deflection of light rays and gravitational lensing in the regular Bardeen no-horizon spacetimes. Flatness of these spacetimes in the central region implies existence of interesting optical effects related to photons crossing the gravitational field of the no-horizon spacetimes with low impact parameters. These effects occur due to existence of a critical impact parameter giving maximal deflection of light rays in the Bardeen no-horizon spacetimes. We give the critical impact parameter in dependence on the specific charge of the spacetimes, and discuss 'ghost' direct and indirect images of Keplerian discs, generated by photons with low impact parameters. The ghost direct images can occur only for large inclination angles of distant observers, while ghost indirect images can occur also for small inclination angles. We determine the range of the frequency shift of photons generating the ghost images and determine distribution of the frequency shift across these images. We compare them to those of the standard direct images of the Keplerian discs. The difference of the ranges of the frequency shift on the ghost and direct images could serve as a quantitative measure of the Bardeen no-horizon spacetimes. The regions of the Keplerian discs giving the ghost images are determined in dependence on the specific charge of the no-horizon spacetimes. For comparison we construct direct and indirect (ordinary and ghost) images of Keplerian discs around Reissner-Nördström naked singularities demonstrating a clear qualitative difference to the ghost direct images in the regular Bardeen no-horizon spacetimes. The optical effects related to the low impact parameter photons thus give clear signature of the regular Bardeen no-horizon spacetimes, as no similar phenomena could occur in the black hole or naked singularity spacetimes. Similar direct ghost images have to occur in any regular no-horizon spacetimes having nearly flat central region

Simulation of a method to directly image exoplanets around multiple stars systems

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Sandrine J.; Bendek, Eduardo; Belikov, Ruslan

2014-08-01

Direct imaging of extra-solar planets has now become a reality, especially with the deployment and commissioning of the first generation of specialized ground-based instruments such as the GPI, SPHERE, P1640 and SCExAO. These systems will allow detection of planets 107 times fainter than their host star. For space- based missions, such as EXCEDE, EXO-C, EXO-S, WFIRST/AFTA, different teams have shown in laboratories contrasts reaching 10-10 within a few diffraction limits from the star using a combination of a coronagraph to suppress light coming from the host star and a wavefront control system. These demonstrations use a de- formable mirror (DM) to remove residual starlight (speckles) created by the imperfections of telescope. However, all these current and future systems focus on detecting faint planets around a single host star or unresolved bi- naries/multiples, while several targets or planet candidates are located around nearby binary stars such as our neighbor star Alpha Centauri. Until now, it has been thought that removing the light of a companion star is impossible with current technology, excluding binary star systems from target lists of direct imaging missions. Direct imaging around binaries/multiple systems at a level of contrast allowing Earth-like planet detection is challenging because the region of interest, where a dark zone is essential, is contaminated by the light coming from the hosts star companion. We propose a method to simultaneously correct aberrations and diffraction of light coming from the target star as well as its companion star in order to reveal planets orbiting the target star. This method works even if the companion star is outside the control region of the DM (beyond its half-Nyquist frequency), by taking advantage of aliasing effects.

How to Directly Image a Habitable Planet Around Alpha Centauri with a 30-45 cm Space Telescope

Science.gov (United States)

Belikov, Ruslan; Bendek, Eduardo; Thomas, Sandrine; Males, Jared

2015-01-01

Several mission concepts are being studied to directly image planets around nearby stars. It is commonly thought that directly imaging a potentially habitable exoplanet around a Sun-like star requires space telescopes with apertures of at least 1m. A notable exception to this is Alpha Centauri (A and B), which is an extreme outlier among FGKM stars in terms of apparent habitable zone size: the habitable zones are approximately 3x wider in apparent size than around any other FGKM star. This enables a approximately 30-45cm visible light space telescope equipped with a modern high performance coronagraph or star shade to resolve the habitable zone at high contrast and directly image any potentially habitable planet that may exist in the system. The raw contrast requirements for such an instrument can be relaxed to 1e-8 if the mission spends 2 years collecting tens of thousands of images on the same target, enabling a factor of 500-1000 speckle suppression in post processing using a new technique called Orbital Difference Imaging (ODI). The raw light leak from both stars is controllable with a special wave front control algorithm known as Multi-Star Wave front Control (MSWC), which independently suppresses diffraction and aberrations from both stars using independent modes on the deformable mirror. This paper will present an analysis of the challenges involved with direct imaging of Alpha Centauri with a small telescope and how the above technologies are used together to solve them. We also show an example of a small coronagraphic mission concepts to take advantage of this opportunity called "ACESat: Alpha Centauri Exoplanet Satellite" submitted to NASA's small Explorer (SMEX) program in December of 2014.

Color in Image and Video Processing: Most Recent Trends and Future Research Directions

OpenAIRE

Tominaga Shoji; Plataniotis KonstantinosN; Trémeau Alain

2008-01-01

Abstract The motivation of this paper is to provide an overview of the most recent trends and of the future research directions in color image and video processing. Rather than covering all aspects of the domain this survey covers issues related to the most active research areas in the last two years. It presents the most recent trends as well as the state-of-the-art, with a broad survey of the relevant literature, in the main active research areas in color imaging. It also focuses on the mos...

High frame rate synthetic aperture duplex imaging

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stuart, Matthias Bo; Tomov, Borislav Gueorguiev; Pihl, Michael Johannes

2013-01-01

aperture flow imaging as demonstrated in this paper. Synthetic aperture, directional beamforming, and cross-correlation are used to produce B-mode and vector velocity images at high frame rates. The frame rate equals the effective pulse repetition frequency of each imaging mode. Emissions for making the B...... estimation is −1.8% and the relative standard deviation 5.4%. The approach can thus estimate both high and low velocities with equal accuracy and thereby makes it possible to present vector flow images with a high dynamic range. Measurements are made using the SARUS research scanner, a linear array......Conventional color flow images are limited in velocity range and can either show the high velocities in systole or be optimized for the lower diastolic velocities. The full dynamics of the flow is, thus, hard to visualize. The dynamic range can be significantly increased by employing synthetic...

A STEP TOWARDS DYNAMIC SCENE ANALYSIS WITH ACTIVE MULTI-VIEW RANGE IMAGING SYSTEMS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Weinmann

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Obtaining an appropriate 3D description of the local environment remains a challenging task in photogrammetric research. As terrestrial laser scanners (TLSs perform a highly accurate, but time-dependent spatial scanning of the local environment, they are only suited for capturing static scenes. In contrast, new types of active sensors provide the possibility of simultaneously capturing range and intensity information by images with a single measurement, and the high frame rate also allows for capturing dynamic scenes. However, due to the limited field of view, one observation is not sufficient to obtain a full scene coverage and therefore, typically, multiple observations are collected from different locations. This can be achieved by either placing several fixed sensors at different known locations or by using a moving sensor. In the latter case, the relation between different observations has to be estimated by using information extracted from the captured data and then, a limited field of view may lead to problems if there are too many moving objects within it. Hence, a moving sensor platform with multiple and coupled sensor devices offers the advantages of an extended field of view which results in a stabilized pose estimation, an improved registration of the recorded point clouds and an improved reconstruction of the scene. In this paper, a new experimental setup for investigating the potentials of such multi-view range imaging systems is presented which consists of a moving cable car equipped with two synchronized range imaging devices. The presented setup allows for monitoring in low altitudes and it is suitable for getting dynamic observations which might arise from moving cars or from moving pedestrians. Relying on both 3D geometry and 2D imagery, a reliable and fully automatic approach for co-registration of captured point cloud data is presented which is essential for a high quality of all subsequent tasks. The approach involves using

Multi-color imaging of fluorescent nanodiamonds in living HeLa cells using direct electron-beam excitation.

Science.gov (United States)

Nawa, Yasunori; Inami, Wataru; Lin, Sheng; Kawata, Yoshimasa; Terakawa, Susumu; Fang, Chia-Yi; Chang, Huan-Cheng

2014-03-17

Multi-color, high spatial resolution imaging of fluorescent nanodiamonds (FNDs) in living HeLa cells has been performed with a direct electron-beam excitation-assisted fluorescence (D-EXA) microscope. In this technique, fluorescent materials are directly excited with a focused electron beam and the resulting cathodoluminescence (CL) is detected with nanoscale resolution. Green- and red-light-emitting FNDs were employed for two-color imaging, which were observed simultaneously in the cells with high spatial resolution. This technique could be applied generally for multi-color immunostaining to reveal various cell functions. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Suppressing a Sea of Starlight : enabling technology for the direct imaging of exoplanets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Otten, G.P.P.L.

2016-01-01

In this thesis we present multiple techniques to suppress starlight in order to better directly image planets around other stars. We propose a laboratory setup to test a new focal-plane wavefront sensing technique. We also show an optical device that suppresses starlight using liquid crystals (the

Patient-directed Internet-based Medical Image Exchange: Experience from an Initial Multicenter Implementation.

Science.gov (United States)

Greco, Giampaolo; Patel, Anand S; Lewis, Sara C; Shi, Wei; Rasul, Rehana; Torosyan, Mary; Erickson, Bradley J; Hiremath, Atheeth; Moskowitz, Alan J; Tellis, Wyatt M; Siegel, Eliot L; Arenson, Ronald L; Mendelson, David S

2016-02-01

Inefficient transfer of personal health records among providers negatively impacts quality of health care and increases cost. This multicenter study evaluates the implementation of the first Internet-based image-sharing system that gives patients ownership and control of their imaging exams, including assessment of patient satisfaction. Patients receiving any medical imaging exams in four academic centers were eligible to have images uploaded into an online, Internet-based personal health record. Satisfaction surveys were provided during recruitment with questions on ease of use, privacy and security, and timeliness of access to images. Responses were rated on a five-point scale and compared using logistic regression and McNemar's test. A total of 2562 patients enrolled from July 2012 to August 2013. The median number of imaging exams uploaded per patient was 5. Most commonly, exams were plain X-rays (34.7%), computed tomography (25.7%), and magnetic resonance imaging (16.1%). Of 502 (19.6%) patient surveys returned, 448 indicated the method of image sharing (Internet, compact discs [CDs], both, other). Nearly all patients (96.5%) responded favorably to having direct access to images, and 78% reported viewing their medical images independently. There was no difference between Internet and CD users in satisfaction with privacy and security and timeliness of access to medical images. A greater percentage of Internet users compared to CD users reported access without difficulty (88.3% vs. 77.5%, P Internet-based image-sharing system is feasible and surpasses the use of CDs with respect to accessibility of imaging exams while generating similar satisfaction with respect to privacy. Copyright © 2015 The Association of University Radiologists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A methodology for direct quantification of over-ranging length in helical computed tomography with real-time dosimetry.

Science.gov (United States)

Tien, Christopher J; Winslow, James F; Hintenlang, David E

2011-01-31

In helical computed tomography (CT), reconstruction information from volumes adjacent to the clinical volume of interest (VOI) is required for proper reconstruction. Previous studies have relied upon either operator console readings or indirect extrapolation of measurements in order to determine the over-ranging length of a scan. This paper presents a methodology for the direct quantification of over-ranging dose contributions using real-time dosimetry. A Siemens SOMATOM Sensation 16 multislice helical CT scanner is used with a novel real-time "point" fiber-optic dosimeter system with 10 ms temporal resolution to measure over-ranging length, which is also expressed in dose-length-product (DLP). Film was used to benchmark the exact length of over-ranging. Over-ranging length varied from 4.38 cm at pitch of 0.5 to 6.72 cm at a pitch of 1.5, which corresponds to DLP of 131 to 202 mGy-cm. The dose-extrapolation method of Van der Molen et al. yielded results within 3%, while the console reading method of Tzedakis et al. yielded consistently larger over-ranging lengths. From film measurements, it was determined that Tzedakis et al. overestimated over-ranging lengths by one-half of beam collimation width. Over-ranging length measured as a function of reconstruction slice thicknesses produced two linear regions similar to previous publications. Over-ranging is quantified with both absolute length and DLP, which contributes about 60 mGy-cm or about 10% of DLP for a routine abdominal scan. This paper presents a direct physical measurement of over-ranging length within 10% of previous methodologies. Current uncertainties are less than 1%, in comparison with 5% in other methodologies. Clinical implantation can be increased by using only one dosimeter if codependence with console readings is acceptable, with an uncertainty of 1.1% This methodology will be applied to different vendors, models, and postprocessing methods--which have been shown to produce over-ranging lengths

Surface registration technique for close-range mapping applications

Science.gov (United States)

Habib, Ayman F.; Cheng, Rita W. T.

2006-08-01

Close-range mapping applications such as cultural heritage restoration, virtual reality modeling for the entertainment industry, and anatomical feature recognition for medical activities require 3D data that is usually acquired by high resolution close-range laser scanners. Since these datasets are typically captured from different viewpoints and/or at different times, accurate registration is a crucial procedure for 3D modeling of mapped objects. Several registration techniques are available that work directly with the raw laser points or with extracted features from the point cloud. Some examples include the commonly known Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm and a recently proposed technique based on matching spin-images. This research focuses on developing a surface matching algorithm that is based on the Modified Iterated Hough Transform (MIHT) and ICP to register 3D data. The proposed algorithm works directly with the raw 3D laser points and does not assume point-to-point correspondence between two laser scans. The algorithm can simultaneously establish correspondence between two surfaces and estimates the transformation parameters relating them. Experiment with two partially overlapping laser scans of a small object is performed with the proposed algorithm and shows successful registration. A high quality of fit between the two scans is achieved and improvement is found when compared to the results obtained using the spin-image technique. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed algorithm for registering 3D laser scanning data in close-range mapping applications to help with the generation of complete 3D models.

Phospholipid micelle-based magneto-plasmonic nanoformulation for magnetic field-directed, imaging-guided photo-induced cancer therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Ohulchanskyy, Tymish Y; Kopwitthaya, Atcha; Jeon, Mansik; Guo, Moran; Law, Wing-Cheung; Furlani, Edward P; Kim, Chulhong; Prasad, Paras N

2013-11-01

We present a magnetoplasmonic nanoplatform combining gold nanorods (GNR) and iron-oxide nanoparticles within phospholipid-based polymeric nanomicelles (PGRFe). The gold nanorods exhibit plasmon resonance absorbance at near infrared wavelengths to enable photoacoustic imaging and photothermal therapy, while the Fe3O4 nanoparticles enable magnetophoretic control of the nanoformulation. The fabricated nanoformulation can be directed and concentrated by an external magnetic field, which provides enhancement of a photoacoustic signal. Application of an external field also leads to enhanced uptake of the magnetoplasmonic formulation by cancer cells in vitro. Under laser irradiation at the wavelength of the GNR absorption peak, the PGRFe formulation efficiently generates plasmonic nanobubbles within cancer cells, as visualized by confocal microscopy, causing cell destruction. The combined magnetic and plasmonic functionalities of the nanoplatform enable magnetic field-directed, imaging-guided, enhanced photo-induced cancer therapy. In this study, a nano-formulation of gold nanorods and iron oxide nanoparticles is presented using a phospholipid micelle-based delivery system for magnetic field-directed and imaging-guided photo-induced cancer therapy. The gold nanorods enable photoacoustic imaging and photothermal therapy, while the Fe3O4 nanoparticles enable magnetophoretic control of the formulation. This and similar systems could enable more precise and efficient cancer therapy, hopefully in the near future, after additional testing. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Carotid artery B-mode ultrasound image segmentation based on morphology, geometry and gradient direction

Science.gov (United States)

Sunarya, I. Made Gede; Yuniarno, Eko Mulyanto; Purnomo, Mauridhi Hery; Sardjono, Tri Arief; Sunu, Ismoyo; Purnama, I. Ketut Eddy

2017-06-01

Carotid Artery (CA) is one of the vital organs in the human body. CA features that can be used are position, size and volume. Position feature can used to determine the preliminary initialization of the tracking. Examination of the CA features can use Ultrasound. Ultrasound imaging can be operated dependently by an skilled operator, hence there could be some differences in the images result obtained by two or more different operators. This can affect the process of determining of CA. To reduce the level of subjectivity among operators, it can determine the position of the CA automatically. In this study, the proposed method is to segment CA in B-Mode Ultrasound Image based on morphology, geometry and gradient direction. This study consists of three steps, the data collection, preprocessing and artery segmentation. The data used in this study were taken directly by the researchers and taken from the Brno university's signal processing lab database. Each data set contains 100 carotid artery B-Mode ultrasound image. Artery is modeled using ellipse with center c, major axis a and minor axis b. The proposed method has a high value on each data set, 97% (data set 1), 73 % (data set 2), 87% (data set 3). This segmentation results will then be used in the process of tracking the CA.

EDM 1.0: electron direct methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Kilaas, R; Marks, L D; Own, C S

2005-02-01

A computer program designed to provide a number of quantitative analysis tools for high-resolution imaging and electron diffraction data is described. The program includes basic image manipulation, both real space and reciprocal space image processing, Wiener-filtering, symmetry averaging, methods for quantification of electron diffraction patterns and two-dimensional direct methods. The program consists of a number of sub-programs written in a combination of C++, C and Fortran. It can be downloaded either as GNU source code or as binaries and has been compiled and verified on a wide range of platforms, both Unix based and PC's. Elements of the design philosophy as well as future possible extensions are described.

Directionality analysis on functional magnetic resonance imaging during motor task using Granger causality.

Science.gov (United States)

Anwar, A R; Muthalib, M; Perrey, S; Galka, A; Granert, O; Wolff, S; Deuschl, G; Raethjen, J; Heute, U; Muthuraman, M

2012-01-01

Directionality analysis of signals originating from different parts of brain during motor tasks has gained a lot of interest. Since brain activity can be recorded over time, methods of time series analysis can be applied to medical time series as well. Granger Causality is a method to find a causal relationship between time series. Such causality can be referred to as a directional connection and is not necessarily bidirectional. The aim of this study is to differentiate between different motor tasks on the basis of activation maps and also to understand the nature of connections present between different parts of the brain. In this paper, three different motor tasks (finger tapping, simple finger sequencing, and complex finger sequencing) are analyzed. Time series for each task were extracted from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, which have a very good spatial resolution and can look into the sub-cortical regions of the brain. Activation maps based on fMRI images show that, in case of complex finger sequencing, most parts of the brain are active, unlike finger tapping during which only limited regions show activity. Directionality analysis on time series extracted from contralateral motor cortex (CMC), supplementary motor area (SMA), and cerebellum (CER) show bidirectional connections between these parts of the brain. In case of simple finger sequencing and complex finger sequencing, the strongest connections originate from SMA and CMC, while connections originating from CER in either direction are the weakest ones in magnitude during all paradigms.

Color in Image and Video Processing: Most Recent Trends and Future Research Directions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tominaga Shoji

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract The motivation of this paper is to provide an overview of the most recent trends and of the future research directions in color image and video processing. Rather than covering all aspects of the domain this survey covers issues related to the most active research areas in the last two years. It presents the most recent trends as well as the state-of-the-art, with a broad survey of the relevant literature, in the main active research areas in color imaging. It also focuses on the most promising research areas in color imaging science. This survey gives an overview about the issues, controversies, and problems of color image science. It focuses on human color vision, perception, and interpretation. It focuses also on acquisition systems, consumer imaging applications, and medical imaging applications. Next it gives a brief overview about the solutions, recommendations, most recent trends, and future trends of color image science. It focuses on color space, appearance models, color difference metrics, and color saliency. It focuses also on color features, color-based object tracking, scene illuminant estimation and color constancy, quality assessment and fidelity assessment, color characterization and calibration of a display device. It focuses on quantization, filtering and enhancement, segmentation, coding and compression, watermarking, and lastly on multispectral color image processing. Lastly, it addresses the research areas which still need addressing and which are the next and future perspectives of color in image and video processing.

Color in Image and Video Processing: Most Recent Trends and Future Research Directions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Konstantinos N. Plataniotis

2008-05-01

Full Text Available The motivation of this paper is to provide an overview of the most recent trends and of the future research directions in color image and video processing. Rather than covering all aspects of the domain this survey covers issues related to the most active research areas in the last two years. It presents the most recent trends as well as the state-of-the-art, with a broad survey of the relevant literature, in the main active research areas in color imaging. It also focuses on the most promising research areas in color imaging science. This survey gives an overview about the issues, controversies, and problems of color image science. It focuses on human color vision, perception, and interpretation. It focuses also on acquisition systems, consumer imaging applications, and medical imaging applications. Next it gives a brief overview about the solutions, recommendations, most recent trends, and future trends of color image science. It focuses on color space, appearance models, color difference metrics, and color saliency. It focuses also on color features, color-based object tracking, scene illuminant estimation and color constancy, quality assessment and fidelity assessment, color characterization and calibration of a display device. It focuses on quantization, filtering and enhancement, segmentation, coding and compression, watermarking, and lastly on multispectral color image processing. Lastly, it addresses the research areas which still need addressing and which are the next and future perspectives of color in image and video processing.

Fluorescence guided lymph node biopsy in large animals using direct image projection device

Science.gov (United States)

Ringhausen, Elizabeth; Wang, Tylon; Pitts, Jonathan; Akers, Walter J.

2016-03-01

The use of fluorescence imaging for aiding oncologic surgery is a fast growing field in biomedical imaging, revolutionizing open and minimally invasive surgery practices. We have designed, constructed, and tested a system for fluorescence image acquisition and direct display on the surgical field for fluorescence guided surgery. The system uses a near-infrared sensitive CMOS camera for image acquisition, a near-infra LED light source for excitation, and DLP digital projector for projection of fluorescence image data onto the operating field in real time. Instrument control was implemented in Matlab for image capture, processing of acquired data and alignment of image parameters with the projected pattern. Accuracy of alignment was evaluated statistically to demonstrate sensitivity to small objects and alignment throughout the imaging field. After verification of accurate alignment, feasibility for clinical application was demonstrated in large animal models of sentinel lymph node biopsy. Indocyanine green was injected subcutaneously in Yorkshire pigs at various locations to model sentinel lymph node biopsy in gynecologic cancers, head and neck cancer, and melanoma. Fluorescence was detected by the camera system during operations and projected onto the imaging field, accurately identifying tissues containing the fluorescent tracer at up to 15 frames per second. Fluorescence information was projected as binary green regions after thresholding and denoising raw intensity data. Promising results with this initial clinical scale prototype provided encouraging results for the feasibility of optical projection of acquired luminescence during open oncologic surgeries.

CT dose modulation using automatic exposure control in whole-body PET/CT: effects of scout imaging direction and arm positioning.

Science.gov (United States)

Inoue, Yusuke; Nagahara, Kazunori; Kudo, Hiroko; Itoh, Hiroyasu

2018-01-01

Automatic exposure control (AEC) modulates tube current and consequently X-ray exposure in CT. We investigated the behavior of AEC systems in whole-body PET/CT. CT images of a whole-body phantom were acquired using AEC on two scanners from different manufactures. The effects of scout imaging direction and arm positioning on dose modulation were evaluated. Image noise was assessed in the chest and upper abdomen. On one scanner, AEC using two scout images in the posteroanterior (PA) and lateral (Lat) directions provided relatively constant image noise along the z-axis with the arms at the sides. Raising the arms increased tube current in the head and neck and decreased it in the body trunk. Image noise increased in the upper abdomen, suggesting excessive reduction in radiation exposure. AEC using the PA scout alone strikingly increased tube current and reduced image noise in the shoulder. Raising the arms did not substantially influence dose modulation and decreased noise in the abdomen. On the other scanner, AEC using the PA scout alone or Lat scout alone resulted in similar dose modulation. Raising the arms increased tube current in the head and neck and decreased it in the trunk. Image noise was higher in the upper abdomen than in the middle and lower chest, and was not influenced by arm positioning. CT dose modulation using AEC may vary greatly depending on scout direction. Raising the arms tended to decrease radiation exposure; however, the effect depends on scout direction and the AEC system.

MR-guided direct arthrography of the glenohumeral joint

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soh, E.; Bearcroft, P.W.P.; Graves, M.J.; Black, R.; Lomas, D.J.

2008-01-01

Aim: To evaluate the feasibility of magnetic resonance (MR)-guided direct arthrography of the glenohumeral joint with a 1.5 T MR system, performing the entire procedure in a single MR examination. Materials and methods: MR-guided direct arthrography was performed on 11 patients. MR imaging guidance and interactive MR fluoroscopy, with in-room control and display system, were used for needle placement and contrast medium injection. The outcome measures were success or failure of joint puncture, the time taken for introduction of contrast medium, and the diagnostic quality of the subsequent MR arthrography images. Results: Contrast medium was successfully instilled into the joint and diagnostic quality MR arthrography images were obtained in all cases. The median time from initial placement of the skin marker to introduction of the contrast medium was 17 min (range 11-29 min). There were no immediate post-procedure complications. Conclusion: Accurate needle placement is feasible in a single MR examination on a commercial 1.5 T closed-bore MR system, using an in-room control and display system together with interactive fluoroscopic imaging, and this was used to provide direct MR arthrography in this study

Acquisition Of Three-Dimensional Image Data By A Scanning Laser Range Finder

Science.gov (United States)

Moring, I.; Heikkinen, T.; Myllyla, R.; Kilpela, A. T.

1989-08-01

We describe a 3-D vision system designed and constructed at the Technical Research Centre of Finland in cooperation with the University of Oulu. The system was developed chiefly for geometric measurements of large objects. The system has been operative for about one year, and its performance has been extensively tested. The system consists of three main units: the range finder, the scanner, and the computer. The range finder is based on the direct measurement of the time-of-flight of a laser pulse. The scanner consists of two mirrors driven by moving iron galvanometers; this unit is controlled by servo amplifiers. The computer controls the scanner, transforms the measured coordinates into a Cartesian coordinate system, and serves as a user interface and postprocessing environment.

SU-E-J-82: Intra-Fraction Proton Beam-Range Verification with PET Imaging: Feasibility Studies with Monte Carlo Simulations and Statistical Modeling

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lou, K [U.T M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX (United States); Rice University, Houston, TX (United States); Mirkovic, D; Sun, X; Zhu, X; Poenisch, F; Grosshans, D; Shao, Y [U.T M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX (United States); Clark, J [Rice University, Houston, TX (United States)

2014-06-01

Purpose: To study the feasibility of intra-fraction proton beam-range verification with PET imaging. Methods: Two phantoms homogeneous cylindrical PMMA phantoms (290 mm axial length, 38 mm and 200 mm diameter respectively) were studied using PET imaging: a small phantom using a mouse-sized PET (61 mm diameter field of view (FOV)) and a larger phantom using a human brain-sized PET (300 mm FOV). Monte Carlo (MC) simulations (MCNPX and GATE) were used to simulate 179.2 MeV proton pencil beams irradiating the two phantoms and be imaged by the two PET systems. A total of 50 simulations were conducted to generate 50 positron activity distributions and correspondingly 50 measured activity-ranges. The accuracy and precision of these activity-ranges were calculated under different conditions (including count statistics and other factors, such as crystal cross-section). Separate from the MC simulations, an activity distribution measured from a simulated PET image was modeled as a noiseless positron activity distribution corrupted by Poisson counting noise. The results from these two approaches were compared to assess the impact of count statistics on the accuracy and precision of activity-range calculations. Results: MC Simulations show that the accuracy and precision of an activity-range are dominated by the number (N) of coincidence events of the reconstructed image. They are improved in a manner that is inversely proportional to 1/sqrt(N), which can be understood from the statistical modeling. MC simulations also indicate that the coincidence events acquired within the first 60 seconds with 10{sup 9} protons (small phantom) and 10{sup 10} protons (large phantom) are sufficient to achieve both sub-millimeter accuracy and precision. Conclusion: Under the current MC simulation conditions, the initial study indicates that the accuracy and precision of beam-range verification are dominated by count statistics, and intra-fraction PET image-based beam-range verification is

Subaru/SCExAO First-light Direct Imaging of a Young Debris Disk around HD 36546

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Currie, Thayne; Guyon, Olivier; Kudo, Tomoyuki; Jovanovic, Nemanja; Lozi, Julien [National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Subaru Telescope, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Hilo, HI 96720 (United States); Tamura, Motohide; Kuzuhara, Masayuki [Astrobiology Center, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo (Japan); Schlieder, Joshua E. [IPAC-NExScI, Mail Code 100-22, Caltech, 1200 E. California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States); Brandt, Timothy D. [Astrophysics Department, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (United States); Kuhn, Jonas [Institute for Astronomy, ETH-Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Str. 27, 8093 Zurich (Switzerland); Serabyn, Eugene; Singh, Garima [Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA (United States); Janson, Markus [Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, AlbaNova University Center, SE-106 91 Stockholm (Sweden); Carson, Joseph [Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Charleston, 66 George Street, Charleston, SC (United States); Groff, Tyler; Kasdin, N. Jeremy [Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (United States); McElwain, Michael W.; Grady, Carol [Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory, Code 667, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States); Uyama, Taichi [Department of Astronomy, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo (Japan); Akiyama, Eiji [Chile Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo (Japan); and others

2017-02-10

We present H -band scattered light imaging of a bright debris disk around the A0 star HD 36546 obtained from the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) system with data recorded by the HiCIAO camera using the vector vortex coronagraph. SCExAO traces the disk from r ∼ 0.″3 to r ∼1″ (34–114 au). The disk is oriented in a near east–west direction (PA ∼ 75°), is inclined by i ∼ 70°–75°, and is strongly forward-scattering (g > 0.5). It is an extended disk rather than a sharp ring; a second, diffuse dust population extends from the disk’s eastern side. While HD 36546 intrinsic properties are consistent with a wide age range (t ∼ 1–250 Myr), its kinematics and analysis of coeval stars suggest a young age (3–10 Myr) and a possible connection to Taurus-Auriga’s star formation history. SCExAO’s planet-to-star contrast ratios are comparable to the first-light Gemini Planet Imager contrasts; for an age of 10 Myr, we rule out planets with masses comparable to HR 8799 b beyond a projected separation of 23 au. A massive icy planetesimal disk or an unseen super-Jovian planet at r > 20 au may explain the disk’s visibility. The HD 36546 debris disk may be the youngest debris disk yet imaged, is the first newly identified object from the now-operational SCExAO extreme AO system, is ideally suited for spectroscopic follow-up with SCExAO/CHARIS in 2017, and may be a key probe of icy planet formation and planet–disk interactions.

Subaru/SCExAO First-light Direct Imaging of a Young Debris Disk around HD 36546

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Currie, Thayne; Guyon, Olivier; Kudo, Tomoyuki; Jovanovic, Nemanja; Lozi, Julien; Tamura, Motohide; Kuzuhara, Masayuki; Schlieder, Joshua E.; Brandt, Timothy D.; Kuhn, Jonas; Serabyn, Eugene; Singh, Garima; Janson, Markus; Carson, Joseph; Groff, Tyler; Kasdin, N. Jeremy; McElwain, Michael W.; Grady, Carol; Uyama, Taichi; Akiyama, Eiji

2017-01-01

We present H -band scattered light imaging of a bright debris disk around the A0 star HD 36546 obtained from the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) system with data recorded by the HiCIAO camera using the vector vortex coronagraph. SCExAO traces the disk from r ∼ 0.″3 to r ∼1″ (34–114 au). The disk is oriented in a near east–west direction (PA ∼ 75°), is inclined by i ∼ 70°–75°, and is strongly forward-scattering (g > 0.5). It is an extended disk rather than a sharp ring; a second, diffuse dust population extends from the disk’s eastern side. While HD 36546 intrinsic properties are consistent with a wide age range (t ∼ 1–250 Myr), its kinematics and analysis of coeval stars suggest a young age (3–10 Myr) and a possible connection to Taurus-Auriga’s star formation history. SCExAO’s planet-to-star contrast ratios are comparable to the first-light Gemini Planet Imager contrasts; for an age of 10 Myr, we rule out planets with masses comparable to HR 8799 b beyond a projected separation of 23 au. A massive icy planetesimal disk or an unseen super-Jovian planet at r > 20 au may explain the disk’s visibility. The HD 36546 debris disk may be the youngest debris disk yet imaged, is the first newly identified object from the now-operational SCExAO extreme AO system, is ideally suited for spectroscopic follow-up with SCExAO/CHARIS in 2017, and may be a key probe of icy planet formation and planet–disk interactions.

Picture perfect: The direct effect of manipulated Instagram photos on body image in adolescent girls

OpenAIRE

Kleemans, M.; Daalmans, S.; Carbaat, I.; Anschutz, D.J.

2018-01-01

This study investigates the effect of manipulated Instagram photos on adolescent girls' body image, and whether social comparison tendency moderates this relation. A between-subject experiment was conducted in which 144 girls (14-18 years old) were randomly exposed to either original or manipulated (retouched and reshaped) Instagram selfies. Results showed that exposure to manipulated Instagram photos directly led to lower body image. Especially, girls with higher social comparison tendencies...

Multichannel and Multispectral Image Restoration Employing Fuzzy Theory and Directional Techniques

OpenAIRE

Rosales, Alberto; Ponomaryov, Volodymyr

2009-01-01

It has designed a novel structure of robust framework to remove impulse noise and additive noise in images and multichannel video sequences. Unlike existed techniques, the designed approach employs fuzzy and directional techniques to estimate motion and noise in the past and present frames showing good results. The designed fuzzy rules characterize the presence of motion and noise between the pixels in two frames (past and present frames). It has been demonstrated that the combined use of gra...

Experimental measurement of the interfacial heat transfer coefficients of subcooled flow boiling using micro-thermocouple and double directional images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seong-Jin Kim; Goon-Cherl Park

2005-01-01

Full text of publication follows: Models or correlations for phase interface are needed to analyze the multi-phase flow. Interfacial heat transfer coefficients are important to constitute energy equation of multi-phase flow, specially. In subcooled boiling flow, bubble condensation at the bubble-liquid interface is a major mechanism of heat transfer within bulk subcooled liquid. Bubble collapse rates and temperatures of each phase are needed to determine the interfacial heat transfer coefficient for bubble condensation. Bubble collapse rates were calculated through image processing in single direction, generally. And in case of liquid bulk temperature, which has been obtained by general temperature sensor such as thermocouple, was used. However, multi-directional images are needed to analyze images due to limitations of single directional image processing. Also, temperature sensor, which has a fast response time, must be used to obtain more accurate interfacial heat transfer coefficient. Low pressure subcooled water flow experiments using micro-thermocouple and double directional image processing with mirrors were conducted to investigate bubble condensation phenomena and to modify interfacial heat transfer correlation. Experiments were performed in a vertical subcooled boiling flow of a rectangular channel. Bubble condensing traces with respect to time were recorded by high speed camera in double direction and bubble collapse rates were calculated by processing recorded digital images. Temperatures were measured by micro-thermocouple, which is a K-type with a 12.7 μm diameter. The liquid temperature was estimated by the developed algorithm to discriminate phases and find each phase temperature in the measured temperature including both liquid and bubble temperature. The interfacial heat transfer coefficient for bubble condensation was calculated from the bubble collapse rates and the estimated liquid temperature, and its correlation was modified. The modified

Direct imaging of slow, stored and stationary EIT polaritons

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, Geoff T.; Cho, Young-Wook; Su, Jian; Everett, Jesse; Robins, Nicholas; Lam, Ping Koy; Buchler, Ben

2017-09-01

Stationary and slow light effects are of great interest for quantum information applications. Using laser-cooled Rb87 atoms, we performed side imaging of our atomic ensemble under slow and stationary light conditions, which allows direct comparison with numerical models. The polaritons were generated using electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), with stationary light generated using counter-propagating control fields. By controlling the power ratio of the two control fields, we show fine control of the group velocity of the stationary light. We also compare the dynamics of stationary light using monochromatic and bichromatic control fields. Our results show negligible difference between the two situations, in contrast to previous work in EIT-based systems.

Direct milling and casting of polymer-based optical waveguides for improved transparency in the visible range

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Snakenborg, Detlef; Perozziello, Gerardo; Klank, Henning

2006-01-01

properties. Direct micromilling enabled us to fabricate 100 mu m wide optical waveguides. Propagation losses of less than 1 dB cm(-1) could be achieved throughout the entire visual range down to a wavelength of 400 nm. A casting process amenable to high number production of such devices was furthermore...

Visual servoing in medical robotics: a survey. Part I: endoscopic and direct vision imaging - techniques and applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Azizian, Mahdi; Khoshnam, Mahta; Najmaei, Nima; Patel, Rajni V

2014-09-01

Intra-operative imaging is widely used to provide visual feedback to a clinician when he/she performs a procedure. In visual servoing, surgical instruments and parts of tissue/body are tracked by processing the acquired images. This information is then used within a control loop to manoeuvre a robotic manipulator during a procedure. A comprehensive search of electronic databases was completed for the period 2000-2013 to provide a survey of the visual servoing applications in medical robotics. The focus is on medical applications where image-based tracking is used for closed-loop control of a robotic system. Detailed classification and comparative study of various contributions in visual servoing using endoscopic or direct visual images are presented and summarized in tables and diagrams. The main challenges in using visual servoing for medical robotic applications are identified and potential future directions are suggested. 'Supervised automation of medical robotics' is found to be a major trend in this field. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

High-dynamic-range microscope imaging based on exposure bracketing in full-field optical coherence tomography.

Science.gov (United States)

Leong-Hoi, Audrey; Montgomery, Paul C; Serio, Bruno; Twardowski, Patrice; Uhring, Wilfried

2016-04-01

By applying the proposed high-dynamic-range (HDR) technique based on exposure bracketing, we demonstrate a meaningful reduction in the spatial noise in image frames acquired with a CCD camera so as to improve the fringe contrast in full-field optical coherence tomography (FF-OCT). This new signal processing method thus allows improved probing within transparent or semitransparent samples. The proposed method is demonstrated on 3 μm thick transparent polymer films of Mylar, which, due to their transparency, produce low contrast fringe patterns in white-light interference microscopy. High-resolution tomographic analysis is performed using the technique. After performing appropriate signal processing, resulting XZ sections are observed. Submicrometer-sized defects can be lost in the noise that is present in the CCD images. With the proposed method, we show that by increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of the images, submicrometer-sized defect structures can thus be detected.

NETWORK DESIGN IN CLOSE-RANGE PHOTOGRAMMETRY WITH SHORT BASELINE IMAGES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Barazzetti

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The avaibility of automated software for image-based 3D modelling has changed the way people acquire images for photogrammetric applications. Short baseline images are required to match image points with SIFT-like algorithms, obtaining more images than those necessary for “old fashioned” photogrammetric projects based on manual measurements. This paper describes some considerations on network design for short baseline image sequences, especially on precision and reliability of bundle adjustment. Simulated results reveal that the large number of 3D points used for image orientation has very limited impact on network precision.

Image quality of microcalcifications in digital breast tomosynthesis: Effects of projection-view distributions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu, Yao; Chan, Heang-Ping; Wei, Jun; Goodsitt, Mitch; Carson, Paul L.; Hadjiiski, Lubomir; Schmitz, Andrea; Eberhard, Jeffrey W.; Claus, Bernhard E. H.

2011-01-01

Purpose: To analyze the effects of projection-view (PV) distribution on the contrast and spatial blurring of microcalcifications on the tomosynthesized slices (X-Y plane) and along the depth (Z) direction for the same radiation dose in digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT). Methods: A GE GEN2 prototype DBT system was used for acquisition of DBT scans. The system acquires PV images from 21 angles in 3 deg. increments over a ±30 deg. range. From these acquired PV images, the authors selected six subsets of PV images to simulate DBT of different angular ranges and angular increments. The number of PV images in each subset was fixed at 11 to simulate a constant total dose. These different PV distributions were subjectively divided into three categories: uniform group, nonuniform central group, and nonuniform extreme group with different angular ranges and angular increments. The simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique (SART) was applied to each subset to reconstruct the DBT slices. A selective diffusion regularization method was employed to suppress noise. The image quality of microcalcifications in the reconstructed DBTs with different PV distributions was compared using the DBT scans of an American College of Radiology phantom and three human subjects. The contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the line profiles of microcalcifications within their in-focus DBT slices (parallel to detector plane) and the FWHMs of the interplane artifact spread function (ASF) in the Z-direction (perpendicular to detector plane) were used as image quality measures. Results: The results indicate that DBT acquired with a large angular range or, for an equal angular range,with a large fraction of PVs at large angles yielded superior ASF with smaller FWHM in the Z-direction. PV distributions with a narrow angular range or a large fraction of PVs at small angles had stronger interplane artifacts. In the X-Y focal planes, the effect of PV

Direct imaging of phase objects enables conventional deconvolution in bright field light microscopy.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carmen Noemí Hernández Candia

Full Text Available In transmitted optical microscopy, absorption structure and phase structure of the specimen determine the three-dimensional intensity distribution of the image. The elementary impulse responses of the bright field microscope therefore consist of separate absorptive and phase components, precluding general application of linear, conventional deconvolution processing methods to improve image contrast and resolution. However, conventional deconvolution can be applied in the case of pure phase (or pure absorptive objects if the corresponding phase (or absorptive impulse responses of the microscope are known. In this work, we present direct measurements of the phase point- and line-spread functions of a high-aperture microscope operating in transmitted bright field. Polystyrene nanoparticles and microtubules (biological polymer filaments serve as the pure phase point and line objects, respectively, that are imaged with high contrast and low noise using standard microscopy plus digital image processing. Our experimental results agree with a proposed model for the response functions, and confirm previous theoretical predictions. Finally, we use the measured phase point-spread function to apply conventional deconvolution on the bright field images of living, unstained bacteria, resulting in improved definition of cell boundaries and sub-cellular features. These developments demonstrate practical application of standard restoration methods to improve imaging of phase objects such as cells in transmitted light microscopy.

A direct reflection OLVF debris detector based on dark-field imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Bo; Xi, Yinhu; Feng, Song; Mao, Junhong; Xie, You-Bai

2018-06-01

To solve the problems of monitoring wear debris in black oil, a direct reflection online visual ferrograph (OLVF) debris detector is presented. In current OLVF detectors, a reflected light source is used. The emitted light is reflected by wear debris directly instead of passing through the lube oil. Therefore, the transparency of the lube oil ceases to matter. Two experiments were conducted to validate the wear debris imaging feasibility and effectiveness of the newly developed detector. The results show that the visual feature information of the wear debris can be reliably obtained from black oil by this detector, and it can also be used to track the fast-changing wear of tribopairs at different wear stages. To the best of our knowledge, to date there is no other report for solving this issue.

The construction and evaluation of a prototype system for an image intensifier-based volume computed tomography imager

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ning, R.

1989-01-01

A volumetric reconstruction of a three-dimensional (3-D) object has been at the forefront of exploration in medical applications for a long time. To achieve this goal, a prototype system for an image intensifier(II)-based volume computed tomography (CT) imager has been constructed. This research has been concerned with constructing and evaluating such a prototype system by phantom studies. The prototype system consists of a fixed x-ray tube, a specially designed aluminum filter that will reduce the dynamic range of projection data, an antiscatter grid, a conventional image intensifier optically coupled to a charge-coupled device (CCC) camera, a computer controlled turntable on which phantoms are placed, a digital computer including an A/D converter and a graphic station that displays the reconstructed images. In this study, three different phantoms were used: a vascular phantom, a resolution phantom and a Humanoid reg-sign chest phantom. The direct 3-D reconstruction from the projections was performed using a cone beam algorithm and vascular reconstruction algorithms. The image performance of the system for the direct 3-D reconstruction was evaluated. The spatial resolution limits of the system were estimated through observing the reconstructed images of the resolution phantom. By observing the images reconstructed from the projections, it can be determined that the image performance of the prototype system for a direct 3-D reconstruction is reasonably good and that the vascular reconstruction algorithms work very well. The results also indicate that the 3-D reconstructions obtained with the 11-based volume CT imager have nearly equally good resolution in x, y and z directions and are superior to a conventional CT in the resolution of the z direction

An automatic high precision registration method between large area aerial images and aerial light detection and ranging data

Science.gov (United States)

Du, Q.; Xie, D.; Sun, Y.

2015-06-01

The integration of digital aerial photogrammetry and Light Detetion And Ranging (LiDAR) is an inevitable trend in Surveying and Mapping field. We calculate the external orientation elements of images which identical with LiDAR coordinate to realize automatic high precision registration between aerial images and LiDAR data. There are two ways to calculate orientation elements. One is single image spatial resection using image matching 3D points that registered to LiDAR. The other one is Position and Orientation System (POS) data supported aerotriangulation. The high precision registration points are selected as Ground Control Points (GCPs) instead of measuring GCPs manually during aerotriangulation. The registration experiments indicate that the method which registering aerial images and LiDAR points has a great advantage in higher automation and precision compare with manual registration.

Direct imaging of turbid media using long-time back-scattered photons, a numerical study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boulanger, Joan; Liu, Fengshan; El Akel, Azad; Charette, Andre

2006-01-01

Direct imaging is a convenient way to obtain information on the interior of a semi-transparent turbid material by non-invasive probing using laser beams. The major difficulty is linked to scattering which scrambles the directional information coming from the laser beam. It is found in this paper that the long-term multiple-scattered reflected photons may provide structural information on the inside of a material, which offers an interesting alternative to using information only from un-scattered or least-scattered photons as obtained from current direct imaging set-ups for thin media. Based on some observations on a non-homogeneous three layered 1-D slab irradiated by a laser pulse, a direct probing methodology making use of the long-term back-scattered photons is illustrated to recover inclusions positions in a turbid 2-D medium. First, the numerical model is presented. Second, an extended parametrical study is conducted on 1-D homogeneous and non-homogeneous slabs with different laser pulse durations. It is found that the reflected asymptotic logarithmic slope carries information about the presence of the inclusion and that short laser pulses are not necessary since only the decaying parts of the remanent optical signature is important. Longer laser pulses allow a higher level of energy injection and signal to noise ratio. Third, those observations are used for the probing of a 2-D non-homogeneous phantom. (author)

Direct Detection and Imaging of Low-Energy Electrons with Delta-Doped Charge-Coupled Devices

Science.gov (United States)

Nikzad, S.; Yu, Q.; Smith, A. L.; Jones, T. J.; Tombrello, T. A.; Elliott, S. T.

1998-01-01

We report the use fo delta-doped charge-coupled devices (CCDs) for direct detection of electrons in the 50-1500 eV energy range. These are the first measurements with a solid state device to detect electrons in this energy range.

The Usefulness of Readout-Segmented Echo-Planar Imaging (RESOLVE) for Bio-phantom Imaging Using 3-Tesla Clinical MRI.

Science.gov (United States)

Yoshimura, Yuuki; Kuroda, Masahiro; Sugiantoc, Irfan; Bamgbosec, Babatunde O; Miyahara, Kanae; Ohmura, Yuichi; Kurozumi, Akira; Matsushita, Toshi; Ohno, Seiichiro; Kanazawa, Susumu; Asaumi, Junichi

2018-02-01

Readout-segmented echo-planar imaging (RESOLVE) is a multi-shot echo-planar imaging (EPI) modality with k-space segmented in the readout direction. We investigated whether RESOLVE decreases the distortion and artifact in the phase direction and increases the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in phantoms image taken with 3-tesla (3T) MRI versus conventional EPI. We used a physiological saline phantom and subtraction mapping and observed that RESOLVE's SNR was higher than EPI's. Using RESOLVE, the combination of a special-purpose coil and a large-loop coil had a higher SNR compared to using only a head/neck coil. RESOLVE's image distortioas less than EPI's. We used a 120 mM polyethylene glycol phantom to examine the phase direction artifact.vThe range where the artifact appeared in the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) image was shorter with RESOLVE compared to EPI. We used RESOLVE to take images of a Jurkat cell bio-phantom: the cell-region ADC was 856×10-6mm2/sec and the surrounding physiological saline-region ADC was 2,951×10-6mm2/sec. The combination of RESOLVE and the 3T clinical MRI device reduced image distortion and improved SNR and the identification of accurate ADC values due to the phase direction artifact reduction. This combination is useful for obtaining accurate ADC values of bio-phantoms.

Solidification in direct metal deposition by LENS processing

Science.gov (United States)

Hofmeister, William; Griffith, Michelle

2001-09-01

Thermal imaging and metallographic analysis were used to study Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS™) processing of 316 stainless steel and H13 tool steel. The cooling rates at the solid-liquid interface were measured over a range of conduction conditions. The length scale of the molten zone controls cooling rates during solidification in direct metal deposition. In LENS processing, the molten zone ranges from 0.5 mm in length to 1.5 mm, resulting in cooling rates at the solid-liquid interface ranging from 200 6,000 Ks-1.

An experimentally verified model for estimating the distance resolution capability of direct time of flight 3D optical imaging systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nguyen, K Q K; Fisher, E M D; Walton, A J; Underwood, I

2013-01-01

This report introduces a new statistical model for time-resolved photon detection in a generic single-photon-sensitive sensor array. The model is validated by comparing modelled data with experimental data collected on a single-photon avalanche diode sensor array. Data produced by the model are used alongside corresponding experimental data to calculate, for the first time, the effective distance resolution of a pulsed direct time of flight 3D optical imaging system over a range of conditions using four peak-detection algorithms. The relative performance of the algorithms is compared. The model can be used to improve the system design process and inform selection of the optimal peak-detection algorithm. (paper)

Image covariance and lesion detectability in direct fan-beam x-ray computed tomography.

Science.gov (United States)

Wunderlich, Adam; Noo, Frédéric

2008-05-21

We consider noise in computed tomography images that are reconstructed using the classical direct fan-beam filtered backprojection algorithm, from both full- and short-scan data. A new, accurate method for computing image covariance is presented. The utility of the new covariance method is demonstrated by its application to the implementation of a channelized Hotelling observer for a lesion detection task. Results from the new covariance method and its application to the channelized Hotelling observer are compared with results from Monte Carlo simulations. In addition, the impact of a bowtie filter and x-ray tube current modulation on reconstruction noise and lesion detectability are explored for full-scan reconstruction.

Image covariance and lesion detectability in direct fan-beam x-ray computed tomography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wunderlich, Adam; Noo, Frederic

2008-01-01

We consider noise in computed tomography images that are reconstructed using the classical direct fan-beam filtered backprojection algorithm, from both full- and short-scan data. A new, accurate method for computing image covariance is presented. The utility of the new covariance method is demonstrated by its application to the implementation of a channelized Hotelling observer for a lesion detection task. Results from the new covariance method and its application to the channelized Hotelling observer are compared with results from Monte Carlo simulations. In addition, the impact of a bowtie filter and x-ray tube current modulation on reconstruction noise and lesion detectability are explored for full-scan reconstruction

Histology-directed and imaging mass spectrometry: an emerging technology in ectopic calcification

OpenAIRE

Taverna, Domenico; Boraldi, Federica; De Santis, Giorgio; Caprioli, Richard M; Quaglino, Daniela

2015-01-01

The present study was designed to demonstrate the potential of an optimized histology directed protein identification combined with imaging mass spectrometry technology to reveal and identify molecules associated to ectopic calcification in human tissue. As a proof of concept, mineralized and non-mineralized areas were compared within the same dermal tissue obtained from a patient affected by Pseudoxanthoma elasticum, a genetic disorder characterized by calcification only at specific sites of...

Three-dimensional perceived-shape representation fusing range data and fuzzy-like segmented image data

Science.gov (United States)

Bourbakis, Nikolaos G.

2001-04-01

A fusion technique is presented for 3D representation. The fusion involves laser range data and segmented image data, using human expertise related to the environment. In particular, the range data may contain noise due to reflections on sloped surfaces or long open corridors; the proposed approach removes the noise by using human expertise from 3D environments. This method could be utilized either by an autonomous robot in an unknown environment, or by an inspection machine in a complex manufacturing environment, or by a visual navigation device used by blind people. Additional applications for this technique are to correct measurement deficiencies in a laser scan and to provide a true color and 3D perceived-shape representation for a given object in a modeling environment.

X-ray directional dark-field contrast for sub-pixel resolution imaging of bone microstructures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Biernath, Thomas; Malecki, Andreas; Potdevin, Guillaume; Bech, Martin; Pfeiffer, Franz [Department of Physics (E17) and Institute of Medical Engineering (IMETUM), Technische Universitaet Muenchen (Germany); Jensen, Torben [Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen (Denmark)

2011-07-01

The basic principles of X-ray image formation in radiography have remained essentially unchanged since Roentgen first discovered X-rays over a hundred years ago. The conventional approach relies on X-ray absorption as the sole source of contrast and thus gives an information about the density changes in the sample. The recently introduced X-ray dark field imaging technique (DFI) yields a fundamentally different signal: DFI is a measure of the sample small angle scattering signal and thus yields information about the sample microstructure. Such measurements can be effectively performed thanks to a Laue-Talbot grating interferometer. This presentation shows recent experimental directional dark-field imaging results of various samples both from synchrotron and classical X-ray tube sources.

Directional Histogram Ratio at Random Probes: A Local Thresholding Criterion for Capillary Images

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Na; Silva, Jharon; Gu, Yu; Gerber, Scott; Wu, Hulin; Gelbard, Harris; Dewhurst, Stephen; Miao, Hongyu

2013-01-01

With the development of micron-scale imaging techniques, capillaries can be conveniently visualized using methods such as two-photon and whole mount microscopy. However, the presence of background staining, leaky vessels and the diffusion of small fluorescent molecules can lead to significant complexity in image analysis and loss of information necessary to accurately quantify vascular metrics. One solution to this problem is the development of accurate thresholding algorithms that reliably distinguish blood vessels from surrounding tissue. Although various thresholding algorithms have been proposed, our results suggest that without appropriate pre- or post-processing, the existing approaches may fail to obtain satisfactory results for capillary images that include areas of contamination. In this study, we propose a novel local thresholding algorithm, called directional histogram ratio at random probes (DHR-RP). This method explicitly considers the geometric features of tube-like objects in conducting image binarization, and has a reliable performance in distinguishing small vessels from either clean or contaminated background. Experimental and simulation studies suggest that our DHR-RP algorithm is superior over existing thresholding methods. PMID:23525856

Direct imaging of glycans in Arabidopsis roots via click labeling of metabolically incorporated azido-monosaccharides.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoogenboom, Jorin; Berghuis, Nathalja; Cramer, Dario; Geurts, Rene; Zuilhof, Han; Wennekes, Tom

2016-10-10

Carbohydrates, also called glycans, play a crucial but not fully understood role in plant health and development. The non-template driven formation of glycans makes it impossible to image them in vivo with genetically encoded fluorescent tags and related molecular biology approaches. A solution to this problem is the use of tailor-made glycan analogs that are metabolically incorporated by the plant into its glycans. These metabolically incorporated probes can be visualized, but techniques documented so far use toxic copper-catalyzed labeling. To further expand our knowledge of plant glycobiology by direct imaging of its glycans via this method, there is need for novel click-compatible glycan analogs for plants that can be bioorthogonally labelled via copper-free techniques. Arabidopsis seedlings were incubated with azido-containing monosaccharide analogs of N-acetylglucosamine, N-acetylgalactosamine, L-fucose, and L-arabinofuranose. These azido-monosaccharides were metabolically incorporated in plant cell wall glycans of Arabidopsis seedlings. Control experiments indicated active metabolic incorporation of the azido-monosaccharide analogs into glycans rather than through non-specific absorption of the glycan analogs onto the plant cell wall. Successful copper-free labeling reactions were performed, namely an inverse-electron demand Diels-Alder cycloaddition reaction using an incorporated N-acetylglucosamine analog, and a strain-promoted azide-alkyne click reaction. All evaluated azido-monosaccharide analogs were observed to be non-toxic at the used concentrations under normal growth conditions. Our results for the metabolic incorporation and fluorescent labeling of these azido-monosaccharide analogs expand the possibilities for studying plant glycans by direct imaging. Overall we successfully evaluated five azido-monosaccharide analogs for their ability to be metabolically incorporated in Arabidopsis roots and their imaging after fluorescent labeling. This expands

Proton magnetic resonance chemical shift imaging (1H CSI)-directed stereotactic biopsy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Son, B.-C.; Kim, B.-C.; Kang, J.-K.; Choi, B.-G.; Kim, E.-N.; Baik, H.-M.; Choe, B.-Y.; Naruse, S.

2001-01-01

Introduction. To add metabolic information during stereotactic biopsy target selection, the authors adopted proton chemical shift imaging ( 1 H CSI)-directed stereotactic biopsy. Currently, proton single voxel spectroscopy (SVS) technique has been reported in stereotactic biopsy. We performed 1 H CSI in combination with a stereotactic headframe and selected targets according to local metabolic information, and evaluated the pathological results. Patients and Method. The 1 H CSI-directed stereotactic biopsy was performed in four patients. 1 H CSI and conventional Gd-enhancement stereotactic MRI were performed simultaneously after the fitting of a stereotactic frame. After reconstructing the metabolic maps of N-acetylaspartate (NAA)/phosphocreatine (Cr), phosphocholine (Cho)/Cr, and Lactate/Cr ratios, focal areas of increased Cho/Cr ratio and Lac/Cr ratios were selected as target sites in the stereotactic MR images. Result. 1 H CSI is possible with the stereotactic headframe in place. No difficulty was experienced performing 1 H CSI or making a diagnosis. Pathological samples taken from areas of increased Cho/Cr ratios and decreased NAA/Cr ratios provided information upon increased cellularity, mitoses and cellular atypism, and facilitated diagnosis. Pathological samples taken from areas of increased Lac/ Cr ratio snowed predominant feature of necrosis. Conclusion. 1 H CSI was feasible with the stereotactic headframe in place. The final pathological results obtained were concordant with the local metabolic information from 1 H CSI. We believe that 1 H CSI-directed stereotactic biopsy has the potential to significantly improve the accuracy of stereotactic biopsy targeting. (author)

A comparison of two prompt gamma imaging techniques with collimator-based cameras for range verification in proton therapy

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Hsin-Hon; Chang, Hao-Ting; Chao, Tsi-Chian; Chuang, Keh-Shih

2017-08-01

In vivo range verification plays an important role in proton therapy to fully utilize the benefits of the Bragg peak (BP) for delivering high radiation dose to tumor, while sparing the normal tissue. For accurately locating the position of BP, camera equipped with collimators (multi-slit and knife-edge collimator) to image prompt gamma (PG) emitted along the proton tracks in the patient have been proposed for range verification. The aim of the work is to compare the performance of multi-slit collimator and knife-edge collimator for non-invasive proton beam range verification. PG imaging was simulated by a validated GATE/GEANT4 Monte Carlo code to model the spot-scanning proton therapy and cylindrical PMMA phantom in detail. For each spot, 108 protons were simulated. To investigate the correlation between the acquired PG profile and the proton range, the falloff regions of PG profiles were fitted with a 3-line-segment curve function as the range estimate. Factors including the energy window setting, proton energy, phantom size, and phantom shift that may influence the accuracy of detecting range were studied. Results indicated that both collimator systems achieve reasonable accuracy and good response to the phantom shift. The accuracy of range predicted by multi-slit collimator system is less affected by the proton energy, while knife-edge collimator system can achieve higher detection efficiency that lead to a smaller deviation in predicting range. We conclude that both collimator systems have potentials for accurately range monitoring in proton therapy. It is noted that neutron contamination has a marked impact on range prediction of the two systems, especially in multi-slit system. Therefore, a neutron reduction technique for improving the accuracy of range verification of proton therapy is needed.

A Low-Power High-Dynamic-Range Receiver System for In-Probe 3-D Ultrasonic Imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Attarzadeh, Hourieh; Xu, Ye; Ytterdal, Trond

2017-10-01

In this paper, a dual-mode low-power, high dynamic-range receiver circuit is designed for the interface with a capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer. The proposed ultrasound receiver chip enables the development of an in-probe digital beamforming imaging system. The flexibility of having two operation modes offers a high dynamic range with minimum power sacrifice. A prototype of the chip containing one receive channel, with one variable transimpedance amplifier (TIA) and one analog to digital converter (ADC) circuit is implemented. Combining variable gain TIA functionality with ADC gain settings achieves an enhanced overall high dynamic range, while low power dissipation is maintained. The chip is designed and fabricated in a 65 nm standard CMOS process technology. The test chip occupies an area of 76[Formula: see text] 170 [Formula: see text]. A total average power range of 60-240 [Formula: see text] for a sampling frequency of 30 MHz, and a center frequency of 5 MHz is measured. An instantaneous dynamic range of 50.5 dB with an overall dynamic range of 72 dB is obtained from the receiver circuit.

Directional couplers using long-range surface plasmon polariton waveguides

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boltasseva, Alexandra; Bozhevolnyi, Sergey I.

2006-01-01

14-nm-thick stripes and a wavelength of 1550 urn, LR-SPP propagation loss is determined for the stripe widths varying from 2 to 12 mu m and is found to be similar to 7 and 5 dB/cm for 10- and 4-mu m-wide stripes, respectively. For the directional couplers based on 14-nm-thick and 8-mu m-wide gold...... stripes and a wavelength of 1570 nm, the coupling lengths of 4.1, 1.9, and 0.8 mm are found for the respective waveguide separations of 8, 4, and 0 mu m. We model the LR-SPP-based directional couplers using the effective-refractive-index method and obtain a good agreement with the experimental results....... The transmission spectra of LR-SPP-based directional couplers are presented demonstrating an efficient (similar to 30 dB) separation of different telecom wavelength bands. Various possibilities for dynamic control of wavelength division/multiplexing with LRSPP-based directional couplers that utilize the thermo...

Direct reconstruction of parametric images for brain PET with event-by-event motion correction: evaluation in two tracers across count levels

Science.gov (United States)

Germino, Mary; Gallezot, Jean-Dominque; Yan, Jianhua; Carson, Richard E.

2017-07-01

Parametric images for dynamic positron emission tomography (PET) are typically generated by an indirect method, i.e. reconstructing a time series of emission images, then fitting a kinetic model to each voxel time activity curve. Alternatively, ‘direct reconstruction’, incorporates the kinetic model into the reconstruction algorithm itself, directly producing parametric images from projection data. Direct reconstruction has been shown to achieve parametric images with lower standard error than the indirect method. Here, we present direct reconstruction for brain PET using event-by-event motion correction of list-mode data, applied to two tracers. Event-by-event motion correction was implemented for direct reconstruction in the Parametric Motion-compensation OSEM List-mode Algorithm for Resolution-recovery reconstruction. The direct implementation was tested on simulated and human datasets with tracers [11C]AFM (serotonin transporter) and [11C]UCB-J (synaptic density), which follow the 1-tissue compartment model. Rigid head motion was tracked with the Vicra system. Parametric images of K 1 and distribution volume (V T  =  K 1/k 2) were compared to those generated by the indirect method by regional coefficient of variation (CoV). Performance across count levels was assessed using sub-sampled datasets. For simulated and real datasets at high counts, the two methods estimated K 1 and V T with comparable accuracy. At lower count levels, the direct method was substantially more robust to outliers than the indirect method. Compared to the indirect method, direct reconstruction reduced regional K 1 CoV by 35-48% (simulated dataset), 39-43% ([11C]AFM dataset) and 30-36% ([11C]UCB-J dataset) across count levels (averaged over regions at matched iteration); V T CoV was reduced by 51-58%, 54-60% and 30-46%, respectively. Motion correction played an important role in the dataset with larger motion: correction increased regional V T by 51% on average in the [11C

A Waveguide Antenna with an Extended Angular Range for Remote Steering of Wave-Beam Direction

Science.gov (United States)

Sobolev, D. I.; Denisov, G. G.

2018-03-01

A new method for increasing the angular range of a waveguide antenna for remote steering of the wave-beam direction in thermonuclear-fusion experimental setups with plasma magnetic confinement is proposed. Characteristics for large beam inclination angles can be improved using the synthesized nonuniform waveguide profile. For small angles, the characteristics remain invariable, the waveguide profile differs only slightly from the regular shape, and can be fit to limited waveguide-channel sizes.

Direct measurement of the lethal isotherm for radiofrequency ablation of myocardial tissue.

Science.gov (United States)

Wood, Mark; Goldberg, Scott; Lau, Melissa; Goel, Aneesh; Alexander, Daniel; Han, Frederick; Feinstein, Shawn

2011-06-01

The lethal isotherm for radiofrequency catheter ablation of cardiac myocardium is widely accepted to be 50°C, but this has not been directly measured. The purpose of this study was to directly measure the tissue temperature at the edge of radiofrequency lesions in real time using infrared thermal imaging. Fifteen radiofrequency lesions of 6 to 240 seconds in duration were applied to the left ventricular surface of isolated perfused pig hearts. At the end of radiofrequency delivery, a thermal image of the tissue surface was acquired with an infrared camera. The lesion was then stained and an optical image of the lesion was obtained. The thermal and optical images were electronically merged to allow determination of the tissue temperature at the edge of the lesion at the end of radiofrequency delivery. By adjusting the temperature overlay display to conform with the edge of the radiofrequency lesion, the lethal isotherm was measured to be 60.6°C (interquartile ranges, 59.7° to 62.4°C; range, 58.1° to 64.2°C). The areas encompassed by the lesion border in the optical image and the lethal isotherm in the thermal image were statistically similar and highly correlated (Spearman ρ=0.99, Pradiofrequency delivery or to lesion size (both P>0.64). The areas circumscribed by 50°C isotherms were significantly larger than the areas of the lesions on optical imaging (P=0.002). By direct measurement, the lethal isotherm for cardiac myocardium is near 61°C for radiofrequency energy deliveries radiofrequency ablation is important to clinical practice as well as mathematical modeling of radiofrequency lesions.

What can we expect from near to mid-term direct imaging programs?

Science.gov (United States)

Boccaletti, A.

2015-10-01

Direct imaging for exoplanets has made enormous progress in the last decades owing to the advent of new technologies, efficient algorithms for postprocessing and dedicated observing strategies. A few young giant exoplanets were detected with the previous generation of instruments (beta Pic b, HS3799bcde, HR95086b ...). While SPHERE and GPI were conceived with this very purpose, we are thus expecting many more discoveries in the next years. SPHERE comes with a series of facilities to characterize the atmosphere of these planets, from the visible to the near IR, with broad band, narrow band filters, and low to medium resolution spectroscopy as well. It is also a fabulous instrument to study circumstellar disks both intensity and polarimetry in order to establish the link between planets and their environments. A large survey of 600 targets on a 5 years baseline has been started. The next space telescope, JWST equipped with MIRI and NIRCAM will extend the ability to characterize young giants in the mid IR. NO doubt we will learn more about their atmospheres. Finally, by the next decade, very large apertures will become available on the ground. Extremely Large Telescope will have general first light instruments (MICADO, HARMONI), but some programs to image and characterize young giant planets around very distant stars (>100pc) will be feasible. For much ambitious goal, detecting telluric planets and studying their atmosphere, two paths are now considered either from space (WFIRST AFTA-C is good candidate) and from the Ground with SPHERE-like instruments on ELTs. A review of achievments and perspectives in the context of direct imaging will be presented.

TU-G-BRA-02: Can We Extract Lung Function Directly From 4D-CT Without Deformable Image Registration?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kipritidis, J; Woodruff, H; Counter, W; Keall, P [University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW (Australia); Hofman, M; Siva, S; Callahan, J; Le Roux, P [Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, VIC (Australia); Hardcastle, N [Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, NSW (Australia)

2015-06-15

Purpose: Dynamic CT ventilation imaging (CT-VI) visualizes air volume changes in the lung by evaluating breathing-induced lung motion using deformable image registration (DIR). Dynamic CT-VI could enable functionally adaptive lung cancer radiation therapy, but its sensitivity to DIR parameters poses challenges for validation. We hypothesize that a direct metric using CT parameters derived from Hounsfield units (HU) alone can provide similar ventilation images without DIR. We compare the accuracy of Direct and Dynamic CT-VIs versus positron emission tomography (PET) images of inhaled {sup 68}Ga-labelled nanoparticles (‘Galligas’). Methods: 25 patients with lung cancer underwent Galligas 4D-PET/CT scans prior to radiation therapy. For each patient we produced three CT- VIs. (i) Our novel method, Direct CT-VI, models blood-gas exchange as the product of air and tissue density at each lung voxel based on time-averaged 4D-CT HU values. Dynamic CT-VIs were produced by evaluating: (ii) regional HU changes, and (iii) regional volume changes between the exhale and inhale 4D-CT phase images using a validated B-spline DIR method. We assessed the accuracy of each CT-VI by computing the voxel-wise Spearman correlation with free-breathing Galligas PET, and also performed a visual analysis. Results: Surprisingly, Direct CT-VIs exhibited better global correlation with Galligas PET than either of the dynamic CT-VIs. The (mean ± SD) correlations were (0.55 ± 0.16), (0.41 ± 0.22) and (0.29 ± 0.27) for Direct, Dynamic HU-based and Dynamic volume-based CT-VIs respectively. Visual comparison of Direct CT-VI to PET demonstrated similarity for emphysema defects and ventral-to-dorsal gradients, but inability to identify decreased ventilation distal to tumor-obstruction. Conclusion: Our data supports the hypothesis that Direct CT-VIs are as accurate as Dynamic CT-VIs in terms of global correlation with Galligas PET. Visual analysis, however, demonstrated that different CT