Exploring Techniques for Vision Based Human Activity Recognition: Methods, Systems, and Evaluation

PubMed Central

Xu, Xin; Tang, Jinshan; Zhang, Xiaolong; Liu, Xiaoming; Zhang, Hong; Qiu, Yimin

2013-01-01

With the wide applications of vision based intelligent systems, image and video analysis technologies have attracted the attention of researchers in the computer vision field. In image and video analysis, human activity recognition is an important research direction. By interpreting and understanding human activities, we can recognize and predict the occurrence of crimes and help the police or other agencies react immediately. In the past, a large number of papers have been published on human activity recognition in video and image sequences. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey of the recent development of the techniques, including methods, systems, and quantitative evaluation of the performance of human activity recognition. PMID:23353144

A video event trigger for high frame rate, high resolution video technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, Glenn L.

1991-12-01

When video replaces film the digitized video data accumulates very rapidly, leading to a difficult and costly data storage problem. One solution exists for cases when the video images represent continuously repetitive 'static scenes' containing negligible activity, occasionally interrupted by short events of interest. Minutes or hours of redundant video frames can be ignored, and not stored, until activity begins. A new, highly parallel digital state machine generates a digital trigger signal at the onset of a video event. High capacity random access memory storage coupled with newly available fuzzy logic devices permits the monitoring of a video image stream for long term or short term changes caused by spatial translation, dilation, appearance, disappearance, or color change in a video object. Pretrigger and post-trigger storage techniques are then adaptable for archiving the digital stream from only the significant video images.

A video event trigger for high frame rate, high resolution video technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, Glenn L.

1991-01-01

When video replaces film the digitized video data accumulates very rapidly, leading to a difficult and costly data storage problem. One solution exists for cases when the video images represent continuously repetitive 'static scenes' containing negligible activity, occasionally interrupted by short events of interest. Minutes or hours of redundant video frames can be ignored, and not stored, until activity begins. A new, highly parallel digital state machine generates a digital trigger signal at the onset of a video event. High capacity random access memory storage coupled with newly available fuzzy logic devices permits the monitoring of a video image stream for long term or short term changes caused by spatial translation, dilation, appearance, disappearance, or color change in a video object. Pretrigger and post-trigger storage techniques are then adaptable for archiving the digital stream from only the significant video images.

USB video image controller used in CMOS image sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Wenxuan; Wang, Yuxia; Fan, Hong

2002-09-01

CMOS process is mainstream technique in VLSI, possesses high integration. SE402 is multifunction microcontroller, which integrates image data I/O ports, clock control, exposure control and digital signal processing into one chip. SE402 reduces the number of chips and PCB's room. The paper studies emphatically on USB video image controller used in CMOS image sensor and give the application on digital still camera.

The AAPM/RSNA physics tutorial for residents: digital fluoroscopy.

PubMed

Pooley, R A; McKinney, J M; Miller, D A

2001-01-01

A digital fluoroscopy system is most commonly configured as a conventional fluoroscopy system (tube, table, image intensifier, video system) in which the analog video signal is converted to and stored as digital data. Other methods of acquiring the digital data (eg, digital or charge-coupled device video and flat-panel detectors) will become more prevalent in the future. Fundamental concepts related to digital imaging in general include binary numbers, pixels, and gray levels. Digital image data allow the convenient use of several image processing techniques including last image hold, gray-scale processing, temporal frame averaging, and edge enhancement. Real-time subtraction of digital fluoroscopic images after injection of contrast material has led to widespread use of digital subtraction angiography (DSA). Additional image processing techniques used with DSA include road mapping, image fade, mask pixel shift, frame summation, and vessel size measurement. Peripheral angiography performed with an automatic moving table allows imaging of the peripheral vasculature with a single contrast material injection.

Design and evaluation of controls for drift, video gain, and color balance in spaceborne facsimile cameras

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Katzberg, S. J.; Kelly, W. L., IV; Rowland, C. W.; Burcher, E. E.

1973-01-01

The facsimile camera is an optical-mechanical scanning device which has become an attractive candidate as an imaging system for planetary landers and rovers. This paper presents electronic techniques which permit the acquisition and reconstruction of high quality images with this device, even under varying lighting conditions. These techniques include a control for low frequency noise and drift, an automatic gain control, a pulse-duration light modulation scheme, and a relative spectral gain control. Taken together, these techniques allow the reconstruction of radiometrically accurate and properly balanced color images from facsimile camera video data. These techniques have been incorporated into a facsimile camera and reproduction system, and experimental results are presented for each technique and for the complete system.

VLSI-based video event triggering for image data compression

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, Glenn L.

1994-02-01

Long-duration, on-orbit microgravity experiments require a combination of high resolution and high frame rate video data acquisition. The digitized high-rate video stream presents a difficult data storage problem. Data produced at rates of several hundred million bytes per second may require a total mission video data storage requirement exceeding one terabyte. A NASA-designed, VLSI-based, highly parallel digital state machine generates a digital trigger signal at the onset of a video event. High capacity random access memory storage coupled with newly available fuzzy logic devices permits the monitoring of a video image stream for long term (DC-like) or short term (AC-like) changes caused by spatial translation, dilation, appearance, disappearance, or color change in a video object. Pre-trigger and post-trigger storage techniques are then adaptable to archiving only the significant video images.

VLSI-based Video Event Triggering for Image Data Compression

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, Glenn L.

1994-01-01

Long-duration, on-orbit microgravity experiments require a combination of high resolution and high frame rate video data acquisition. The digitized high-rate video stream presents a difficult data storage problem. Data produced at rates of several hundred million bytes per second may require a total mission video data storage requirement exceeding one terabyte. A NASA-designed, VLSI-based, highly parallel digital state machine generates a digital trigger signal at the onset of a video event. High capacity random access memory storage coupled with newly available fuzzy logic devices permits the monitoring of a video image stream for long term (DC-like) or short term (AC-like) changes caused by spatial translation, dilation, appearance, disappearance, or color change in a video object. Pre-trigger and post-trigger storage techniques are then adaptable to archiving only the significant video images.

Acquisition and Analysis of Dynamic Responses of a Historic Pedestrian Bridge using Video Image Processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Byrne, Michael; Ghosh, Bidisha; Schoefs, Franck; O'Donnell, Deirdre; Wright, Robert; Pakrashi, Vikram

2015-07-01

Video based tracking is capable of analysing bridge vibrations that are characterised by large amplitudes and low frequencies. This paper presents the use of video images and associated image processing techniques to obtain the dynamic response of a pedestrian suspension bridge in Cork, Ireland. This historic structure is one of the four suspension bridges in Ireland and is notable for its dynamic nature. A video camera is mounted on the river-bank and the dynamic responses of the bridge have been measured from the video images. The dynamic response is assessed without the need of a reflector on the bridge and in the presence of various forms of luminous complexities in the video image scenes. Vertical deformations of the bridge were measured in this regard. The video image tracking for the measurement of dynamic responses of the bridge were based on correlating patches in time-lagged scenes in video images and utilisinga zero mean normalisedcross correlation (ZNCC) metric. The bridge was excited by designed pedestrian movement and by individual cyclists traversing the bridge. The time series data of dynamic displacement responses of the bridge were analysedto obtain the frequency domain response. Frequencies obtained from video analysis were checked against accelerometer data from the bridge obtained while carrying out the same set of experiments used for video image based recognition.

Acquisition and Analysis of Dynamic Responses of a Historic Pedestrian Bridge using Video Image Processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Byrne, Michael; Ghosh, Bidisha; Schoefs, Franck; O'Donnell, Deirdre; Wright, Robert; Pakrashi, Vikram

2015-07-01

Video based tracking is capable of analysing bridge vibrations that are characterised by large amplitudes and low frequencies. This paper presents the use of video images and associated image processing techniques to obtain the dynamic response of a pedestrian suspension bridge in Cork, Ireland. This historic structure is one of the four suspension bridges in Ireland and is notable for its dynamic nature. A video camera is mounted on the river-bank and the dynamic responses of the bridge have been measured from the video images. The dynamic response is assessed without the need of a reflector on the bridge and in the presence of various forms of luminous complexities in the video image scenes. Vertical deformations of the bridge were measured in this regard. The video image tracking for the measurement of dynamic responses of the bridge were based on correlating patches in time-lagged scenes in video images and utilisinga zero mean normalised cross correlation (ZNCC) metric. The bridge was excited by designed pedestrian movement and by individual cyclists traversing the bridge. The time series data of dynamic displacement responses of the bridge were analysedto obtain the frequency domain response. Frequencies obtained from video analysis were checked against accelerometer data from the bridge obtained while carrying out the same set of experiments used for video image based recognition.

Recent advances in nondestructive evaluation made possible by novel uses of video systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Generazio, Edward R.; Roth, Don J.

1990-01-01

Complex materials are being developed for use in future advanced aerospace systems. High temperature materials have been targeted as a major area of materials development. The development of composites consisting of ceramic matrix and ceramic fibers or whiskers is currently being aggressively pursued internationally. These new advanced materials are difficult and costly to produce; however, their low density and high operating temperature range are needed for the next generation of advanced aerospace systems. These materials represent a challenge to the nondestructive evaluation community. Video imaging techniques not only enhance the nondestructive evaluation, but they are also required for proper evaluation of these advanced materials. Specific research examples are given, highlighting the impact that video systems have had on the nondestructive evaluation of ceramics. An image processing technique for computerized determination of grain and pore size distribution functions from microstructural images is discussed. The uses of video and computer systems for displaying, evaluating, and interpreting ultrasonic image data are presented.

Robust video super-resolution with registration efficiency adaptation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Xinfeng; Xiong, Ruiqin; Ma, Siwei; Zhang, Li; Gao, Wen

2010-07-01

Super-Resolution (SR) is a technique to construct a high-resolution (HR) frame by fusing a group of low-resolution (LR) frames describing the same scene. The effectiveness of the conventional super-resolution techniques, when applied on video sequences, strongly relies on the efficiency of motion alignment achieved by image registration. Unfortunately, such efficiency is limited by the motion complexity in the video and the capability of adopted motion model. In image regions with severe registration errors, annoying artifacts usually appear in the produced super-resolution video. This paper proposes a robust video super-resolution technique that adapts itself to the spatially-varying registration efficiency. The reliability of each reference pixel is measured by the corresponding registration error and incorporated into the optimization objective function of SR reconstruction. This makes the SR reconstruction highly immune to the registration errors, as outliers with higher registration errors are assigned lower weights in the objective function. In particular, we carefully design a mechanism to assign weights according to registration errors. The proposed superresolution scheme has been tested with various video sequences and experimental results clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

State of the "art": a taxonomy of artistic stylization techniques for images and video.

PubMed

Kyprianidis, Jan Eric; Collomosse, John; Wang, Tinghuai; Isenberg, Tobias

2013-05-01

This paper surveys the field of nonphotorealistic rendering (NPR), focusing on techniques for transforming 2D input (images and video) into artistically stylized renderings. We first present a taxonomy of the 2D NPR algorithms developed over the past two decades, structured according to the design characteristics and behavior of each technique. We then describe a chronology of development from the semiautomatic paint systems of the early nineties, through to the automated painterly rendering systems of the late nineties driven by image gradient analysis. Two complementary trends in the NPR literature are then addressed, with reference to our taxonomy. First, the fusion of higher level computer vision and NPR, illustrating the trends toward scene analysis to drive artistic abstraction and diversity of style. Second, the evolution of local processing approaches toward edge-aware filtering for real-time stylization of images and video. The survey then concludes with a discussion of open challenges for 2D NPR identified in recent NPR symposia, including topics such as user and aesthetic evaluation.

High-quality and small-capacity e-learning video featuring lecturer-superimposing PC screen images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nomura, Yoshihiko; Murakami, Michinobu; Sakamoto, Ryota; Sugiura, Tokuhiro; Matsui, Hirokazu; Kato, Norihiko

2006-10-01

Information processing and communication technology are progressing quickly, and are prevailing throughout various technological fields. Therefore, the development of such technology should respond to the needs for improvement of quality in the e-learning education system. The authors propose a new video-image compression processing system that ingeniously employs the features of the lecturing scene. While dynamic lecturing scene is shot by a digital video camera, screen images are electronically stored by a PC screen image capturing software in relatively long period at a practical class. Then, a lecturer and a lecture stick are extracted from the digital video images by pattern recognition techniques, and the extracted images are superimposed on the appropriate PC screen images by off-line processing. Thus, we have succeeded to create a high-quality and small-capacity (HQ/SC) video-on-demand educational content featuring the advantages: the high quality of image sharpness, the small electronic file capacity, and the realistic lecturer motion.

Study and simulation of low rate video coding schemes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sayood, Khalid; Chen, Yun-Chung; Kipp, G.

1992-01-01

The semiannual report is included. Topics covered include communication, information science, data compression, remote sensing, color mapped images, robust coding scheme for packet video, recursively indexed differential pulse code modulation, image compression technique for use on token ring networks, and joint source/channel coder design.

Night Vision Goggle Training; Development and Production of Six Video Programs

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-11-01

SUIUECT TERMS Multimedia Video production iS. NUMBER OF PAGES Aeral photography Night vision Videodisc 18 Image Intensification Night vision goggles...reference tool on the squadron or wing demonstrates NVG field of view, field of level. The programs run approximately ten regard, scan techniques, image...training device modalities. These The production of a videodisc that modalities include didactic and video will serve as an NVG audio-visual database

Deep Lake Explorer: Using citizen science to analyze underwater video from the Great Lakes

EPA Science Inventory

While underwater video collection technology continues to improve, advancements in underwater video analysis techniques have lagged. Crowdsourcing image interpretation using the Zooniverse platform has proven successful for many projects, but few projects to date have included vi...

Automatic video summarization driven by a spatio-temporal attention model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barland, R.; Saadane, A.

2008-02-01

According to the literature, automatic video summarization techniques can be classified in two parts, following the output nature: "video skims", which are generated using portions of the original video and "key-frame sets", which correspond to the images, selected from the original video, having a significant semantic content. The difference between these two categories is reduced when we consider automatic procedures. Most of the published approaches are based on the image signal and use either pixel characterization or histogram techniques or image decomposition by blocks. However, few of them integrate properties of the Human Visual System (HVS). In this paper, we propose to extract keyframes for video summarization by studying the variations of salient information between two consecutive frames. For each frame, a saliency map is produced simulating the human visual attention by a bottom-up (signal-dependent) approach. This approach includes three parallel channels for processing three early visual features: intensity, color and temporal contrasts. For each channel, the variations of the salient information between two consecutive frames are computed. These outputs are then combined to produce the global saliency variation which determines the key-frames. Psychophysical experiments have been defined and conducted to analyze the relevance of the proposed key-frame extraction algorithm.

Video-mosaicking of in vivo reflectance confocal microscopy images for noninvasive examination of skin lesion (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kose, Kivanc; Gou, Mengran; Yelamos, Oriol; Cordova, Miguel A.; Rossi, Anthony; Nehal, Kishwer S.; Camps, Octavia I.; Dy, Jennifer G.; Brooks, Dana H.; Rajadhyaksha, Milind

2017-02-01

In this report we describe a computer vision based pipeline to convert in-vivo reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) videos collected with a handheld system into large field of view (FOV) mosaics. For many applications such as imaging of hard to access lesions, intraoperative assessment of MOHS margins, or delineation of lesion margins beyond clinical borders, raster scan based mosaicing techniques have clinically significant limitations. In such cases, clinicians often capture RCM videos by freely moving a handheld microscope over the area of interest, but the resulting videos lose large-scale spatial relationships. Videomosaicking is a standard computational imaging technique to register, and stitch together consecutive frames of videos into large FOV high resolution mosaics. However, mosaicing RCM videos collected in-vivo has unique challenges: (i) tissue may deform or warp due to physical contact with the microscope objective lens, (ii) discontinuities or "jumps" between consecutive images and motion blur artifacts may occur, due to manual operation of the microscope, and (iii) optical sectioning and resolution may vary between consecutive images due to scattering and aberrations induced by changes in imaging depth and tissue morphology. We addressed these challenges by adapting or developing new algorithmic methods for videomosaicking, specifically by modeling non-rigid deformations, followed by automatically detecting discontinuities (cut locations) and, finally, applying a data-driven image stitching approach that fully preserves resolution and tissue morphologic detail without imposing arbitrary pre-defined boundaries. We will present example mosaics obtained by clinical imaging of both melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers. The ability to combine freehand mosaicing for handheld microscopes with preserved cellular resolution will have high impact application in diverse clinical settings, including low-resource healthcare systems.

Automatic content-based analysis of georeferenced image data: Detection of Beggiatoa mats in seafloor video mosaics from the HÅkon Mosby Mud Volcano

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jerosch, K.; Lüdtke, A.; Schlüter, M.; Ioannidis, G. T.

2007-02-01

The combination of new underwater technology as remotely operating vehicles (ROVs), high-resolution video imagery, and software to compute georeferenced mosaics of the seafloor provides new opportunities for marine geological or biological studies and applications in offshore industry. Even during single surveys by ROVs or towed systems large amounts of images are compiled. While these underwater techniques are now well-engineered, there is still a lack of methods for the automatic analysis of the acquired image data. During ROV dives more than 4200 georeferenced video mosaics were compiled for the HÅkon Mosby Mud Volcano (HMMV). Mud volcanoes as HMMV are considered as significant source locations for methane characterised by unique chemoautotrophic communities as Beggiatoa mats. For the detection and quantification of the spatial distribution of Beggiatoa mats an automated image analysis technique was developed, which applies watershed transformation and relaxation-based labelling of pre-segmented regions. Comparison of the data derived by visual inspection of 2840 video images with the automated image analysis revealed similarities with a precision better than 90%. We consider this as a step towards a time-efficient and accurate analysis of seafloor images for computation of geochemical budgets and identification of habitats at the seafloor.

Seafloor video footage and still-frame grabs from U.S. Geological Survey cruises in Hawaiian nearshore waters

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gibbs, Ann E.; Cochran, Susan A.; Tierney, Peter W.

2013-01-01

Underwater video footage was collected in nearshore waters (<60-meter depth) off the Hawaiian Islands from 2002 to 2011 as part of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coastal and Marine Geology Program's Pacific Coral Reef Project, to improve seafloor characterization and for the development and ground-truthing of benthic-habitat maps. This report includes nearly 53 hours of digital underwater video footage collected during four USGS cruises and more than 10,200 still images extracted from the videos, including still frames from every 10 seconds along transect lines, and still frames showing both an overview and a near-bottom view from fixed stations. Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) shapefiles of individual video and still-image locations, and Google Earth kml files with explanatory text and links to the video and still images, are included. This report documents the various camera systems and methods used to collect the videos, and the techniques and software used to convert the analog video tapes into digital data in order to process the images for optimum viewing and to extract the still images, along with a brief summary of each survey cruise.

Detection, location, and quantification of structural damage by neural-net-processed moiré profilometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grossman, Barry G.; Gonzalez, Frank S.; Blatt, Joel H.; Hooker, Jeffery A.

1992-03-01

The development of efficient high speed techniques to recognize, locate, and quantify damage is vitally important for successful automated inspection systems such as ones used for the inspection of undersea pipelines. Two critical problems must be solved to achieve these goals: the reduction of nonuseful information present in the video image and automatic recognition and quantification of extent and location of damage. Artificial neural network processed moire profilometry appears to be a promising technique to accomplish this. Real time video moire techniques have been developed which clearly distinguish damaged and undamaged areas on structures, thus reducing the amount of extraneous information input into an inspection system. Artificial neural networks have demonstrated advantages for image processing, since they can learn the desired response to a given input and are inherently fast when implemented in hardware due to their parallel computing architecture. Video moire images of pipes with dents of different depths were used to train a neural network, with the desired output being the location and severity of the damage. The system was then successfully tested with a second series of moire images. The techniques employed and the results obtained are discussed.

In vivo assessment of the structure of skin microcirculation by reflectance confocal-laser-scanning microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sugata, Keiichi; Osanai, Osamu; Kawada, Hiromitsu

2012-02-01

One of the major roles of the skin microcirculation is to supply oxygen and nutrition to the surrounding tissue. Regardless of the close relationship between the microcirculation and the surrounding tissue, there are few non-invasive methods that can evaluate both the microcirculation and its surrounding tissue at the same site. We visualized microcapillary plexus structures in human skin using in vivo reflectance confocal-laser-scanning microscopy (CLSM), Vivascope 3000® (Lucid Inc., USA) and Image J software (National Institutes of Health, USA) for video image processing. CLSM is a non-invasive technique that can visualize the internal structure of the skin at the cellular level. In addition to internal morphological information such as the extracellular matrix, our method reveals capillary structures up to the depth of the subpapillary plexus at the same site without the need for additional optical systems. Video images at specific depths of the inner forearm skin were recorded. By creating frame-to-frame difference images from the video images using off-line video image processing, we obtained images that emphasize the brightness depending on changes of intensity coming from the movement of blood cells. Merging images from different depths of the skin elucidates the 3-dimensional fine line-structure of the microcirculation. Overall our results show the feasibility of a non-invasive, high-resolution imaging technique to characterize the skin microcirculation and the surrounding tissue.

Effective deep learning training for single-image super-resolution in endomicroscopy exploiting video-registration-based reconstruction.

PubMed

Ravì, Daniele; Szczotka, Agnieszka Barbara; Shakir, Dzhoshkun Ismail; Pereira, Stephen P; Vercauteren, Tom

2018-06-01

Probe-based confocal laser endomicroscopy (pCLE) is a recent imaging modality that allows performing in vivo optical biopsies. The design of pCLE hardware, and its reliance on an optical fibre bundle, fundamentally limits the image quality with a few tens of thousands fibres, each acting as the equivalent of a single-pixel detector, assembled into a single fibre bundle. Video registration techniques can be used to estimate high-resolution (HR) images by exploiting the temporal information contained in a sequence of low-resolution (LR) images. However, the alignment of LR frames, required for the fusion, is computationally demanding and prone to artefacts. In this work, we propose a novel synthetic data generation approach to train exemplar-based Deep Neural Networks (DNNs). HR pCLE images with enhanced quality are recovered by the models trained on pairs of estimated HR images (generated by the video registration algorithm) and realistic synthetic LR images. Performance of three different state-of-the-art DNNs techniques were analysed on a Smart Atlas database of 8806 images from 238 pCLE video sequences. The results were validated through an extensive image quality assessment that takes into account different quality scores, including a Mean Opinion Score (MOS). Results indicate that the proposed solution produces an effective improvement in the quality of the obtained reconstructed image. The proposed training strategy and associated DNNs allows us to perform convincing super-resolution of pCLE images.

MultiFacet: A Faceted Interface for Browsing Large Multimedia Collections

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Henry, Michael J.; Hampton, Shawn D.; Endert, Alexander

2013-10-31

Faceted browsing is a common technique for exploring collections where the data can be grouped into a number of pre-defined categories, most often generated from textual metadata. Historically, faceted browsing has been applied to a single data type such as text or image data. However, typical collections contain multiple data types, such as information from web pages that contain text, images, and video. Additionally, when browsing a collection of images and video, facets are often created based on the metadata which may be incomplete, inaccurate, or missing altogether instead of the actual visual content contained within those images and video.more » In this work we address these limitations by presenting MultiFacet, a faceted browsing interface that supports multiple data types. MultiFacet constructs facets for images and video in a collection from the visual content using computer vision techniques. These visual facets can then be browsed in conjunction with text facets within a single interface to reveal relationships and phenomena within multimedia collections. Additionally, we present a use case based on real-world data, demonstrating the utility of this approach towards browsing a large multimedia data collection.« less

Collaborative real-time motion video analysis by human observer and image exploitation algorithms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hild, Jutta; Krüger, Wolfgang; Brüstle, Stefan; Trantelle, Patrick; Unmüßig, Gabriel; Heinze, Norbert; Peinsipp-Byma, Elisabeth; Beyerer, Jürgen

2015-05-01

Motion video analysis is a challenging task, especially in real-time applications. In most safety and security critical applications, a human observer is an obligatory part of the overall analysis system. Over the last years, substantial progress has been made in the development of automated image exploitation algorithms. Hence, we investigate how the benefits of automated video analysis can be integrated suitably into the current video exploitation systems. In this paper, a system design is introduced which strives to combine both the qualities of the human observer's perception and the automated algorithms, thus aiming to improve the overall performance of a real-time video analysis system. The system design builds on prior work where we showed the benefits for the human observer by means of a user interface which utilizes the human visual focus of attention revealed by the eye gaze direction for interaction with the image exploitation system; eye tracker-based interaction allows much faster, more convenient, and equally precise moving target acquisition in video images than traditional computer mouse selection. The system design also builds on prior work we did on automated target detection, segmentation, and tracking algorithms. Beside the system design, a first pilot study is presented, where we investigated how the participants (all non-experts in video analysis) performed in initializing an object tracking subsystem by selecting a target for tracking. Preliminary results show that the gaze + key press technique is an effective, efficient, and easy to use interaction technique when performing selection operations on moving targets in videos in order to initialize an object tracking function.

Performance evaluation of a two detector camera for real-time video.

PubMed

Lochocki, Benjamin; Gambín-Regadera, Adrián; Artal, Pablo

2016-12-20

Single pixel imaging can be the preferred method over traditional 2D-array imaging in spectral ranges where conventional cameras are not available. However, when it comes to real-time video imaging, single pixel imaging cannot compete with the framerates of conventional cameras, especially when high-resolution images are desired. Here we evaluate the performance of an imaging approach using two detectors simultaneously. First, we present theoretical results on how low SNR affects final image quality followed by experimentally determined results. Obtained video framerates were doubled compared to state of the art systems, resulting in a framerate from 22 Hz for a 32×32 resolution to 0.75 Hz for a 128×128 resolution image. Additionally, the two detector imaging technique enables the acquisition of images with a resolution of 256×256 in less than 3 s.

Comparison of DNA fragmentation and color thresholding for objective quantitation of apoptotic cells

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Plymale, D. R.; Ng Tang, D. S.; Fermin, C. D.; Lewis, D. E.; Martin, D. S.; Garry, R. F.

1995-01-01

Apoptosis is a process of cell death characterized by distinctive morphological changes and fragmentation of cellular DNA. Using video imaging and color thresholding techniques, we objectively quantitated the number of cultured CD4+ T-lymphoblastoid cells (HUT78 cells, RH9 subclone) displaying morphological signs of apoptosis before and after exposure to gamma-irradiation. The numbers of apoptotic cells measured by objective video imaging techniques were compared to numbers of apoptotic cells measured in the same samples by sensitive apoptotic assays that quantitate DNA fragmentation. DNA fragmentation assays gave consistently higher values compared with the video imaging assays that measured morphological changes associated with apoptosis. These results suggest that substantial DNA fragmentation can precede or occur in the absence of the morphological changes which are associated with apoptosis in gamma-irradiated RH9 cells.

Review of passive-blind detection in digital video forgery based on sensing and imaging techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tao, Junjie; Jia, Lili; You, Ying

2016-01-01

Advances in digital video compression and IP communication technologies raised new issues and challenges concerning the integrity and authenticity of surveillance videos. It is so important that the system should ensure that once recorded, the video cannot be altered; ensuring the audit trail is intact for evidential purposes. This paper gives an overview of passive techniques of Digital Video Forensics which are based on intrinsic fingerprints inherent in digital surveillance videos. In this paper, we performed a thorough research of literatures relevant to video manipulation detection methods which accomplish blind authentications without referring to any auxiliary information. We presents review of various existing methods in literature, and much more work is needed to be done in this field of video forensics based on video data analysis and observation of the surveillance systems.

Virtual Ultrasound Guidance for Inexperienced Operators

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Caine, Timothy; Martin, David

2012-01-01

Medical ultrasound or echocardiographic studies are highly operator-dependent and generally require lengthy training and internship to perfect. To obtain quality echocardiographic images in remote environments, such as on-orbit, remote guidance of studies has been employed. This technique involves minimal training for the user, coupled with remote guidance from an expert. When real-time communication or expert guidance is not available, a more autonomous system of guiding an inexperienced operator through an ultrasound study is needed. One example would be missions beyond low Earth orbit in which the time delay inherent with communication will make remote guidance impractical. The Virtual Ultrasound Guidance system is a combination of hardware and software. The hardware portion includes, but is not limited to, video glasses that allow hands-free, full-screen viewing. The glasses also allow the operator a substantial field of view below the glasses to view and operate the ultrasound system. The software is a comprehensive video program designed to guide an inexperienced operator through a detailed ultrasound or echocardiographic study without extensive training or guidance from the ground. The program contains a detailed description using video and audio to demonstrate equipment controls, ergonomics of scanning, study protocol, and scanning guidance, including recovery from sub-optimal images. The components used in the initial validation of the system include an Apple iPod Classic third-generation as the video source, and Myvue video glasses. Initially, the program prompts the operator to power-up the ultrasound and position the patient. The operator would put on the video glasses and attach them to the video source. After turning on both devices and the ultrasound system, the audio-video guidance would then instruct on patient positioning and scanning techniques. A detailed scanning protocol follows with descriptions and reference video of each view along with advice on technique. The program also instructs the operator regarding the types of images to store and how to overcome pitfalls in scanning. Images can be forwarded to the ground or other site when convenient. Following study completion, the video glasses, video source, and ultrasound system are powered down and stored. Virtually any equipment that can play back video can be used to play back the program. This includes a DVD player, personal computer, and some MP3 players.

Using Image Analysis to Explore Changes In Bacterial Mat Coverage at the Base of a Hydrothermal Vent within the Caldera of Axial Seamount

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knuth, F.; Crone, T. J.; Marburg, A.

2017-12-01

The Ocean Observatories Initiative's (OOI) Cabled Array is delivering real-time high-definition video data from an HD video camera (CAMHD), installed at the Mushroom hydrothermal vent in the ASHES hydrothermal vent field within the caldera of Axial Seamount, an active submarine volcano located approximately 450 kilometers off the coast of Washington at a depth of 1,542 m. Every three hours the camera pans, zooms and focuses in on nine distinct scenes of scientific interest across the vent, producing 14-minute-long videos during each run. This standardized video sampling routine enables scientists to programmatically analyze the content of the video using automated image analysis techniques. Each scene-specific time series dataset can service a wide range of scientific investigations, including the estimation of bacterial flux into the system by quantifying chemosynthetic bacterial clusters (floc) present in the water column, relating periodicity in hydrothermal vent fluid flow to earth tides, measuring vent chimney growth in response to changing hydrothermal fluid flow rates, or mapping the patterns of fauna colonization, distribution and composition across the vent over time. We are currently investigating the seventh scene in the sampling routine, focused on the bacterial mat covering the seafloor at the base of the vent. We quantify the change in bacterial mat coverage over time using image analysis techniques, and examine the relationship between mat coverage, fluid flow processes, episodic chimney collapse events, and other processes observed by Cabled Array instrumentation. This analysis is being conducted using cloud-enabled computer vision processing techniques, programmatic image analysis, and time-lapse video data collected over the course of the first CAMHD deployment, from November 2015 to July 2016.

Text Detection, Tracking and Recognition in Video: A Comprehensive Survey.

PubMed

Yin, Xu-Cheng; Zuo, Ze-Yu; Tian, Shu; Liu, Cheng-Lin

2016-04-14

Intelligent analysis of video data is currently in wide demand because video is a major source of sensory data in our lives. Text is a prominent and direct source of information in video, while recent surveys of text detection and recognition in imagery [1], [2] focus mainly on text extraction from scene images. Here, this paper presents a comprehensive survey of text detection, tracking and recognition in video with three major contributions. First, a generic framework is proposed for video text extraction that uniformly describes detection, tracking, recognition, and their relations and interactions. Second, within this framework, a variety of methods, systems and evaluation protocols of video text extraction are summarized, compared, and analyzed. Existing text tracking techniques, tracking based detection and recognition techniques are specifically highlighted. Third, related applications, prominent challenges, and future directions for video text extraction (especially from scene videos and web videos) are also thoroughly discussed.

Color infrared video mapping of upland and wetland communities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mackey, H.E. Jr.; Jensen, J.R.; Hodgson, M.E.

1987-01-01

Color infrared images were obtained using a video remote sensing system at 3000 and 5000 feet over a variety of terrestrial and wetland sites on the Savannah River Plant near Aiken, SC. The terrestrial sites ranged from secondary successional old field areas to even aged pine stands treated with varying levels of sewage sludge. The wetland sites ranged from marsh and macrophyte areas to mature cypress-tupelo swamp forests. The video data were collected in three spectral channels, 0.5-0.6 ..mu..m, 0.6-0.7 ..mu..m, and 0.7-1.1 ..mu..m at a 12.5 mm focal length. The data were converted to digital form and processed withmore » standard techniques. Comparisons of the video images were made with aircraft multispectral scanner (MSS) data collected previously from the same sites. The analyses of the video data indicated that this technique may present a low cost alternative for evaluation of vegetation and landcover types for environmental monitoring and assessment.« less

Extracting Maximum Total Water Levels from Video "Brightest" Images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brown, J. A.; Holman, R. A.; Stockdon, H. F.; Plant, N. G.; Long, J.; Brodie, K.

2016-02-01

An important parameter for predicting storm-induced coastal change is the maximum total water level (TWL). Most studies estimate the TWL as the sum of slowly varying water levels, including tides and storm surge, and the extreme runup parameter R2%, which includes wave setup and swash motions over minutes to seconds. Typically, R2% is measured using video remote sensing data, where cross-shore timestacks of pixel intensity are digitized to extract the horizontal runup timeseries. However, this technique must be repeated at multiple alongshore locations to resolve alongshore variability, and can be tedious and time consuming. We seek an efficient, video-based approach that yields a synoptic estimate of TWL that accounts for alongshore variability and can be applied during storms. In this work, the use of a video product termed the "brightest" image is tested; this represents the highest intensity of each pixel captured during a 10-minute collection period. Image filtering and edge detection techniques are applied to automatically determine the shoreward edge of the brightest region (i.e., the swash zone) at each alongshore pixel. The edge represents the horizontal position of the maximum TWL along the beach during the collection period, and is converted to vertical elevations using measured beach topography. This technique is evaluated using video and topographic data collected every half-hour at Duck, NC, during differing hydrodynamic conditions. Relationships between the maximum TWL estimates from the brightest images and various runup statistics computed using concurrent runup timestacks are examined, and errors associated with mapping the horizontal results to elevations are discussed. This technique is invaluable, as it can be used to routinely estimate maximum TWLs along a coastline from a single brightest image product, and provides a means for examining alongshore variability of TWLs at high alongshore resolution. These advantages will be useful in validating numerical hydrodynamic models and improving coastal change predictions.

Digital television system design study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huth, G. K.

1976-01-01

The use of digital techniques for transmission of pictorial data is discussed for multi-frame images (television). Video signals are processed in a manner which includes quantization and coding such that they are separable from the noise introduced into the channel. The performance of digital television systems is determined by the nature of the processing techniques (i.e., whether the video signal itself or, instead, something related to the video signal is quantized and coded) and to the quantization and coding schemes employed.

Classification of a wetland area along the upper Mississippi River with aerial videography

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jennings, C.A.; Vohs, P.A.; Dewey, M.R.

1992-01-01

We evaluated the use of aerial videography for classifying wetland habitats along the upper Mississippi River and found the prompt availability of habitat feature maps to be the major advantage of the video imagery technique. We successfully produced feature maps from digitized video images that generally agreed with the known distribution and areal coverages of the major habitat types independently identified and quantified with photointerpretation techniques. However, video images were not sufficiently detailed to allow us to consistently discriminate among the classes of aquatic macrophytes present or to quantify their areal coverage. Our inability to consistently distinguish among emergent, floating, and submergent macrophytes from the feature maps may have been related to the structural complexity of the site, to our limited vegetation sampling, and to limitations in video imagery. We expect that careful site selection (i.e., the desired level of resolution is available from video imagery) and additional vegetation samples (e.g., along a transect) will allow improved assignment of spectral values to specific plant types and enhance plant classification from feature maps produced from video imagery.

Real-time image processing for passive mmW imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kozacik, Stephen; Paolini, Aaron; Bonnett, James; Harrity, Charles; Mackrides, Daniel; Dillon, Thomas E.; Martin, Richard D.; Schuetz, Christopher A.; Kelmelis, Eric; Prather, Dennis W.

2015-05-01

The transmission characteristics of millimeter waves (mmWs) make them suitable for many applications in defense and security, from airport preflight scanning to penetrating degraded visual environments such as brownout or heavy fog. While the cold sky provides sufficient illumination for these images to be taken passively in outdoor scenarios, this utility comes at a cost; the diffraction limit of the longer wavelengths involved leads to lower resolution imagery compared to the visible or IR regimes, and the low power levels inherent to passive imagery allow the data to be more easily degraded by noise. Recent techniques leveraging optical upconversion have shown significant promise, but are still subject to fundamental limits in resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. To address these issues we have applied techniques developed for visible and IR imagery to decrease noise and increase resolution in mmW imagery. We have developed these techniques into fieldable software, making use of GPU platforms for real-time operation of computationally complex image processing algorithms. We present data from a passive, 77 GHz, distributed aperture, video-rate imaging platform captured during field tests at full video rate. These videos demonstrate the increase in situational awareness that can be gained through applying computational techniques in real-time without needing changes in detection hardware.

Design of UAV high resolution image transmission system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Qiang; Ji, Ming; Pang, Lan; Jiang, Wen-tao; Fan, Pengcheng; Zhang, Xingcheng

2017-02-01

In order to solve the problem of the bandwidth limitation of the image transmission system on UAV, a scheme with image compression technology for mini UAV is proposed, based on the requirements of High-definition image transmission system of UAV. The video codec standard H.264 coding module and key technology was analyzed and studied for UAV area video communication. Based on the research of high-resolution image encoding and decoding technique and wireless transmit method, The high-resolution image transmission system was designed on architecture of Android and video codec chip; the constructed system was confirmed by experimentation in laboratory, the bit-rate could be controlled easily, QoS is stable, the low latency could meets most applied requirement not only for military use but also for industrial applications.

Neural networks for sign language translation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, Beth J.; Anspach, Gretel

1993-09-01

A neural network is used to extract relevant features of sign language from video images of a person communicating in American Sign Language or Signed English. The key features are hand motion, hand location with respect to the body, and handshape. A modular hybrid design is under way to apply various techniques, including neural networks, in the development of a translation system that will facilitate communication between deaf and hearing people. One of the neural networks described here is used to classify video images of handshapes into their linguistic counterpart in American Sign Language. The video image is preprocessed to yield Fourier descriptors that encode the shape of the hand silhouette. These descriptors are then used as inputs to a neural network that classifies their shapes. The network is trained with various examples from different signers and is tested with new images from new signers. The results have shown that for coarse handshape classes, the network is invariant to the type of camera used to film the various signers and to the segmentation technique.

Fluorescence Imaging Reveals Surface Contamination

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schirato, Richard; Polichar, Raulf

1992-01-01

In technique to detect surface contamination, object inspected illuminated by ultraviolet light to make contaminants fluoresce; low-light-level video camera views fluorescence. Image-processing techniques quantify distribution of contaminants. If fluorescence of material expected to contaminate surface is not intense, tagged with low concentration of dye.

Optimization of subcutaneous vein contrast enhancement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zeman, Herbert D.; Lovhoiden, Gunnar; Deshmukh, Harshal

2000-05-01

A technique for enhancing the contrast of subcutaneous veins has been demonstrated. This techniques uses a near IR light source and one or more IR sensitive CCD TV cameras to produce a contrast enhanced image of the subcutaneous veins. This video image of the veins is projected back onto the patient's skin using a n LCD video projector. The use of an IR transmitting filter in front of the video cameras prevents any positive feedback from the visible light from the video projector from causing instabilities in the projected image. The demonstration contrast enhancing illuminator has been tested on adults and children, both Caucasian and African-American, and it enhances veins quite well in all cases. The most difficult cases are those where significant deposits of subcutaneous fat are present which make the veins invisible under normal room illumination. Recent attempts to see through fat using different IR wavelength bands and both linearly and circularly polarized light were unsuccessful. The key to seeing through fat turns out to be a very diffuse source of RI light. Results on adult and pediatric subjects are shown with this new IR light source.

Remote driving with reduced bandwidth communication

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Depiero, Frederick W.; Noell, Timothy E.; Gee, Timothy F.

1993-01-01

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has developed a real-time video transmission system for low bandwidth remote operations. The system supports both continuous transmission of video for remote driving and progressive transmission of still images. Inherent in the system design is a spatiotemporal limitation to the effects of channel errors. The average data rate of the system is 64,000 bits/s, a compression of approximately 1000:1 for the black and white National Television Standard Code video. The image quality of the transmissions is maintained at a level that supports teleoperation of a high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle at speeds up to 15 mph on a moguled dirt track. Video compression is achieved by using Laplacian image pyramids and a combination of classical techniques. Certain subbands of the image pyramid are transmitted by using interframe differencing with a periodic refresh to aid in bandwidth reduction. Images are also foveated to concentrate image detail in a steerable region. The system supports dynamic video quality adjustments between frame rate, image detail, and foveation rate. A typical configuration for the system used during driving has a frame rate of 4 Hz, a compression per frame of 125:1, and a resulting latency of less than 1s.

Computational imaging with a single-pixel detector and a consumer video projector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sych, D.; Aksenov, M.

2018-02-01

Single-pixel imaging is a novel rapidly developing imaging technique that employs spatially structured illumination and a single-pixel detector. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate a fully operating modular single-pixel imaging system. Light patterns in our setup are created with help of a computer-controlled digital micromirror device from a consumer video projector. We investigate how different working modes and settings of the projector affect the quality of reconstructed images. We develop several image reconstruction algorithms and compare their performance for real imaging. Also, we discuss the potential use of the single-pixel imaging system for quantum applications.

Activity Detection and Retrieval for Image and Video Data with Limited Training

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-06-10

applications. Here we propose two techniques for image segmentation. The first involves an automata based multiple threshold selection scheme, where a... automata . For our second approach to segmentation, we employ a region based segmentation technique that is capable of handling intensity inhomogeneity...techniques for image segmentation. The first involves an automata based multiple threshold selection scheme, where a mixture of Gaussian is fitted to the

Depth estimation of features in video frames with improved feature matching technique using Kinect sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharma, Kajal; Moon, Inkyu; Kim, Sung Gaun

2012-10-01

Estimating depth has long been a major issue in the field of computer vision and robotics. The Kinect sensor's active sensing strategy provides high-frame-rate depth maps and can recognize user gestures and human pose. This paper presents a technique to estimate the depth of features extracted from video frames, along with an improved feature-matching method. In this paper, we used the Kinect camera developed by Microsoft, which captured color and depth images for further processing. Feature detection and selection is an important task for robot navigation. Many feature-matching techniques have been proposed earlier, and this paper proposes an improved feature matching between successive video frames with the use of neural network methodology in order to reduce the computation time of feature matching. The features extracted are invariant to image scale and rotation, and different experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of feature matching between successive video frames. The extracted features are assigned distance based on the Kinect technology that can be used by the robot in order to determine the path of navigation, along with obstacle detection applications.

Patient-specific bronchoscopy visualization through BRDF estimation and disocclusion correction.

PubMed

Chung, Adrian J; Deligianni, Fani; Shah, Pallav; Wells, Athol; Yang, Guang-Zhong

2006-04-01

This paper presents an image-based method for virtual bronchoscope with photo-realistic rendering. The technique is based on recovering bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) parameters in an environment where the choice of viewing positions, directions, and illumination conditions are restricted. Video images of bronchoscopy examinations are combined with patient-specific three-dimensional (3-D) computed tomography data through two-dimensional (2-D)/3-D registration and shading model parameters are then recovered by exploiting the restricted lighting configurations imposed by the bronchoscope. With the proposed technique, the recovered BRDF is used to predict the expected shading intensity, allowing a texture map independent of lighting conditions to be extracted from each video frame. To correct for disocclusion artefacts, statistical texture synthesis was used to recreate the missing areas. New views not present in the original bronchoscopy video are rendered by evaluating the BRDF with different viewing and illumination parameters. This allows free navigation of the acquired 3-D model with enhanced photo-realism. To assess the practical value of the proposed technique, a detailed visual scoring that involves both real and rendered bronchoscope images is conducted.

A single frame: imaging live cells twenty-five years ago.

PubMed

Fink, Rachel

2011-07-01

In the mid-1980s live-cell imaging was changed by the introduction of video techniques, allowing new ways to collect and store data. The increased resolution obtained by manipulating video signals, the ability to use time-lapse videocassette recorders to study events that happen over long time intervals, and the introduction of fluorescent probes and sensitive video cameras opened research avenues previously unavailable. The author gives a personal account of this evolution, focusing on cell migration studies at the Marine Biological Laboratory 25 years ago. Copyright © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Video Mosaicking for Inspection of Gas Pipelines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Magruder, Darby; Chien, Chiun-Hong

2005-01-01

A vision system that includes a specially designed video camera and an image-data-processing computer is under development as a prototype of robotic systems for visual inspection of the interior surfaces of pipes and especially of gas pipelines. The system is capable of providing both forward views and mosaicked radial views that can be displayed in real time or after inspection. To avoid the complexities associated with moving parts and to provide simultaneous forward and radial views, the video camera is equipped with a wide-angle (>165 ) fish-eye lens aimed along the axis of a pipe to be inspected. Nine white-light-emitting diodes (LEDs) placed just outside the field of view of the lens (see Figure 1) provide ample diffuse illumination for a high-contrast image of the interior pipe wall. The video camera contains a 2/3-in. (1.7-cm) charge-coupled-device (CCD) photodetector array and functions according to the National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) standard. The video output of the camera is sent to an off-the-shelf video capture board (frame grabber) by use of a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) interface in the computer, which is of the 400-MHz, Pentium II (or equivalent) class. Prior video-mosaicking techniques are applicable to narrow-field-of-view (low-distortion) images of evenly illuminated, relatively flat surfaces viewed along approximately perpendicular lines by cameras that do not rotate and that move approximately parallel to the viewed surfaces. One such technique for real-time creation of mosaic images of the ocean floor involves the use of visual correspondences based on area correlation, during both the acquisition of separate images of adjacent areas and the consolidation (equivalently, integration) of the separate images into a mosaic image, in order to insure that there are no gaps in the mosaic image. The data-processing technique used for mosaicking in the present system also involves area correlation, but with several notable differences: Because the wide-angle lens introduces considerable distortion, the image data must be processed to effectively unwarp the images (see Figure 2). The computer executes special software that includes an unwarping algorithm that takes explicit account of the cylindrical pipe geometry. To reduce the processing time needed for unwarping, parameters of the geometric mapping between the circular view of a fisheye lens and pipe wall are determined in advance from calibration images and compiled into an electronic lookup table. The software incorporates the assumption that the optical axis of the camera is parallel (rather than perpendicular) to the direction of motion of the camera. The software also compensates for the decrease in illumination with distance from the ring of LEDs.

Evaluation of a HDR image sensor with logarithmic response for mobile video-based applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tektonidis, Marco; Pietrzak, Mateusz; Monnin, David

2017-10-01

The performance of mobile video-based applications using conventional LDR (Low Dynamic Range) image sensors highly depends on the illumination conditions. As an alternative, HDR (High Dynamic Range) image sensors with logarithmic response are capable to acquire illumination-invariant HDR images in a single shot. We have implemented a complete image processing framework for a HDR sensor, including preprocessing methods (nonuniformity correction (NUC), cross-talk correction (CTC), and demosaicing) as well as tone mapping (TM). We have evaluated the HDR sensor for video-based applications w.r.t. the display of images and w.r.t. image analysis techniques. Regarding the display we have investigated the image intensity statistics over time, and regarding image analysis we assessed the number of feature correspondences between consecutive frames of temporal image sequences. For the evaluation we used HDR image data recorded from a vehicle on outdoor or combined outdoor/indoor itineraries, and we performed a comparison with corresponding conventional LDR image data.

Time-Lapse Video Microscopy for Assessment of EYFP-Parkin Aggregation as a Marker for Cellular Mitophagy

PubMed Central

Di Sante, Gabriele; Casimiro, Mathew C.; Pestell, Timothy G.; Pestell, Richard G.

2016-01-01

Time-lapse video microscopy can be defined as the real time imaging of living cells. This technique relies on the collection of images at different time points. Time intervals can be set through a computer interface that controls the microscope-integrated camera. This kind of microscopy requires both the ability to acquire very rapid events and the signal generated by the observed cellular structure during these events. After the images have been collected, a movie of the entire experiment is assembled to show the dynamic of the molecular events of interest. Time-lapse video microscopy has a broad range of applications in the biomedical research field and is a powerful and unique tool for following the dynamics of the cellular events in real time. Through this technique, we can assess cellular events such as migration, division, signal transduction, growth, and death. Moreover, using fluorescent molecular probes we are able to mark specific molecules, such as DNA, RNA or proteins and follow them through their molecular pathways and functions. Time-lapse video microscopy has multiple advantages, the major one being the ability to collect data at the single-cell level, that make it a unique technology for investigation in the field of cell biology. However, time-lapse video microscopy has limitations that can interfere with the acquisition of high quality images. Images can be compromised by both external factors; temperature fluctuations, vibrations, humidity and internal factors; pH, cell motility. Herein, we describe a protocol for the dynamic acquisition of a specific protein, Parkin, fused with the enhanced yellow fluorescent protein (EYFP) in order to track the selective removal of damaged mitochondria, using a time-lapse video microscopy approach. PMID:27168174

Time-Lapse Video Microscopy for Assessment of EYFP-Parkin Aggregation as a Marker for Cellular Mitophagy.

PubMed

Di Sante, Gabriele; Casimiro, Mathew C; Pestell, Timothy G; Pestell, Richard G

2016-05-04

Time-lapse video microscopy can be defined as the real time imaging of living cells. This technique relies on the collection of images at different time points. Time intervals can be set through a computer interface that controls the microscope-integrated camera. This kind of microscopy requires both the ability to acquire very rapid events and the signal generated by the observed cellular structure during these events. After the images have been collected, a movie of the entire experiment is assembled to show the dynamic of the molecular events of interest. Time-lapse video microscopy has a broad range of applications in the biomedical research field and is a powerful and unique tool for following the dynamics of the cellular events in real time. Through this technique, we can assess cellular events such as migration, division, signal transduction, growth, and death. Moreover, using fluorescent molecular probes we are able to mark specific molecules, such as DNA, RNA or proteins and follow them through their molecular pathways and functions. Time-lapse video microscopy has multiple advantages, the major one being the ability to collect data at the single-cell level, that make it a unique technology for investigation in the field of cell biology. However, time-lapse video microscopy has limitations that can interfere with the acquisition of high quality images. Images can be compromised by both external factors; temperature fluctuations, vibrations, humidity and internal factors; pH, cell motility. Herein, we describe a protocol for the dynamic acquisition of a specific protein, Parkin, fused with the enhanced yellow fluorescent protein (EYFP) in order to track the selective removal of damaged mitochondria, using a time-lapse video microscopy approach.

Joint forensics and watermarking approach for video authentication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thiemert, Stefan; Liu, Huajian; Steinebach, Martin; Croce-Ferri, Lucilla

2007-02-01

In our paper we discuss and compare the possibilities and shortcomings of both content-fragile watermarking and digital forensics and analyze if the combination of both techniques allows the identification of more than the sum of all manipulations identified by both techniques on their own due to synergetic effects. The first part of the paper discusses the theoretical possibilities offered by a combined approach, in which forensics and watermarking are considered as complementary tools for data authentication or deeply combined together, in order to reduce their error rate and to enhance the detection efficiency. After this conceptual discussion the paper proposes some concrete examples in which the joint approach is applied to video authentication. Some specific forensics techniques are analyzed and expanded to handle efficiently video data. The examples show possible extensions of passive-blind image forgery detection to video data, where the motion and time related characteristics of video are efficiently exploited.

Use of near-infrared video recording system for the detection of freeze damaged citrus leaves

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Escobar, D. E.; Bowen, R. L.; Gausman, H. W.; Cooper, G. (Principal Investigator)

1982-01-01

A video recording system with a visible light blocking filter to give sensitivity in the 0.78 m to 1.1 m waveband detected freeze-damaged citrus leaves rapidly. With this technique, the time to analyze images can be decreased from about one day for conventional photography to less than one hour for video recording.

Endoscopic techniques in aesthetic plastic surgery.

PubMed

McCain, L A; Jones, G

1995-01-01

There has been an explosive interest in endoscopic techniques by plastic surgeons over the past two years. Procedures such as facial rejuvenation, breast augmentation and abdominoplasty are being performed with endoscopic assistance. Endoscopic operations require a complex setup with components such as video camera, light sources, cables and hard instruments. The Hopkins Rod Lens system consists of optical fibers for illumination, an objective lens, an image retrieval system, a series of rods and lenses, and an eyepiece for image collection. Good illumination of the body cavity is essential for endoscopic procedures. Placement of the video camera on the eyepiece of the endoscope gives a clear, brightly illuminated large image on the monitor. The video monitor provides the surgical team with the endoscopic image. It is important to become familiar with the equipment before actually doing cases. Several options exist for staff education. In the operating room the endoscopic cart needs to be positioned to allow a clear unrestricted view of the video monitor by the surgeon and the operating team. Fogging of the endoscope may be prevented during induction by using FREDD (a fog reduction/elimination device) or a warm bath. The camera needs to be white balanced. During the procedure, the nurse monitors the level of dissection and assesses for clogging of the suction.

Evaluation of Skybox Video and Still Image products

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

d'Angelo, P.; Kuschk, G.; Reinartz, P.

2014-11-01

The SkySat-1 satellite lauched by Skybox Imaging on November 21 in 2013 opens a new chapter in civilian earth observation as it is the first civilian satellite to image a target in high definition panchromatic video for up to 90 seconds. The small satellite with a mass of 100 kg carries a telescope with 3 frame sensors. Two products are available: Panchromatic video with a resolution of around 1 meter and a frame size of 2560 × 1080 pixels at 30 frames per second. Additionally, the satellite can collect still imagery with a swath of 8 km in the panchromatic band, and multispectral images with 4 bands. Using super-resolution techniques, sub-meter accuracy is reached for the still imagery. The paper provides an overview of the satellite design and imaging products. The still imagery product consists of 3 stripes of frame images with a footprint of approximately 2.6 × 1.1 km. Using bundle block adjustment, the frames are registered, and their accuracy is evaluated. Image quality of the panchromatic, multispectral and pansharpened products are evaluated. The video product used in this evaluation consists of a 60 second gazing acquisition of Las Vegas. A DSM is generated by dense stereo matching. Multiple techniques such as pairwise matching or multi image matching are used and compared. As no ground truth height reference model is availble to the authors, comparisons on flat surface and compare differently matched DSMs are performed. Additionally, visual inspection of DSM and DSM profiles show a detailed reconstruction of small features and large skyscrapers.

Passive detection of copy-move forgery in digital images: state-of-the-art.

PubMed

Al-Qershi, Osamah M; Khoo, Bee Ee

2013-09-10

Currently, digital images and videos have high importance because they have become the main carriers of information. However, the relative ease of tampering with images and videos makes their authenticity untrustful. Digital image forensics addresses the problem of the authentication of images or their origins. One main branch of image forensics is passive image forgery detection. Images could be forged using different techniques, and the most common forgery is the copy-move, in which a region of an image is duplicated and placed elsewhere in the same image. Active techniques, such as watermarking, have been proposed to solve the image authenticity problem, but those techniques have limitations because they require human intervention or specially equipped cameras. To overcome these limitations, several passive authentication methods have been proposed. In contrast to active methods, passive methods do not require any previous information about the image, and they take advantage of specific detectable changes that forgeries can bring into the image. In this paper, we describe the current state-of-the-art of passive copy-move forgery detection methods. The key current issues in developing a robust copy-move forgery detector are then identified, and the trends of tackling those issues are addressed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Laser-induced dental caries and plaque diagnosis on patients by sensitive autofluorescence spectroscopy and time-gated video imaging: preliminary studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koenig, Karsten; Schneckenburger, Herbert

1994-09-01

The laser-induced in vivo autofluorescence of human teeth was investigated by means of time- resolved/time-gated fluorescence techniques. The aim of these studies was non-contact caries and plaque detection. Carious lesions and dental plaque fluoresce in the red spectral region. This autofluorescence seems to be based on porphyrin-producing bacteria. We report on preliminary studies on patients using a novel method of autofluorescence imaging. A special device was constructed for time-gated video imaging. Nanosecond laser pulses for fluorescence excitation were provided by a frequency-doubled, Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. Autofluorescence was detected in an appropriate nanosecond time window using a video camera with a time-gated image intensifier (minimal time gate: 5 ns). Laser-induced autofluorescence based on porphyrin-producing bacteria seems to be an appropriate tool for detecting dental lesions and for creating `caries-images' and `dental plaque' images.

Synthesis of Speaker Facial Movement to Match Selected Speech Sequences

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Scott, K. C.; Kagels, D. S.; Watson, S. H.; Rom, H.; Wright, J. R.; Lee, M.; Hussey, K. J.

1994-01-01

A system is described which allows for the synthesis of a video sequence of a realistic-appearing talking human head. A phonic based approach is used to describe facial motion; image processing rather than physical modeling techniques are used to create video frames.

Speech Recognition for A Digital Video Library.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Witbrock, Michael J.; Hauptmann, Alexander G.

1998-01-01

Production of the meta-data supporting the Informedia Digital Video Library interface is automated using techniques derived from artificial intelligence research. Speech recognition and natural-language processing, information retrieval, and image analysis are applied to produce an interface that helps users locate information and navigate more…

Flight State Information Inference with Application to Helicopter Cockpit Video Data Analysis Using Data Mining Techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shin, Sanghyun

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recently emphasized the importance of analyzing flight data as one of the most effective methods to improve eciency and safety of helicopter operations. By analyzing flight data with Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) programs, the safety and performance of helicopter operations can be evaluated and improved. In spite of the NTSB's effort, the safety of helicopter operations has not improved at the same rate as the safety of worldwide airlines, and the accident rate of helicopters continues to be much higher than that of fixed-wing aircraft. One of the main reasons is that the participation rates of the rotorcraft industry in the FDM programs are low due to the high costs of the Flight Data Recorder (FDR), the need of a special readout device to decode the FDR, anxiety of punitive action, etc. Since a video camera is easily installed, accessible, and inexpensively maintained, cockpit video data could complement the FDR in the presence of the FDR or possibly replace the role of the FDR in the absence of the FDR. Cockpit video data is composed of image and audio data: image data contains outside views through cockpit windows and activities on the flight instrument panels, whereas audio data contains sounds of the alarms within the cockpit. The goal of this research is to develop, test, and demonstrate a cockpit video data analysis algorithm based on data mining and signal processing techniques that can help better understand situations in the cockpit and the state of a helicopter by efficiently and accurately inferring the useful flight information from cockpit video data. Image processing algorithms based on data mining techniques are proposed to estimate a helicopter's attitude such as the bank and pitch angles, identify indicators from a flight instrument panel, and read the gauges and the numbers in the analogue gauge indicators and digital displays from cockpit image data. In addition, an audio processing algorithm based on signal processing and abrupt change detection techniques is proposed to identify types of warning alarms and to detect the occurrence times of individual alarms from cockpit audio data. Those proposed algorithms are then successfully applied to simulated and real helicopter cockpit video data to demonstrate and validate their performance.

Robot-assisted laparoscopic reconstruction of retrocaval ureter: description and video of technique.

PubMed

LeRoy, Timothy J; Thiel, David D; Igel, Todd C

2011-05-01

Ureteral obstruction secondary to retrocaval ureter is rarely reported in the urologic literature. Symptomatic retrocaval ureters usually present in the 3rd and 4th decade of life. Standard treatment involves ureteroureterostomy approximating the ureter anterior to the vena cava. We describe the initial presentation, imaging, port placement, and operative technique including video presentation of a robot-assisted laparoscopic repair of a retrocaval ureter.

Vehicle counting system using real-time video processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crisóstomo-Romero, Pedro M.

2006-02-01

Transit studies are important for planning a road network with optimal vehicular flow. A vehicular count is essential. This article presents a vehicle counting system based on video processing. An advantage of such system is the greater detail than is possible to obtain, like shape, size and speed of vehicles. The system uses a video camera placed above the street to image transit in real-time. The video camera must be placed at least 6 meters above the street level to achieve proper acquisition quality. Fast image processing algorithms and small image dimensions are used to allow real-time processing. Digital filters, mathematical morphology, segmentation and other techniques allow identifying and counting all vehicles in the image sequences. The system was implemented under Linux in a 1.8 GHz Pentium 4 computer. A successful count was obtained with frame rates of 15 frames per second for images of size 240x180 pixels and 24 frames per second for images of size 180x120 pixels, thus being able to count vehicles whose speeds do not exceed 150 km/h.

Platform for intraoperative analysis of video streams

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clements, Logan; Galloway, Robert L., Jr.

2004-05-01

Interactive, image-guided surgery (IIGS) has proven to increase the specificity of a variety of surgical procedures. However, current IIGS systems do not compensate for changes that occur intraoperatively and are not reflected in preoperative tomograms. Endoscopes and intraoperative ultrasound, used in minimally invasive surgery, provide real-time (RT) information in a surgical setting. Combining the information from RT imaging modalities with traditional IIGS techniques will further increase surgical specificity by providing enhanced anatomical information. In order to merge these techniques and obtain quantitative data from RT imaging modalities, a platform was developed to allow both the display and processing of video streams in RT. Using a Bandit-II CV frame grabber board (Coreco Imaging, St. Laurent, Quebec) and the associated library API, a dynamic link library was created in Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 such that the platform could be incorporated into the IIGS system developed at Vanderbilt University. Performance characterization, using two relatively inexpensive host computers, has shown the platform capable of performing simple image processing operations on frames captured from a CCD camera and displaying the processed video data at near RT rates both independent of and while running the IIGS system.

Facial expression system on video using widrow hoff

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jannah, M.; Zarlis, M.; Mawengkang, H.

2018-03-01

Facial expressions recognition is one of interesting research. This research contains human feeling to computer application Such as the interaction between human and computer, data compression, facial animation and facial detection from the video. The purpose of this research is to create facial expression system that captures image from the video camera. The system in this research uses Widrow-Hoff learning method in training and testing image with Adaptive Linear Neuron (ADALINE) approach. The system performance is evaluated by two parameters, detection rate and false positive rate. The system accuracy depends on good technique and face position that trained and tested.

Simple, inexpensive technique for high-quality smartphone fundus photography in human and animal eyes.

PubMed

Haddock, Luis J; Kim, David Y; Mukai, Shizuo

2013-01-01

Purpose. We describe in detail a relatively simple technique of fundus photography in human and rabbit eyes using a smartphone, an inexpensive app for the smartphone, and instruments that are readily available in an ophthalmic practice. Methods. Fundus images were captured with a smartphone and a 20D lens with or without a Koeppe lens. By using the coaxial light source of the phone, this system works as an indirect ophthalmoscope that creates a digital image of the fundus. The application whose software allows for independent control of focus, exposure, and light intensity during video filming was used. With this app, we recorded high-definition videos of the fundus and subsequently extracted high-quality, still images from the video clip. Results. The described technique of smartphone fundus photography was able to capture excellent high-quality fundus images in both children under anesthesia and in awake adults. Excellent images were acquired with the 20D lens alone in the clinic, and the addition of the Koeppe lens in the operating room resulted in the best quality images. Successful photodocumentation of rabbit fundus was achieved in control and experimental eyes. Conclusion. The currently described system was able to take consistently high-quality fundus photographs in patients and in animals using readily available instruments that are portable with simple power sources. It is relatively simple to master, is relatively inexpensive, and can take advantage of the expanding mobile-telephone networks for telemedicine.

Initial clinical experience with a video-based patient positioning system.

PubMed

Johnson, L S; Milliken, B D; Hadley, S W; Pelizzari, C A; Haraf, D J; Chen, G T

1999-08-01

To report initial clinical experience with an interactive, video-based patient positioning system that is inexpensive, quick, accurate, and easy to use. System hardware includes two black-and-white CCD cameras, zoom lenses, and a PC equipped with a frame grabber. Custom software is used to acquire and archive video images, as well as to display real-time subtraction images revealing patient misalignment in multiple views. Two studies are described. In the first study, video is used to document the daily setup histories of 5 head and neck patients. Time-lapse cine loops are generated for each patient and used to diagnose and correct common setup errors. In the second study, 6 twice-daily (BID) head and neck patients are positioned according to the following protocol: at AM setups conventional treatment room lasers are used; at PM setups lasers are used initially and then video is used for 1-2 minutes to fine-tune the patient position. Lateral video images and lateral verification films are registered off-line to compare the distribution of setup errors per patient, with and without video assistance. In the first study, video images were used to determine the accuracy of our conventional head and neck setup technique, i.e., alignment of lightcast marks and surface anatomy to treatment room lasers and the light field. For this initial cohort of patients, errors ranged from sigma = 5 to 7 mm and were patient-specific. Time-lapse cine loops of the images revealed sources of the error, and as a result, our localization techniques and immobilization device were modified to improve setup accuracy. After the improvements, conventional setup errors were reduced to sigma = 3 to 5 mm. In the second study, when a stereo pair of live subtraction images were introduced to perform daily "on-line" setup correction, errors were reduced to sigma = 1 to 3 mm. Results depended on patient health and cooperation and the length of time spent fine-tuning the position. An interactive, video-based patient positioning system was shown to reduce setup errors to within 1 to 3 mm in head and neck patients, without a significant increase in overall treatment time or labor-intensive procedures. Unlike retrospective portal image analysis, use of two live-video images provides the therapists with immediate feedback and allows for true 3-D positioning and correction of out-of-plane rotation before radiation is delivered. With significant improvement in head and neck alignment and the elimination of setup errors greater than 3 to 5 mm, margins associated with treatment volumes potentially can be reduced, thereby decreasing normal tissue irradiation.

Video coding for next-generation surveillance systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klasen, Lena M.; Fahlander, Olov

1997-02-01

Video is used as recording media in surveillance system and also more frequently by the Swedish Police Force. Methods for analyzing video using an image processing system have recently been introduced at the Swedish National Laboratory of Forensic Science, and new methods are in focus in a research project at Linkoping University, Image Coding Group. The accuracy of the result of those forensic investigations often depends on the quality of the video recordings, and one of the major problems when analyzing videos from crime scenes is the poor quality of the recordings. Enhancing poor image quality might add manipulative or subjective effects and does not seem to be the right way of getting reliable analysis results. The surveillance system in use today is mainly based on video techniques, VHS or S-VHS, and the weakest link is the video cassette recorder, (VCR). Multiplexers for selecting one of many camera outputs for recording is another problem as it often filters the video signal, and recording is limited to only one of the available cameras connected to the VCR. A way to get around the problem of poor recording is to simultaneously record all camera outputs digitally. It is also very important to build such a system bearing in mind that image processing analysis methods becomes more important as a complement to the human eye. Using one or more cameras gives a large amount of data, and the need for data compression is more than obvious. Crime scenes often involve persons or moving objects, and the available coding techniques are more or less useful. Our goal is to propose a possible system, being the best compromise with respect to what needs to be recorded, movements in the recorded scene, loss of information and resolution etc., to secure the efficient recording of the crime and enable forensic analysis. The preventative effective of having a well functioning surveillance system and well established image analysis methods is not to be neglected. Aspects of this next generation of digital surveillance systems are discussed in this paper.

Mosaicking Techniques for Deep Submergence Vehicle Video Imagery - Applications to Ridge2000 Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mayer, L.; Rzhanov, Y.; Fornari, D. J.; Soule, A.; Shank, T. M.; Beaulieu, S. E.; Schouten, H.; Tivey, M.

2004-12-01

Severe attenuation of visible light and limited power capabilities of many submersible vehicles require acquisition of imagery from short ranges, rarely exceeding 8-10 meters. Although modern video- and photo-equipment makes high-resolution video surveying possible, the field of view of each image remains relatively narrow. To compensate for the deficiencies in light and field of view researchers have been developing techniques allowing for combining images into larger composite images i.e., mosaicking. A properly constructed, accurate mosaic has a number of well-known advantages in comparison with the original sequence of images, the most notable being improved situational awareness. We have developed software strategies for PC-based computers that permit conversion of video imagery acquired from any underwater vehicle, operated within both absolute (e.g. LBL or USBL) or relative (e.g. Doppler Velocity Log-DVL) navigation networks, to quickly produce a set of geo-referenced photomosaics which can then be directly incorporated into a Geographic Information System (GIS) data base. The timescale of processing is rapid enough to permit analysis of the resulting mosaics between submersible dives thus enhancing the efficiency of deep-sea research. Commercial imaging processing packages usually handle cases where there is no or little parallax - an unlikely situation for undersea world where terrain has pronounced 3D content and imagery is acquired from moving platforms. The approach we have taken is optimized for situations in which there is significant relief and thus parallax in the imagery (e.g. seafloor fault scarps or constructional volcanic escarpments and flow fronts). The basis of all mosaicking techniques is a pair-wise image registration method that finds a transformation relating pixels of two consecutive image frames. We utilize a "rigid affine model" with four degrees of freedom for image registration that allows for camera translation in all directions and camera rotation about its optical axis. The coefficients of the transformation can be determined robustly using the well-established and powerful "featureless Fourier domain-based technique" (FFDT), which is an extension of the FFT-based correlation approach. While calculation of cross-correlation allows the recovery of only two parameters of the transformation (translation in 2D), FFDT uses the "Phase shift" theorem of the Fourier Transform as well as a log-polar transform of the Fourier magnitude spectrum to recover all four transformation coefficients required for the rigid affine model. Examples of results of our video mosaicking data processing for the East Pacific Rise ISS will be presented.

The use of open data from social media for the creation of 3D georeferenced modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Themistocleous, Kyriacos

2016-08-01

There is a great deal of open source video on the internet that is posted by users on social media sites. With the release of low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles, many hobbyists are uploading videos from different locations, especially in remote areas. Using open source data that is available on the internet, this study utilized structure to motion (SfM) as a range imaging technique to estimate 3 dimensional landscape features from 2 dimensional image sequences subtracted from video, applied image distortion correction and geo-referencing. This type of documentation may be necessary for cultural heritage sites that are inaccessible or documentation is difficult, where we can access video from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). These 3D models can be viewed using Google Earth, create orthoimage, drawings and create digital terrain modeling for cultural heritage and archaeological purposes in remote or inaccessible areas.

Resolution enhancement of low-quality videos using a high-resolution frame

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pham, Tuan Q.; van Vliet, Lucas J.; Schutte, Klamer

2006-01-01

This paper proposes an example-based Super-Resolution (SR) algorithm of compressed videos in the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) domain. Input to the system is a Low-Resolution (LR) compressed video together with a High-Resolution (HR) still image of similar content. Using a training set of corresponding LR-HR pairs of image patches from the HR still image, high-frequency details are transferred from the HR source to the LR video. The DCT-domain algorithm is much faster than example-based SR in spatial domain 6 because of a reduction in search dimensionality, which is a direct result of the compact and uncorrelated DCT representation. Fast searching techniques like tree-structure vector quantization 16 and coherence search1 are also key to the improved efficiency. Preliminary results on MJPEG sequence show promising result of the DCT-domain SR synthesis approach.

Thermal imagers: from ancient analog video output to state-of-the-art video streaming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haan, Hubertus; Feuchter, Timo; Münzberg, Mario; Fritze, Jörg; Schlemmer, Harry

2013-06-01

The video output of thermal imagers stayed constant over almost two decades. When the famous Common Modules were employed a thermal image at first was presented to the observer in the eye piece only. In the early 1990s TV cameras were attached and the standard output was CCIR. In the civil camera market output standards changed to digital formats a decade ago with digital video streaming being nowadays state-of-the-art. The reasons why the output technique in the thermal world stayed unchanged over such a long time are: the very conservative view of the military community, long planning and turn-around times of programs and a slower growth of pixel number of TIs in comparison to consumer cameras. With megapixel detectors the CCIR output format is not sufficient any longer. The paper discusses the state-of-the-art compression and streaming solutions for TIs.

Perception for Outdoor Navigation

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-11-01

without lane marktings. Our perception modules use a variety of techniques for video processing (clusering theory, symbolic feature detection, neural nets...on gravel and dirt roads, as expected. The most difficult case involved a dirt road in a forest, which was mainly distinguishable in the video images...in that estimate. u bIsrshigl Neural Nets. Under separate funding, we have driven the Naviab using neural nets to track the road in video iages. We ame

Selective encryption for H.264/AVC video coding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Tuo; King, Brian; Salama, Paul

2006-02-01

Due to the ease with which digital data can be manipulated and due to the ongoing advancements that have brought us closer to pervasive computing, the secure delivery of video and images has become a challenging problem. Despite the advantages and opportunities that digital video provide, illegal copying and distribution as well as plagiarism of digital audio, images, and video is still ongoing. In this paper we describe two techniques for securing H.264 coded video streams. The first technique, SEH264Algorithm1, groups the data into the following blocks of data: (1) a block that contains the sequence parameter set and the picture parameter set, (2) a block containing a compressed intra coded frame, (3) a block containing the slice header of a P slice, all the headers of the macroblock within the same P slice, and all the luma and chroma DC coefficients belonging to the all the macroblocks within the same slice, (4) a block containing all the ac coefficients, and (5) a block containing all the motion vectors. The first three are encrypted whereas the last two are not. The second method, SEH264Algorithm2, relies on the use of multiple slices per coded frame. The algorithm searches the compressed video sequence for start codes (0x000001) and then encrypts the next N bits of data.

Techniques of imaging of the aorta and its first order branches by endoscopic ultrasound (with videos)

PubMed Central

Sharma, Malay; Rai, Praveer; Mehta, Varun; Rameshbabu, C. S.

2015-01-01

Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) is a useful modality for imaging of the blood vessels of the mediastinum and abdomen. The aorta acts as an important home base during EUS imaging. The aorta and its branches are accessible by standard angiographic methods, but endosonography also provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the aorta and its branches. This article describes the techniques of imaging of different part of the aorta by EUS. PMID:26020043

Chemical imaging of tissue in vivo with video-rate coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy.

PubMed

Evans, Conor L; Potma, Eric O; Puoris'haag, Mehron; Côté, Daniel; Lin, Charles P; Xie, X Sunney

2005-11-15

Imaging living organisms with molecular selectivity typically requires the introduction of specific labels. Many applications in biology and medicine, however, would significantly benefit from a noninvasive imaging technique that circumvents such exogenous probes. In vivo microscopy based on vibrational spectroscopic contrast offers a unique approach for visualizing tissue architecture with molecular specificity. We have developed a sensitive technique for vibrational imaging of tissues by combining coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) with video-rate microscopy. Backscattering of the intense forward-propagating CARS radiation in tissue gives rise to a strong epi-CARS signal that makes in vivo imaging possible. This substantially large signal allows for real-time monitoring of dynamic processes, such as the diffusion of chemical compounds, in tissues. By tuning into the CH(2) stretching vibrational band, we demonstrate CARS imaging and spectroscopy of lipid-rich tissue structures in the skin of a live mouse, including sebaceous glands, corneocytes, and adipocytes, with unprecedented contrast at subcellular resolution.

Video electroencephalogram telemetry in temporal lobe epilepsy

PubMed Central

Mani, Jayanti

2014-01-01

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most commonly encountered medically refractory epilepsy. It is also the substrate of refractory epilepsy that gives the most gratifying results in any epilepsy surgery program, with a minimum use of resources. Correlation of clinical behavior and the ictal patterns during ictal behavior is mandatory for success at epilepsy surgery. Video electroencephalogram (EEG) telemetry achieves this goal and hence plays a pivotal role in pre-surgical assessment. The role of telemetry is continuously evolving with the advent of digital EEG technology, of high-resolution volumetric magnetic resonance imaging and other functional imaging techniques. Most of surgical selection in patients with TLE can be done with a scalp video EEG monitoring. However, the limitations of the scalp EEG technique demand invasive recordings in a selected group of TLE patients. This subset of the patients can be a challenge to the epileptologist. PMID:24791089

Introduction: Intradural Spinal Surgery video supplement.

PubMed

McCormick, Paul C

2014-09-01

This Neurosurgical Focus video supplement contains detailed narrated videos of a broad range of intradural pathology such as neoplasms, including intramedullary, extramedullary, and dumbbell tumors, vascular malformations, functional disorders, and rare conditions that are often overlooked or misdiagnosed such as arachnoid cysts, ventral spinal cord herniation, and dorsal arachnoid web. The intent of this supplement is to provide meaningful educational and instructional content at all levels of training and practice. As such, the selected video submissions each provide a comprehensive detailed narrative description and coordinated video that contains the entire spectrum of relevant information including imaging, operative setup and positioning, and exposure, as well as surgical strategies, techniques, and sequencing toward the safe and effective achievement of the operative objective. This level of detail often necessitated a more lengthy video duration than is typically presented in oral presentations or standard video clips from peer reviewed publications. Unfortunately, space limitations precluded the inclusion of several other excellent video submissions in this supplement. While most videos in this supplement reflect standard operative approaches and techniques there are also submissions that describe innovative exposures and techniques that have expanded surgical options such as ventral approaches, stereotactic guidance, and minimally invasive exposures. There is some redundancy in both the topics and techniques both to underscore fundamental surgical principles as well as to provide complementary perspective from different surgeons. It has been my privilege to serve as guest editor for this video supplement and I would like to extend my appreciation to Mark Bilsky, Bill Krauss, and Sander Connolly for reviewing the large number submitted videos. Most of all, I would like to thank the authors for their skill and effort in the preparation of the outstanding videos that constitute this video supplement.

Video transmission on ATM networks. Ph.D. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chen, Yun-Chung

1993-01-01

The broadband integrated services digital network (B-ISDN) is expected to provide high-speed and flexible multimedia applications. Multimedia includes data, graphics, image, voice, and video. Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) is the adopted transport techniques for B-ISDN and has the potential for providing a more efficient and integrated environment for multimedia. It is believed that most broadband applications will make heavy use of visual information. The prospect of wide spread use of image and video communication has led to interest in coding algorithms for reducing bandwidth requirements and improving image quality. The major results of a study on the bridging of network transmission performance and video coding are: Using two representative video sequences, several video source models are developed. The fitness of these models are validated through the use of statistical tests and network queuing performance. A dual leaky bucket algorithm is proposed as an effective network policing function. The concept of the dual leaky bucket algorithm can be applied to a prioritized coding approach to achieve transmission efficiency. A mapping of the performance/control parameters at the network level into equivalent parameters at the video coding level is developed. Based on that, a complete set of principles for the design of video codecs for network transmission is proposed.

A Pixel Correlation Technique for Smaller Telescopes to Measure Doubles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wiley, E. O.

2013-04-01

Pixel correlation uses the same reduction techniques as speckle imaging but relies on autocorrelation among captured pixel hits rather than true speckles. A video camera operating at speeds (8-66 milliseconds) similar to lucky imaging to capture 400-1,000 video frames. The AVI files are converted to bitmap images and analyzed using the interferometric algorithms in REDUC using all frames. This results in a series of corellograms from which theta and rho can be measured. Results using a 20 cm (8") Dall-Kirkham working at f22.5 are presented for doubles with separations between 1" to 5.7" under average seeing conditions. I conclude that this form of visualizing and analyzing visual double stars is a viable alternative to lucky imaging that can be employed by telescopes that are too small in aperture to capture a sufficient number of speckles for true speckle interferometry.

Temporal Coding of Volumetric Imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Llull, Patrick Ryan

'Image volumes' refer to realizations of images in other dimensions such as time, spectrum, and focus. Recent advances in scientific, medical, and consumer applications demand improvements in image volume capture. Though image volume acquisition continues to advance, it maintains the same sampling mechanisms that have been used for decades; every voxel must be scanned and is presumed independent of its neighbors. Under these conditions, improving performance comes at the cost of increased system complexity, data rates, and power consumption. This dissertation explores systems and methods capable of efficiently improving sensitivity and performance for image volume cameras, and specifically proposes several sampling strategies that utilize temporal coding to improve imaging system performance and enhance our awareness for a variety of dynamic applications. Video cameras and camcorders sample the video volume (x,y,t) at fixed intervals to gain understanding of the volume's temporal evolution. Conventionally, one must reduce the spatial resolution to increase the framerate of such cameras. Using temporal coding via physical translation of an optical element known as a coded aperture, the compressive temporal imaging (CACTI) camera emonstrates a method which which to embed the temporal dimension of the video volume into spatial (x,y) measurements, thereby greatly improving temporal resolution with minimal loss of spatial resolution. This technique, which is among a family of compressive sampling strategies developed at Duke University, temporally codes the exposure readout functions at the pixel level. Since video cameras nominally integrate the remaining image volume dimensions (e.g. spectrum and focus) at capture time, spectral (x,y,t,lambda) and focal (x,y,t,z) image volumes are traditionally captured via sequential changes to the spectral and focal state of the system, respectively. The CACTI camera's ability to embed video volumes into images leads to exploration of other information within that video; namely, focal and spectral information. The next part of the thesis demonstrates derivative works of CACTI: compressive extended depth of field and compressive spectral-temporal imaging. These works successfully show the technique's extension of temporal coding to improve sensing performance in these other dimensions. Geometrical optics-related tradeoffs, such as the classic challenges of wide-field-of-view and high resolution photography, have motivated the development of mulitscale camera arrays. The advent of such designs less than a decade ago heralds a new era of research- and engineering-related challenges. One significant challenge is that of managing the focal volume (x,y,z ) over wide fields of view and resolutions. The fourth chapter shows advances on focus and image quality assessment for a class of multiscale gigapixel cameras developed at Duke. Along the same line of work, we have explored methods for dynamic and adaptive addressing of focus via point spread function engineering. We demonstrate another form of temporal coding in the form of physical translation of the image plane from its nominal focal position. We demonstrate this technique's capability to generate arbitrary point spread functions.

Remote high-definition rotating video enables fast spatial survey of marine underwater macrofauna and habitats.

PubMed

Pelletier, Dominique; Leleu, Kévin; Mallet, Delphine; Mou-Tham, Gérard; Hervé, Gilles; Boureau, Matthieu; Guilpart, Nicolas

2012-01-01

Observing spatial and temporal variations of marine biodiversity from non-destructive techniques is central for understanding ecosystem resilience, and for monitoring and assessing conservation strategies, e.g. Marine Protected Areas. Observations are generally obtained through Underwater Visual Censuses (UVC) conducted by divers. The problems inherent to the presence of divers have been discussed in several papers. Video techniques are increasingly used for observing underwater macrofauna and habitat. Most video techniques that do not need the presence of a diver use baited remote systems. In this paper, we present an original video technique which relies on a remote unbaited rotating remote system including a high definition camera. The system is set on the sea floor to record images. These are then analysed at the office to quantify biotic and abiotic sea bottom cover, and to identify and count fish species and other species like marine turtles. The technique was extensively tested in a highly diversified coral reef ecosystem in the South Lagoon of New Caledonia, based on a protocol covering both protected and unprotected areas in major lagoon habitats. The technique enabled to detect and identify a large number of species, and in particular fished species, which were not disturbed by the system. Habitat could easily be investigated through the images. A large number of observations could be carried out per day at sea. This study showed the strong potential of this non obtrusive technique for observing both macrofauna and habitat. It offers a unique spatial coverage and can be implemented at sea at a reasonable cost by non-expert staff. As such, this technique is particularly interesting for investigating and monitoring coastal biodiversity in the light of current conservation challenges and increasing monitoring needs.

Computer-aided light sheet flow visualization using photogrammetry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stacy, Kathryn; Severance, Kurt; Childers, Brooks A.

1994-01-01

A computer-aided flow visualization process has been developed to analyze video images acquired from rotating and translating light sheet visualization systems. The computer process integrates a mathematical model for image reconstruction, advanced computer graphics concepts, and digital image processing to provide a quantitative and a visual analysis capability. The image reconstruction model, based on photogrammetry, uses knowledge of the camera and light sheet locations and orientations to project two-dimensional light sheet video images into three-dimensional space. A sophisticated computer visualization package, commonly used to analyze computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results, was chosen to interactively display the reconstructed light sheet images with the numerical surface geometry for the model or aircraft under study. The photogrammetric reconstruction technique and the image processing and computer graphics techniques and equipment are described. Results of the computer-aided process applied to both a wind tunnel translating light sheet experiment and an in-flight rotating light sheet experiment are presented. The capability to compare reconstructed experimental light sheet images with CFD solutions in the same graphics environment is also demonstrated.

Computer-Aided Light Sheet Flow Visualization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stacy, Kathryn; Severance, Kurt; Childers, Brooks A.

1993-01-01

A computer-aided flow visualization process has been developed to analyze video images acquired from rotating and translating light sheet visualization systems. The computer process integrates a mathematical model for image reconstruction, advanced computer graphics concepts, and digital image processing to provide a quantitative and visual analysis capability. The image reconstruction model, based on photogrammetry, uses knowledge of the camera and light sheet locations and orientations to project two-dimensional light sheet video images into three-dimensional space. A sophisticated computer visualization package, commonly used to analyze computational fluid dynamics (CFD) data sets, was chosen to interactively display the reconstructed light sheet images, along with the numerical surface geometry for the model or aircraft under study. A description is provided of the photogrammetric reconstruction technique, and the image processing and computer graphics techniques and equipment. Results of the computer aided process applied to both a wind tunnel translating light sheet experiment and an in-flight rotating light sheet experiment are presented. The capability to compare reconstructed experimental light sheet images and CFD solutions in the same graphics environment is also demonstrated.

Computer-aided light sheet flow visualization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stacy, Kathryn; Severance, Kurt; Childers, Brooks A.

1993-01-01

A computer-aided flow visualization process has been developed to analyze video images acquired from rotating and translating light sheet visualization systems. The computer process integrates a mathematical model for image reconstruction, advanced computer graphics concepts, and digital image processing to provide a quantitative and visual analysis capability. The image reconstruction model, based on photogrammetry, uses knowledge of the camera and light sheet locations and orientations to project two-dimensional light sheet video images into three-dimensional space. A sophisticated computer visualization package, commonly used to analyze computational fluid dynamics (CFD) data sets, was chosen to interactively display the reconstructed light sheet images, along with the numerical surface geometry for the model or aircraft under study. A description is provided of the photogrammetric reconstruction technique, and the image processing and computer graphics techniques and equipment. Results of the computer aided process applied to both a wind tunnel translating light sheet experiment and an in-flight rotating light sheet experiment are presented. The capability to compare reconstructed experimental light sheet images and CFD solutions in the same graphics environment is also demonstrated.

High resolution, high frame rate video technology development plan and the near-term system conceptual design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ziemke, Robert A.

1990-01-01

The objective of the High Resolution, High Frame Rate Video Technology (HHVT) development effort is to provide technology advancements to remove constraints on the amount of high speed, detailed optical data recorded and transmitted for microgravity science and application experiments. These advancements will enable the development of video systems capable of high resolution, high frame rate video data recording, processing, and transmission. Techniques such as multichannel image scan, video parameter tradeoff, and the use of dual recording media were identified as methods of making the most efficient use of the near-term technology.

Characterization of Axial Inducer Cavitation Instabilities via High Speed Video Recordings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Arellano, Patrick; Peneda, Marinelle; Ferguson, Thomas; Zoladz, Thomas

2011-01-01

Sub-scale water tests were undertaken to assess the viability of utilizing high resolution, high frame-rate digital video recordings of a liquid rocket engine turbopump axial inducer to characterize cavitation instabilities. These high speed video (HSV) images of various cavitation phenomena, including higher order cavitation, rotating cavitation, alternating blade cavitation, and asymmetric cavitation, as well as non-cavitating flows for comparison, were recorded from various orientations through an acrylic tunnel using one and two cameras at digital recording rates ranging from 6,000 to 15,700 frames per second. The physical characteristics of these cavitation forms, including the mechanisms that define the cavitation frequency, were identified. Additionally, these images showed how the cavitation forms changed and transitioned from one type (tip vortex) to another (sheet cavitation) as the inducer boundary conditions (inlet pressures) were changed. Image processing techniques were developed which tracked the formation and collapse of cavitating fluid in a specified target area, both in the temporal and frequency domains, in order to characterize the cavitation instability frequency. The accuracy of the analysis techniques was found to be very dependent on target size for higher order cavitation, but much less so for the other phenomena. Tunnel-mounted piezoelectric, dynamic pressure transducers were present throughout these tests and were used as references in correlating the results obtained by image processing. Results showed good agreement between image processing and dynamic pressure spectral data. The test set-up, test program, and test results including H-Q and suction performance, dynamic environment and cavitation characterization, and image processing techniques and results will be discussed.

A Comprehensive Motion Estimation Technique for the Improvement of EIS Methods Based on the SURF Algorithm and Kalman Filter.

PubMed

Cheng, Xuemin; Hao, Qun; Xie, Mengdi

2016-04-07

Video stabilization is an important technology for removing undesired motion in videos. This paper presents a comprehensive motion estimation method for electronic image stabilization techniques, integrating the speeded up robust features (SURF) algorithm, modified random sample consensus (RANSAC), and the Kalman filter, and also taking camera scaling and conventional camera translation and rotation into full consideration. Using SURF in sub-pixel space, feature points were located and then matched. The false matched points were removed by modified RANSAC. Global motion was estimated by using the feature points and modified cascading parameters, which reduced the accumulated errors in a series of frames and improved the peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) by 8.2 dB. A specific Kalman filter model was established by considering the movement and scaling of scenes. Finally, video stabilization was achieved with filtered motion parameters using the modified adjacent frame compensation. The experimental results proved that the target images were stabilized even when the vibrating amplitudes of the video become increasingly large.

Photometric Calibration of Consumer Video Cameras

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Suggs, Robert; Swift, Wesley, Jr.

2007-01-01

Equipment and techniques have been developed to implement a method of photometric calibration of consumer video cameras for imaging of objects that are sufficiently narrow or sufficiently distant to be optically equivalent to point or line sources. Heretofore, it has been difficult to calibrate consumer video cameras, especially in cases of image saturation, because they exhibit nonlinear responses with dynamic ranges much smaller than those of scientific-grade video cameras. The present method not only takes this difficulty in stride but also makes it possible to extend effective dynamic ranges to several powers of ten beyond saturation levels. The method will likely be primarily useful in astronomical photometry. There are also potential commercial applications in medical and industrial imaging of point or line sources in the presence of saturation.This development was prompted by the need to measure brightnesses of debris in amateur video images of the breakup of the Space Shuttle Columbia. The purpose of these measurements is to use the brightness values to estimate relative masses of debris objects. In most of the images, the brightness of the main body of Columbia was found to exceed the dynamic ranges of the cameras. A similar problem arose a few years ago in the analysis of video images of Leonid meteors. The present method is a refined version of the calibration method developed to solve the Leonid calibration problem. In this method, one performs an endto- end calibration of the entire imaging system, including not only the imaging optics and imaging photodetector array but also analog tape recording and playback equipment (if used) and any frame grabber or other analog-to-digital converter (if used). To automatically incorporate the effects of nonlinearity and any other distortions into the calibration, the calibration images are processed in precisely the same manner as are the images of meteors, space-shuttle debris, or other objects that one seeks to analyze. The light source used to generate the calibration images is an artificial variable star comprising a Newtonian collimator illuminated by a light source modulated by a rotating variable neutral- density filter. This source acts as a point source, the brightness of which varies at a known rate. A video camera to be calibrated is aimed at this source. Fixed neutral-density filters are inserted in or removed from the light path as needed to make the video image of the source appear to fluctuate between dark and saturated bright. The resulting video-image data are analyzed by use of custom software that determines the integrated signal in each video frame and determines the system response curve (measured output signal versus input brightness). These determinations constitute the calibration, which is thereafter used in automatic, frame-by-frame processing of the data from the video images to be analyzed.

Digital compression algorithms for HDTV transmission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adkins, Kenneth C.; Shalkhauser, Mary JO; Bibyk, Steven B.

1990-01-01

Digital compression of video images is a possible avenue for high definition television (HDTV) transmission. Compression needs to be optimized while picture quality remains high. Two techniques for compression the digital images are explained and comparisons are drawn between the human vision system and artificial compression techniques. Suggestions for improving compression algorithms through the use of neural and analog circuitry are given.

Isn't it time to abandon cine film?

PubMed

Holmes, D R; Wondrow, M A; Gray, J E

1990-05-01

Cine has served our needs well since the early 1950s. For the first time, it allowed recording of motion studies of the cardiac structures on film. The cine technique has been standardized over the years, both the camera and the display. Cine filming techniques, however, have not advanced, except for new film products with faster emulsions and better-quality films. Video electronic imaging has made rapid advancements. These were prompted by the broadcast industry when the requirements for color were developed in the 1960s and by the advent of new recording techniques that provided a very stable video time base from analog tape recorders. The medical field has been able to capitalize on these developments and to produce some of our own that have not been applied in the broadcast world. These include pulsed progressive 525-line video acquisition of cardiac images in the cardiac catheterization laboratory. We also have been able to capitalize on the improved detector technology that the broadcast world has developed, such as the plumbicon pickup tubes, which produce images with very little lag and so provide images with improved resolution. These developments also have enabled us to reduce radiation to both the patient and the laboratory personnel, especially with implementation of the pulsed progressive acquisition, with which the dose has been reduced 50%. With the advent of interventional procedures in the cardiac catheterization laboratory, the need to assess images immediately cannot be fulfilled by cine filming because of the requirement for the processing of the film with its inherent delays. Quantification of cardiac structures is required to assess the outcome of interventional techniques.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Video bandwidth compression system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ludington, D.

1980-08-01

The objective of this program was the development of a Video Bandwidth Compression brassboard model for use by the Air Force Avionics Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in evaluation of bandwidth compression techniques for use in tactical weapons and to aid in the selection of particular operational modes to be implemented in an advanced flyable model. The bandwidth compression system is partitioned into two major divisions: the encoder, which processes the input video with a compression algorithm and transmits the most significant information; and the decoder where the compressed data is reconstructed into a video image for display.

Precise color images a high-speed color video camera system with three intensified sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oki, Sachio; Yamakawa, Masafumi; Gohda, Susumu; Etoh, Takeharu G.

1999-06-01

High speed imaging systems have been used in a large field of science and engineering. Although the high speed camera systems have been improved to high performance, most of their applications are only to get high speed motion pictures. However, in some fields of science and technology, it is useful to get some other information, such as temperature of combustion flame, thermal plasma and molten materials. Recent digital high speed video imaging technology should be able to get such information from those objects. For this purpose, we have already developed a high speed video camera system with three-intensified-sensors and cubic prism image splitter. The maximum frame rate is 40,500 pps (picture per second) at 64 X 64 pixels and 4,500 pps at 256 X 256 pixels with 256 (8 bit) intensity resolution for each pixel. The camera system can store more than 1,000 pictures continuously in solid state memory. In order to get the precise color images from this camera system, we need to develop a digital technique, which consists of a computer program and ancillary instruments, to adjust displacement of images taken from two or three image sensors and to calibrate relationship between incident light intensity and corresponding digital output signals. In this paper, the digital technique for pixel-based displacement adjustment are proposed. Although the displacement of the corresponding circle was more than 8 pixels in original image, the displacement was adjusted within 0.2 pixels at most by this method.

Implementation of a stereofluoroscopic system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rivers, D. B.

1976-01-01

Clinical applications of a 3-D video imaging technique developed by NASA for observation and control of remote manipulators are discussed. Incorporation of this technique in a stereo fluoroscopic system provides reduced radiation dosage and greater vision and mobility of the user.

Variations on a Theme.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vitali, Julius

1990-01-01

Explains an experimental photographic technique starting with a realistic photograph. Using various media (oil painting, video/computer photography, and multiprint imagery) the artist changes the photograph's compositional elements. Outlines the phases of this evolutionary process. Illustrates four images created by the technique. (DB)

Efficient space-time sampling with pixel-wise coded exposure for high-speed imaging.

PubMed

Liu, Dengyu; Gu, Jinwei; Hitomi, Yasunobu; Gupta, Mohit; Mitsunaga, Tomoo; Nayar, Shree K

2014-02-01

Cameras face a fundamental trade-off between spatial and temporal resolution. Digital still cameras can capture images with high spatial resolution, but most high-speed video cameras have relatively low spatial resolution. It is hard to overcome this trade-off without incurring a significant increase in hardware costs. In this paper, we propose techniques for sampling, representing, and reconstructing the space-time volume to overcome this trade-off. Our approach has two important distinctions compared to previous works: 1) We achieve sparse representation of videos by learning an overcomplete dictionary on video patches, and 2) we adhere to practical hardware constraints on sampling schemes imposed by architectures of current image sensors, which means that our sampling function can be implemented on CMOS image sensors with modified control units in the future. We evaluate components of our approach, sampling function and sparse representation, by comparing them to several existing approaches. We also implement a prototype imaging system with pixel-wise coded exposure control using a liquid crystal on silicon device. System characteristics such as field of view and modulation transfer function are evaluated for our imaging system. Both simulations and experiments on a wide range of scenes show that our method can effectively reconstruct a video from a single coded image while maintaining high spatial resolution.

Reduction of capsule endoscopy reading times by unsupervised image mining.

PubMed

Iakovidis, D K; Tsevas, S; Polydorou, A

2010-09-01

The screening of the small intestine has become painless and easy with wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) that is a revolutionary, relatively non-invasive imaging technique performed by a wireless swallowable endoscopic capsule transmitting thousands of video frames per examination. The average time required for the visual inspection of a full 8-h WCE video ranges from 45 to 120min, depending on the experience of the examiner. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to WCE reading time reduction by unsupervised mining of video frames. The proposed methodology is based on a data reduction algorithm which is applied according to a novel scheme for the extraction of representative video frames from a full length WCE video. It can be used either as a video summarization or as a video bookmarking tool, providing the comparative advantage of being general, unbounded by the finiteness of a training set. The number of frames extracted is controlled by a parameter that can be tuned automatically. Comprehensive experiments on real WCE videos indicate that a significant reduction in the reading times is feasible. In the case of the WCE videos used this reduction reached 85% without any loss of abnormalities.

Display of travelling 3D scenes from single integral-imaging capture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martinez-Corral, Manuel; Dorado, Adrian; Hong, Seok-Min; Sola-Pikabea, Jorge; Saavedra, Genaro

2016-06-01

Integral imaging (InI) is a 3D auto-stereoscopic technique that captures and displays 3D images. We present a method for easily projecting the information recorded with this technique by transforming the integral image into a plenoptic image, as well as choosing, at will, the field of view (FOV) and the focused plane of the displayed plenoptic image. Furthermore, with this method we can generate a sequence of images that simulates a camera travelling through the scene from a single integral image. The application of this method permits to improve the quality of 3D display images and videos.

Feathering effect detection and artifact agglomeration index-based video deinterlacing technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martins, André Luis; Rodrigues, Evandro Luis Linhari; de Paiva, Maria Stela Veludo

2018-03-01

Several video deinterlacing techniques have been developed, and each one presents a better performance in certain conditions. Occasionally, even the most modern deinterlacing techniques create frames with worse quality than primitive deinterlacing processes. This paper validates that the final image quality can be improved by combining different types of deinterlacing techniques. The proposed strategy is able to select between two types of deinterlaced frames and, if necessary, make the local correction of the defects. This decision is based on an artifact agglomeration index obtained from a feathering effect detection map. Starting from a deinterlaced frame produced by the "interfield average" method, the defective areas are identified, and, if deemed appropriate, these areas are replaced by pixels generated through the "edge-based line average" method. Test results have proven that the proposed technique is able to produce video frames with higher quality than applying a single deinterlacing technique through getting what is good from intra- and interfield methods.

Informative-frame filtering in endoscopy videos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

An, Yong Hwan; Hwang, Sae; Oh, JungHwan; Lee, JeongKyu; Tavanapong, Wallapak; de Groen, Piet C.; Wong, Johnny

2005-04-01

Advances in video technology are being incorporated into today"s healthcare practice. For example, colonoscopy is an important screening tool for colorectal cancer. Colonoscopy allows for the inspection of the entire colon and provides the ability to perform a number of therapeutic operations during a single procedure. During a colonoscopic procedure, a tiny video camera at the tip of the endoscope generates a video signal of the internal mucosa of the colon. The video data are displayed on a monitor for real-time analysis by the endoscopist. Other endoscopic procedures include upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, enteroscopy, bronchoscopy, cystoscopy, and laparoscopy. However, a significant number of out-of-focus frames are included in this type of videos since current endoscopes are equipped with a single, wide-angle lens that cannot be focused. The out-of-focus frames do not hold any useful information. To reduce the burdens of the further processes such as computer-aided image processing or human expert"s examinations, these frames need to be removed. We call an out-of-focus frame as non-informative frame and an in-focus frame as informative frame. We propose a new technique to classify the video frames into two classes, informative and non-informative frames using a combination of Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), Texture Analysis, and K-Means Clustering. The proposed technique can evaluate the frames without any reference image, and does not need any predefined threshold value. Our experimental studies indicate that it achieves over 96% of four different performance metrics (i.e. precision, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy).

2D-pattern matching image and video compression: theory, algorithms, and experiments.

PubMed

Alzina, Marc; Szpankowski, Wojciech; Grama, Ananth

2002-01-01

In this paper, we propose a lossy data compression framework based on an approximate two-dimensional (2D) pattern matching (2D-PMC) extension of the Lempel-Ziv (1977, 1978) lossless scheme. This framework forms the basis upon which higher level schemes relying on differential coding, frequency domain techniques, prediction, and other methods can be built. We apply our pattern matching framework to image and video compression and report on theoretical and experimental results. Theoretically, we show that the fixed database model used for video compression leads to suboptimal but computationally efficient performance. The compression ratio of this model is shown to tend to the generalized entropy. For image compression, we use a growing database model for which we provide an approximate analysis. The implementation of 2D-PMC is a challenging problem from the algorithmic point of view. We use a range of techniques and data structures such as k-d trees, generalized run length coding, adaptive arithmetic coding, and variable and adaptive maximum distortion level to achieve good compression ratios at high compression speeds. We demonstrate bit rates in the range of 0.25-0.5 bpp for high-quality images and data rates in the range of 0.15-0.5 Mbps for a baseline video compression scheme that does not use any prediction or interpolation. We also demonstrate that this asymmetric compression scheme is capable of extremely fast decompression making it particularly suitable for networked multimedia applications.

Effects of blurring and vertical misalignment on visual fatigue of stereoscopic displays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baek, Sangwook; Lee, Chulhee

2015-03-01

In this paper, we investigate two error issues in stereo images, which may produce visual fatigue. When two cameras are used to produce 3D video sequences, vertical misalignment can be a problem. Although this problem may not occur in professionally produced 3D programs, it is still a major issue in many low-cost 3D programs. Recently, efforts have been made to produce 3D video programs using smart phones or tablets, which may present the vertical alignment problem. Also, in 2D-3D conversion techniques, the simulated frame may have blur effects, which can also introduce visual fatigue in 3D programs. In this paper, to investigate the relationship between these two errors (vertical misalignment and blurring in one image), we performed a subjective test using simulated 3D video sequences that include stereo video sequences with various vertical misalignments and blurring in a stereo image. We present some analyses along with objective models to predict the degree of visual fatigue from vertical misalignment and blurring.

Image Size Scalable Full-parallax Coloured Three-dimensional Video by Electronic Holography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sasaki, Hisayuki; Yamamoto, Kenji; Ichihashi, Yasuyuki; Senoh, Takanori

2014-02-01

In electronic holography, various methods have been considered for using multiple spatial light modulators (SLM) to increase the image size. In a previous work, we used a monochrome light source for a method that located an optical system containing lens arrays and other components in front of multiple SLMs. This paper proposes a colourization technique for that system based on time division multiplexing using laser light sources of three colours (red, green, and blue). The experimental device we constructed was able to perform video playback (20 fps) in colour of full parallax holographic three-dimensional (3D) images with an image size of 63 mm and a viewing-zone angle of 5.6 degrees without losing any part of the 3D image.

Parachute Aerodynamics From Video Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schoenenberger, Mark; Queen, Eric M.; Cruz, Juan R.

2005-01-01

A new data analysis technique for the identification of static and dynamic aerodynamic stability coefficients from wind tunnel test video data is presented. This new technique was applied to video data obtained during a parachute wind tunnel test program conducted in support of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission. Total angle-of-attack data obtained from video images were used to determine the static pitching moment curve of the parachute. During the original wind tunnel test program the static pitching moment curve had been determined by forcing the parachute to a specific total angle-of -attack and measuring the forces generated. It is shown with the new technique that this parachute, when free to rotate, trims at an angle-of-attack two degrees lower than was measured during the forced-angle tests. An attempt was also made to extract pitch damping information from the video data. Results suggest that the parachute is dynamically unstable at the static trim point and tends to become dynamically stable away from the trim point. These trends are in agreement with limit-cycle-like behavior observed in the video. However, the chaotic motion of the parachute produced results with large uncertainty bands.

Detection and tracking of gas plumes in LWIR hyperspectral video sequence data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gerhart, Torin; Sunu, Justin; Lieu, Lauren; Merkurjev, Ekaterina; Chang, Jen-Mei; Gilles, Jérôme; Bertozzi, Andrea L.

2013-05-01

Automated detection of chemical plumes presents a segmentation challenge. The segmentation problem for gas plumes is difficult due to the diffusive nature of the cloud. The advantage of considering hyperspectral images in the gas plume detection problem over the conventional RGB imagery is the presence of non-visual data, allowing for a richer representation of information. In this paper we present an effective method of visualizing hyperspectral video sequences containing chemical plumes and investigate the effectiveness of segmentation techniques on these post-processed videos. Our approach uses a combination of dimension reduction and histogram equalization to prepare the hyperspectral videos for segmentation. First, Principal Components Analysis (PCA) is used to reduce the dimension of the entire video sequence. This is done by projecting each pixel onto the first few Principal Components resulting in a type of spectral filter. Next, a Midway method for histogram equalization is used. These methods redistribute the intensity values in order to reduce icker between frames. This properly prepares these high-dimensional video sequences for more traditional segmentation techniques. We compare the ability of various clustering techniques to properly segment the chemical plume. These include K-means, spectral clustering, and the Ginzburg-Landau functional.

Video Salient Object Detection via Fully Convolutional Networks.

PubMed

Wang, Wenguan; Shen, Jianbing; Shao, Ling

This paper proposes a deep learning model to efficiently detect salient regions in videos. It addresses two important issues: 1) deep video saliency model training with the absence of sufficiently large and pixel-wise annotated video data and 2) fast video saliency training and detection. The proposed deep video saliency network consists of two modules, for capturing the spatial and temporal saliency information, respectively. The dynamic saliency model, explicitly incorporating saliency estimates from the static saliency model, directly produces spatiotemporal saliency inference without time-consuming optical flow computation. We further propose a novel data augmentation technique that simulates video training data from existing annotated image data sets, which enables our network to learn diverse saliency information and prevents overfitting with the limited number of training videos. Leveraging our synthetic video data (150K video sequences) and real videos, our deep video saliency model successfully learns both spatial and temporal saliency cues, thus producing accurate spatiotemporal saliency estimate. We advance the state-of-the-art on the densely annotated video segmentation data set (MAE of .06) and the Freiburg-Berkeley Motion Segmentation data set (MAE of .07), and do so with much improved speed (2 fps with all steps).This paper proposes a deep learning model to efficiently detect salient regions in videos. It addresses two important issues: 1) deep video saliency model training with the absence of sufficiently large and pixel-wise annotated video data and 2) fast video saliency training and detection. The proposed deep video saliency network consists of two modules, for capturing the spatial and temporal saliency information, respectively. The dynamic saliency model, explicitly incorporating saliency estimates from the static saliency model, directly produces spatiotemporal saliency inference without time-consuming optical flow computation. We further propose a novel data augmentation technique that simulates video training data from existing annotated image data sets, which enables our network to learn diverse saliency information and prevents overfitting with the limited number of training videos. Leveraging our synthetic video data (150K video sequences) and real videos, our deep video saliency model successfully learns both spatial and temporal saliency cues, thus producing accurate spatiotemporal saliency estimate. We advance the state-of-the-art on the densely annotated video segmentation data set (MAE of .06) and the Freiburg-Berkeley Motion Segmentation data set (MAE of .07), and do so with much improved speed (2 fps with all steps).

Backwards compatible high dynamic range video compression

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dolzhenko, Vladimir; Chesnokov, Vyacheslav; Edirisinghe, Eran A.

2014-02-01

This paper presents a two layer CODEC architecture for high dynamic range video compression. The base layer contains the tone mapped video stream encoded with 8 bits per component which can be decoded using conventional equipment. The base layer content is optimized for rendering on low dynamic range displays. The enhancement layer contains the image difference, in perceptually uniform color space, between the result of inverse tone mapped base layer content and the original video stream. Prediction of the high dynamic range content reduces the redundancy in the transmitted data while still preserves highlights and out-of-gamut colors. Perceptually uniform colorspace enables using standard ratedistortion optimization algorithms. We present techniques for efficient implementation and encoding of non-uniform tone mapping operators with low overhead in terms of bitstream size and number of operations. The transform representation is based on human vision system model and suitable for global and local tone mapping operators. The compression techniques include predicting the transform parameters from previously decoded frames and from already decoded data for current frame. Different video compression techniques are compared: backwards compatible and non-backwards compatible using AVC and HEVC codecs.

SU-C-209-06: Improving X-Ray Imaging with Computer Vision and Augmented Reality

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

MacDougall, R.D.; Scherrer, B; Don, S

Purpose: To determine the feasibility of using a computer vision algorithm and augmented reality interface to reduce repeat rates and improve consistency of image quality and patient exposure in general radiography. Methods: A prototype device, designed for use with commercially available hardware (Microsoft Kinect 2.0) capable of depth sensing and high resolution/frame rate video, was mounted to the x-ray tube housing as part of a Philips DigitalDiagnost digital radiography room. Depth data and video was streamed to a Windows 10 PC. Proprietary software created an augmented reality interface where overlays displayed selectable information projected over real-time video of the patient.more » The information displayed prior to and during x-ray acquisition included: recognition and position of ordered body part, position of image receptor, thickness of anatomy, location of AEC cells, collimated x-ray field, degree of patient motion and suggested x-ray technique. Pre-clinical data was collected in a volunteer study to validate patient thickness measurements and x-ray images were not acquired. Results: Proprietary software correctly identified ordered body part, measured patient motion, and calculated thickness of anatomy. Pre-clinical data demonstrated accuracy and precision of body part thickness measurement when compared with other methods (e.g. laser measurement tool). Thickness measurements provided the basis for developing a database of thickness-based technique charts that can be automatically displayed to the technologist. Conclusion: The utilization of computer vision and commercial hardware to create an augmented reality view of the patient and imaging equipment has the potential to drastically improve the quality and safety of x-ray imaging by reducing repeats and optimizing technique based on patient thickness. Society of Pediatric Radiology Pilot Grant; Washington University Bear Cub Fund.« less

Real time mitigation of atmospheric turbulence in long distance imaging using the lucky region fusion algorithm with FPGA and GPU hardware acceleration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jackson, Christopher Robert

"Lucky-region" fusion (LRF) is a synthetic imaging technique that has proven successful in enhancing the quality of images distorted by atmospheric turbulence. The LRF algorithm selects sharp regions of an image obtained from a series of short exposure frames, and fuses the sharp regions into a final, improved image. In previous research, the LRF algorithm had been implemented on a PC using the C programming language. However, the PC did not have sufficient sequential processing power to handle real-time extraction, processing and reduction required when the LRF algorithm was applied to real-time video from fast, high-resolution image sensors. This thesis describes two hardware implementations of the LRF algorithm to achieve real-time image processing. The first was created with a VIRTEX-7 field programmable gate array (FPGA). The other developed using the graphics processing unit (GPU) of a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 video card. The novelty in the FPGA approach is the creation of a "black box" LRF video processing system with a general camera link input, a user controller interface, and a camera link video output. We also describe a custom hardware simulation environment we have built to test the FPGA LRF implementation. The advantage of the GPU approach is significantly improved development time, integration of image stabilization into the system, and comparable atmospheric turbulence mitigation.

A noncoherent optical analog image processor.

PubMed

Swindell, W

1970-11-01

The description of a machine that performs a variety of image processing operations is given, together with a theoretical discussion of its operation. Spatial processing is performed by corrective convolution techniques. Density processing is achieved by means of an electrical transfer function generator included in the video circuit. Examples of images processed for removal of image motion blur, defocus, and atmospheric seeing blur are shown.

Video enhancement method with color-protection post-processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Youn Jin; Kwak, Youngshin

2015-01-01

The current study is aimed to propose a post-processing method for video enhancement by adopting a color-protection technique. The color-protection intends to attenuate perceptible artifacts due to over-enhancements in visually sensitive image regions such as low-chroma colors, including skin and gray objects. In addition, reducing the loss in color texture caused by the out-of-color-gamut signals is also taken into account. Consequently, color reproducibility of video sequences could be remarkably enhanced while the undesirable visual exaggerations are minimized.

Canine and feline fundus photography and videography using a nonpatented 3D printed lens adapter for a smartphone.

PubMed

Espinheira Gomes, Filipe; Ledbetter, Eric

2018-05-11

To describe an indirect funduscopy imaging technique for dogs and cats using low cost and widely available equipment: a smartphone, a three-dimensional (3D) printed indirect lens adapter, and a 40 diopters (D) indirect ophthalmoscopy lens. Fundus videography was performed in dogs and cats using a 40D indirect ophthalmoscopy lens and a smartphone fitted with a 3D printed indirect lens adapter. All animals were pharmacologically dilated with topical tropicamide 1% solution. Eyelid opening and video recording were performed using standard binocular indirect ophthalmoscopy technique. All videos were uploaded to a computer, and still images were selected and acquired for archiving purposes. Fundic images were manipulated to represent the true anatomy of the fundus. It was possible to promptly obtain good quality images from normal and diseased retinas using the nonpatented 3D printed, lens adapter for a smartphone. Fundic imaging using a smartphone can be performed with minimal investment. This simple imaging modality can be used by veterinary ophthalmologists and general practitioners to acquire, archive, and share images of the retina. The quality of images obtained will likely improve with developments in smartphone camera software and hardware. © 2018 American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists.

From video to computation of biological fluid-structure interaction problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dillard, Seth I.; Buchholz, James H. J.; Udaykumar, H. S.

2016-04-01

This work deals with the techniques necessary to obtain a purely Eulerian procedure to conduct CFD simulations of biological systems with moving boundary flow phenomena. Eulerian approaches obviate difficulties associated with mesh generation to describe or fit flow meshes to body surfaces. The challenges associated with constructing embedded boundary information, body motions and applying boundary conditions on the moving bodies for flow computation are addressed in the work. The overall approach is applied to the study of a fluid-structure interaction problem, i.e., the hydrodynamics of swimming of an American eel, where the motion of the eel is derived from video imaging. It is shown that some first-blush approaches do not work, and therefore, careful consideration of appropriate techniques to connect moving images to flow simulations is necessary and forms the main contribution of the paper. A combination of level set-based active contour segmentation with optical flow and image morphing is shown to enable the image-to-computation process.

Measurement of bronchial blood flow in the sheep by video dilution technique.

PubMed Central

Link, D P; Parsons, G H; Lantz, B M; Gunther, R A; Green, J F; Cross, C E

1985-01-01

Bronchial blood flow was determined in five adult anaesthetised sheep by the video dilution technique. This is a new fluoroscopic technique for measuring blood flow that requires only arterial catheterisation. Catheters were placed into the broncho-oesophageal artery and ascending aorta from the femoral arteries for contrast injections and subsequent videotape recording. The technique yields bronchial blood flow as a percentage of cardiac output. The average bronchial artery blood flow was 0.6% (SD 0.20%) of cardiac output. In one sheep histamine (90 micrograms) injected directly into the bronchial artery increased bronchial blood flow by a factor of 6 and histamine (90 micrograms) plus methacholine (4.5 micrograms) augmented flow by a factor of 7.5 while leaving cardiac output unchanged. This study confirms the high degree of reactivity of the bronchial circulation and demonstrates the feasibility of using the video dilution technique to investigate the determinants of total bronchial artery blood flow in a stable animal model avoiding thoracotomy. Images PMID:3883564

Multi-modal highlight generation for sports videos using an information-theoretic excitability measure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hasan, Taufiq; Bořil, Hynek; Sangwan, Abhijeet; L Hansen, John H.

2013-12-01

The ability to detect and organize `hot spots' representing areas of excitement within video streams is a challenging research problem when techniques rely exclusively on video content. A generic method for sports video highlight selection is presented in this study which leverages both video/image structure as well as audio/speech properties. Processing begins where the video is partitioned into small segments and several multi-modal features are extracted from each segment. Excitability is computed based on the likelihood of the segmental features residing in certain regions of their joint probability density function space which are considered both exciting and rare. The proposed measure is used to rank order the partitioned segments to compress the overall video sequence and produce a contiguous set of highlights. Experiments are performed on baseball videos based on signal processing advancements for excitement assessment in the commentators' speech, audio energy, slow motion replay, scene cut density, and motion activity as features. Detailed analysis on correlation between user excitability and various speech production parameters is conducted and an effective scheme is designed to estimate the excitement level of commentator's speech from the sports videos. Subjective evaluation of excitability and ranking of video segments demonstrate a higher correlation with the proposed measure compared to well-established techniques indicating the effectiveness of the overall approach.

Vascularization of bioprosthetic valve material

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boughner, Derek R.; Dunmore-Buyze, Joy; Heenatigala, Dino; Lohmann, Tara; Ellis, Chris G.

1999-04-01

Cell membrane remnants represent a probable nucleation site for calcium deposition in bioprosthetic heart valves. Calcification is a primary failure mode of both bovine pericardial and porcine aortic heterograft bioprosthesis but the nonuniform pattern of calcium distribution within the tissue remains unexplained. Searching for a likely cellular source, we considered the possibility of a previously overlooked small blood vessel network. Using a videomicroscopy technique, we examined 5 matched pairs of porcine aortic and pulmonary valves and 14 samples from 6 bovine pericardia. Tissue was placed on a Leitz Metallux microscope and transilluminated with a 75 watt mercury lamp. Video images were obtained using a silicon intensified target camera equipped with a 431 nm interference filter to maximize contrast of red cells trapped in a capillary microvasculature. Video images were recorded for analysis on a Silicon Graphics Image Analysis work station equipped with a video frame grabber. For porcine valves, the technique demonstrated a vascular bed in the central spongiosa at cusp bases with vessel sizes from 6-80 micrometers . Bovine pericardium differed with a more uniform distribution of 7-100 micrometers vessels residing centrally. Thus, small blood vessel endothelial cells provide a potential explanation patterns of bioprosthetic calcification.

Image Alignment for Multiple Camera High Dynamic Range Microscopy.

PubMed

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.

Image Alignment for Multiple Camera High Dynamic Range Microscopy

PubMed Central

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 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. PMID:22545028

The recovery and utilization of space suit range-of-motion data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reinhardt, AL; Walton, James S.

1988-01-01

A technique for recovering data for the range of motion of a subject wearing a space suit is described along with the validation of this technique on an EVA space suit. Digitized data are automatically acquired from video images of the subject; three-dimensional trajectories are recovered from these data, and can be displayed using three-dimensional computer graphics. Target locations are recovered using a unique video processor and close-range photogrammetry. It is concluded that such data can be used in such applications as the animation of anthropometric computer models.

Computer-based System for the Virtual-Endoscopic Guidance of Bronchoscopy.

PubMed

Helferty, J P; Sherbondy, A J; Kiraly, A P; Higgins, W E

2007-11-01

The standard procedure for diagnosing lung cancer involves two stages: three-dimensional (3D) computed-tomography (CT) image assessment, followed by interventional bronchoscopy. In general, the physician has no link between the 3D CT image assessment results and the follow-on bronchoscopy. Thus, the physician essentially performs bronchoscopic biopsy of suspect cancer sites blindly. We have devised a computer-based system that greatly augments the physician's vision during bronchoscopy. The system uses techniques from computer graphics and computer vision to enable detailed 3D CT procedure planning and follow-on image-guided bronchoscopy. The procedure plan is directly linked to the bronchoscope procedure, through a live registration and fusion of the 3D CT data and bronchoscopic video. During a procedure, the system provides many visual tools, fused CT-video data, and quantitative distance measures; this gives the physician considerable visual feedback on how to maneuver the bronchoscope and where to insert the biopsy needle. Central to the system is a CT-video registration technique, based on normalized mutual information. Several sets of results verify the efficacy of the registration technique. In addition, we present a series of test results for the complete system for phantoms, animals, and human lung-cancer patients. The results indicate that not only is the variation in skill level between different physicians greatly reduced by the system over the standard procedure, but that biopsy effectiveness increases.

Gaze inspired subtitle position evaluation for MOOCs videos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Hongli; Yan, Mengzhen; Liu, Sijiang; Jiang, Bo

2017-06-01

Online educational resources, such as MOOCs, is becoming increasingly popular, especially in higher education field. One most important media type for MOOCs is course video. Besides traditional bottom-position subtitle accompany to the videos, in recent years, researchers try to develop more advanced algorithms to generate speaker-following style subtitles. However, the effectiveness of such subtitle is still unclear. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between subtitle position and the learning effect after watching the video on tablet devices. Inspired with image based human eye tracking technique, this work combines the objective gaze estimation statistics with subjective user study to achieve a convincing conclusion - speaker-following subtitles are more suitable for online educational videos.

Particle image velocimetry for the Surface Tension Driven Convection Experiment using a particle displacement tracking technique

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wernet, Mark P.; Pline, Alexander D.

1991-01-01

The Surface Tension Driven Convection Experiment (STDCE) is a Space Transportation System flight experiment to study both transient and steady thermocapillary fluid flows aboard the USML-1 Spacelab mission planned for 1992. One of the components of data collected during the experiment is a video record of the flow field. This qualitative data is then quantified using an all electronic, two-dimensional particle image velocimetry technique called particle displacement tracking (PDT) which uses a simple space domain particle tracking algorithm. The PDT system is successful in producing velocity vector fields from the raw video data. Application of the PDT technique to a sample data set yielded 1606 vectors in 30 seconds of processing time. A bottom viewing optical arrangement is used to image the illuminated plane, which causes keystone distortion in the final recorded image. A coordinate transformation was incorporated into the system software to correct this viewing angle distortion. PDT processing produced 1.8 percent false identifications, due to random particle locations. A highly successful routine for removing the false identifications was also incorporated, reducing the number of false identifications to 0.2 percent.

Particle image velocimetry for the surface tension driven convection experiment using a particle displacement tracking technique

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wernet, Mark P.; Pline, Alexander D.

1991-01-01

The Surface Tension Driven Convection Experiment (STDCE) is a Space Transportation System flight experiment to study both transient and steady thermocapillary fluid flows aboard the USML-1 Spacelab mission planned for 1992. One of the components of data collected during the experiment is a video record of the flow field. This qualitative data is then quantified using an all electronic, two-dimensional particle image velocimetry technique called particle displacement tracking (PDT) which uses a simple space domain particle tracking algorithm. The PDT system is successful in producing velocity vector fields from the raw video data. Application of the PDT technique to a sample data set yielded 1606 vectors in 30 seconds of processing time. A bottom viewing optical arrangement is used to image the illuminated plane, which causes keystone distortion in the final recorded image. A coordinate transformation was incorporated into the system software to correct this viewing angle distortion. PDT processing produced 1.8 percent false identifications, due to random particle locations. A highly successful routine for removing the false identifications was also incorporated, reducing the number of false identifications to 0.2 percent.

Video guidance, landing, and imaging systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schappell, R. T.; Knickerbocker, R. L.; Tietz, J. C.; Grant, C.; Rice, R. B.; Moog, R. D.

1975-01-01

The adaptive potential of video guidance technology for earth orbital and interplanetary missions was explored. The application of video acquisition, pointing, tracking, and navigation technology was considered to three primary missions: planetary landing, earth resources satellite, and spacecraft rendezvous and docking. It was found that an imaging system can be mechanized to provide a spacecraft or satellite with a considerable amount of adaptability with respect to its environment. It also provides a level of autonomy essential to many future missions and enhances their data gathering ability. The feasibility of an autonomous video guidance system capable of observing a planetary surface during terminal descent and selecting the most acceptable landing site was successfully demonstrated in the laboratory. The techniques developed for acquisition, pointing, and tracking show promise for recognizing and tracking coastlines, rivers, and other constituents of interest. Routines were written and checked for rendezvous, docking, and station-keeping functions.

Modeling of video traffic in packet networks, low rate video compression, and the development of a lossy+lossless image compression algorithm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sayood, K.; Chen, Y. C.; Wang, X.

1992-01-01

During this reporting period we have worked on three somewhat different problems. These are modeling of video traffic in packet networks, low rate video compression, and the development of a lossy + lossless image compression algorithm, which might have some application in browsing algorithms. The lossy + lossless scheme is an extension of work previously done under this grant. It provides a simple technique for incorporating browsing capability. The low rate coding scheme is also a simple variation on the standard discrete cosine transform (DCT) coding approach. In spite of its simplicity, the approach provides surprisingly high quality reconstructions. The modeling approach is borrowed from the speech recognition literature, and seems to be promising in that it provides a simple way of obtaining an idea about the second order behavior of a particular coding scheme. Details about these are presented.

Video see-through augmented reality for oral and maxillofacial surgery.

PubMed

Wang, Junchen; Suenaga, Hideyuki; Yang, Liangjing; Kobayashi, Etsuko; Sakuma, Ichiro

2017-06-01

Oral and maxillofacial surgery has not been benefitting from image guidance techniques owing to the limitations in image registration. A real-time markerless image registration method is proposed by integrating a shape matching method into a 2D tracking framework. The image registration is performed by matching the patient's teeth model with intraoperative video to obtain its pose. The resulting pose is used to overlay relevant models from the same CT space on the camera video for augmented reality. The proposed system was evaluated on mandible/maxilla phantoms, a volunteer and clinical data. Experimental results show that the target overlay error is about 1 mm, and the frame rate of registration update yields 3-5 frames per second with a 4 K camera. The significance of this work lies in its simplicity in clinical setting and the seamless integration into the current medical procedure with satisfactory response time and overlay accuracy. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

LBP based detection of intestinal motility in WCE images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gallo, Giovanni; Granata, Eliana

2011-03-01

In this research study, a system to support medical analysis of intestinal contractions by processing WCE images is presented. Small intestine contractions are among the motility patterns which reveal many gastrointestinal disorders, such as functional dyspepsia, paralytic ileus, irritable bowel syndrome, bacterial overgrowth. The images have been obtained using the Wireless Capsule Endoscopy (WCE) technique, a patented, video colorimaging disposable capsule. Manual annotation of contractions is an elaborating task, since the recording device of the capsule stores about 50,000 images and contractions might represent only the 1% of the whole video. In this paper we propose the use of Local Binary Pattern (LBP) combined with the powerful textons statistics to find the frames of the video related to contractions. We achieve a sensitivity of about 80% and a specificity of about 99%. The achieved high detection accuracy of the proposed system has provided thus an indication that such intelligent schemes could be used as a supplementary diagnostic tool in endoscopy.

Automatic and quantitative measurement of laryngeal video stroboscopic images.

PubMed

Kuo, Chung-Feng Jeffrey; Kuo, Joseph; Hsiao, Shang-Wun; Lee, Chi-Lung; Lee, Jih-Chin; Ke, Bo-Han

2017-01-01

The laryngeal video stroboscope is an important instrument for physicians to analyze abnormalities and diseases in the glottal area. Stroboscope has been widely used around the world. However, without quantized indices, physicians can only make subjective judgment on glottal images. We designed a new laser projection marking module and applied it onto the laryngeal video stroboscope to provide scale conversion reference parameters for glottal imaging and to convert the physiological parameters of glottis. Image processing technology was used to segment the important image regions of interest. Information of the glottis was quantified, and the vocal fold image segmentation system was completed to assist clinical diagnosis and increase accuracy. Regarding image processing, histogram equalization was used to enhance glottis image contrast. The center weighted median filters image noise while retaining the texture of the glottal image. Statistical threshold determination was used for automatic segmentation of a glottal image. As the glottis image contains saliva and light spots, which are classified as the noise of the image, noise was eliminated by erosion, expansion, disconnection, and closure techniques to highlight the vocal area. We also used image processing to automatically identify an image of vocal fold region in order to quantify information from the glottal image, such as glottal area, vocal fold perimeter, vocal fold length, glottal width, and vocal fold angle. The quantized glottis image database was created to assist physicians in diagnosing glottis diseases more objectively.

A constrained joint source/channel coder design and vector quantization of nonstationary sources

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sayood, Khalid; Chen, Y. C.; Nori, S.; Araj, A.

1993-01-01

The emergence of broadband ISDN as the network for the future brings with it the promise of integration of all proposed services in a flexible environment. In order to achieve this flexibility, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) has been proposed as the transfer technique. During this period a study was conducted on the bridging of network transmission performance and video coding. The successful transmission of variable bit rate video over ATM networks relies on the interaction between the video coding algorithm and the ATM networks. Two aspects of networks that determine the efficiency of video transmission are the resource allocation algorithm and the congestion control algorithm. These are explained in this report. Vector quantization (VQ) is one of the more popular compression techniques to appear in the last twenty years. Numerous compression techniques, which incorporate VQ, have been proposed. While the LBG VQ provides excellent compression, there are also several drawbacks to the use of the LBG quantizers including search complexity and memory requirements, and a mismatch between the codebook and the inputs. The latter mainly stems from the fact that the VQ is generally designed for a specific rate and a specific class of inputs. In this work, an adaptive technique is proposed for vector quantization of images and video sequences. This technique is an extension of the recursively indexed scalar quantization (RISQ) algorithm.

Computational multispectral video imaging [Invited].

PubMed

Wang, Peng; Menon, Rajesh

2018-01-01

Multispectral imagers reveal information unperceivable to humans and conventional cameras. Here, we demonstrate a compact single-shot multispectral video-imaging camera by placing a micro-structured diffractive filter in close proximity to the image sensor. The diffractive filter converts spectral information to a spatial code on the sensor pixels. Following a calibration step, this code can be inverted via regularization-based linear algebra to compute the multispectral image. We experimentally demonstrated spectral resolution of 9.6 nm within the visible band (430-718 nm). We further show that the spatial resolution is enhanced by over 30% compared with the case without the diffractive filter. We also demonstrate Vis-IR imaging with the same sensor. Because no absorptive color filters are utilized, sensitivity is preserved as well. Finally, the diffractive filters can be easily manufactured using optical lithography and replication techniques.

Particle displacement tracking applied to air flows

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wernet, Mark P.

1991-01-01

Electronic Particle Image Velocimeter (PIV) techniques offer many advantages over conventional photographic PIV methods such as fast turn around times and simplified data reduction. A new all electronic PIV technique was developed which can measure high speed gas velocities. The Particle Displacement Tracking (PDT) technique employs a single cw laser, small seed particles (1 micron), and a single intensified, gated CCD array frame camera to provide a simple and fast method of obtaining two-dimensional velocity vector maps with unambiguous direction determination. Use of a single CCD camera eliminates registration difficulties encountered when multiple cameras are used to obtain velocity magnitude and direction information. An 80386 PC equipped with a large memory buffer frame-grabber board provides all of the data acquisition and data reduction operations. No array processors of other numerical processing hardware are required. Full video resolution (640x480 pixel) is maintained in the acquired images, providing high resolution video frames of the recorded particle images. The time between data acquisition to display of the velocity vector map is less than 40 sec. The new electronic PDT technique is demonstrated on an air nozzle flow with velocities less than 150 m/s.

Parallel processing approach to transform-based image coding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Normile, James O.; Wright, Dan; Chu, Ken; Yeh, Chia L.

1991-06-01

This paper describes a flexible parallel processing architecture designed for use in real time video processing. The system consists of floating point DSP processors connected to each other via fast serial links, each processor has access to a globally shared memory. A multiple bus architecture in combination with a dual ported memory allows communication with a host control processor. The system has been applied to prototyping of video compression and decompression algorithms. The decomposition of transform based algorithms for decompression into a form suitable for parallel processing is described. A technique for automatic load balancing among the processors is developed and discussed, results ar presented with image statistics and data rates. Finally techniques for accelerating the system throughput are analyzed and results from the application of one such modification described.

Real-time detection and data acquisition system for the left ventricular outline. Ph.D. Thesis - Stanford Univ.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reiber, J. H. C.

1976-01-01

To automate the data acquisition procedure, a real-time contour detection and data acquisition system for the left ventricular outline was developed using video techniques. The X-ray image of the contrast-filled left ventricle is stored for subsequent processing on film (cineangiogram), video tape or disc. The cineangiogram is converted into video format using a television camera. The video signal from either the TV camera, video tape or disc is the input signal to the system. The contour detection is based on a dynamic thresholding technique. Since the left ventricular outline is a smooth continuous function, for each contour side a narrow expectation window is defined in which the next borderpoint will be detected. A computer interface was designed and built for the online acquisition of the coordinates using a PDP-12 computer. The advantage of this system over other available systems is its potential for online, real-time acquisition of the left ventricular size and shape during angiocardiography.

The Use of Smart Glasses for Surgical Video Streaming.

PubMed

Hiranaka, Takafumi; Nakanishi, Yuta; Fujishiro, Takaaki; Hida, Yuichi; Tsubosaka, Masanori; Shibata, Yosaku; Okimura, Kenjiro; Uemoto, Harunobu

2017-04-01

Observation of surgical procedures performed by experts is extremely important for acquisition and improvement of surgical skills. Smart glasses are small computers, which comprise a head-mounted monitor and video camera, and can be connected to the internet. They can be used for remote observation of surgeries by video streaming. Although Google Glass is the most commonly used smart glasses for medical purposes, it is still unavailable commercially and has some limitations. This article reports the use of a different type of smart glasses, InfoLinker, for surgical video streaming. InfoLinker has been commercially available in Japan for industrial purposes for more than 2 years. It is connected to a video server via wireless internet directly, and streaming video can be seen anywhere an internet connection is available. We have attempted live video streaming of knee arthroplasty operations that were viewed at several different locations, including foreign countries, on a common web browser. Although the quality of video images depended on the resolution and dynamic range of the video camera, speed of internet connection, and the wearer's attention to minimize image shaking, video streaming could be easily performed throughout the procedure. The wearer could confirm the quality of the video as the video was being shot by the head-mounted display. The time and cost for observation of surgical procedures can be reduced by InfoLinker, and further improvement of hardware as well as the wearer's video shooting technique is expected. We believe that this can be used in other medical settings.

High dynamic range adaptive real-time smart camera: an overview of the HDR-ARTiST project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lapray, Pierre-Jean; Heyrman, Barthélémy; Ginhac, Dominique

2015-04-01

Standard cameras capture only a fraction of the information that is visible to the human visual system. This is specifically true for natural scenes including areas of low and high illumination due to transitions between sunlit and shaded areas. When capturing such a scene, many cameras are unable to store the full Dynamic Range (DR) resulting in low quality video where details are concealed in shadows or washed out by sunlight. The imaging technique that can overcome this problem is called HDR (High Dynamic Range) imaging. This paper describes a complete smart camera built around a standard off-the-shelf LDR (Low Dynamic Range) sensor and a Virtex-6 FPGA board. This smart camera called HDR-ARtiSt (High Dynamic Range Adaptive Real-time Smart camera) is able to produce a real-time HDR live video color stream by recording and combining multiple acquisitions of the same scene while varying the exposure time. This technique appears as one of the most appropriate and cheapest solution to enhance the dynamic range of real-life environments. HDR-ARtiSt embeds real-time multiple captures, HDR processing, data display and transfer of a HDR color video for a full sensor resolution (1280 1024 pixels) at 60 frames per second. The main contributions of this work are: (1) Multiple Exposure Control (MEC) dedicated to the smart image capture with alternating three exposure times that are dynamically evaluated from frame to frame, (2) Multi-streaming Memory Management Unit (MMMU) dedicated to the memory read/write operations of the three parallel video streams, corresponding to the different exposure times, (3) HRD creating by combining the video streams using a specific hardware version of the Devebecs technique, and (4) Global Tone Mapping (GTM) of the HDR scene for display on a standard LCD monitor.

Feasibility study for automatic reduction of phase change imagery

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nossaman, G. O.

1971-01-01

The feasibility of automatically reducing a form of pictorial aerodynamic heating data is discussed. The imagery, depicting the melting history of a thin coat of fusible temperature indicator painted on an aerodynamically heated model, was previously reduced by manual methods. Careful examination of various lighting theories and approaches led to an experimentally verified illumination concept capable of yielding high-quality imagery. Both digital and video image processing techniques were applied to reduction of the data, and it was demonstrated that either method can be used to develop superimposed contours. Mathematical techniques were developed to find the model-to-image and the inverse image-to-model transformation using six conjugate points, and methods were developed using these transformations to determine heating rates on the model surface. A video system was designed which is able to reduce the imagery rapidly, economically and accurately. Costs for this system were estimated. A study plan was outlined whereby the mathematical transformation techniques developed to produce model coordinate heating data could be applied to operational software, and methods were discussed and costs estimated for obtaining the digital information necessary for this software.

The applicability of holography in forensic identification: a fusion of the traditional optical technique and digital technique.

PubMed

Biwasaka, Hitoshi; Saigusa, Kiyoshi; Aoki, Yasuhiro

2005-03-01

In this study, the applicability of holography in the 3-dimensional recording of forensic objects such as skulls and mandibulae, and the accuracy of the reconstructed 3-D images, were examined. The virtual holographic image, which records the 3-dimensional data of the original object, is visually observed on the other side of the holographic plate, and reproduces the 3-dimensional shape of the object well. Another type of holographic image, the real image, is focused on a frosted glass screen, and cross-sectional images of the object can be observed. When measuring the distances between anatomical reference points using an image-processing software, the average deviations in the holographic images as compared to the actual objects were less than 0.1 mm. Therefore, holography could be useful as a 3-dimensional recording method of forensic objects. Two superimposition systems using holographic images were examined. In the 2D-3D system, the transparent virtual holographic image of an object is directly superimposed onto the digitized photograph of the same object on the LCD monitor. On the other hand, in the video system, the holographic image captured by the CCD camera is superimposed onto the digitized photographic image using a personal computer. We found that the discrepancy between the outlines of the superimposed holographic and photographic dental images using the video system was smaller than that using the 2D-3D system. Holography seemed to perform comparably to the computer graphic system; however, a fusion with the digital technique would expand the utility of holography in superimposition.

TRECVID: the utility of a content-based video retrieval evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hauptmann, Alexander G.

2006-01-01

TRECVID, an annual retrieval evaluation benchmark organized by NIST, encourages research in information retrieval from digital video. TRECVID benchmarking covers both interactive and manual searching by end users, as well as the benchmarking of some supporting technologies including shot boundary detection, extraction of semantic features, and the automatic segmentation of TV news broadcasts. Evaluations done in the context of the TRECVID benchmarks show that generally, speech transcripts and annotations provide the single most important clue for successful retrieval. However, automatically finding the individual images is still a tremendous and unsolved challenge. The evaluations repeatedly found that none of the multimedia analysis and retrieval techniques provide a significant benefit over retrieval using only textual information such as from automatic speech recognition transcripts or closed captions. In interactive systems, we do find significant differences among the top systems, indicating that interfaces can make a huge difference for effective video/image search. For interactive tasks efficient interfaces require few key clicks, but display large numbers of images for visual inspection by the user. The text search finds the right context region in the video in general, but to select specific relevant images we need good interfaces to easily browse the storyboard pictures. In general, TRECVID has motivated the video retrieval community to be honest about what we don't know how to do well (sometimes through painful failures), and has focused us to work on the actual task of video retrieval, as opposed to flashy demos based on technological capabilities.

Technique for improving solid state mosaic images

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Saboe, J. M.

1969-01-01

Method identifies and corrects mosaic image faults in solid state visual displays and opto-electronic presentation systems. Composite video signals containing faults due to defective sensing elements are corrected by a memory unit that contains the stored fault pattern and supplies the appropriate fault word to the blanking circuit.

Quantitative assessment of human motion using video motion analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Probe, John D.

1990-01-01

In the study of the dynamics and kinematics of the human body, a wide variety of technologies was developed. Photogrammetric techniques are well documented and are known to provide reliable positional data from recorded images. Often these techniques are used in conjunction with cinematography and videography for analysis of planar motion, and to a lesser degree three-dimensional motion. Cinematography has been the most widely used medium for movement analysis. Excessive operating costs and the lag time required for film development coupled with recent advances in video technology have allowed video based motion analysis systems to emerge as a cost effective method of collecting and analyzing human movement. The Anthropometric and Biomechanics Lab at Johnson Space Center utilizes the video based Ariel Performance Analysis System to develop data on shirt-sleeved and space-suited human performance in order to plan efficient on orbit intravehicular and extravehicular activities. The system is described.

Subxiphoid uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for synchronous bilateral lung resection.

PubMed

Yang, Xueying; Wang, Linlin

2018-01-01

With advancements in medical imaging and current emphasis on regular physical examinations, multiple pulmonary lesions increasingly are being detected, including bilateral pulmonary lesions. Video-assisted thoracic surgery is an important method for treating such lesions. Most of video-assisted thoracic surgeries for bilateral pulmonary lesions were two separate operations. Herein, we report a novel technique of synchronous subxiphoid uniportal video-assisted thoracic surgery for bilateral pulmonary lesions. Synchronous bilateral lung resection procedures were performed through a single incision (~4 cm, subxiphoid). This technique was used successfully in 11 patients with bilateral pulmonary lesions. There were no intraoperative deaths or mortality recorded at 30 days. Our results show that the subxiphoid uniportal thoracoscopic procedure is a safe and feasible surgical procedure for synchronous bilateral lung resection with less surgical trauma, postoperative pain and better cosmetic results in qualifying patients. Further analysis is ongoing, involving a larger number of subjects.

Digital video applications in radiologic education: theory, technique, and applications.

PubMed

Hennessey, J G; Fishman, E K; Ney, D R

1994-05-01

Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) has great potential in medical education. The recent explosion of multimedia platforms provides an environment for the seemless integration of text, images, and sound into a single program. This article discusses the role of digital video in the current educational environment as well as its future potential. An indepth review of the technical decisions of this new technology is also presented.

Recursive algorithms for bias and gain nonuniformity correction in infrared videos.

PubMed

Pipa, Daniel R; da Silva, Eduardo A B; Pagliari, Carla L; Diniz, Paulo S R

2012-12-01

Infrared focal-plane array (IRFPA) detectors suffer from fixed-pattern noise (FPN) that degrades image quality, which is also known as spatial nonuniformity. FPN is still a serious problem, despite recent advances in IRFPA technology. This paper proposes new scene-based correction algorithms for continuous compensation of bias and gain nonuniformity in FPA sensors. The proposed schemes use recursive least-square and affine projection techniques that jointly compensate for both the bias and gain of each image pixel, presenting rapid convergence and robustness to noise. The synthetic and real IRFPA videos experimentally show that the proposed solutions are competitive with the state-of-the-art in FPN reduction, by presenting recovered images with higher fidelity.

Three-dimensional real-time imaging of bi-phasic flow through porous media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharma, Prerna; Aswathi, P.; Sane, Anit; Ghosh, Shankar; Bhattacharya, S.

2011-11-01

We present a scanning laser-sheet video imaging technique to image bi-phasic flow in three-dimensional porous media in real time with pore-scale spatial resolution, i.e., 35 μm and 500 μm for directions parallel and perpendicular to the flow, respectively. The technique is illustrated for the case of viscous fingering. Using suitable image processing protocols, both the morphology and the movement of the two-fluid interface, were quantitatively estimated. Furthermore, a macroscopic parameter such as the displacement efficiency obtained from a microscopic (pore-scale) analysis demonstrates the versatility and usefulness of the method.

VASIR: An Open-Source Research Platform for Advanced Iris Recognition Technologies.

PubMed

Lee, Yooyoung; Micheals, Ross J; Filliben, James J; Phillips, P Jonathon

2013-01-01

The performance of iris recognition systems is frequently affected by input image quality, which in turn is vulnerable to less-than-optimal conditions due to illuminations, environments, and subject characteristics (e.g., distance, movement, face/body visibility, blinking, etc.). VASIR (Video-based Automatic System for Iris Recognition) is a state-of-the-art NIST-developed iris recognition software platform designed to systematically address these vulnerabilities. We developed VASIR as a research tool that will not only provide a reference (to assess the relative performance of alternative algorithms) for the biometrics community, but will also advance (via this new emerging iris recognition paradigm) NIST's measurement mission. VASIR is designed to accommodate both ideal (e.g., classical still images) and less-than-ideal images (e.g., face-visible videos). VASIR has three primary modules: 1) Image Acquisition 2) Video Processing, and 3) Iris Recognition. Each module consists of several sub-components that have been optimized by use of rigorous orthogonal experiment design and analysis techniques. We evaluated VASIR performance using the MBGC (Multiple Biometric Grand Challenge) NIR (Near-Infrared) face-visible video dataset and the ICE (Iris Challenge Evaluation) 2005 still-based dataset. The results showed that even though VASIR was primarily developed and optimized for the less-constrained video case, it still achieved high verification rates for the traditional still-image case. For this reason, VASIR may be used as an effective baseline for the biometrics community to evaluate their algorithm performance, and thus serves as a valuable research platform.

VASIR: An Open-Source Research Platform for Advanced Iris Recognition Technologies

PubMed Central

Lee, Yooyoung; Micheals, Ross J; Filliben, James J; Phillips, P Jonathon

2013-01-01

The performance of iris recognition systems is frequently affected by input image quality, which in turn is vulnerable to less-than-optimal conditions due to illuminations, environments, and subject characteristics (e.g., distance, movement, face/body visibility, blinking, etc.). VASIR (Video-based Automatic System for Iris Recognition) is a state-of-the-art NIST-developed iris recognition software platform designed to systematically address these vulnerabilities. We developed VASIR as a research tool that will not only provide a reference (to assess the relative performance of alternative algorithms) for the biometrics community, but will also advance (via this new emerging iris recognition paradigm) NIST’s measurement mission. VASIR is designed to accommodate both ideal (e.g., classical still images) and less-than-ideal images (e.g., face-visible videos). VASIR has three primary modules: 1) Image Acquisition 2) Video Processing, and 3) Iris Recognition. Each module consists of several sub-components that have been optimized by use of rigorous orthogonal experiment design and analysis techniques. We evaluated VASIR performance using the MBGC (Multiple Biometric Grand Challenge) NIR (Near-Infrared) face-visible video dataset and the ICE (Iris Challenge Evaluation) 2005 still-based dataset. The results showed that even though VASIR was primarily developed and optimized for the less-constrained video case, it still achieved high verification rates for the traditional still-image case. For this reason, VASIR may be used as an effective baseline for the biometrics community to evaluate their algorithm performance, and thus serves as a valuable research platform. PMID:26401431

Super-resolution imaging applied to moving object tracking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Swalaganata, Galandaru; Ratna Sulistyaningrum, Dwi; Setiyono, Budi

2017-10-01

Moving object tracking in a video is a method used to detect and analyze changes that occur in an object that being observed. Visual quality and the precision of the tracked target are highly wished in modern tracking system. The fact that the tracked object does not always seem clear causes the tracking result less precise. The reasons are low quality video, system noise, small object, and other factors. In order to improve the precision of the tracked object especially for small object, we propose a two step solution that integrates a super-resolution technique into tracking approach. First step is super-resolution imaging applied into frame sequences. This step was done by cropping the frame in several frame or all of frame. Second step is tracking the result of super-resolution images. Super-resolution image is a technique to obtain high-resolution images from low-resolution images. In this research single frame super-resolution technique is proposed for tracking approach. Single frame super-resolution was a kind of super-resolution that it has the advantage of fast computation time. The method used for tracking is Camshift. The advantages of Camshift was simple calculation based on HSV color that use its histogram for some condition and color of the object varies. The computational complexity and large memory requirements required for the implementation of super-resolution and tracking were reduced and the precision of the tracked target was good. Experiment showed that integrate a super-resolution imaging into tracking technique can track the object precisely with various background, shape changes of the object, and in a good light conditions.

Swarm Intelligence for Optimizing Hybridized Smoothing Filter in Image Edge Enhancement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rao, B. Tirumala; Dehuri, S.; Dileep, M.; Vindhya, A.

In this modern era, image transmission and processing plays a major role. It would be impossible to retrieve information from satellite and medical images without the help of image processing techniques. Edge enhancement is an image processing step that enhances the edge contrast of an image or video in an attempt to improve its acutance. Edges are the representations of the discontinuities of image intensity functions. For processing these discontinuities in an image, a good edge enhancement technique is essential. The proposed work uses a new idea for edge enhancement using hybridized smoothening filters and we introduce a promising technique of obtaining best hybrid filter using swarm algorithms (Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO)) to search for an optimal sequence of filters from among a set of rather simple, representative image processing filters. This paper deals with the analysis of the swarm intelligence techniques through the combination of hybrid filters generated by these algorithms for image edge enhancement.

Analyzing Structure and Function of Vascularization in Engineered Bone Tissue by Video-Rate Intravital Microscopy and 3D Image Processing.

PubMed

Pang, Yonggang; Tsigkou, Olga; Spencer, Joel A; Lin, Charles P; Neville, Craig; Grottkau, Brian

2015-10-01

Vascularization is a key challenge in tissue engineering. Three-dimensional structure and microcirculation are two fundamental parameters for evaluating vascularization. Microscopic techniques with cellular level resolution, fast continuous observation, and robust 3D postimage processing are essential for evaluation, but have not been applied previously because of technical difficulties. In this study, we report novel video-rate confocal microscopy and 3D postimage processing techniques to accomplish this goal. In an immune-deficient mouse model, vascularized bone tissue was successfully engineered using human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) in a poly (D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) scaffold. Video-rate (30 FPS) intravital confocal microscopy was applied in vitro and in vivo to visualize the vascular structure in the engineered bone and the microcirculation of the blood cells. Postimage processing was applied to perform 3D image reconstruction, by analyzing microvascular networks and calculating blood cell viscosity. The 3D volume reconstructed images show that the hMSCs served as pericytes stabilizing the microvascular network formed by HUVECs. Using orthogonal imaging reconstruction and transparency adjustment, both the vessel structure and blood cells within the vessel lumen were visualized. Network length, network intersections, and intersection densities were successfully computed using our custom-developed software. Viscosity analysis of the blood cells provided functional evaluation of the microcirculation. These results show that by 8 weeks, the blood vessels in peripheral areas function quite similarly to the host vessels. However, the viscosity drops about fourfold where it is only 0.8 mm away from the host. In summary, we developed novel techniques combining intravital microscopy and 3D image processing to analyze the vascularization in engineered bone. These techniques have broad applicability for evaluating vascularization in other engineered tissues as well.

A Benchmark and Comparative Study of Video-Based Face Recognition on COX Face Database.

PubMed

Huang, Zhiwu; Shan, Shiguang; Wang, Ruiping; Zhang, Haihong; Lao, Shihong; Kuerban, Alifu; Chen, Xilin

2015-12-01

Face recognition with still face images has been widely studied, while the research on video-based face recognition is inadequate relatively, especially in terms of benchmark datasets and comparisons. Real-world video-based face recognition applications require techniques for three distinct scenarios: 1) Videoto-Still (V2S); 2) Still-to-Video (S2V); and 3) Video-to-Video (V2V), respectively, taking video or still image as query or target. To the best of our knowledge, few datasets and evaluation protocols have benchmarked for all the three scenarios. In order to facilitate the study of this specific topic, this paper contributes a benchmarking and comparative study based on a newly collected still/video face database, named COX(1) Face DB. Specifically, we make three contributions. First, we collect and release a largescale still/video face database to simulate video surveillance with three different video-based face recognition scenarios (i.e., V2S, S2V, and V2V). Second, for benchmarking the three scenarios designed on our database, we review and experimentally compare a number of existing set-based methods. Third, we further propose a novel Point-to-Set Correlation Learning (PSCL) method, and experimentally show that it can be used as a promising baseline method for V2S/S2V face recognition on COX Face DB. Extensive experimental results clearly demonstrate that video-based face recognition needs more efforts, and our COX Face DB is a good benchmark database for evaluation.

4K x 2K pixel color video pickup system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sugawara, Masayuki; Mitani, Kohji; Shimamoto, Hiroshi; Fujita, Yoshihiro; Yuyama, Ichiro; Itakura, Keijirou

1998-12-01

This paper describes the development of an experimental super- high-definition color video camera system. During the past several years there has been much interest in super-high- definition images as the next generation image media. One of the difficulties in implementing a super-high-definition motion imaging system is constructing the image-capturing section (camera). Even the state-of-the-art semiconductor technology can not realize the image sensor which has enough pixels and output data rate for super-high-definition images. The present study is an attempt to fill the gap in this respect. The authors intend to solve the problem by using new imaging method in which four HDTV sensors are attached on a new color separation optics so that their pixel sample pattern forms checkerboard pattern. A series of imaging experiments demonstrate that this technique is an effective approach to capturing super-high-definition moving images in the present situation where no image sensors exist for such images.

How to Determine the Centre of Mass of Bodies from Image Modelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dias, Marco Adriano; Carvalho, Paulo Simeão; Rodrigues, Marcelo

2016-01-01

Image modelling is a recent technique in physics education that includes digital tools for image treatment and analysis, such as digital stroboscopic photography (DSP) and video analysis software. It is commonly used to analyse the motion of objects. In this work we show how to determine the position of the centre of mass (CM) of objects with…

Mode extraction on wind turbine blades via phase-based video motion estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sarrafi, Aral; Poozesh, Peyman; Niezrecki, Christopher; Mao, Zhu

2017-04-01

In recent years, image processing techniques are being applied more often for structural dynamics identification, characterization, and structural health monitoring. Although as a non-contact and full-field measurement method, image processing still has a long way to go to outperform other conventional sensing instruments (i.e. accelerometers, strain gauges, laser vibrometers, etc.,). However, the technologies associated with image processing are developing rapidly and gaining more attention in a variety of engineering applications including structural dynamics identification and modal analysis. Among numerous motion estimation and image-processing methods, phase-based video motion estimation is considered as one of the most efficient methods regarding computation consumption and noise robustness. In this paper, phase-based video motion estimation is adopted for structural dynamics characterization on a 2.3-meter long Skystream wind turbine blade, and the modal parameters (natural frequencies, operating deflection shapes) are extracted. Phase-based video processing adopted in this paper provides reliable full-field 2-D motion information, which is beneficial for manufacturing certification and model updating at the design stage. The phase-based video motion estimation approach is demonstrated through processing data on a full-scale commercial structure (i.e. a wind turbine blade) with complex geometry and properties, and the results obtained have a good correlation with the modal parameters extracted from accelerometer measurements, especially for the first four bending modes, which have significant importance in blade characterization.

In situ calibration of the foil detector for an infrared imaging video bolometer using a carbon evaporation technique

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mukai, K., E-mail: mukai.kiyofumi@LHD.nifs.ac.jp; Peterson, B. J.; SOKENDAI

The InfraRed imaging Video Bolometer (IRVB) is a useful diagnostic for the multi-dimensional measurement of plasma radiation profiles. For the application of IRVB measurement to the neutron environment in fusion plasma devices such as the Large Helical Device (LHD), in situ calibration of the thermal characteristics of the foil detector is required. Laser irradiation tests of sample foils show that the reproducibility and uniformity of the carbon coating for the foil were improved using a vacuum evaporation method. Also, the principle of the in situ calibration system was justified.

Videogrammetric Model Deformation Measurement Technique

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burner, A. W.; Liu, Tian-Shu

2001-01-01

The theory, methods, and applications of the videogrammetric model deformation (VMD) measurement technique used at NASA for wind tunnel testing are presented. The VMD technique, based on non-topographic photogrammetry, can determine static and dynamic aeroelastic deformation and attitude of a wind-tunnel model. Hardware of the system includes a video-rate CCD camera, a computer with an image acquisition frame grabber board, illumination lights, and retroreflective or painted targets on a wind tunnel model. Custom software includes routines for image acquisition, target-tracking/identification, target centroid calculation, camera calibration, and deformation calculations. Applications of the VMD technique at five large NASA wind tunnels are discussed.

Determining the Discharge Rate from a Submerged Oil Leaks using ROV Video and CFD study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saha, Pankaj; Shaffer, Frank; Shahnam, Mehrdad; Savas, Omer; Devites, Dave; Steffeck, Timothy

2016-11-01

The current paper reports a technique to measure the discharge rate by analyzing the video from a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV). The technique uses instantaneous images from ROV video to measure the velocity of visible features (turbulent eddies) along the boundary of an oil leak jet and subsequently classical theory of turbulent jets is imposed to determine the discharge rate. The Flow Rate Technical Group (FRTG) Plume Team developed this technique that manually tracked the visible features and produced the first accurate government estimates of the oil discharge rate from the Deepwater Horizon (DWH). For practical application this approach needs automated control. Experiments were conducted at UC Berkeley and OHMSETT that recorded high speed, high resolution video of submerged dye-colored water or oil jets and subsequently, measured the velocity data employing LDA and PIV software. Numerical simulation have been carried out using experimental submerged turbulent oil jets flow conditions employing LES turbulence closure and VOF interface capturing technique in OpenFOAM solver. The CFD results captured jet spreading angle and jet structures in close agreement with the experimental observations. The work was funded by NETL and DOI Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).

Qualitative and quantitative imaging in microgravity combustion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Weiland, Karen J.

1995-01-01

An overview of the imaging techniques implemented by researchers in the microgravity combustion program shows that for almost any system, imaging of the flame may be accomplished in a variety of ways. Standard and intensified video, high speed, and infrared cameras and fluorescence, laser schlieren, rainbow schlieren, soot volume fraction, and soot temperature imaging have all been used in the laboratory and many in reduced gravity to make the necessary experimental measurements.

Video-rate imaging of microcirculation with single-exposure oblique back-illumination microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ford, Tim N.; Mertz, Jerome

2013-06-01

Oblique back-illumination microscopy (OBM) is a new technique for simultaneous, independent measurements of phase gradients and absorption in thick scattering tissues based on widefield imaging. To date, OBM has been used with sequential camera exposures, which reduces temporal resolution, and can produce motion artifacts in dynamic samples. Here, a variation of OBM that allows single-exposure operation with wavelength multiplexing and image splitting with a Wollaston prism is introduced. Asymmetric anamorphic distortion induced by the prism is characterized and corrected in real time using a graphics-processing unit. To demonstrate the capacity of single-exposure OBM to perform artifact-free imaging of blood flow, video-rate movies of microcirculation in ovo in the chorioallantoic membrane of the developing chick are presented. Imaging is performed with a high-resolution rigid Hopkins lens suitable for endoscopy.

Video-rate imaging of microcirculation with single-exposure oblique back-illumination microscopy.

PubMed

Ford, Tim N; Mertz, Jerome

2013-06-01

Oblique back-illumination microscopy (OBM) is a new technique for simultaneous, independent measurements of phase gradients and absorption in thick scattering tissues based on widefield imaging. To date, OBM has been used with sequential camera exposures, which reduces temporal resolution, and can produce motion artifacts in dynamic samples. Here, a variation of OBM that allows single-exposure operation with wavelength multiplexing and image splitting with a Wollaston prism is introduced. Asymmetric anamorphic distortion induced by the prism is characterized and corrected in real time using a graphics-processing unit. To demonstrate the capacity of single-exposure OBM to perform artifact-free imaging of blood flow, video-rate movies of microcirculation in ovo in the chorioallantoic membrane of the developing chick are presented. Imaging is performed with a high-resolution rigid Hopkins lens suitable for endoscopy.

HVS: an image-based approach for constructing virtual environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Maojun; Zhong, Li; Sun, Lifeng; Li, Yunhao

1998-09-01

Virtual Reality Systems can construct virtual environment which provide an interactive walkthrough experience. Traditionally, walkthrough is performed by modeling and rendering 3D computer graphics in real-time. Despite the rapid advance of computer graphics technique, the rendering engine usually places a limit on scene complexity and rendering quality. This paper presents a approach which uses the real-world image or synthesized image to comprise a virtual environment. The real-world image or synthesized image can be recorded by camera, or synthesized by off-line multispectral image processing for Landsat TM (Thematic Mapper) Imagery and SPOT HRV imagery. They are digitally warped on-the-fly to simulate walking forward/backward, to left/right and 360-degree watching around. We have developed a system HVS (Hyper Video System) based on these principles. HVS improves upon QuickTime VR and Surround Video in the walking forward/backward.

Phosphor thermography technique in hypersonic wind tunnel - Feasibility study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edy, J. L.; Bouvier, F.; Baumann, P.; Le Sant, Y.

Probative research has been undertaken at ONERA on a new technique of thermography in hypersonic wind tunnels. This method is based on the heat sensitivity of a luminescent coating applied to the model. The luminescent compound, excited by UV light, emits visible light, the properties of which depend on the phosphor temperature, among other factors. Preliminary blowdown wind tunnel tests have been performed, firstly for spot measurements and then for cartographic measurements using a 3-CCD video camera, a BETACAM video recorder and a digital image processing system. The results provide a good indication of the method feasibility.

Energy conservation using face detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deotale, Nilesh T.; Kalbande, Dhananjay R.; Mishra, Akassh A.

2011-10-01

Computerized Face Detection, is concerned with the difficult task of converting a video signal of a person to written text. It has several applications like face recognition, simultaneous multiple face processing, biometrics, security, video surveillance, human computer interface, image database management, digital cameras use face detection for autofocus, selecting regions of interest in photo slideshows that use a pan-and-scale and The Present Paper deals with energy conservation using face detection. Automating the process to a computer requires the use of various image processing techniques. There are various methods that can be used for Face Detection such as Contour tracking methods, Template matching, Controlled background, Model based, Motion based and color based. Basically, the video of the subject are converted into images are further selected manually for processing. However, several factors like poor illumination, movement of face, viewpoint-dependent Physical appearance, Acquisition geometry, Imaging conditions, Compression artifacts makes Face detection difficult. This paper reports an algorithm for conservation of energy using face detection for various devices. The present paper suggests Energy Conservation can be done by Detecting the Face and reducing the brightness of complete image and then adjusting the brightness of the particular area of an image where the face is located using histogram equalization.

Wide field video-rate two-photon imaging by using spinning disk beam scanner

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maeda, Yasuhiro; Kurokawa, Kazuo; Ito, Yoko; Wada, Satoshi; Nakano, Akihiko

2018-02-01

The microscope technology with wider view field, deeper penetration depth, higher spatial resolution and higher imaging speed are required to investigate the intercellular dynamics or interactions of molecules and organs in cells or a tissue in more detail. The two-photon microscope with a near infrared (NIR) femtosecond laser is one of the technique to improve the penetration depth and spatial resolution. However, the video-rate or high-speed imaging with wide view field is difficult to perform with the conventional two-photon microscope. Because point-to-point scanning method is used in conventional one, so it's difficult to achieve video-rate imaging. In this study, we developed a two-photon microscope with spinning disk beam scanner and femtosecond NIR fiber laser with around 10 W average power for the microscope system to achieve above requirements. The laser is consisted of an oscillator based on mode-locked Yb fiber laser, a two-stage pre-amplifier, a main amplifier based on a Yb-doped photonic crystal fiber (PCF), and a pulse compressor with a pair of gratings. The laser generates a beam with maximally 10 W average power, 300 fs pulse width and 72 MHz repetition rate. And the beam incident to a spinning beam scanner (Yokogawa Electric) optimized for two-photon imaging. By using this system, we achieved to obtain the 3D images with over 1mm-penetration depth and video-rate image with 350 x 350 um view field from the root of Arabidopsis thaliana.

A Novel Approach to High Definition, High-Contrast Video Capture in Abdominal Surgery

PubMed Central

Cosman, Peter H.; Shearer, Christopher J.; Hugh, Thomas J.; Biankin, Andrew V.; Merrett, Neil D.

2007-01-01

Objective: The aim of this study was to define the best available option for video capture of surgical procedures for educational and archival purposes, with a view to identifying methods of capturing high-quality footage and identifying common pitfalls. Summary Background Data: Several options exist for those who wish to record operative surgical techniques on video. While high-end equipment is an unnecessary expense for most surgical units, several techniques are readily available that do not require industrial-grade audiovisual recording facilities, but not all are suited to every surgical application. Methods: We surveyed and evaluated the available technology for video capture in surgery. Our evaluation included analyses of video resolution, depth of field, contrast, exposure, image stability, and frame composition, as well as considerations of cost, accessibility, utility, feasibility, and economies of scale. Results: Several video capture options were identified, and the strengths and shortcomings of each were catalogued. None of the commercially available options was deemed suitable for high-quality video capture of abdominal surgical procedures. A novel application of off-the-shelf technology was devised to address these issues. Conclusions: Excellent quality video capture of surgical procedures within deep body cavities is feasible using commonly available equipment and technology, with minimal technical difficulty. PMID:17414600

Video-guided calibration of an augmented reality mobile C-arm.

PubMed

Chen, Xin; Naik, Hemal; Wang, Lejing; Navab, Nassir; Fallavollita, Pascal

2014-11-01

The augmented reality (AR) fluoroscope augments an X-ray image by video and provides the surgeon with a real-time in situ overlay of the anatomy. The overlay alignment is crucial for diagnostic and intra-operative guidance, so precise calibration of the AR fluoroscope is required. The first and most complex step of the calibration procedure is the determination of the X-ray source position. Currently, this is achieved using a biplane phantom with movable metallic rings on its top layer and fixed X-ray opaque markers on its bottom layer. The metallic rings must be moved to positions where at least two pairs of rings and markers are isocentric in the X-ray image. The current "trial and error" calibration process currently requires acquisition of many X-ray images, a task that is both time consuming and radiation intensive. An improved process was developed and tested for C-arm calibration. Video guidance was used to drive the calibration procedure to minimize both X-ray exposure and the time involved. For this, a homography between X-ray and video images is estimated. This homography is valid for the plane at which the metallic rings are positioned and is employed to guide the calibration procedure. Eight users having varying calibration experience (i.e., 2 experts, 2 semi-experts, 4 novices) were asked to participate in the evaluation. The video-guided technique reduced the number of intra-operative X-ray calibration images by 89% and decreased the total time required by 59%. A video-based C-arm calibration method has been developed that improves the usability of the AR fluoroscope with a friendlier interface, reduced calibration time and clinically acceptable radiation doses.

(abstract) Synthesis of Speaker Facial Movements to Match Selected Speech Sequences

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Scott, Kenneth C.

1994-01-01

We are developing a system for synthesizing image sequences the simulate the facial motion of a speaker. To perform this synthesis, we are pursuing two major areas of effort. We are developing the necessary computer graphics technology to synthesize a realistic image sequence of a person speaking selected speech sequences. Next, we are developing a model that expresses the relation between spoken phonemes and face/mouth shape. A subject is video taped speaking an arbitrary text that contains expression of the full list of desired database phonemes. The subject is video taped from the front speaking normally, recording both audio and video detail simultaneously. Using the audio track, we identify the specific video frames on the tape relating to each spoken phoneme. From this range we digitize the video frame which represents the extreme of mouth motion/shape. Thus, we construct a database of images of face/mouth shape related to spoken phonemes. A selected audio speech sequence is recorded which is the basis for synthesizing a matching video sequence; the speaker need not be the same as used for constructing the database. The audio sequence is analyzed to determine the spoken phoneme sequence and the relative timing of the enunciation of those phonemes. Synthesizing an image sequence corresponding to the spoken phoneme sequence is accomplished using a graphics technique known as morphing. Image sequence keyframes necessary for this processing are based on the spoken phoneme sequence and timing. We have been successful in synthesizing the facial motion of a native English speaker for a small set of arbitrary speech segments. Our future work will focus on advancement of the face shape/phoneme model and independent control of facial features.

Thermal-Wave Microscope

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, Robert E.; Kramarchuk, Ihor; Williams, Wallace D.; Pouch, John J.; Gilbert, Percy

1989-01-01

Computer-controlled thermal-wave microscope developed to investigate III-V compound semiconductor devices and materials. Is nondestructive technique providing information on subsurface thermal features of solid samples. Furthermore, because this is subsurface technique, three-dimensional imaging also possible. Microscope uses intensity-modulated electron beam of modified scanning electron microscope to generate thermal waves in sample. Acoustic waves generated by thermal waves received by transducer and processed in computer to form images displayed on video display of microscope or recorded on magnetic disk.

Photographic Analysis Technique for Assessing External Tank Foam Loss Events

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rieckhoff, T. J.; Covan, M.; OFarrell, J. M.

2001-01-01

A video camera and recorder were placed inside the solid rocket booster forward skirt in order to view foam loss events over an area on the external tank (ET) intertank surface. In this Technical Memorandum, a method of processing video images to allow rapid detection of permanent changes indicative of foam loss events on the ET surface was defined and applied to accurately count, categorize, and locate such events.

What do we do with all this video? Better understanding public engagement for image and video annotation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wiener, C.; Miller, A.; Zykov, V.

2016-12-01

Advanced robotic vehicles are increasingly being used by oceanographic research vessels to enable more efficient and widespread exploration of the ocean, particularly the deep ocean. With cutting-edge capabilities mounted onto robotic vehicles, data at high resolutions is being generated more than ever before, enabling enhanced data collection and the potential for broader participation. For example, high resolution camera technology not only improves visualization of the ocean environment, but also expands the capacity to engage participants remotely through increased use of telepresence and virtual reality techniques. Schmidt Ocean Institute is a private, non-profit operating foundation established to advance the understanding of the world's oceans through technological advancement, intelligent observation and analysis, and open sharing of information. Telepresence-enabled research is an important component of Schmidt Ocean Institute's science research cruises, which this presentation will highlight. Schmidt Ocean Institute is one of the only research programs that make their entire underwater vehicle dive series available online, creating a collection of video that enables anyone to follow deep sea research in real time. We encourage students, educators and the general public to take advantage of freely available dive videos. Additionally, other SOI-supported internet platforms, have engaged the public in image and video annotation activities. Examples of these new online platforms, which utilize citizen scientists to annotate scientific image and video data will be provided. This presentation will include an introduction to SOI-supported video and image tagging citizen science projects, real-time robot tracking, live ship-to-shore communications, and an array of outreach activities that enable scientists to interact with the public and explore the ocean in fascinating detail.

Digital video technologies and their network requirements

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

R. P. Tsang; H. Y. Chen; J. M. Brandt

1999-11-01

Coded digital video signals are considered to be one of the most difficult data types to transport due to their real-time requirements and high bit rate variability. In this study, the authors discuss the coding mechanisms incorporated by the major compression standards bodies, i.e., JPEG and MPEG, as well as more advanced coding mechanisms such as wavelet and fractal techniques. The relationship between the applications which use these coding schemes and their network requirements are the major focus of this study. Specifically, the authors relate network latency, channel transmission reliability, random access speed, buffering and network bandwidth with the variousmore » coding techniques as a function of the applications which use them. Such applications include High-Definition Television, Video Conferencing, Computer-Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW), and Medical Imaging.« less

Thoracoscopic enucleation of a large esophageal leiomyoma using a three thoracic ports technique.

PubMed

Akaraviputh, Thawatchai; Chinswangwatanakul, Vitoon; Swangsri, Jirawat; Lohsiriwat, Varut

2006-10-04

Video assisted thoracoscopic resection of an esophageal leiomyoma offers distinct advantages over an open approach. Many papers have described various techniques of thoracoscopic resection. We describe a 32-year old man who presented with intermittent dysphagia. Imaging studies showed a large esophageal leiomyoma. He underwent thoracoscopic enucleation using a three thoracic-ports technique. Thoracoscopic enucleation can be technically performed using a three thoracic-ports technique.

Automated synthesis of image processing procedures using AI planning techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chien, Steve; Mortensen, Helen

1994-01-01

This paper describes the Multimission VICAR (Video Image Communication and Retrieval) Planner (MVP) (Chien 1994) system, which uses artificial intelligence planning techniques (Iwasaki & Friedland, 1985, Pemberthy & Weld, 1992, Stefik, 1981) to automatically construct executable complex image processing procedures (using models of the smaller constituent image processing subprograms) in response to image processing requests made to the JPL Multimission Image Processing Laboratory (MIPL). The MVP system allows the user to specify the image processing requirements in terms of the various types of correction required. Given this information, MVP derives unspecified required processing steps and determines appropriate image processing programs and parameters to achieve the specified image processing goals. This information is output as an executable image processing program which can then be executed to fill the processing request.

Analysis of Preoperative Airway Examination with the CMOS Video Rhino-laryngoscope.

PubMed

Tsukamoto, Masanori; Hitosugi, Takashi; Yokoyama, Takeshi

2017-05-01

Endoscopy is one of the most useful clinical techniques in difficult airway management Comparing with the fibroptic endoscope, this compact device is easy to operate and can provide the clear image. In this study, we investigated its usefulness in the preoperative examination of endoscopy. Patients undergoing oral maxillofacial surgery were enrolled in this study. We performed preoperative airway examination by electronic endoscope (The CMOS video rhino-laryngoscope, KARL STORZ Endoscopy Japan, Tokyo). The system is composed of a videoendoscope, a compact video processor and a video recorder. In addition, the endoscope has a small color charge coupled device (CMOS) chip built into the tip of the endoscope. The outer diameter of the tip of this scope is 3.7 mm. In this study, electronic endoscope was used for preoperative airway examination in 7 patients. The preoperative airway examination with electronic endoscope was performed successfully in all the patients except one patient The patient had the symptoms such as nausea and vomiting at the examination. We could perform preoperative airway examination with excellent visualization and convenient recording of video sequence images with the CMOS video rhino-laryngoscope. It might be a especially useful device for the patients of difficult airways.

Video Image Stabilization and Registration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hathaway, David H. (Inventor); Meyer, Paul J. (Inventor)

2002-01-01

A method of stabilizing and registering a video image in multiple video fields of a video sequence provides accurate determination of the image change in magnification, rotation and translation between video fields, so that the video fields may be accurately corrected for these changes in the image in the video sequence. In a described embodiment, a key area of a key video field is selected which contains an image which it is desired to stabilize in a video sequence. The key area is subdivided into nested pixel blocks and the translation of each of the pixel blocks from the key video field to a new video field is determined as a precursor to determining change in magnification, rotation and translation of the image from the key video field to the new video field.

Video Image Stabilization and Registration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hathaway, David H. (Inventor); Meyer, Paul J. (Inventor)

2003-01-01

A method of stabilizing and registering a video image in multiple video fields of a video sequence provides accurate determination of the image change in magnification, rotation and translation between video fields, so that the video fields may be accurately corrected for these changes in the image in the video sequence. In a described embodiment, a key area of a key video field is selected which contains an image which it is desired to stabilize in a video sequence. The key area is subdivided into nested pixel blocks and the translation of each of the pixel blocks from the key video field to a new video field is determined as a precursor to determining change in magnification, rotation and translation of the image from the key video field to the new video field.

Compressive Sensing Image Sensors-Hardware Implementation

PubMed Central

Dadkhah, Mohammadreza; Deen, M. Jamal; Shirani, Shahram

2013-01-01

The compressive sensing (CS) paradigm uses simultaneous sensing and compression to provide an efficient image acquisition technique. The main advantages of the CS method include high resolution imaging using low resolution sensor arrays and faster image acquisition. Since the imaging philosophy in CS imagers is different from conventional imaging systems, new physical structures have been developed for cameras that use the CS technique. In this paper, a review of different hardware implementations of CS encoding in optical and electrical domains is presented. Considering the recent advances in CMOS (complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor) technologies and the feasibility of performing on-chip signal processing, important practical issues in the implementation of CS in CMOS sensors are emphasized. In addition, the CS coding for video capture is discussed. PMID:23584123

Generating Stereoscopic Television Images With One Camera

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coan, Paul P.

1996-01-01

Straightforward technique for generating stereoscopic television images involves use of single television camera translated laterally between left- and right-eye positions. Camera acquires one of images (left- or right-eye image), and video signal from image delayed while camera translated to position where it acquires other image. Length of delay chosen so both images displayed simultaneously or as nearly simultaneously as necessary to obtain stereoscopic effect. Technique amenable to zooming in on small areas within broad scenes. Potential applications include three-dimensional viewing of geological features and meteorological events from spacecraft and aircraft, inspection of workpieces moving along conveyor belts, and aiding ground and water search-and-rescue operations. Also used to generate and display imagery for public education and general information, and possible for medical purposes.

Standardized access, display, and retrieval of medical video

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bellaire, Gunter; Steines, Daniel; Graschew, Georgi; Thiel, Andreas; Bernarding, Johannes; Tolxdorff, Thomas; Schlag, Peter M.

1999-05-01

The system presented here enhances documentation and data- secured, second-opinion facilities by integrating video sequences into DICOM 3.0. We present an implementation for a medical video server extended by a DICOM interface. Security mechanisms conforming with DICOM are integrated to enable secure internet access. Digital video documents of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures should be examined regarding the clip length and size necessary for second opinion and manageable with today's hardware. Image sources relevant for this paper include 3D laparoscope, 3D surgical microscope, 3D open surgery camera, synthetic video, and monoscopic endoscopes, etc. The global DICOM video concept and three special workplaces of distinct applications are described. Additionally, an approach is presented to analyze the motion of the endoscopic camera for future automatic video-cutting. Digital stereoscopic video sequences are especially in demand for surgery . Therefore DSVS are also integrated into the DICOM video concept. Results are presented describing the suitability of stereoscopic display techniques for the operating room.

Multimedia systems for art and culture: a case study of Brihadisvara Temple

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jain, Anil K.; Goel, Sanjay; Agarwal, Sachin; Mittal, Vipin; Sharma, Hariom; Mahindru, Ranjeev

1997-01-01

In India a temple is not only a structure of religious significance and celebration, but it also plays an important role in the social, administrative and cultural life of the locality. Temples have served as centers for learning Indian scriptures. Music and dance were fostered and performed in the precincts of the temples. Built at the end of the 10th century, the Brihadisvara temple signified new design methodologies. We have access to a large number of images, audio and video recordings, architectural drawings and scholarly publications of this temple. A multimedia system for this temple is being designed which is intended to be used for the following purposes: (1) to inform and enrich the general public, and (2) to assist the scholars in their research. Such a system will also preserve and archive old historical documents and images. The large database consists primarily of images which can be retrieved using keywords, but the emphasis here is largely on techniques which will allow access using image content. Besides classifying images as either long shots or close-ups, deformable template matching is used for shape-based query by image content, and digital video retrieval. Further, to exploit the non-linear accessibility of video sequences, key frames are determined to aid the domain experts in getting a quick preview of the video. Our database also has images of several old, and rare manuscripts many of which are noisy and difficult to read. We have enhanced them to make them more legible. We are also investigating the optimal trade-off between image quality and compression ratios.

DICOM to print, 35-mm slides, web, and video projector: tutorial using Adobe Photoshop.

PubMed

Gurney, Jud W

2002-10-01

Preparing images for publication has dealt with film and the photographic process. With picture archiving and communications systems, many departments will no longer produce film. This will change how images are produced for publication. DICOM, the file format for radiographic images, has to be converted and then prepared for traditional publication, 35-mm slides, the newest techniques of video projection, and the World Wide Web. Tagged image file format is the common format for traditional print publication, whereas joint photographic expert group is the current file format for the World Wide Web. Each medium has specific requirements that can be met with a common image-editing program such as Adobe Photoshop (Adobe Systems, San Jose, CA). High-resolution images are required for print, a process that requires interpolation. However, the Internet requires images with a small file size for rapid transmission. The resolution of each output differs and the image resolution must be optimized to match the output of the publishing medium.

Development of a large-screen high-definition laser video projection system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clynick, Tony J.

1991-08-01

A prototype laser video projector which uses electronic, optical, and mechanical means to project a television picture is described. With the primary goal of commercial viability, the price/performance ratio of the chosen means is critical. The fundamental requirement has been to achieve high brightness, high definition images of at least movie-theater size, at a cost comparable with other existing large-screen video projection technologies, while having the opportunity of developing and exploiting the unique properties of the laser projected image, such as its infinite depth-of-field. Two argon lasers are used in combination with a dye laser to achieve a range of colors which, despite not being identical to those of a CRT, prove to be subjectively acceptable. Acousto-optic modulation in combination with a rotary polygon scanner, digital video line stores, novel specialized electro-optics, and a galvanometric frame scanner form the basis of the projection technique achieving a 30 MHz video bandwidth, high- definition scan rates (1125/60 and 1250/50), high contrast ratio, and good optical efficiency. Auditorium projection of HDTV pictures wider than 20 meters are possible. Applications including 360 degree(s) projection and 3-D video provide further scope for exploitation of the HD laser video projector.

Computer-aided video exposure monitoring.

PubMed

Walsh, P T; Clark, R D; Flaherty, S; Gentry, S J

2000-01-01

A computer-aided video exposure monitoring system was used to record exposure information. The system comprised a handheld camcorder, portable video cassette recorder, radio-telemetry transmitter/receiver, and handheld or notebook computers for remote data logging, photoionization gas/vapor detectors (PIDs), and a personal aerosol monitor. The following workplaces were surveyed using the system: dry cleaning establishments--monitoring tetrachoroethylene in the air and in breath; printing works--monitoring white spirit type solvent; tire manufacturing factory--monitoring rubber fume; and a slate quarry--monitoring respirable dust and quartz. The system based on the handheld computer, in particular, simplified the data acquisition process compared with earlier systems in use by our laboratory. The equipment is more compact and easier to operate, and allows more accurate calibration of the instrument reading on the video image. Although a variety of data display formats are possible, the best format for videos intended for educational and training purposes was the review-preview chart superimposed on the video image of the work process. Recommendations for reducing exposure by engineering or by modifying work practice were possible through use of the video exposure system in the dry cleaning and tire manufacturing applications. The slate quarry work illustrated how the technique can be used to test ventilation configurations quickly to see their effect on the worker's personal exposure.

Very high spatial resolution two-dimensional solar spectroscopy with video CCDs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johanneson, A.; Bida, T.; Lites, B.; Scharmer, G. B.

1992-01-01

We have developed techniques for recording and reducing spectra of solar fine structure with complete coverage of two-dimensional areas at very high spatial resolution and with a minimum of seeing-induced distortions. These new techniques permit one, for the first time, to place the quantitative measures of atmospheric structure that are afforded only by detailed spectral measurements into their proper context. The techniques comprise the simultaneous acquisition of digital spectra and slit-jaw images at video rates as the solar scene sweeps rapidly by the spectrograph slit. During data processing the slit-jaw images are used to monitor rigid and differential image motion during the scan, allowing measured spectrum properties to be remapped spatially. The resulting quality of maps of measured properties from the spectra is close to that of the best filtergrams. We present the techniques and show maps from scans over pores and small sunspots obtained at a resolution approaching 1/3 arcsec in the spectral region of the magnetically sensitive Fe I lines at 630.15 and 630.25 nm. The maps shown are of continuum intensity and calibrated Doppler velocity. More extensive spectral inversion of these spectra to yield the strength of the magnetic field and other parameters is now underway, and the results of that analysis will be presented in a following paper.

Divers-Operated Underwater Photogrammetry: Applications in the Study of Antarctic Benthos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Piazza, P.; Cummings, V.; Lohrer, D.; Marini, S.; Marriott, P.; Menna, F.; Nocerino, E.; Peirano, A.; Schiaparelli, S.

2018-05-01

Ecological studies about marine benthic communities received a major leap from the application of a variety of non-destructive sampling and mapping techniques based on underwater image and video recording. The well-established scientific diving practice consists in the acquisition of single path or `round-trip' over elongated transects, with the imaging device oriented in a nadir looking direction. As it may be expected, the application of automatic image processing procedures to data not specifically acquired for 3D modelling can be risky, especially if proper tools for assessing the quality of the produced results are not employed. This paper, born from an international cooperation, focuses on this topic, which is of great interest for ecological and monitoring benthic studies in Antarctica. Several video footages recorded from different scientific teams in different years are processed with an automatic photogrammetric procedure and salient statistical features are reported to critically analyse the derived results. As expected, the inclusion of oblique images from additional lateral strips may improve the expected accuracy in the object space, without altering too much the current video recording practices.

Development and Current Status of Skull-Image Superimposition - Methodology and Instrumentation.

PubMed

Lan, Y

1992-12-01

This article presents a review of the literature and an evaluation on the development and application of skull-image superimposition technology - both instrumentation and methodology - contributed by a number of scholars since 1935. Along with a comparison of the methodologies involved in the two superimposition techniques - photographic and video - the author characterized the techniques in action and the recent advances in computer image superimposition processing technology. The major disadvantage of conventional approaches is its relying on subjective interpretation. Through painstaking comparison and analysis, computer image processing technology can make more conclusive identifications by direct testing and evaluating the various programmed indices. Copyright © 1992 Central Police University.

A system for beach video-monitoring: Beachkeeper plus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brignone, Massimo; Schiaffino, Chiara F.; Isla, Federico I.; Ferrari, Marco

2012-12-01

A suitable knowledge of coastal systems, of their morphodynamic characteristics and their response to storm events and man-made structures is essential for littoral conservation and management. Nowadays webcams represent a useful device to obtain information from beaches. Video-monitoring techniques are generally site specific and softwares working with any image acquisition system are rare. Therefore, this work aims at submitting theory and applications of an experimental video monitoring software: Beachkeeper plus, a freeware non-profit software, can be employed and redistributed without modifications. A license file is provided inside software package and in the user guide. Beachkeeper plus is based on Matlab® and it can be used for the analysis of images and photos coming from any kind of acquisition system (webcams, digital cameras or images downloaded from internet), without any a-priori information or laboratory study of the acquisition system itself. Therefore, it could become a useful tool for beach planning. Through a simple guided interface, images can be analyzed by performing georeferentiation, rectification, averaging and variance. This software was initially operated in Pietra Ligure (Italy), using images from a tourist webcam, and in Mar del Plata (Argentina) using images from a digital camera. In both cases the reliability in different geomorphologic and morphodynamic conditions was confirmed by the good quality of obtained images after georeferentiation, rectification and averaging.

Otitis Media Diagnosis for Developing Countries Using Tympanic Membrane Image-Analysis.

PubMed

Myburgh, Hermanus C; van Zijl, Willemien H; Swanepoel, DeWet; Hellström, Sten; Laurent, Claude

2016-03-01

Otitis media is one of the most common childhood diseases worldwide, but because of lack of doctors and health personnel in developing countries it is often misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all. This may lead to serious, and life-threatening complications. There is, thus a need for an automated computer based image-analyzing system that could assist in making accurate otitis media diagnoses anywhere. A method for automated diagnosis of otitis media is proposed. The method uses image-processing techniques to classify otitis media. The system is trained using high quality pre-assessed images of tympanic membranes, captured by digital video-otoscopes, and classifies undiagnosed images into five otitis media categories based on predefined signs. Several verification tests analyzed the classification capability of the method. An accuracy of 80.6% was achieved for images taken with commercial video-otoscopes, while an accuracy of 78.7% was achieved for images captured on-site with a low cost custom-made video-otoscope. The high accuracy of the proposed otitis media classification system compares well with the classification accuracy of general practitioners and pediatricians (~64% to 80%) using traditional otoscopes, and therefore holds promise for the future in making automated diagnosis of otitis media in medically underserved populations.

Otitis Media Diagnosis for Developing Countries Using Tympanic Membrane Image-Analysis

PubMed Central

Myburgh, Hermanus C.; van Zijl, Willemien H.; Swanepoel, DeWet; Hellström, Sten; Laurent, Claude

2016-01-01

Background Otitis media is one of the most common childhood diseases worldwide, but because of lack of doctors and health personnel in developing countries it is often misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all. This may lead to serious, and life-threatening complications. There is, thus a need for an automated computer based image-analyzing system that could assist in making accurate otitis media diagnoses anywhere. Methods A method for automated diagnosis of otitis media is proposed. The method uses image-processing techniques to classify otitis media. The system is trained using high quality pre-assessed images of tympanic membranes, captured by digital video-otoscopes, and classifies undiagnosed images into five otitis media categories based on predefined signs. Several verification tests analyzed the classification capability of the method. Findings An accuracy of 80.6% was achieved for images taken with commercial video-otoscopes, while an accuracy of 78.7% was achieved for images captured on-site with a low cost custom-made video-otoscope. Interpretation The high accuracy of the proposed otitis media classification system compares well with the classification accuracy of general practitioners and pediatricians (~ 64% to 80%) using traditional otoscopes, and therefore holds promise for the future in making automated diagnosis of otitis media in medically underserved populations. PMID:27077122

A trillion frames per second: the techniques and applications of light-in-flight photography.

PubMed

Faccio, Daniele; Velten, Andreas

2018-06-14

Cameras capable of capturing videos at a trillion frames per second allow to freeze light in motion, a very counterintuitive capability when related to our everyday experience in which light appears to travel instantaneously. By combining this capability with computational imaging techniques, new imaging opportunities emerge such as three dimensional imaging of scenes that are hidden behind a corner, the study of relativistic distortion effects, imaging through diffusive media and imaging of ultrafast optical processes such as laser ablation, supercontinuum and plasma generation. We provide an overview of the main techniques that have been developed for ultra-high speed photography with a particular focus on `light in flight' imaging, i.e. applications where the key element is the imaging of light itself at frame rates that allow to freeze it's motion and therefore extract information that would otherwise be blurred out and lost. . © 2018 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Quantitative assessment of human motion using video motion analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Probe, John D.

1993-01-01

In the study of the dynamics and kinematics of the human body a wide variety of technologies has been developed. Photogrammetric techniques are well documented and are known to provide reliable positional data from recorded images. Often these techniques are used in conjunction with cinematography and videography for analysis of planar motion, and to a lesser degree three-dimensional motion. Cinematography has been the most widely used medium for movement analysis. Excessive operating costs and the lag time required for film development, coupled with recent advances in video technology, have allowed video based motion analysis systems to emerge as a cost effective method of collecting and analyzing human movement. The Anthropometric and Biomechanics Lab at Johnson Space Center utilizes the video based Ariel Performance Analysis System (APAS) to develop data on shirtsleeved and space-suited human performance in order to plan efficient on-orbit intravehicular and extravehicular activities. APAS is a fully integrated system of hardware and software for biomechanics and the analysis of human performance and generalized motion measurement. Major components of the complete system include the video system, the AT compatible computer, and the proprietary software.

STS-74/Mir photogrammetric appendage structural dynamics experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Welch, Sharon S.; Gilbert, Michael G.

1996-01-01

The Photogrammetric Appendage Structural Dynamics Experiment (PASDE) is an International Space Station (ISS) Phase-1 risk mitigation experiment. Phase-1 experiments are performed during docking missions of the U.S. Space Shuttle to the Russian Space Station Mir. The purpose of the experiment is to demonstrate the use of photogrammetric techniques for determination of structural dynamic mode parameters of solar arrays and other spacecraft appendages. Photogrammetric techniques are a low cost alternative to appendage mounted accelerometers for the ISS program. The objective of the first flight of PASDE, on STS-74 in November 1995, was to obtain video images of Mir Kvant-2 solar array response to various structural dynamic excitation events. More than 113 minutes of high quality structural response video data was collected during the mission. The PASDE experiment hardware consisted of three instruments each containing two video cameras, two video tape recorders, a modified video signal time inserter, and associated avionics boxes. The instruments were designed, fabricated, and tested at the NASA Langley Research Center in eight months. The flight hardware was integrated into standard Hitchhiker canisters at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and then installed into the Space Shuttle cargo bay in locations selected to achieve good video coverage and photogrammetric geometry.

A video coding scheme based on joint spatiotemporal and adaptive prediction.

PubMed

Jiang, Wenfei; Latecki, Longin Jan; Liu, Wenyu; Liang, Hui; Gorman, Ken

2009-05-01

We propose a video coding scheme that departs from traditional Motion Estimation/DCT frameworks and instead uses Karhunen-Loeve Transform (KLT)/Joint Spatiotemporal Prediction framework. In particular, a novel approach that performs joint spatial and temporal prediction simultaneously is introduced. It bypasses the complex H.26x interframe techniques and it is less computationally intensive. Because of the advantage of the effective joint prediction and the image-dependent color space transformation (KLT), the proposed approach is demonstrated experimentally to consistently lead to improved video quality, and in many cases to better compression rates and improved computational speed.

Release and repair of a ventral thoracic spinal cord herniation.

PubMed

McCormick, Paul C

2014-09-01

Ventral thoracic spinal cord herniation is a rare but increasingly recognized cause of progressive myelopathy. This video demonstrates the imaging characteristics and surgical techniques for release and reduction of the spinal cord herniation as well as primary repair and reinforcement of the ventral dural hernia defect through an extended posterior approach. An instrumented fusion was concomitantly performed. The video can be found here: http://youtu.be/6Pcokep6Tug.

Video image stabilization and registration--plus

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hathaway, David H. (Inventor)

2009-01-01

A method of stabilizing a video image displayed in multiple video fields of a video sequence includes the steps of: subdividing a selected area of a first video field into nested pixel blocks; determining horizontal and vertical translation of each of the pixel blocks in each of the pixel block subdivision levels from the first video field to a second video field; and determining translation of the image from the first video field to the second video field by determining a change in magnification of the image from the first video field to the second video field in each of horizontal and vertical directions, and determining shear of the image from the first video field to the second video field in each of the horizontal and vertical directions.

Conceptual design of an astronaut hand anthropometry device

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mcmahan, Robert

1993-01-01

In a microgravity environment, fluid equalizes throughout the body, causing the upper body to swell. This causes the hands to swell which can cause problems for astronauts trying to do work in pressurized EVA (extravehicular activity) gloves. To better design these gloves, accurate measurements of the astronauts swollen hands are needed. Five concepts were developed in this report from an original field of 972 possible concepts. These five concepts were based on mold impression, ultrasound, laser topography, white light photography, and video imaging. From a decision matrix based on nine weighted criteria, the video imaging technique was found to be the best design to pursue.

In situ calibration of an infrared imaging video bolometer in the Large Helical Device

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mukai, K., E-mail: mukai.kiyofumi@LHD.nifs.ac.jp; Peterson, B. J.; Pandya, S. N.

The InfraRed imaging Video Bolometer (IRVB) is a powerful diagnostic to measure multi-dimensional radiation profiles in plasma fusion devices. In the Large Helical Device (LHD), four IRVBs have been installed with different fields of view to reconstruct three-dimensional profiles using a tomography technique. For the application of the measurement to plasma experiments using deuterium gas in LHD in the near future, the long-term effect of the neutron irradiation on the heat characteristics of an IRVB foil should be taken into account by regular in situ calibration measurements. Therefore, in this study, an in situ calibration system was designed.

Virtual 3D bladder reconstruction for augmented medical records from white light cystoscopy (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lurie, Kristen L.; Zlatev, Dimitar V.; Angst, Roland; Liao, Joseph C.; Ellerbee, Audrey K.

2016-02-01

Bladder cancer has a high recurrence rate that necessitates lifelong surveillance to detect mucosal lesions. Examination with white light cystoscopy (WLC), the standard of care, is inherently subjective and data storage limited to clinical notes, diagrams, and still images. A visual history of the bladder wall can enhance clinical and surgical management. To address this clinical need, we developed a tool to transform in vivo WLC videos into virtual 3-dimensional (3D) bladder models using advanced computer vision techniques. WLC videos from rigid cystoscopies (1280 x 720 pixels) were recorded at 30 Hz followed by immediate camera calibration to control for image distortions. Video data were fed into an automated structure-from-motion algorithm that generated a 3D point cloud followed by a 3D mesh to approximate the bladder surface. The highest quality cystoscopic images were projected onto the approximated bladder surface to generate a virtual 3D bladder reconstruction. In intraoperative WLC videos from 36 patients undergoing transurethral resection of suspected bladder tumors, optimal reconstruction was achieved from frames depicting well-focused vasculature, when the bladder was maintained at constant volume with minimal debris, and when regions of the bladder wall were imaged multiple times. A significant innovation of this work is the ability to perform the reconstruction using video from a clinical procedure collected with standard equipment, thereby facilitating rapid clinical translation, application to other forms of endoscopy and new opportunities for longitudinal studies of cancer recurrence.

A novel multiple description scalable coding scheme for mobile wireless video transmission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Haifeng; Yu, Lun; Chen, Chang Wen

2005-03-01

We proposed in this paper a novel multiple description scalable coding (MDSC) scheme based on in-band motion compensation temporal filtering (IBMCTF) technique in order to achieve high video coding performance and robust video transmission. The input video sequence is first split into equal-sized groups of frames (GOFs). Within a GOF, each frame is hierarchically decomposed by discrete wavelet transform. Since there is a direct relationship between wavelet coefficients and what they represent in the image content after wavelet decomposition, we are able to reorganize the spatial orientation trees to generate multiple bit-streams and employed SPIHT algorithm to achieve high coding efficiency. We have shown that multiple bit-stream transmission is very effective in combating error propagation in both Internet video streaming and mobile wireless video. Furthermore, we adopt the IBMCTF scheme to remove the redundancy for inter-frames along the temporal direction using motion compensated temporal filtering, thus high coding performance and flexible scalability can be provided in this scheme. In order to make compressed video resilient to channel error and to guarantee robust video transmission over mobile wireless channels, we add redundancy to each bit-stream and apply error concealment strategy for lost motion vectors. Unlike traditional multiple description schemes, the integration of these techniques enable us to generate more than two bit-streams that may be more appropriate for multiple antenna transmission of compressed video. Simulate results on standard video sequences have shown that the proposed scheme provides flexible tradeoff between coding efficiency and error resilience.

Practical use of video imagery in nearshore oceanographic field studies

USGS Publications Warehouse

Holland, K.T.; Holman, R.A.; Lippmann, T.C.; Stanley, J.; Plant, N.

1997-01-01

An approach was developed for using video imagery to quantify, in terms of both spatial and temporal dimensions, a number of naturally occurring (nearshore) physical processes. The complete method is presented, including the derivation of the geometrical relationships relating image and ground coordinates, principles to be considered when working with video imagery and the two-step strategy for calibration of the camera model. The techniques are founded on the principles of photogrammetry, account for difficulties inherent in the use of video signals, and have been adapted to allow for flexibility of use in field studies. Examples from field experiments indicate that this approach is both accurate and applicable under the conditions typically experienced when sampling in coastal regions. Several applications of the camera model are discussed, including the measurement of nearshore fluid processes, sand bar length scales, foreshore topography, and drifter motions. Although we have applied this method to the measurement of nearshore processes and morphologic features, these same techniques are transferable to studies in other geophysical settings.

An ultra-low-power image compressor for capsule endoscope.

PubMed

Lin, Meng-Chun; Dung, Lan-Rong; Weng, Ping-Kuo

2006-02-25

Gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy has been popularly applied for the diagnosis of diseases of the alimentary canal including Crohn's Disease, Celiac disease and other malabsorption disorders, benign and malignant tumors of the small intestine, vascular disorders and medication related small bowel injury. The wireless capsule endoscope has been successfully utilized to diagnose diseases of the small intestine and alleviate the discomfort and pain of patients. However, the resolution of demosaicked image is still low, and some interesting spots may be unintentionally omitted. Especially, the images will be severely distorted when physicians zoom images in for detailed diagnosis. Increasing resolution may cause significant power consumption in RF transmitter; hence, image compression is necessary for saving the power dissipation of RF transmitter. To overcome this drawback, we have been developing a new capsule endoscope, called GICam. We developed an ultra-low-power image compression processor for capsule endoscope or swallowable imaging capsules. In applications of capsule endoscopy, it is imperative to consider battery life/performance trade-offs. Applying state-of-the-art video compression techniques may significantly reduce the image bit rate by their high compression ratio, but they all require intensive computation and consume much battery power. There are many fast compression algorithms for reducing computation load; however, they may result in distortion of the original image, which is not good for use in the medical care. Thus, this paper will first simplify traditional video compression algorithms and propose a scalable compression architecture. As the result, the developed video compressor only costs 31 K gates at 2 frames per second, consumes 14.92 mW, and reduces the video size by 75% at least.

A practical implementation of free viewpoint video system for soccer games

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suenaga, Ryo; Suzuki, Kazuyoshi; Tezuka, Tomoyuki; Panahpour Tehrani, Mehrdad; Takahashi, Keita; Fujii, Toshiaki

2015-03-01

In this paper, we present a free viewpoint video generation system with billboard representation for soccer games. Free viewpoint video generation is a technology that enables users to watch 3-D objects from their desired viewpoints. Practical implementation of free viewpoint video for sports events is highly demanded. However, a commercially acceptable system has not yet been developed. The main obstacles are insufficient user-end quality of the synthesized images and highly complex procedures that sometimes require manual operations. In this work, we aim to develop a commercially acceptable free viewpoint video system with a billboard representation. A supposed scenario is that soccer games during the day can be broadcasted in 3-D, even in the evening of the same day. Our work is still ongoing. However, we have already developed several techniques to support our goal. First, we captured an actual soccer game at an official stadium where we used 20 full-HD professional cameras. Second, we have implemented several tools for free viewpoint video generation as follow. In order to facilitate free viewpoint video generation, all cameras should be calibrated. We calibrated all cameras using checker board images and feature points on the field (cross points of the soccer field lines). We extract each player region from captured images manually. The background region is estimated by observing chrominance changes of each pixel in temporal domain (automatically). Additionally, we have developed a user interface for visualizing free viewpoint video generation using a graphic library (OpenGL), which is suitable for not only commercialized TV sets but also devices such as smartphones. However, practical system has not yet been completed and our study is still ongoing.

Validation of a computerized technique for automatically tracking and measuring the inferior vena cava in ultrasound imagery.

PubMed

Bellows, Spencer; Smith, Jordan; Mcguire, Peter; Smith, Andrew

2014-01-01

Accurate resuscitation of the critically-ill patient using intravenous fluids and blood products is a challenging, time sensitive task. Ultrasound of the inferior vena cava (IVC) is a non-invasive technique currently used to guide fluid administration, though multiple factors such as variable image quality, time, and operator skill challenge mainstream acceptance. This study represents a first attempt to develop and validate an algorithm capable of automatically tracking and measuring the IVC compared to human operators across a diverse range of image quality. Minimal tracking failures and high levels of agreement between manual and algorithm measurements were demonstrated on good quality videos. Addressing problems such as gaps in the vessel wall and intra-lumen speckle should result in improved performance in average and poor quality videos. Semi-automated measurement of the IVC for the purposes of non-invasive estimation of circulating blood volume poses challenges however is feasible.

Time-Domain Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Techniques Suitable for Solid-State Imaging Sensor Arrays

PubMed Central

Li, David Day-Uei; Ameer-Beg, Simon; Arlt, Jochen; Tyndall, David; Walker, Richard; Matthews, Daniel R.; Visitkul, Viput; Richardson, Justin; Henderson, Robert K.

2012-01-01

We have successfully demonstrated video-rate CMOS single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD)-based cameras for fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) by applying innovative FLIM algorithms. We also review and compare several time-domain techniques and solid-state FLIM systems, and adapt the proposed algorithms for massive CMOS SPAD-based arrays and hardware implementations. The theoretical error equations are derived and their performances are demonstrated on the data obtained from 0.13 μm CMOS SPAD arrays and the multiple-decay data obtained from scanning PMT systems. In vivo two photon fluorescence lifetime imaging data of FITC-albumin labeled vasculature of a P22 rat carcinosarcoma (BD9 rat window chamber) are used to test how different algorithms perform on bi-decay data. The proposed techniques are capable of producing lifetime images with enough contrast. PMID:22778606

Monitoring microcirculation.

PubMed

Ocak, Işık; Kara, Atila; Ince, Can

2016-12-01

The clinical relevance of microcirculation and its bedside observation started gaining importance in the 1990s since the introduction of hand-held video microscopes. From then, this technology has been continuously developed, and its clinical relevance has been established in more than 400 studies. In this paper, we review the different types of video microscopes, their application techniques, the microcirculation of different organ systems, the analysis methods, and the software and scoring systems. The main focus of this review will be on the state-of-art technique, CytoCam-incident dark-field imaging, and the most recent technological and technical updates concerning microcirculation monitoring. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Research on inosculation between master of ceremonies or players and virtual scene in virtual studio

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Zili; Zhu, Guangxi; Zhu, Yaoting

2003-04-01

A technical principle about construction of virtual studio has been proposed where orientation tracker and telemeter has been used for improving conventional BETACAM pickup camera and connecting with the software module of the host. A model of virtual camera named Camera & Post-camera Coupling Pair has been put forward, which is different from the common model in computer graphics and has been bound to real BETACAM pickup camera for shooting. The formula has been educed to compute the foreground frame buffer image and the background frame buffer image of the virtual scene whose boundary is based on the depth information of target point of the real BETACAM pickup camera's projective ray. The effect of real-time consistency has been achieved between the video image sequences of the master of ceremonies or players and the CG video image sequences for the virtual scene in spatial position, perspective relationship and image object masking. The experimental result has shown that the technological scheme of construction of virtual studio submitted in this paper is feasible and more applicative and more effective than the existing technology to establish a virtual studio based on color-key and image synthesis with background using non-linear video editing technique.

Towards real-time remote processing of laparoscopic video

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ronaghi, Zahra; Duffy, Edward B.; Kwartowitz, David M.

2015-03-01

Laparoscopic surgery is a minimally invasive surgical technique where surgeons insert a small video camera into the patient's body to visualize internal organs and small tools to perform surgical procedures. However, the benefit of small incisions has a drawback of limited visualization of subsurface tissues, which can lead to navigational challenges in the delivering of therapy. Image-guided surgery (IGS) uses images to map subsurface structures and can reduce the limitations of laparoscopic surgery. One particular laparoscopic camera system of interest is the vision system of the daVinci-Si robotic surgical system (Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale, CA, USA). The video streams generate approximately 360 megabytes of data per second, demonstrating a trend towards increased data sizes in medicine, primarily due to higher-resolution video cameras and imaging equipment. Processing this data on a bedside PC has become challenging and a high-performance computing (HPC) environment may not always be available at the point of care. To process this data on remote HPC clusters at the typical 30 frames per second (fps) rate, it is required that each 11.9 MB video frame be processed by a server and returned within 1/30th of a second. The ability to acquire, process and visualize data in real-time is essential for performance of complex tasks as well as minimizing risk to the patient. As a result, utilizing high-speed networks to access computing clusters will lead to real-time medical image processing and improve surgical experiences by providing real-time augmented laparoscopic data. We aim to develop a medical video processing system using an OpenFlow software defined network that is capable of connecting to multiple remote medical facilities and HPC servers.

Synchronization-insensitive video watermarking using structured noise pattern

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Setyawan, Iwan; Kakes, Geerd; Lagendijk, Reginald L.

2002-04-01

For most watermarking methods, preserving the synchronization between the watermark embedded in a digital data (image, audio or video) and the watermark detector is critical to the success of the watermark detection process. Many digital watermarking attacks exploit this fact by disturbing the synchronization of the watermark and the watermark detector, and thus disabling proper watermark detection without having to actually remove the watermark from the data. Some techniques have been proposed in the literature to deal with this problem. Most of these techniques employ methods to reverse the distortion caused by the attack and then try to detect the watermark from the repaired data. In this paper, we propose a watermarking technique that is not sensitive to synchronization. This technique uses a structured noise pattern and embeds the watermark payload into the geometrical structure of the embedded pattern.

Automatic segmentation of the optic nerve head for deformation measurements in video rate optical coherence tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hidalgo-Aguirre, Maribel; Gitelman, Julian; Lesk, Mark Richard; Costantino, Santiago

2015-11-01

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging has become a standard diagnostic tool in ophthalmology, providing essential information associated with various eye diseases. In order to investigate the dynamics of the ocular fundus, we present a simple and accurate automated algorithm to segment the inner limiting membrane in video-rate optic nerve head spectral domain (SD) OCT images. The method is based on morphological operations including a two-step contrast enhancement technique, proving to be very robust when dealing with low signal-to-noise ratio images and pathological eyes. An analysis algorithm was also developed to measure neuroretinal tissue deformation from the segmented retinal profiles. The performance of the algorithm is demonstrated, and deformation results are presented for healthy and glaucomatous eyes.

Digital video steganalysis exploiting collusion sensitivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Budhia, Udit; Kundur, Deepa

2004-09-01

In this paper we present an effective steganalyis technique for digital video sequences based on the collusion attack. Steganalysis is the process of detecting with a high probability and low complexity the presence of covert data in multimedia. Existing algorithms for steganalysis target detecting covert information in still images. When applied directly to video sequences these approaches are suboptimal. In this paper, we present a method that overcomes this limitation by using redundant information present in the temporal domain to detect covert messages in the form of Gaussian watermarks. Our gains are achieved by exploiting the collusion attack that has recently been studied in the field of digital video watermarking, and more sophisticated pattern recognition tools. Applications of our scheme include cybersecurity and cyberforensics.

An improved real time superresolution FPGA system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lakshmi Narasimha, Pramod; Mudigoudar, Basavaraj; Yue, Zhanfeng; Topiwala, Pankaj

2009-05-01

In numerous computer vision applications, enhancing the quality and resolution of captured video can be critical. Acquired video is often grainy and low quality due to motion, transmission bottlenecks, etc. Postprocessing can enhance it. Superresolution greatly decreases camera jitter to deliver a smooth, stabilized, high quality video. In this paper, we extend previous work on a real-time superresolution application implemented in ASIC/FPGA hardware. A gradient based technique is used to register the frames at the sub-pixel level. Once we get the high resolution grid, we use an improved regularization technique in which the image is iteratively modified by applying back-projection to get a sharp and undistorted image. The algorithm was first tested in software and migrated to hardware, to achieve 320x240 -> 1280x960, about 30 fps, a stunning superresolution by 16X in total pixels. Various input parameters, such as size of input image, enlarging factor and the number of nearest neighbors, can be tuned conveniently by the user. We use a maximum word size of 32 bits to implement the algorithm in Matlab Simulink as well as in FPGA hardware, which gives us a fine balance between the number of bits and performance. The proposed system is robust and highly efficient. We have shown the performance improvement of the hardware superresolution over the software version (C code).

Super Resolution Algorithm for CCTVs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gohshi, Seiichi

2015-03-01

Recently, security cameras and CCTV systems have become an important part of our daily lives. The rising demand for such systems has created business opportunities in this field, especially in big cities. Analogue CCTV systems are being replaced by digital systems, and HDTV CCTV has become quite common. HDTV CCTV can achieve images with high contrast and decent quality if they are clicked in daylight. However, the quality of an image clicked at night does not always have sufficient contrast and resolution because of poor lighting conditions. CCTV systems depend on infrared light at night to compensate for insufficient lighting conditions, thereby producing monochrome images and videos. However, these images and videos do not have high contrast and are blurred. We propose a nonlinear signal processing technique that significantly improves visual and image qualities (contrast and resolution) of low-contrast infrared images. The proposed method enables the use of infrared cameras for various purposes such as night shot and poor lighting environments under poor lighting conditions.

Compressibility-aware media retargeting with structure preserving.

PubMed

Wang, Shu-Fan; Lai, Shang-Hong

2011-03-01

A number of algorithms have been proposed for intelligent image/video retargeting with image content retained as much as possible. However, they usually suffer from some artifacts in the results, such as ridge or structure twist. In this paper, we present a structure-preserving media retargeting technique that preserves the content and image structure as best as possible. Different from the previous pixel or grid based methods, we estimate the image content saliency from the structure of the content. A block structure energy is introduced with a top-down strategy to constrain the image structure inside to deform uniformly in either x or y direction. However, the flexibilities for retargeting are quite different for different images. To cope with this problem, we propose a compressibility assessment scheme for media retargeting by combining the entropies of image gradient magnitude and orientation distributions. Thus, the resized media is produced to preserve the image content and structure as best as possible. Our experiments demonstrate that the proposed method provides resized images/videos with better preservation of content and structure than those by the previous methods.

Projecting 2D gene expression data into 3D and 4D space.

PubMed

Gerth, Victor E; Katsuyama, Kaori; Snyder, Kevin A; Bowes, Jeff B; Kitayama, Atsushi; Ueno, Naoto; Vize, Peter D

2007-04-01

Video games typically generate virtual 3D objects by texture mapping an image onto a 3D polygonal frame. The feeling of movement is then achieved by mathematically simulating camera movement relative to the polygonal frame. We have built customized scripts that adapt video game authoring software to texture mapping images of gene expression data onto b-spline based embryo models. This approach, known as UV mapping, associates two-dimensional (U and V) coordinates within images to the three dimensions (X, Y, and Z) of a b-spline model. B-spline model frameworks were built either from confocal data or de novo extracted from 2D images, once again using video game authoring approaches. This system was then used to build 3D models of 182 genes expressed in developing Xenopus embryos and to implement these in a web-accessible database. Models can be viewed via simple Internet browsers and utilize openGL hardware acceleration via a Shockwave plugin. Not only does this database display static data in a dynamic and scalable manner, the UV mapping system also serves as a method to align different images to a common framework, an approach that may make high-throughput automated comparisons of gene expression patterns possible. Finally, video game systems also have elegant methods for handling movement, allowing biomechanical algorithms to drive the animation of models. With further development, these biomechanical techniques offer practical methods for generating virtual embryos that recapitulate morphogenesis.

Recognizing human activities using appearance metric feature and kinematics feature

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qian, Huimin; Zhou, Jun; Lu, Xinbiao; Wu, Xinye

2017-05-01

The problem of automatically recognizing human activities from videos through the fusion of the two most important cues, appearance metric feature and kinematics feature, is considered. And a system of two-dimensional (2-D) Poisson equations is introduced to extract the more discriminative appearance metric feature. Specifically, the moving human blobs are first detected out from the video by background subtraction technique to form a binary image sequence, from which the appearance feature designated as the motion accumulation image and the kinematics feature termed as centroid instantaneous velocity are extracted. Second, 2-D discrete Poisson equations are employed to reinterpret the motion accumulation image to produce a more differentiated Poisson silhouette image, from which the appearance feature vector is created through the dimension reduction technique called bidirectional 2-D principal component analysis, considering the balance between classification accuracy and time consumption. Finally, a cascaded classifier based on the nearest neighbor classifier and two directed acyclic graph support vector machine classifiers, integrated with the fusion of the appearance feature vector and centroid instantaneous velocity vector, is applied to recognize the human activities. Experimental results on the open databases and a homemade one confirm the recognition performance of the proposed algorithm.

Facial Expression Presentation for Real-Time Internet Communication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dugarry, Alexandre; Berrada, Aida; Fu, Shan

2003-01-01

Text, voice and video images are the most common forms of media content for instant communication on the Internet. Studies have shown that facial expressions convey much richer information than text and voice during a face-to-face conversation. The currently available real time means of communication (instant text messages, chat programs and videoconferencing), however, have major drawbacks in terms of exchanging facial expression. The first two means do not involve the image transmission, whilst video conferencing requires a large bandwidth that is not always available, and the transmitted image sequence is neither smooth nor without delay. The objective of the work presented here is to develop a technique that overcomes these limitations, by extracting the facial expression of speakers and to realise real-time communication. In order to get the facial expressions, the main characteristics of the image are emphasized. Interpolation is performed on edge points previously detected to create geometric shapes such as arcs, lines, etc. The regional dominant colours of the pictures are also extracted and the combined results are subsequently converted into Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format. The application based on the proposed technique aims at being used simultaneously with chat programs and being able to run on any platform.

Interactions of Small-Scale Physical Mixing Processes with the Structure, Morphology and Bloom Dynamics and Optics of Non-Spheroid Phytoplankton

DTIC Science & Technology

2001-09-30

microscopic imaging techniques, and microscopic video- cinematography protocols for both phytoplankton and zooplankton for use in current laboratory...phytoplankton, zooplankton and bioluminescence papers, and examined data/figures for layered structures. Imaging and Cinematography : Off-the-shelf...to preview it as a work-in-progress, email me (jrines@gso.uri.edu), and I will provide you with a temporary URL. Imaging and Cinematography

Optimization of CMOS image sensor utilizing variable temporal multisampling partial transfer technique to achieve full-frame high dynamic range with superior low light and stop motion capability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kabir, Salman; Smith, Craig; Armstrong, Frank; Barnard, Gerrit; Schneider, Alex; Guidash, Michael; Vogelsang, Thomas; Endsley, Jay

2018-03-01

Differential binary pixel technology is a threshold-based timing, readout, and image reconstruction method that utilizes the subframe partial charge transfer technique in a standard four-transistor (4T) pixel CMOS image sensor to achieve a high dynamic range video with stop motion. This technology improves low light signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by up to 21 dB. The method is verified in silicon using a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's 65 nm 1.1 μm pixel technology 1 megapixel test chip array and is compared with a traditional 4 × oversampling technique using full charge transfer to show low light SNR superiority of the presented technology.

Digital photography

PubMed Central

Windsor, J S; Rodway, G W; Middleton, P M; McCarthy, S

2006-01-01

Objective The emergence of a new generation of “point‐and‐shoot” digital cameras offers doctors a compact, portable and user‐friendly solution to the recording of highly detailed digital photographs and video images. This work highlights the use of such technology, and provides information for those who wish to record, store and display their own medical images. Methods Over a 3‐month period, a digital camera was carried by a doctor in a busy, adult emergency department and used to record a range of clinical images that were subsequently transferred to a computer database. Results In total, 493 digital images were recorded, of which 428 were photographs and 65 were video clips. These were successfully used for teaching purposes, publications and patient records. Conclusions This study highlights the importance of informed consent, the selection of a suitable package of digital technology and the role of basic photographic technique in developing a successful digital database in a busy clinical environment. PMID:17068281

Automatic multiple zebrafish larvae tracking in unconstrained microscopic video conditions.

PubMed

Wang, Xiaoying; Cheng, Eva; Burnett, Ian S; Huang, Yushi; Wlodkowic, Donald

2017-12-14

The accurate tracking of zebrafish larvae movement is fundamental to research in many biomedical, pharmaceutical, and behavioral science applications. However, the locomotive characteristics of zebrafish larvae are significantly different from adult zebrafish, where existing adult zebrafish tracking systems cannot reliably track zebrafish larvae. Further, the far smaller size differentiation between larvae and the container render the detection of water impurities inevitable, which further affects the tracking of zebrafish larvae or require very strict video imaging conditions that typically result in unreliable tracking results for realistic experimental conditions. This paper investigates the adaptation of advanced computer vision segmentation techniques and multiple object tracking algorithms to develop an accurate, efficient and reliable multiple zebrafish larvae tracking system. The proposed system has been tested on a set of single and multiple adult and larvae zebrafish videos in a wide variety of (complex) video conditions, including shadowing, labels, water bubbles and background artifacts. Compared with existing state-of-the-art and commercial multiple organism tracking systems, the proposed system improves the tracking accuracy by up to 31.57% in unconstrained video imaging conditions. To facilitate the evaluation on zebrafish segmentation and tracking research, a dataset with annotated ground truth is also presented. The software is also publicly accessible.

Space Shuttle Main Engine Propellant Path Leak Detection Using Sequential Image Processing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, L. Montgomery; Malone, Jo Anne; Crawford, Roger A.

1995-01-01

Initial research in this study using theoretical radiation transport models established that the occurrence of a leak is accompanies by a sudden but sustained change in intensity in a given region of an image. In this phase, temporal processing of video images on a frame-by-frame basis was used to detect leaks within a given field of view. The leak detection algorithm developed in this study consists of a digital highpass filter cascaded with a moving average filter. The absolute value of the resulting discrete sequence is then taken and compared to a threshold value to produce the binary leak/no leak decision at each point in the image. Alternatively, averaging over the full frame of the output image produces a single time-varying mean value estimate that is indicative of the intensity and extent of a leak. Laboratory experiments were conducted in which artificially created leaks on a simulated SSME background were produced and recorded from a visible wavelength video camera. This data was processed frame-by-frame over the time interval of interest using an image processor implementation of the leak detection algorithm. In addition, a 20 second video sequence of an actual SSME failure was analyzed using this technique. The resulting output image sequences and plots of the full frame mean value versus time verify the effectiveness of the system.

Underwater video enhancement using multi-camera super-resolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quevedo, E.; Delory, E.; Callicó, G. M.; Tobajas, F.; Sarmiento, R.

2017-12-01

Image spatial resolution is critical in several fields such as medicine, communications or satellite, and underwater applications. While a large variety of techniques for image restoration and enhancement has been proposed in the literature, this paper focuses on a novel Super-Resolution fusion algorithm based on a Multi-Camera environment that permits to enhance the quality of underwater video sequences without significantly increasing computation. In order to compare the quality enhancement, two objective quality metrics have been used: PSNR (Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio) and the SSIM (Structural SIMilarity) index. Results have shown that the proposed method enhances the objective quality of several underwater sequences, avoiding the appearance of undesirable artifacts, with respect to basic fusion Super-Resolution algorithms.

Interactive Videodisc Learning Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Currier, Richard L.

1983-01-01

Discussion of capabilities of interactive videodisc, which combines video images recorded on disc and random-access, highlights interactivity; teaching techniques with videodiscs (including masking, disassembly, movie maps, tactical maps, action code, and simulation); costs; and games. Illustrative material is provided. (High Technology, P. O. Box…

Real-time radiography support for Titan LAM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anderson, M. G.

1992-07-01

This paper discusses real-time radiography (RTR) support for the Titan Lightweight Analog Motor (LAM) cold gas tests. RTR was used as a diagnostic technique to measure propellant deformation within the motors as gaseous nitrogen, at various pressures, was flowed over the propellant grain. The data consisted of video images that correlated the propellant deformation to time and to chamber pressure. Measurements were made on three propellant configurations in 17 tests. Specific issues addressed include the approach taken to gather the data, the system layout, and image processing techniques used to interpret the data.

Energy Efficient Image/Video Data Transmission on Commercial Multi-Core Processors

PubMed Central

Lee, Sungju; Kim, Heegon; Chung, Yongwha; Park, Daihee

2012-01-01

In transmitting image/video data over Video Sensor Networks (VSNs), energy consumption must be minimized while maintaining high image/video quality. Although image/video compression is well known for its efficiency and usefulness in VSNs, the excessive costs associated with encoding computation and complexity still hinder its adoption for practical use. However, it is anticipated that high-performance handheld multi-core devices will be used as VSN processing nodes in the near future. In this paper, we propose a way to improve the energy efficiency of image and video compression with multi-core processors while maintaining the image/video quality. We improve the compression efficiency at the algorithmic level or derive the optimal parameters for the combination of a machine and compression based on the tradeoff between the energy consumption and the image/video quality. Based on experimental results, we confirm that the proposed approach can improve the energy efficiency of the straightforward approach by a factor of 2∼5 without compromising image/video quality. PMID:23202181

Full-frame video stabilization with motion inpainting.

PubMed

Matsushita, Yasuyuki; Ofek, Eyal; Ge, Weina; Tang, Xiaoou; Shum, Heung-Yeung

2006-07-01

Video stabilization is an important video enhancement technology which aims at removing annoying shaky motion from videos. We propose a practical and robust approach of video stabilization that produces full-frame stabilized videos with good visual quality. While most previous methods end up with producing smaller size stabilized videos, our completion method can produce full-frame videos by naturally filling in missing image parts by locally aligning image data of neighboring frames. To achieve this, motion inpainting is proposed to enforce spatial and temporal consistency of the completion in both static and dynamic image areas. In addition, image quality in the stabilized video is enhanced with a new practical deblurring algorithm. Instead of estimating point spread functions, our method transfers and interpolates sharper image pixels of neighboring frames to increase the sharpness of the frame. The proposed video completion and deblurring methods enabled us to develop a complete video stabilizer which can naturally keep the original image quality in the stabilized videos. The effectiveness of our method is confirmed by extensive experiments over a wide variety of videos.

No-reference quality assessment based on visual perception

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Junshan; Yang, Yawei; Hu, Shuangyan; Zhang, Jiao

2014-11-01

The visual quality assessment of images/videos is an ongoing hot research topic, which has become more and more important for numerous image and video processing applications with the rapid development of digital imaging and communication technologies. The goal of image quality assessment (IQA) algorithms is to automatically assess the quality of images/videos in agreement with human quality judgments. Up to now, two kinds of models have been used for IQA, namely full-reference (FR) and no-reference (NR) models. For FR models, IQA algorithms interpret image quality as fidelity or similarity with a perfect image in some perceptual space. However, the reference image is not available in many practical applications, and a NR IQA approach is desired. Considering natural vision as optimized by the millions of years of evolutionary pressure, many methods attempt to achieve consistency in quality prediction by modeling salient physiological and psychological features of the human visual system (HVS). To reach this goal, researchers try to simulate HVS with image sparsity coding and supervised machine learning, which are two main features of HVS. A typical HVS captures the scenes by sparsity coding, and uses experienced knowledge to apperceive objects. In this paper, we propose a novel IQA approach based on visual perception. Firstly, a standard model of HVS is studied and analyzed, and the sparse representation of image is accomplished with the model; and then, the mapping correlation between sparse codes and subjective quality scores is trained with the regression technique of least squaresupport vector machine (LS-SVM), which gains the regressor that can predict the image quality; the visual metric of image is predicted with the trained regressor at last. We validate the performance of proposed approach on Laboratory for Image and Video Engineering (LIVE) database, the specific contents of the type of distortions present in the database are: 227 images of JPEG2000, 233 images of JPEG, 174 images of White Noise, 174 images of Gaussian Blur, 174 images of Fast Fading. The database includes subjective differential mean opinion score (DMOS) for each image. The experimental results show that the proposed approach not only can assess many kinds of distorted images quality, but also exhibits a superior accuracy and monotonicity.

Three dimensional range geometry and texture data compression with space-filling curves.

PubMed

Chen, Xia; Zhang, Song

2017-10-16

This paper presents a novel method to effectively store three-dimensional (3D) data and 2D texture data into a regular 24-bit image. The proposed method uses the Hilbert space-filling curve to map the normalized unwrapped phase map to two 8-bit color channels, and saves the third color channel for 2D texture storage. By further leveraging existing 2D image and video compression techniques, the proposed method can achieve high compression ratios while effectively preserving data quality. Since the encoding and decoding processes can be applied to most of the current 2D media platforms, this proposed compression method can make 3D data storage and transmission available for many electrical devices without requiring special hardware changes. Experiments demonstrate that if a lossless 2D image/video format is used, both original 3D geometry and 2D color texture can be accurately recovered; if lossy image/video compression is used, only black-and-white or grayscale texture can be properly recovered, but much higher compression ratios (e.g., 1543:1 against the ASCII OBJ format) are achieved with slight loss of 3D geometry quality.

System for clinical photometric stereo endoscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Durr, Nicholas J.; González, Germán.; Lim, Daryl; Traverso, Giovanni; Nishioka, Norman S.; Vakoc, Benjamin J.; Parot, Vicente

2014-02-01

Photometric stereo endoscopy is a technique that captures information about the high-spatial-frequency topography of the field of view simultaneously with a conventional color image. Here we describe a system that will enable photometric stereo endoscopy to be clinically evaluated in the large intestine of human patients. The clinical photometric stereo endoscopy system consists of a commercial gastroscope, a commercial video processor, an image capturing and processing unit, custom synchronization electronics, white light LEDs, a set of four fibers with diffusing tips, and an alignment cap. The custom pieces that come into contact with the patient are composed of biocompatible materials that can be sterilized before use. The components can then be assembled in the endoscopy suite before use. The resulting endoscope has the same outer diameter as a conventional colonoscope (14 mm), plugs into a commercial video processor, captures topography and color images at 15 Hz, and displays the conventional color image to the gastroenterologist in real-time. We show that this system can capture a color and topographical video in a tubular colon phantom, demonstrating robustness to complex geometries and motion. The reported system is suitable for in vivo evaluation of photometric stereo endoscopy in the human large intestine.

[Progress in imaging techniques].

PubMed

Mishima, Kazuaki; Otsuka, Tsukasa

2013-05-01

Today it is common to perform real-time diagnosis and treatment via live broadcast as a method of education and to spread new technology for diagnosis and therapy in medical fields. Live medical broadcasts have developed along with broadcast technology. In the early days, live video feeds were sent from operating rooms to classrooms and lecture halls in universities and hospitals. However, the development of imaging techniques and communication networks enabled live broadcasts that bi-directionally link operating rooms and meeting halls during scientific meetings and live demonstration courses. Live broadcasts therefore became an important method for education and the dissemination of new medical technologies. The development of imaging techniques has contributed to more realistic live broadcasts through such innovative techniques as three-dimensional viewing and higher-definition 4K technology. In the future, live broadcasts will be transmitted on personal computers using regular Internet connections. In addition to the enhancement of image delivery technology, it will also be necessary to examine the entire image delivery environment carefully, including issues of security and privacy of personal information.

Virtual imaging in sports broadcasting: an overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tan, Yi

2003-04-01

Virtual imaging technology is being used to augment television broadcasts -- virtual objects are seamlessly inserted into the video stream to appear as real entities to TV audiences. Virtual advertisements, the main application of this technology, are providing opportunities to improve the commercial value of television programming while enhancing the contents and the entertainment aspect of these programs. State-of-the-art technologies, such as image recognition, motion tracking and chroma keying, are central to a virtual imaging system. This paper reviews the general framework, the key techniques, and the sports broadcasting applications of virtual imaging technology.

Chroma key without color restrictions based on asynchronous amplitude modulation of background illumination on retroreflective screens

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vidal, Borja; Lafuente, Juan A.

2016-03-01

A simple technique to avoid color limitations in image capture systems based on chroma key video composition using retroreflective screens and light-emitting diodes (LED) rings is proposed and demonstrated. The combination of an asynchronous temporal modulation onto the background illumination and simple image processing removes the usual restrictions on foreground colors in the scene. The technique removes technical constraints in stage composition, allowing its design to be purely based on artistic grounds. Since it only requires adding a very simple electronic circuit to widely used chroma keying hardware based on retroreflective screens, the technique is easily applicable to TV and filming studios.

The mobile image quality survey game

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rasmussen, D. René

2012-01-01

In this paper we discuss human assessment of the quality of photographic still images, that are degraded in various manners relative to an original, for example due to compression or noise. In particular, we examine and present results from a technique where observers view images on a mobile device, perform pairwise comparisons, identify defects in the images, and interact with the display to indicate the location of the defects. The technique measures the response time and accuracy of the responses. By posing the survey in a form similar to a game, providing performance feedback to the observer, the technique attempts to increase the engagement of the observers, and to avoid exhausting observers, a factor that is often a problem for subjective surveys. The results are compared with the known physical magnitudes of the defects and with results from similar web-based surveys. The strengths and weaknesses of the technique are discussed. Possible extensions of the technique to video quality assessment are also discussed.

3D Surface Reconstruction and Volume Calculation of Rills

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brings, Christine; Gronz, Oliver; Becker, Kerstin; Wirtz, Stefan; Seeger, Manuel; Ries, Johannes B.

2015-04-01

We use the low-cost, user-friendly photogrammetric Structure from Motion (SfM) technique, which is implemented in the Software VisualSfM, for 3D surface reconstruction and volume calculation of an 18 meter long rill in Luxembourg. The images were taken with a Canon HD video camera 1) before a natural rainfall event, 2) after a natural rainfall event and before a rill experiment and 3) after a rill experiment. Recording with a video camera results compared to a photo camera not only a huge time advantage, the method also guarantees more than adequately overlapping sharp images. For each model, approximately 8 minutes of video were taken. As SfM needs single images, we automatically selected the sharpest image from 15 frame intervals. The sharpness was estimated using a derivative-based metric. Then, VisualSfM detects feature points in each image, searches matching feature points in all image pairs, recovers the camera positions and finally by triangulation of camera positions and feature points the software reconstructs a point cloud of the rill surface. From the point cloud, 3D surface models (meshes) are created and via difference calculations of the pre and post models a visualization of the changes (erosion and accumulation areas) and quantification of erosion volumes are possible. The calculated volumes are presented in spatial units of the models and so real values must be converted via references. The outputs are three models at three different points in time. The results show that especially using images taken from suboptimal videos (bad lighting conditions, low contrast of the surface, too much in-motion unsharpness), the sharpness algorithm leads to much more matching features. Hence the point densities of the 3D models are increased and thereby clarify the calculations.

Efficient management and promotion of utilization of the video information acquired by observation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kitayama, T.; Tanaka, K.; Shimabukuro, R.; Hase, H.; Ogido, M.; Nakamura, M.; Saito, H.; Hanafusa, Y.; Sonoda, A.

2012-12-01

In Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), the deep sea videos are made from the research by JAMSTEC submersibles in 1982, and the information on the huge deep-sea that will reach more 4,000 dives (ca. 24,700 tapes) by the present are opened to public via the Internet since 2002. The deep-sea videos is important because the time variation of deep-sea environment with difficult investigation and collection and growth of the living thing in extreme environment can be checked. Moreover, with development of video technique, the advanced analysis of an investigation image is attained. For grasp of deep sea environment, especially the utility value of the image is high. In JAMSTEC's Data Research Center for Marine-Earth Sciences (DrC), collection of the video are obtained by dive investigation of JAMSTEC, preservation, quality control, and open to public are performed. It is our big subject that the huge video information which utility value has expanded managed efficiently and promotion of use. In this announcement, the present measure is introduced about these subjects . The videos recorded on a tape or various media onboard are collected, and the backup and encoding for preventing the loss and degradation are performed. The video inside of a hard disk has the large file size. Then, we use the Linear Tape File System (LTFS) which attracts attention with image management engineering these days. Cost does not start compared with the usual disk backup, but correspondence years can also save the video data for a long time, and the operatively of a file is not different from a disk. The video that carried out the transcode to offer is archived by disk storage, and offer according to a use is possible for it. For the promotion of utilization of the video, the video public presentation system was reformed completely from November, 2011 to "JAMSTEC E-library of Deep Sea Images (http:// www.godac.jamstec.go.jp/jedi/)" This new system has preparing various searches (e.g. Search by map, Tree, Icon, Keyword et al.). The video annotation is enabled with the same interface, and the usability of use and management is raised. Moreover, In the "Biological Information System for Marine Life : BISMaL (http://www.godac.jamstec.go.jp/bismal/e/index.html)" which is a data system for biodiversity information, particularly in biogeographic data of marine organisms, based on photography position information, the visualization of living thing distribution, the life list of a deep sea living thing, and the deep sea video were used, and aim at the contribution to biodiversity grasp. Future, aiming at the accuracy improvement of the information given to the video by Work support of the comment registration by automatic recognition of an image and Development of a comment registration tool onboard, it aims at offering higher quality information.

MPEG-4 ASP SoC receiver with novel image enhancement techniques for DAB networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barreto, D.; Quintana, A.; García, L.; Callicó, G. M.; Núñez, A.

2007-05-01

This paper presents a system for real-time video reception in low-power mobile devices using Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) technology for transmission. A demo receiver terminal is designed into a FPGA platform using the Advanced Simple Profile (ASP) MPEG-4 standard for video decoding. In order to keep the demanding DAB requirements, the bandwidth of the encoded sequence must be drastically reduced. In this sense, prior to the MPEG-4 coding stage, a pre-processing stage is performed. It is firstly composed by a segmentation phase according to motion and texture based on the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of the input video sequence, and secondly by a down-sampling phase, which depends on the segmentation results. As a result of the segmentation task, a set of texture and motion maps are obtained. These motion and texture maps are also included into the bit-stream as user data side-information and are therefore known to the receiver. For all bit-rates, the whole encoder/decoder system proposed in this paper exhibits higher image visual quality than the alternative encoding/decoding method, assuming equal image sizes. A complete analysis of both techniques has also been performed to provide the optimum motion and texture maps for the global system, which has been finally validated for a variety of video sequences. Additionally, an optimal HW/SW partition for the MPEG-4 decoder has been studied and implemented over a Programmable Logic Device with an embedded ARM9 processor. Simulation results show that a throughput of 15 QCIF frames per second can be achieved with low area and low power implementation.

An automated form of video image analysis applied to classification of movement disorders.

PubMed

Chang, R; Guan, L; Burne, J A

Video image analysis is able to provide quantitative data on postural and movement abnormalities and thus has an important application in neurological diagnosis and management. The conventional techniques require patients to be videotaped while wearing markers in a highly structured laboratory environment. This restricts the utility of video in routine clinical practise. We have begun development of intelligent software which aims to provide a more flexible system able to quantify human posture and movement directly from whole-body images without markers and in an unstructured environment. The steps involved are to extract complete human profiles from video frames, to fit skeletal frameworks to the profiles and derive joint angles and swing distances. By this means a given posture is reduced to a set of basic parameters that can provide input to a neural network classifier. To test the system's performance we videotaped patients with dopa-responsive Parkinsonism and age-matched normals during several gait cycles, to yield 61 patient and 49 normal postures. These postures were reduced to their basic parameters and fed to the neural network classifier in various combinations. The optimal parameter sets (consisting of both swing distances and joint angles) yielded successful classification of normals and patients with an accuracy above 90%. This result demonstrated the feasibility of the approach. The technique has the potential to guide clinicians on the relative sensitivity of specific postural/gait features in diagnosis. Future studies will aim to improve the robustness of the system in providing accurate parameter estimates from subjects wearing a range of clothing, and to further improve discrimination by incorporating more stages of the gait cycle into the analysis.

Quantifying Coseismic Normal Fault Rupture at the Seafloor: The 2004 Les Saintes Earthquake Along the Roseau Fault (French Antilles)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Olive, J. A. L.; Escartin, J.; Leclerc, F.; Garcia, R.; Gracias, N.; Odemar Science Party, T.

2016-12-01

While >70% of Earth's seismicity is submarine, almost all observations of earthquake-related ruptures and surface deformation are restricted to subaerial environments. Such observations are critical for understanding fault behavior and associated hazards (including tsunamis), but are not routinely conducted at the seafloor due to obvious constraints. During the 2013 ODEMAR cruise we used autonomous and remotely operated vehicles to map the Roseau normal Fault (Lesser Antilles), source of the 2004 Mw6.3 earthquake and associated tsunami (<3.5m run-up). These vehicles acquired acoustic (multibeam bathymetry) and optical data (video and electronic images) spanning from regional (>1 km) to outcrop (<1 m) scales. These high-resolution submarine observations, analogous to those routinely conducted subaerially, rely on advanced image and video processing techniques, such as mosaicking and structure-from-motion (SFM). We identify sub-vertical fault slip planes along the Roseau scarp, displaying coseismic deformation structures undoubtedly due to the 2004 event. First, video mosaicking allows us to identify the freshly exposed fault plane at the base of one of these scarps. A maximum vertical coseismic displacement of 0.9 m can be measured from the video-derived terrain models and the texture-mapped imagery, which have better resolution than any available acoustic systems (<10 cm). Second, seafloor photomosaics allow us to identify and map both additional sub-vertical fault scarps, and cracks and fissures at their base, recording hangingwall damage from the same event. These observations provide critical parameters to understand the seismic cycle and long-term seismic behavior of this submarine fault. Our work demonstrates the feasibility of extensive, high-resolution underwater surveys using underwater vehicles and novel imaging techniques, thereby opening new possibilities to study recent seafloor changes associated with tectonic, volcanic, or hydrothermal activity.

Deformation-based augmented reality for hepatic surgery.

PubMed

Haouchine, Nazim; Dequidt, Jérémie; Berger, Marie-Odile; Cotin, Stéphane

2013-01-01

In this paper we introduce a method for augmenting the laparoscopic view during hepatic tumor resection. Using augmented reality techniques, vessels, tumors and cutting planes computed from pre-operative data can be overlaid onto the laparoscopic video. Compared to current techniques, which are limited to a rigid registration of the pre-operative liver anatomy with the intra-operative image, we propose a real-time, physics-based, non-rigid registration. The main strength of our approach is that the deformable model can also be used to regularize the data extracted from the computer vision algorithms. We show preliminary results on a video sequence which clearly highlights the interest of using physics-based model for elastic registration.

Spatio-temporal features for tracking and quadruped/biped discrimination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rickman, Rick; Copsey, Keith; Bamber, David C.; Page, Scott F.

2012-05-01

Techniques such as SIFT and SURF facilitate efficient and robust image processing operations through the use of sparse and compact spatial feature descriptors and show much potential for defence and security applications. This paper considers the extension of such techniques to include information from the temporal domain, to improve utility in applications involving moving imagery within video data. In particular, the paper demonstrates how spatio-temporal descriptors can be used very effectively as the basis of a target tracking system and as target discriminators which can distinguish between bipeds and quadrupeds. Results using sequences of video imagery of walking humans and dogs are presented, and the relative merits of the approach are discussed.

Mapping wide row crops with video sequences acquired from a tractor moving at treatment speed.

PubMed

Sainz-Costa, Nadir; Ribeiro, Angela; Burgos-Artizzu, Xavier P; Guijarro, María; Pajares, Gonzalo

2011-01-01

This paper presents a mapping method for wide row crop fields. The resulting map shows the crop rows and weeds present in the inter-row spacing. Because field videos are acquired with a camera mounted on top of an agricultural vehicle, a method for image sequence stabilization was needed and consequently designed and developed. The proposed stabilization method uses the centers of some crop rows in the image sequence as features to be tracked, which compensates for the lateral movement (sway) of the camera and leaves the pitch unchanged. A region of interest is selected using the tracked features, and an inverse perspective technique transforms the selected region into a bird's-eye view that is centered on the image and that enables map generation. The algorithm developed has been tested on several video sequences of different fields recorded at different times and under different lighting conditions, with good initial results. Indeed, lateral displacements of up to 66% of the inter-row spacing were suppressed through the stabilization process, and crop rows in the resulting maps appear straight.

Design and testing of artifact-suppressed adaptive histogram equalization: a contrast-enhancement technique for display of digital chest radiographs.

PubMed

Rehm, K; Seeley, G W; Dallas, W J; Ovitt, T W; Seeger, J F

1990-01-01

One of the goals of our research in the field of digital radiography has been to develop contrast-enhancement algorithms for eventual use in the display of chest images on video devices with the aim of preserving the diagnostic information presently available with film, some of which would normally be lost because of the smaller dynamic range of video monitors. The ASAHE algorithm discussed in this article has been tested by investigating observer performance in a difficult detection task involving phantoms and simulated lung nodules, using film as the output medium. The results of the experiment showed that the algorithm is successful in providing contrast-enhanced, natural-looking chest images while maintaining diagnostic information. The algorithm did not effect an increase in nodule detectability, but this was not unexpected because film is a medium capable of displaying a wide range of gray levels. It is sufficient at this stage to show that there is no degradation in observer performance. Future tests will evaluate the performance of the ASAHE algorithm in preparing chest images for video display.

Automatic treatment of flight test images using modern tools: SAAB and Aeritalia joint approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaelldahl, A.; Duranti, P.

The use of onboard cine cameras, as well as that of on ground cinetheodolites, is very popular in flight tests. The high resolution of film and the high frame rate of cinecameras are still not exceeded by video technology. Video technology can successfully enter the flight test scenario once the availability of solid-state optical sensors dramatically reduces the dimensions, and weight of TV cameras, thus allowing to locate them in positions compatible with space or operational limitations (e.g., HUD cameras). A proper combination of cine and video cameras is the typical solution for a complex flight test program. The output of such devices is very helpful in many flight areas. Several sucessful applications of this technology are summarized. Analysis of the large amount of data produced (frames of images) requires a very long time. The analysis is normally carried out manually. In order to improve the situation, in the last few years, several flight test centers have devoted their attention to possible techniques which allow for quicker and more effective image treatment.

Confocal microscopic observation of structural changes in glass-ionomer cements and tooth interfaces.

PubMed

Watson, T F; Pagliari, D; Sidhu, S K; Naasan, M A

1998-03-01

This study aimed to develop techniques to allow dynamic imaging of a cavity before, during and after placement of glass-ionomer restorative materials. Cavities were cut in recently extracted third molars and the teeth longitudinally sectioned. Each hemisected tooth surface was placed in green modelling compound at 90 to the optical axis of the microscope. The cavity surface was imaged using a video rate confocal microscope in conjunction with an internally focusable microscope objective. The sample on the stage was pushed up to the objective lens which 'clamped' the cover glass onto it. Water, glycerine or oil was placed below the coverglass, with oil above. Internal tooth structures were imaged by changing the internal focus of the objective. The restorative material was then placed into the cavity. Video images were stored either onto video tape or digitally, using a frame grabber, computer and mass memory storage. Software controls produced time-lapse recordings of the interface over time. Preliminary experiments have examined the placement and early maturation of conventional glass-ionomer cements and a syringeable resin-modified glass-ionomer cement. Initial contact of the cement matrix and glass particles was visible as the plastic material rolled past the enamel and dentine, before making a bond. Evidence for water movement from the dentine into the cement has also been seen. After curing, the early dimensional changes in the cements due to water flux were apparent using the time-lapse facility. This new technique enables examination of developing tooth/restoration interfaces and the tracking of movement in materials.

Real-time rendering for multiview autostereoscopic displays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berretty, R.-P. M.; Peters, F. J.; Volleberg, G. T. G.

2006-02-01

In video systems, the introduction of 3D video might be the next revolution after the introduction of color. Nowadays multiview autostereoscopic displays are in development. Such displays offer various views at the same time and the image content observed by the viewer depends upon his position with respect to the screen. His left eye receives a signal that is different from what his right eye gets; this gives, provided the signals have been properly processed, the impression of depth. The various views produced on the display differ with respect to their associated camera positions. A possible video format that is suited for rendering from different camera positions is the usual 2D format enriched with a depth related channel, e.g. for each pixel in the video not only its color is given, but also e.g. its distance to a camera. In this paper we provide a theoretical framework for the parallactic transformations which relates captured and observed depths to screen and image disparities. Moreover we present an efficient real time rendering algorithm that uses forward mapping to reduce aliasing artefacts and that deals properly with occlusions. For improved perceived resolution, we take the relative position of the color subpixels and the optics of the lenticular screen into account. Sophisticated filtering techniques results in high quality images.

Precise determination of anthropometric dimensions by means of image processing methods for estimating human body segment parameter values.

PubMed

Baca, A

1996-04-01

A method has been developed for the precise determination of anthropometric dimensions from the video images of four different body configurations. High precision is achieved by incorporating techniques for finding the location of object boundaries with sub-pixel accuracy, the implementation of calibration algorithms, and by taking into account the varying distances of the body segments from the recording camera. The system allows automatic segment boundary identification from the video image, if the boundaries are marked on the subject by black ribbons. In connection with the mathematical finite-mass-element segment model of Hatze, body segment parameters (volumes, masses, the three principal moments of inertia, the three local coordinates of the segmental mass centers etc.) can be computed by using the anthropometric data determined videometrically as input data. Compared to other, recently published video-based systems for the estimation of the inertial properties of body segments, the present algorithms reduce errors originating from optical distortions, inaccurate edge-detection procedures, and user-specified upper and lower segment boundaries or threshold levels for the edge-detection. The video-based estimation of human body segment parameters is especially useful in situations where ease of application and rapid availability of comparatively precise parameter values are of importance.

3D reconstruction of cystoscopy videos for comprehensive bladder records

PubMed Central

Lurie, Kristen L.; Angst, Roland; Zlatev, Dimitar V.; Liao, Joseph C.; Ellerbee Bowden, Audrey K.

2017-01-01

White light endoscopy is widely used for diagnostic imaging of the interior of organs and body cavities, but the inability to correlate individual 2D images with 3D organ morphology limits its utility for quantitative or longitudinal studies of disease physiology or cancer surveillance. As a result, most endoscopy videos, which carry enormous data potential, are used only for real-time guidance and are discarded after collection. We present a computational method to reconstruct and visualize a 3D model of organs from an endoscopic video that captures the shape and surface appearance of the organ. A key aspect of our strategy is the use of advanced computer vision techniques and unmodified, clinical-grade endoscopy hardware with few constraints on the image acquisition protocol, which presents a low barrier to clinical translation. We validate the accuracy and robustness of our reconstruction and co-registration method using cystoscopy videos from tissue-mimicking bladder phantoms and show clinical utility during cystoscopy in the operating room for bladder cancer evaluation. As our method can powerfully augment the visual medical record of the appearance of internal organs, it is broadly applicable to endoscopy and represents a significant advance in cancer surveillance opportunities for big-data cancer research. PMID:28736658

Multi-pass encoding of hyperspectral imagery with spectral quality control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wasson, Steven; Walker, William

2015-05-01

Multi-pass encoding is a technique employed in the field of video compression that maximizes the quality of an encoded video sequence within the constraints of a specified bit rate. This paper presents research where multi-pass encoding is extended to the field of hyperspectral image compression. Unlike video, which is primarily intended to be viewed by a human observer, hyperspectral imagery is processed by computational algorithms that generally attempt to classify the pixel spectra within the imagery. As such, these algorithms are more sensitive to distortion in the spectral dimension of the image than they are to perceptual distortion in the spatial dimension. The compression algorithm developed for this research, which uses the Karhunen-Loeve transform for spectral decorrelation followed by a modified H.264/Advanced Video Coding (AVC) encoder, maintains a user-specified spectral quality level while maximizing the compression ratio throughout the encoding process. The compression performance may be considered near-lossless in certain scenarios. For qualitative purposes, this paper presents the performance of the compression algorithm for several Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) and Hyperion datasets using spectral angle as the spectral quality assessment function. Specifically, the compression performance is illustrated in the form of rate-distortion curves that plot spectral angle versus bits per pixel per band (bpppb).

Normalized Temperature Contrast Processing in Flash Infrared Thermography

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Koshti, Ajay M.

2016-01-01

The paper presents further development in normalized contrast processing of flash infrared thermography method by the author given in US 8,577,120 B1. The method of computing normalized image or pixel intensity contrast, and normalized temperature contrast are provided, including converting one from the other. Methods of assessing emissivity of the object, afterglow heat flux, reflection temperature change and temperature video imaging during flash thermography are provided. Temperature imaging and normalized temperature contrast imaging provide certain advantages over pixel intensity normalized contrast processing by reducing effect of reflected energy in images and measurements, providing better quantitative data. The subject matter for this paper mostly comes from US 9,066,028 B1 by the author. Examples of normalized image processing video images and normalized temperature processing video images are provided. Examples of surface temperature video images, surface temperature rise video images and simple contrast video images area also provided. Temperature video imaging in flash infrared thermography allows better comparison with flash thermography simulation using commercial software which provides temperature video as the output. Temperature imaging also allows easy comparison of surface temperature change to camera temperature sensitivity or noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD) to assess probability of detecting (POD) anomalies.

A simple infrared-augmented digital photography technique for detection of pupillary abnormalities.

PubMed

Shazly, Tarek A; Bonhomme, G R

2015-03-01

The purpose of the study was to describe a simple infrared photography technique to aid in the diagnosis and documentation of pupillary abnormalities. An unmodified 12-megapixel "point and shoot" digital camera was used to obtain binocular still photos and videos under different light conditions with near-infrared illuminating frames. The near-infrared light of 850 nm allows the capture of clear pupil images in both dim and bright light conditions. It also allows easy visualization of the pupil despite pigmented irides by augmenting the contrast between the iris and the pupil. The photos and videos obtained illustrated a variety of pupillary abnormalities using the aforementioned technique. This infrared-augmented photography technique supplements medical education, and aids in the more rapid detection, diagnosis, and documentation of a wide spectrum of pupillary abnormalities. Its portability and ease of use with minimal training complements the education of trainees and facilitates the establishment of difficult diagnoses.

Method and apparatus to measure the depth of skin burns

DOEpatents

Dickey, Fred M.; Holswade, Scott C.

2002-01-01

A new device for measuring the depth of surface tissue burns based on the rate at which the skin temperature responds to a sudden differential temperature stimulus. This technique can be performed without physical contact with the burned tissue. In one implementation, time-dependent surface temperature data is taken from subsequent frames of a video signal from an infrared-sensitive video camera. When a thermal transient is created, e.g., by turning off a heat lamp directed at the skin surface, the following time-dependent surface temperature data can be used to determine the skin burn depth. Imaging and non-imaging versions of this device can be implemented, thereby enabling laboratory-quality skin burn depth imagers for hospitals as well as hand-held skin burn depth sensors the size of a small pocket flashlight for field use and triage.

From computer images to video presentation: Enhancing technology transfer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Beam, Sherilee F.

1994-01-01

With NASA placing increased emphasis on transferring technology to outside industry, NASA researchers need to evaluate many aspects of their efforts in this regard. Often it may seem like too much self-promotion to many researchers. However, industry's use of video presentations in sales, advertising, public relations and training should be considered. Today, the most typical presentation at NASA is through the use of vu-graphs (overhead transparencies) which can be effective for text or static presentations. For full blown color and sound presentations, however, the best method is videotape. In fact, it is frequently more convenient due to its portability and the availability of viewing equipment. This talk describes techniques for creating a video presentation through the use of a combined researcher and video professional team.

A robust low-rate coding scheme for packet video

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chen, Y. C.; Sayood, Khalid; Nelson, D. J.; Arikan, E. (Editor)

1991-01-01

Due to the rapidly evolving field of image processing and networking, video information promises to be an important part of telecommunication systems. Although up to now video transmission has been transported mainly over circuit-switched networks, it is likely that packet-switched networks will dominate the communication world in the near future. Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) techniques in broadband-ISDN can provide a flexible, independent and high performance environment for video communication. For this paper, the network simulator was used only as a channel in this simulation. Mixture blocking coding with progressive transmission (MBCPT) has been investigated for use over packet networks and has been found to provide high compression rate with good visual performance, robustness to packet loss, tractable integration with network mechanics and simplicity in parallel implementation.

Studies on image compression and image reconstruction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sayood, Khalid; Nori, Sekhar; Araj, A.

1994-01-01

During this six month period our works concentrated on three, somewhat different areas. We looked at and developed a number of error concealment schemes for use in a variety of video coding environments. This work is described in an accompanying (draft) Masters thesis. In the thesis we describe application of this techniques to the MPEG video coding scheme. We felt that the unique frame ordering approach used in the MPEG scheme would be a challenge to any error concealment/error recovery technique. We continued with our work in the vector quantization area. We have also developed a new type of vector quantizer, which we call a scan predictive vector quantization. The scan predictive VQ was tested on data processed at Goddard to approximate Landsat 7 HRMSI resolution and compared favorably with existing VQ techniques. A paper describing this work is included. The third area is concerned more with reconstruction than compression. While there is a variety of efficient lossless image compression schemes, they all have a common property that they use past data to encode future data. This is done either via taking differences, context modeling, or by building dictionaries. When encoding large images, this common property becomes a common flaw. When the user wishes to decode just a portion of the image, the requirement that the past history be available forces the decoding of a significantly larger portion of the image than desired by the user. Even with intelligent partitioning of the image dataset, the number of pixels decoded may be four times the number of pixels requested. We have developed an adaptive scanning strategy which can be used with any lossless compression scheme and which lowers the additional number of pixels to be decoded to about 7 percent of the number of pixels requested! A paper describing these results is included.

Compression of stereoscopic video using MPEG-2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Puri, A.; Kollarits, Richard V.; Haskell, Barry G.

1995-10-01

Many current as well as emerging applications in areas of entertainment, remote operations, manufacturing industry and medicine can benefit from the depth perception offered by stereoscopic video systems which employ two views of a scene imaged under the constraints imposed by human visual system. Among the many challenges to be overcome for practical realization and widespread use of 3D/stereoscopic systems are good 3D displays and efficient techniques for digital compression of enormous amounts of data while maintaining compatibility with normal video decoding and display systems. After a brief introduction to the basics of 3D/stereo including issues of depth perception, stereoscopic 3D displays and terminology in stereoscopic imaging and display, we present an overview of tools in the MPEG-2 video standard that are relevant to our discussion on compression of stereoscopic video, which is the main topic of this paper. Next, we outilne the various approaches for compression of stereoscopic video and then focus on compatible stereoscopic video coding using MPEG-2 Temporal scalability concepts. Compatible coding employing two different types of prediction structures become potentially possible, disparity compensated prediction and combined disparity and motion compensated predictions. To further improve coding performance and display quality, preprocessing for reducing mismatch between the two views forming stereoscopic video is considered. Results of simulations performed on stereoscopic video of normal TV resolution are then reported comparing the performance of two prediction structures with the simulcast solution. It is found that combined disparity and motion compensated prediction offers the best performance. Results indicate that compression of both views of stereoscopic video of normal TV resolution appears feasible in a total of 6 to 8 Mbit/s. We then discuss regarding multi-viewpoint video, a generalization of stereoscopic video. Finally, we describe ongoing efforts within MPEG-2 to define a profile for stereoscopic video coding, as well as, the promise of MPEG-4 in addressing coding of multi-viewpoint video.

Compression of stereoscopic video using MPEG-2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Puri, Atul; Kollarits, Richard V.; Haskell, Barry G.

1995-12-01

Many current as well as emerging applications in areas of entertainment, remote operations, manufacturing industry and medicine can benefit from the depth perception offered by stereoscopic video systems which employ two views of a scene imaged under the constraints imposed by human visual system. Among the many challenges to be overcome for practical realization and widespread use of 3D/stereoscopic systems are good 3D displays and efficient techniques for digital compression of enormous amounts of data while maintaining compatibility with normal video decoding and display systems. After a brief introduction to the basics of 3D/stereo including issues of depth perception, stereoscopic 3D displays and terminology in stereoscopic imaging and display, we present an overview of tools in the MPEG-2 video standard that are relevant to our discussion on compression of stereoscopic video, which is the main topic of this paper. Next, we outline the various approaches for compression of stereoscopic video and then focus on compatible stereoscopic video coding using MPEG-2 Temporal scalability concepts. Compatible coding employing two different types of prediction structures become potentially possible, disparity compensated prediction and combined disparity and motion compensated predictions. To further improve coding performance and display quality, preprocessing for reducing mismatch between the two views forming stereoscopic video is considered. Results of simulations performed on stereoscopic video of normal TV resolution are then reported comparing the performance of two prediction structures with the simulcast solution. It is found that combined disparity and motion compensated prediction offers the best performance. Results indicate that compression of both views of stereoscopic video of normal TV resolution appears feasible in a total of 6 to 8 Mbit/s. We then discuss regarding multi-viewpoint video, a generalization of stereoscopic video. Finally, we describe ongoing efforts within MPEG-2 to define a profile for stereoscopic video coding, as well as, the promise of MPEG-4 in addressing coding of multi-viewpoint video.

Multi-frame image processing with panning cameras and moving subjects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paolini, Aaron; Humphrey, John; Curt, Petersen; Kelmelis, Eric

2014-06-01

Imaging scenarios commonly involve erratic, unpredictable camera behavior or subjects that are prone to movement, complicating multi-frame image processing techniques. To address these issues, we developed three techniques that can be applied to multi-frame image processing algorithms in order to mitigate the adverse effects observed when cameras are panning or subjects within the scene are moving. We provide a detailed overview of the techniques and discuss the applicability of each to various movement types. In addition to this, we evaluated algorithm efficacy with demonstrated benefits using field test video, which has been processed using our commercially available surveillance product. Our results show that algorithm efficacy is significantly improved in common scenarios, expanding our software's operational scope. Our methods introduce little computational burden, enabling their use in real-time and low-power solutions, and are appropriate for long observation periods. Our test cases focus on imaging through turbulence, a common use case for multi-frame techniques. We present results of a field study designed to test the efficacy of these techniques under expanded use cases.

Deep hierarchical attention network for video description

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Shuohao; Tang, Min; Zhang, Jun

2018-03-01

Pairing video to natural language description remains a challenge in computer vision and machine translation. Inspired by image description, which uses an encoder-decoder model for reducing visual scene into a single sentence, we propose a deep hierarchical attention network for video description. The proposed model uses convolutional neural network (CNN) and bidirectional LSTM network as encoders while a hierarchical attention network is used as the decoder. Compared to encoder-decoder models used in video description, the bidirectional LSTM network can capture the temporal structure among video frames. Moreover, the hierarchical attention network has an advantage over single-layer attention network on global context modeling. To make a fair comparison with other methods, we evaluate the proposed architecture with different types of CNN structures and decoders. Experimental results on the standard datasets show that our model has a more superior performance than the state-of-the-art techniques.

The development of confocal arthroscopy as optical histology for rotator cuff tendinopathy.

PubMed

Wu, J-P; Walton, M; Wang, A; Anderson, P; Wang, T; Kirk, T B; Zheng, M H

2015-09-01

MRI, ultrasound and video arthroscopy are traditional imaging technologies for noninvasive or minimal invasive assessment of the rotator cuff tendon pathology. However, these imaging modalities do not have sufficient resolution to demonstrate the pathology of rotator cuff tendons at a microstructural level. Therefore, they are insensitive to low-level tendon diseases. Although traditional histology can be used to analyze the physiology of rotator cuff tendons, it requires biopsy that traumatizes the rotator cuff, thus, potentially comprising the mechanical properties of tendons. Besides, it cannot offer real-time histological information. Confocal endoscopy offers a way to assess the microstructural disorder in tissues without biopsy. However, the application of this useful technique for detecting low-level tendon diseases has been restricted by using clinical grade fluorescent contrast agent to acquire high-resolution microstructural images of tendons. In this study, using a clinical grade sodium fluorescein contrast agent, we have reported the development of confocal arthroscopy for optical histological assessment without biopsy. The confocal arthroscopic technique was able to demonstrate rotator cuff tendinopathy in human cadavers, which appeared macroscopically normal under video arthroscopic examinations. The tendinopathy status of the rotator cuff tendons was confirmed by corresponding traditional histology. The development of confocal arthroscopy may provide a minimally invasive imaging technique for real-time histology of rotator cuff without the need for tissue biopsy. This technique has the potential for surgeons to gain in real time the histological information of rotator cuff tendons, which may assist planning repair strategies and potentially improve intervention outcomes. © 2015 The Authors Journal of Microscopy © 2015 Royal Microscopical Society.

Meteor tracking via local pattern clustering in spatio-temporal domain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kukal, Jaromír.; Klimt, Martin; Švihlík, Jan; Fliegel, Karel

2016-09-01

Reliable meteor detection is one of the crucial disciplines in astronomy. A variety of imaging systems is used for meteor path reconstruction. The traditional approach is based on analysis of 2D image sequences obtained from a double station video observation system. Precise localization of meteor path is difficult due to atmospheric turbulence and other factors causing spatio-temporal fluctuations of the image background. The proposed technique performs non-linear preprocessing of image intensity using Box-Cox transform as recommended in our previous work. Both symmetric and asymmetric spatio-temporal differences are designed to be robust in the statistical sense. Resulting local patterns are processed by data whitening technique and obtained vectors are classified via cluster analysis and Self-Organized Map (SOM).

qF-SSOP: real-time optical property corrected fluorescence imaging

PubMed Central

Valdes, Pablo A.; Angelo, Joseph P.; Choi, Hak Soo; Gioux, Sylvain

2017-01-01

Fluorescence imaging is well suited to provide image guidance during resections in oncologic and vascular surgery. However, the distorting effects of tissue optical properties on the emitted fluorescence are poorly compensated for on even the most advanced fluorescence image guidance systems, leading to subjective and inaccurate estimates of tissue fluorophore concentrations. Here we present a novel fluorescence imaging technique that performs real-time (i.e., video rate) optical property corrected fluorescence imaging. We perform full field of view simultaneous imaging of tissue optical properties using Single Snapshot of Optical Properties (SSOP) and fluorescence detection. The estimated optical properties are used to correct the emitted fluorescence with a quantitative fluorescence model to provide quantitative fluorescence-Single Snapshot of Optical Properties (qF-SSOP) images with less than 5% error. The technique is rigorous, fast, and quantitative, enabling ease of integration into the surgical workflow with the potential to improve molecular guidance intraoperatively. PMID:28856038

Tracking flow of leukocytes in blood for drug analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Basharat, Arslan; Turner, Wesley; Stephens, Gillian; Badillo, Benjamin; Lumpkin, Rick; Andre, Patrick; Perera, Amitha

2011-03-01

Modern microscopy techniques allow imaging of circulating blood components under vascular flow conditions. The resulting video sequences provide unique insights into the behavior of blood cells within the vasculature and can be used as a method to monitor and quantitate the recruitment of inflammatory cells at sites of vascular injury/ inflammation and potentially serve as a pharmacodynamic biomarker, helping screen new therapies and individualize dose and combinations of drugs. However, manual analysis of these video sequences is intractable, requiring hours per 400 second video clip. In this paper, we present an automated technique to analyze the behavior and recruitment of human leukocytes in whole blood under physiological conditions of shear through a simple multi-channel fluorescence microscope in real-time. This technique detects and tracks the recruitment of leukocytes to a bioactive surface coated on a flow chamber. Rolling cells (cells which partially bind to the bioactive matrix) are detected counted, and have their velocity measured and graphed. The challenges here include: high cell density, appearance similarity, and low (1Hz) frame rate. Our approach performs frame differencing based motion segmentation, track initialization and online tracking of individual leukocytes.

Lip-reading enhancement for law enforcement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Theobald, Barry J.; Harvey, Richard; Cox, Stephen J.; Lewis, Colin; Owen, Gari P.

2006-09-01

Accurate lip-reading techniques would be of enormous benefit for agencies involved in counter-terrorism and other law-enforcement areas. Unfortunately, there are very few skilled lip-readers, and it is apparently a difficult skill to transmit, so the area is under-resourced. In this paper we investigate the possibility of making the lip-reading task more amenable to a wider range of operators by enhancing lip movements in video sequences using active appearance models. These are generative, parametric models commonly used to track faces in images and video sequences. The parametric nature of the model allows a face in an image to be encoded in terms of a few tens of parameters, while the generative nature allows faces to be re-synthesised using the parameters. The aim of this study is to determine if exaggerating lip-motions in video sequences by amplifying the parameters of the model improves lip-reading ability. We also present results of lip-reading tests undertaken by experienced (but non-expert) adult subjects who claim to use lip-reading in their speech recognition process. The results, which are comparisons of word error-rates on unprocessed and processed video, are mixed. We find that there appears to be the potential to improve the word error rate but, for the method to improve the intelligibility there is need for more sophisticated tracking and visual modelling. Our technique can also act as an expression or visual gesture amplifier and so has applications to animation and the presentation of information via avatars or synthetic humans.

Computer aided diagnosis of diabetic peripheral neuropathy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chekh, Viktor; Soliz, Peter; McGrew, Elizabeth; Barriga, Simon; Burge, Mark; Luan, Shuang

2014-03-01

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) refers to the nerve damage that can occur in diabetes patients. It most often affects the extremities, such as the feet, and can lead to peripheral vascular disease, deformity, infection, ulceration, and even amputation. The key to managing diabetic foot is prevention and early detection. Unfortunately, current existing diagnostic techniques are mostly based on patient sensations and exhibit significant inter- and intra-observer differences. We have developed a computer aided diagnostic (CAD) system for diabetic peripheral neuropathy. The thermal response of the feet of diabetic patients following cold stimulus is captured using an infrared camera. The plantar foot in the images from a thermal video are segmented and registered for tracking points or specific regions. The temperature recovery of each point on the plantar foot is extracted using our bio-thermal model and analyzed. The regions that exhibit abnormal ability to recover are automatically identified to aid the physicians to recognize problematic areas. The key to our CAD system is the segmentation of infrared video. The main challenges for segmenting infrared video compared to normal digital video are (1) as the foot warms up, it also warms up the surrounding, creating an ever changing contrast; and (2) there may be significant motion during imaging. To overcome this, a hybrid segmentation algorithm was developed based on a number of techniques such as continuous max-flow, model based segmentation, shape preservation, convex hull, and temperature normalization. Verifications of the automatic segmentation and registration using manual segmentation and markers show good agreement.

A Novel 2D Image Compression Algorithm Based on Two Levels DWT and DCT Transforms with Enhanced Minimize-Matrix-Size Algorithm for High Resolution Structured Light 3D Surface Reconstruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siddeq, M. M.; Rodrigues, M. A.

2015-09-01

Image compression techniques are widely used on 2D image 2D video 3D images and 3D video. There are many types of compression techniques and among the most popular are JPEG and JPEG2000. In this research, we introduce a new compression method based on applying a two level discrete cosine transform (DCT) and a two level discrete wavelet transform (DWT) in connection with novel compression steps for high-resolution images. The proposed image compression algorithm consists of four steps. (1) Transform an image by a two level DWT followed by a DCT to produce two matrices: DC- and AC-Matrix, or low and high frequency matrix, respectively, (2) apply a second level DCT on the DC-Matrix to generate two arrays, namely nonzero-array and zero-array, (3) apply the Minimize-Matrix-Size algorithm to the AC-Matrix and to the other high-frequencies generated by the second level DWT, (4) apply arithmetic coding to the output of previous steps. A novel decompression algorithm, Fast-Match-Search algorithm (FMS), is used to reconstruct all high-frequency matrices. The FMS-algorithm computes all compressed data probabilities by using a table of data, and then using a binary search algorithm for finding decompressed data inside the table. Thereafter, all decoded DC-values with the decoded AC-coefficients are combined in one matrix followed by inverse two levels DCT with two levels DWT. The technique is tested by compression and reconstruction of 3D surface patches. Additionally, this technique is compared with JPEG and JPEG2000 algorithm through 2D and 3D root-mean-square-error following reconstruction. The results demonstrate that the proposed compression method has better visual properties than JPEG and JPEG2000 and is able to more accurately reconstruct surface patches in 3D.

Digital Signal Processing For Low Bit Rate TV Image Codecs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rao, K. R.

1987-06-01

In view of the 56 KBPS digital switched network services and the ISDN, low bit rate codecs for providing real time full motion color video are under various stages of development. Some companies have already brought the codecs into the market. They are being used by industry and some Federal Agencies for video teleconferencing. In general, these codecs have various features such as multiplexing audio and data, high resolution graphics, encryption, error detection and correction, self diagnostics, freezeframe, split video, text overlay etc. To transmit the original color video on a 56 KBPS network requires bit rate reduction of the order of 1400:1. Such a large scale bandwidth compression can be realized only by implementing a number of sophisticated,digital signal processing techniques. This paper provides an overview of such techniques and outlines the newer concepts that are being investigated. Before resorting to the data compression techniques, various preprocessing operations such as noise filtering, composite-component transformation and horizontal and vertical blanking interval removal are to be implemented. Invariably spatio-temporal subsampling is achieved by appropriate filtering. Transform and/or prediction coupled with motion estimation and strengthened by adaptive features are some of the tools in the arsenal of the data reduction methods. Other essential blocks in the system are quantizer, bit allocation, buffer, multiplexer, channel coding etc.

Design of multi-mode compatible image acquisition system for HD area array CCD

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Chen; Sui, Xiubao

2014-11-01

Combining with the current development trend in video surveillance-digitization and high-definition, a multimode-compatible image acquisition system for HD area array CCD is designed. The hardware and software designs of the color video capture system of HD area array CCD KAI-02150 presented by Truesense Imaging company are analyzed, and the structure parameters of the HD area array CCD and the color video gathering principle of the acquisition system are introduced. Then, the CCD control sequence and the timing logic of the whole capture system are realized. The noises of the video signal (KTC noise and 1/f noise) are filtered by using the Correlated Double Sampling (CDS) technique to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of the system. The compatible designs in both software and hardware for the two other image sensors of the same series: KAI-04050 and KAI-08050 are put forward; the effective pixels of these two HD image sensors are respectively as many as four million and eight million. A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is adopted as the key controller of the system to perform the modularization design from top to bottom, which realizes the hardware design by software and improves development efficiency. At last, the required time sequence driving is simulated accurately by the use of development platform of Quartus II 12.1 combining with VHDL. The result of the simulation indicates that the driving circuit is characterized by simple framework, low power consumption, and strong anti-interference ability, which meet the demand of miniaturization and high-definition for the current tendency.

Image processing techniques for noise removal, enhancement and segmentation of cartilage OCT images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rogowska, Jadwiga; Brezinski, Mark E.

2002-02-01

Osteoarthritis, whose hallmark is the progressive loss of joint cartilage, is a major cause of morbidity worldwide. Recently, optical coherence tomography (OCT) has demonstrated considerable promise for the assessment of articular cartilage. Among the most important parameters to be assessed is cartilage width. However, detection of the bone cartilage interface is critical for the assessment of cartilage width. At present, the quantitative evaluations of cartilage thickness are being done using manual tracing of cartilage-bone borders. Since data is being obtained near video rate with OCT, automated identification of the bone-cartilage interface is critical. In order to automate the process of boundary detection on OCT images, there is a need for developing new image processing techniques. In this paper we describe the image processing techniques for speckle removal, image enhancement and segmentation of cartilage OCT images. In particular, this paper focuses on rabbit cartilage since this is an important animal model for testing both chondroprotective agents and cartilage repair techniques. In this study, a variety of techniques were examined. Ultimately, by combining an adaptive filtering technique with edge detection (vertical gradient, Sobel edge detection), cartilage edges can be detected. The procedure requires several steps and can be automated. Once the cartilage edges are outlined, the cartilage thickness can be measured.

A panoramic imaging system based on fish-eye lens

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Ye; Hao, Chenyang

2017-10-01

Panoramic imaging has been closely watched as one of the major technologies of AR and VR. Mainstream panoramic imaging techniques lenses include fish-eye lenses, image splicing, and catadioptric imaging system. Meanwhile, fish-eyes are widely used in the big picture video surveillance. The advantage of fish-eye lenses is that they are easy to operate and cost less, but how to solve the image distortion of fish-eye lenses has always been a very important topic. In this paper, the image calibration algorithm of fish-eye lens is studied by comparing the method of interpolation, bilinear interpolation and double three interpolation, which are used to optimize the images.

CHARACTERIZING TRANSFER OF SURFACE RESIDUES TO SKIN USING A VIDEO-FLUORESCENT IMAGING TECHNIQUE

EPA Science Inventory

Surface-to-skin transfer of contaminants is a complex process. For children's residential exposure, transfer of chemicals from contaminated surfaces such as floors and furniture is potentially significant. Once on the skin, residues and contaminated particles can be transferred b...

COMPARING PESTICIDE TRANSFERS FROM RESIDENTIAL SURFACE USING TRANSFERABLE RESIDUE SAMPLING TECHNIQUES AND VIDEO-FLUORESCENT IMAGING

EPA Science Inventory

The recent change from organophosphate (OP) to pyrethroid insecticides for indoor residential pest control may significantly affect the relative importance of different exposure routes because of differences in physical/chemical properties of these two classes of compounds. In...

3-D video techniques in endoscopic surgery.

PubMed

Becker, H; Melzer, A; Schurr, M O; Buess, G

1993-02-01

Three-dimensional visualisation of the operative field is an important requisite for precise and fast handling of open surgical operations. Up to now it has only been possible to display a two-dimensional image on the monitor during endoscopic procedures. The increasing complexity of minimal invasive interventions requires endoscopic suturing and ligatures of larger vessels which are difficult to perform without the impression of space. Three-dimensional vision therefore may decrease the operative risk, accelerate interventions and widen the operative spectrum. In April 1992 a 3-D video system developed at the Nuclear Research Center Karlsruhe, Germany (IAI Institute) was applied in various animal experimental procedures and clinically in laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The system works with a single monitor and active high-speed shutter glasses. Our first trials with this new 3-D imaging system clearly showed a facilitation of complex surgical manoeuvres like mobilisation of organs, preparation in the deep space and suture techniques. The 3-D-system introduced in this article will enter the market in 1993 (Opticon Co., Karlsruhe, Germany.

Blind identification of full-field vibration modes from video measurements with phase-based video motion magnification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Yongchao; Dorn, Charles; Mancini, Tyler; Talken, Zachary; Kenyon, Garrett; Farrar, Charles; Mascareñas, David

2017-02-01

Experimental or operational modal analysis traditionally requires physically-attached wired or wireless sensors for vibration measurement of structures. This instrumentation can result in mass-loading on lightweight structures, and is costly and time-consuming to install and maintain on large civil structures, especially for long-term applications (e.g., structural health monitoring) that require significant maintenance for cabling (wired sensors) or periodic replacement of the energy supply (wireless sensors). Moreover, these sensors are typically placed at a limited number of discrete locations, providing low spatial sensing resolution that is hardly sufficient for modal-based damage localization, or model correlation and updating for larger-scale structures. Non-contact measurement methods such as scanning laser vibrometers provide high-resolution sensing capacity without the mass-loading effect; however, they make sequential measurements that require considerable acquisition time. As an alternative non-contact method, digital video cameras are relatively low-cost, agile, and provide high spatial resolution, simultaneous, measurements. Combined with vision based algorithms (e.g., image correlation, optical flow), video camera based measurements have been successfully used for vibration measurements and subsequent modal analysis, based on techniques such as the digital image correlation (DIC) and the point-tracking. However, they typically require speckle pattern or high-contrast markers to be placed on the surface of structures, which poses challenges when the measurement area is large or inaccessible. This work explores advanced computer vision and video processing algorithms to develop a novel video measurement and vision-based operational (output-only) modal analysis method that alleviate the need of structural surface preparation associated with existing vision-based methods and can be implemented in a relatively efficient and autonomous manner with little user supervision and calibration. First a multi-scale image processing method is applied on the frames of the video of a vibrating structure to extract the local pixel phases that encode local structural vibration, establishing a full-field spatiotemporal motion matrix. Then a high-spatial dimensional, yet low-modal-dimensional, over-complete model is used to represent the extracted full-field motion matrix using modal superposition, which is physically connected and manipulated by a family of unsupervised learning models and techniques, respectively. Thus, the proposed method is able to blindly extract modal frequencies, damping ratios, and full-field (as many points as the pixel number of the video frame) mode shapes from line of sight video measurements of the structure. The method is validated by laboratory experiments on a bench-scale building structure and a cantilever beam. Its ability for output (video measurements)-only identification and visualization of the weakly-excited mode is demonstrated and several issues with its implementation are discussed.

Automatic assessment of mitral regurgitation severity based on extensive textural features on 2D echocardiography videos.

PubMed

Moghaddasi, Hanie; Nourian, Saeed

2016-06-01

Heart disease is the major cause of death as well as a leading cause of disability in the developed countries. Mitral Regurgitation (MR) is a common heart disease which does not cause symptoms until its end stage. Therefore, early diagnosis of the disease is of crucial importance in the treatment process. Echocardiography is a common method of diagnosis in the severity of MR. Hence, a method which is based on echocardiography videos, image processing techniques and artificial intelligence could be helpful for clinicians, especially in borderline cases. In this paper, we introduce novel features to detect micro-patterns of echocardiography images in order to determine the severity of MR. Extensive Local Binary Pattern (ELBP) and Extensive Volume Local Binary Pattern (EVLBP) are presented as image descriptors which include details from different viewpoints of the heart in feature vectors. Support Vector Machine (SVM), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) and Template Matching techniques are used as classifiers to determine the severity of MR based on textural descriptors. The SVM classifier with Extensive Uniform Local Binary Pattern (ELBPU) and Extensive Volume Local Binary Pattern (EVLBP) have the best accuracy with 99.52%, 99.38%, 99.31% and 99.59%, respectively, for the detection of Normal, Mild MR, Moderate MR and Severe MR subjects among echocardiography videos. The proposed method achieves 99.38% sensitivity and 99.63% specificity for the detection of the severity of MR and normal subjects. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Studies of the effects of gravitational and inertial forces on cardiovascular and respiratory dynamics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ritman, E. L.; Wood, E. H.

1973-01-01

The current status and application are described of the biplane video roentgen densitometry, videometry and video digitization systems. These techniques were developed, and continue to be developed for studies of the effects of gravitational and inertial forces on cardiovascular and respiratory dynamics in intact animals and man. Progress is reported in the field of lung dynamics and three-dimensional reconstruction of the dynamic thoracic contents from roentgen video images. It is anticipated that these data will provide added insight into the role of shape and internal spatial relationships (which is altered particularly by acceleration and position of the body) of these organs as an indication of their functional status.

Automated Video Quality Assessment for Deep-Sea Video

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pirenne, B.; Hoeberechts, M.; Kalmbach, A.; Sadhu, T.; Branzan Albu, A.; Glotin, H.; Jeffries, M. A.; Bui, A. O. V.

2015-12-01

Video provides a rich source of data for geophysical analysis, often supplying detailed information about the environment when other instruments may not. This is especially true of deep-sea environments, where direct visual observations cannot be made. As computer vision techniques improve and volumes of video data increase, automated video analysis is emerging as a practical alternative to labor-intensive manual analysis. Automated techniques can be much more sensitive to video quality than their manual counterparts, so performing quality assessment before doing full analysis is critical to producing valid results.Ocean Networks Canada (ONC), an initiative of the University of Victoria, operates cabled ocean observatories that supply continuous power and Internet connectivity to a broad suite of subsea instruments from the coast to the deep sea, including video and still cameras. This network of ocean observatories has produced almost 20,000 hours of video (about 38 hours are recorded each day) and an additional 8,000 hours of logs from remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dives. We begin by surveying some ways in which deep-sea video poses challenges for automated analysis, including: 1. Non-uniform lighting: Single, directional, light sources produce uneven luminance distributions and shadows; remotely operated lighting equipment are also susceptible to technical failures. 2. Particulate noise: Turbidity and marine snow are often present in underwater video; particles in the water column can have sharper focus and higher contrast than the objects of interest due to their proximity to the light source and can also influence the camera's autofocus and auto white-balance routines. 3. Color distortion (low contrast): The rate of absorption of light in water varies by wavelength, and is higher overall than in air, altering apparent colors and lowering the contrast of objects at a distance.We also describe measures under development at ONC for detecting and mitigating these effects. These steps include filtering out unusable data, color and luminance balancing, and choosing the most appropriate image descriptors. We apply these techniques to generate automated quality assessment of video data and illustrate their utility with an example application where we perform vision-based substrate classification.

Doppler imaging using spectrally-encoded endoscopy

PubMed Central

Yelin, Dvir; Bouma, B. E.; Rosowsky, J. J.; Tearney, G. J.

2009-01-01

The capability to image tissue motion such as blood flow through an endoscope could have many applications in medicine. Spectrally encoded endoscopy (SEE) is a recently introduced technique that utilizes a single optical fiber and miniature diffractive optics to obtain endoscopic images through small diameter probes. Using spectral-domain interferometry, SEE is furthermore capable of three-dimensional volume imaging at video rates. Here we show that by measuring relative spectral phases, this technology can additionally measure Doppler shifts. Doppler SEE is demonstrated in flowing Intralipid phantoms and vibrating middle ear ossicles. PMID:18795020

Hot Spots from Generated Defects in HMX Crystals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sorensen, Christian; Cummock, Nicholas; O'Grady, Caitlin; Gunduz, I. Emre; Son, Steven

2017-06-01

There are several hot spot initiation mechanisms that have been proposed. However, direct observation of shock or impact compression of these mechanisms at macroscopic scale in explosives is difficult. Phase contrast imaging (PCI) may be applied to these systems. Here, high-speed video was used to record optical spectrum and for x-ray Phase Contrast Imaging (PCI) of shockwave interaction with low defect HMX crystals and crystals with engineered defects. Additionally, multiple crystals were arranged and observed under shock loading with PCI and optical high-speed video. Sample preparation techniques for generating voids and other engineered defects will be discussed. These methods include drilled holes and laser machined samples. Insight into hot spot mechanisms was obtained. Funding from ONR's PC@Xtreme MURI.

Perception of facial esthetics by native Chinese participants by using manipulated digital imagery techniques.

PubMed

Maganzini, A L; Tseng, J Y; Epstein, J Z

2000-10-01

This investigation utilized a manipulated digital video imaging model to elicit profile facial esthetics preferences in a lay population of native Chinese participants from Beijing. A series of 4 distinct digitized distortions were constructed from an initial lateral cephalogram. These images represented skeletal or dental changes that differed by 2 standard deviations from the normative values for Chinese adults. Video morphing then created soft-tissue profiles. A series of nonparametric tests validated the digitized distortion model. The native Chinese participants in this sample found that the profile distortions most acceptable were the "flatter", or bimaxillary retrusive distortion, in the male stimulus face and the "anterior divergent", or maxillary deficiency, in the female stimulus face.

Autonomous facial recognition system inspired by human visual system based logarithmical image visualization technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wan, Qianwen; Panetta, Karen; Agaian, Sos

2017-05-01

Autonomous facial recognition system is widely used in real-life applications, such as homeland border security, law enforcement identification and authentication, and video-based surveillance analysis. Issues like low image quality, non-uniform illumination as well as variations in poses and facial expressions can impair the performance of recognition systems. To address the non-uniform illumination challenge, we present a novel robust autonomous facial recognition system inspired by the human visual system based, so called, logarithmical image visualization technique. In this paper, the proposed method, for the first time, utilizes the logarithmical image visualization technique coupled with the local binary pattern to perform discriminative feature extraction for facial recognition system. The Yale database, the Yale-B database and the ATT database are used for computer simulation accuracy and efficiency testing. The extensive computer simulation demonstrates the method's efficiency, accuracy, and robustness of illumination invariance for facial recognition.

Augmented Virtuality: A Real-time Process for Presenting Real-world Visual Sensory Information in an Immersive Virtual Environment for Planetary Exploration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McFadden, D.; Tavakkoli, A.; Regenbrecht, J.; Wilson, B.

2017-12-01

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) applications have recently seen an impressive growth, thanks to the advent of commercial Head Mounted Displays (HMDs). This new visualization era has opened the possibility of presenting researchers from multiple disciplines with data visualization techniques not possible via traditional 2D screens. In a purely VR environment researchers are presented with the visual data in a virtual environment, whereas in a purely AR application, a piece of virtual object is projected into the real world with which researchers could interact. There are several limitations to the purely VR or AR application when taken within the context of remote planetary exploration. For example, in a purely VR environment, contents of the planet surface (e.g. rocks, terrain, or other features) should be created off-line from a multitude of images using image processing techniques to generate 3D mesh data that will populate the virtual surface of the planet. This process usually takes a tremendous amount of computational resources and cannot be delivered in real-time. As an alternative, video frames may be superimposed on the virtual environment to save processing time. However, such rendered video frames will lack 3D visual information -i.e. depth information. In this paper, we present a technique to utilize a remotely situated robot's stereoscopic cameras to provide a live visual feed from the real world into the virtual environment in which planetary scientists are immersed. Moreover, the proposed technique will blend the virtual environment with the real world in such a way as to preserve both the depth and visual information from the real world while allowing for the sensation of immersion when the entire sequence is viewed via an HMD such as Oculus Rift. The figure shows the virtual environment with an overlay of the real-world stereoscopic video being presented in real-time into the virtual environment. Notice the preservation of the object's shape, shadows, and depth information. The distortions shown in the image are due to the rendering of the stereoscopic data into a 2D image for the purposes of taking screenshots.

Software manual for operating particle displacement tracking data acquisition and reduction system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wernet, Mark P.

1991-01-01

The software manual is presented. The necessary steps required to record, analyze, and reduce Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) data using the Particle Displacement Tracking (PDT) technique are described. The new PDT system is an all electronic technique employing a CCD video camera and a large memory buffer frame-grabber board to record low velocity (less than or equal to 20 cm/s) flows. Using a simple encoding scheme, a time sequence of single exposure images are time coded into a single image and then processed to track particle displacements and determine 2-D velocity vectors. All the PDT data acquisition, analysis, and data reduction software is written to run on an 80386 PC.

Scalable Coding of Plenoptic Images by Using a Sparse Set and Disparities.

PubMed

Li, Yun; Sjostrom, Marten; Olsson, Roger; Jennehag, Ulf

2016-01-01

One of the light field capturing techniques is the focused plenoptic capturing. By placing a microlens array in front of the photosensor, the focused plenoptic cameras capture both spatial and angular information of a scene in each microlens image and across microlens images. The capturing results in a significant amount of redundant information, and the captured image is usually of a large resolution. A coding scheme that removes the redundancy before coding can be of advantage for efficient compression, transmission, and rendering. In this paper, we propose a lossy coding scheme to efficiently represent plenoptic images. The format contains a sparse image set and its associated disparities. The reconstruction is performed by disparity-based interpolation and inpainting, and the reconstructed image is later employed as a prediction reference for the coding of the full plenoptic image. As an outcome of the representation, the proposed scheme inherits a scalable structure with three layers. The results show that plenoptic images are compressed efficiently with over 60 percent bit rate reduction compared with High Efficiency Video Coding intra coding, and with over 20 percent compared with an High Efficiency Video Coding block copying mode.

Multi-scale approaches for high-speed imaging and analysis of large neural populations

PubMed Central

Ahrens, Misha B.; Yuste, Rafael; Peterka, Darcy S.; Paninski, Liam

2017-01-01

Progress in modern neuroscience critically depends on our ability to observe the activity of large neuronal populations with cellular spatial and high temporal resolution. However, two bottlenecks constrain efforts towards fast imaging of large populations. First, the resulting large video data is challenging to analyze. Second, there is an explicit tradeoff between imaging speed, signal-to-noise, and field of view: with current recording technology we cannot image very large neuronal populations with simultaneously high spatial and temporal resolution. Here we describe multi-scale approaches for alleviating both of these bottlenecks. First, we show that spatial and temporal decimation techniques based on simple local averaging provide order-of-magnitude speedups in spatiotemporally demixing calcium video data into estimates of single-cell neural activity. Second, once the shapes of individual neurons have been identified at fine scale (e.g., after an initial phase of conventional imaging with standard temporal and spatial resolution), we find that the spatial/temporal resolution tradeoff shifts dramatically: after demixing we can accurately recover denoised fluorescence traces and deconvolved neural activity of each individual neuron from coarse scale data that has been spatially decimated by an order of magnitude. This offers a cheap method for compressing this large video data, and also implies that it is possible to either speed up imaging significantly, or to “zoom out” by a corresponding factor to image order-of-magnitude larger neuronal populations with minimal loss in accuracy or temporal resolution. PMID:28771570

Image sequence analysis workstation for multipoint motion analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mostafavi, Hassan

1990-08-01

This paper describes an application-specific engineering workstation designed and developed to analyze motion of objects from video sequences. The system combines the software and hardware environment of a modem graphic-oriented workstation with the digital image acquisition, processing and display techniques. In addition to automation and Increase In throughput of data reduction tasks, the objective of the system Is to provide less invasive methods of measurement by offering the ability to track objects that are more complex than reflective markers. Grey level Image processing and spatial/temporal adaptation of the processing parameters is used for location and tracking of more complex features of objects under uncontrolled lighting and background conditions. The applications of such an automated and noninvasive measurement tool include analysis of the trajectory and attitude of rigid bodies such as human limbs, robots, aircraft in flight, etc. The system's key features are: 1) Acquisition and storage of Image sequences by digitizing and storing real-time video; 2) computer-controlled movie loop playback, freeze frame display, and digital Image enhancement; 3) multiple leading edge tracking in addition to object centroids at up to 60 fields per second from both live input video or a stored Image sequence; 4) model-based estimation and tracking of the six degrees of freedom of a rigid body: 5) field-of-view and spatial calibration: 6) Image sequence and measurement data base management; and 7) offline analysis software for trajectory plotting and statistical analysis.

Raster Scan Computer Image Generation (CIG) System Based On Refresh Memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dichter, W.; Doris, K.; Conkling, C.

1982-06-01

A full color, Computer Image Generation (CIG) raster visual system has been developed which provides a high level of training sophistication by utilizing advanced semiconductor technology and innovative hardware and firmware techniques. Double buffered refresh memory and efficient algorithms eliminate the problem of conventional raster line ordering by allowing the generated image to be stored in a random fashion. Modular design techniques and simplified architecture provide significant advantages in reduced system cost, standardization of parts, and high reliability. The major system components are a general purpose computer to perform interfacing and data base functions; a geometric processor to define the instantaneous scene image; a display generator to convert the image to a video signal; an illumination control unit which provides final image processing; and a CRT monitor for display of the completed image. Additional optional enhancements include texture generators, increased edge and occultation capability, curved surface shading, and data base extensions.

A spatiotemporal decomposition strategy for personal home video management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yi, Haoran; Kozintsev, Igor; Polito, Marzia; Wu, Yi; Bouguet, Jean-Yves; Nefian, Ara; Dulong, Carole

2007-01-01

With the advent and proliferation of low cost and high performance digital video recorder devices, an increasing number of personal home video clips are recorded and stored by the consumers. Compared to image data, video data is lager in size and richer in multimedia content. Efficient access to video content is expected to be more challenging than image mining. Previously, we have developed a content-based image retrieval system and the benchmarking framework for personal images. In this paper, we extend our personal image retrieval system to include personal home video clips. A possible initial solution to video mining is to represent video clips by a set of key frames extracted from them thus converting the problem into an image search one. Here we report that a careful selection of key frames may improve the retrieval accuracy. However, because video also has temporal dimension, its key frame representation is inherently limited. The use of temporal information can give us better representation for video content at semantic object and concept levels than image-only based representation. In this paper we propose a bottom-up framework to combine interest point tracking, image segmentation and motion-shape factorization to decompose the video into spatiotemporal regions. We show an example application of activity concept detection using the trajectories extracted from the spatio-temporal regions. The proposed approach shows good potential for concise representation and indexing of objects and their motion in real-life consumer video.

Video Toroid Cavity Imager

DOEpatents

Gerald, II, Rex E.; Sanchez, Jairo; Rathke, Jerome W.

2004-08-10

A video toroid cavity imager for in situ measurement of electrochemical properties of an electrolytic material sample includes a cylindrical toroid cavity resonator containing the sample and employs NMR and video imaging for providing high-resolution spectral and visual information of molecular characteristics of the sample on a real-time basis. A large magnetic field is applied to the sample under controlled temperature and pressure conditions to simultaneously provide NMR spectroscopy and video imaging capabilities for investigating electrochemical transformations of materials or the evolution of long-range molecular aggregation during cooling of hydrocarbon melts. The video toroid cavity imager includes a miniature commercial video camera with an adjustable lens, a modified compression coin cell imager with a fiat circular principal detector element, and a sample mounted on a transparent circular glass disk, and provides NMR information as well as a video image of a sample, such as a polymer film, with micrometer resolution.

An Imaging And Graphics Workstation For Image Sequence Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mostafavi, Hassan

1990-01-01

This paper describes an application-specific engineering workstation designed and developed to analyze imagery sequences from a variety of sources. The system combines the software and hardware environment of the modern graphic-oriented workstations with the digital image acquisition, processing and display techniques. The objective is to achieve automation and high throughput for many data reduction tasks involving metric studies of image sequences. The applications of such an automated data reduction tool include analysis of the trajectory and attitude of aircraft, missile, stores and other flying objects in various flight regimes including launch and separation as well as regular flight maneuvers. The workstation can also be used in an on-line or off-line mode to study three-dimensional motion of aircraft models in simulated flight conditions such as wind tunnels. The system's key features are: 1) Acquisition and storage of image sequences by digitizing real-time video or frames from a film strip; 2) computer-controlled movie loop playback, slow motion and freeze frame display combined with digital image sharpening, noise reduction, contrast enhancement and interactive image magnification; 3) multiple leading edge tracking in addition to object centroids at up to 60 fields per second from both live input video or a stored image sequence; 4) automatic and manual field-of-view and spatial calibration; 5) image sequence data base generation and management, including the measurement data products; 6) off-line analysis software for trajectory plotting and statistical analysis; 7) model-based estimation and tracking of object attitude angles; and 8) interface to a variety of video players and film transport sub-systems.

A new Watermarking System based on Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) in color biometric images.

PubMed

Dogan, Sengul; Tuncer, Turker; Avci, Engin; Gulten, Arif

2012-08-01

This paper recommend a biometric color images hiding approach An Watermarking System based on Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), which is used to protect the security and integrity of transmitted biometric color images. Watermarking is a very important hiding information (audio, video, color image, gray image) technique. It is commonly used on digital objects together with the developing technology in the last few years. One of the common methods used for hiding information on image files is DCT method which used in the frequency domain. In this study, DCT methods in order to embed watermark data into face images, without corrupting their features.

Video comparator system for early detection of cutaneous malignant melanoma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Craine, Eric R.; Craine, Brian L.

1992-05-01

The recognized incidence of cutaneous malignant melanoma in the United States is now rising faster than any other cancer, increasing by 83% from 1980 to 1987. Recent revelations that depletion of the earth's ozone layer is accelerating at a more rapid rate than previously believed can only exacerbate current projections for the increased incidence of this deadly disease. Because there is no good treatment for metastatic melanoma even small cancers often prove fatal if not detected early. Melanoma allowed to invade the subcutaneous tissue is associated with a five-year survival rate of only 44%. Ironically, few cancers provide a greater opportunity for early discovery and cure. Cutaneous melanoma is not only located where it is readily observed, but typically undergoes a `radial growth' phase prior to metastasis. During this phase the net growth is superficial and circumferential, gradually increasing the area of the lesion and changing its coloration. Screening measures for the early detection of melanoma must concentrate on two primary tasks: (1) detection of lesion changes indicative of the radial growth stage of malignancy and (2) alerting the patient and physician to the existence of a new or changed lesion on the skin. To accomplish these goals we have experimented with the applicability of a microcomputer based video imaging system which stores an image archive of historical reference images for each patient. With the acquisition of new images of the patient, easily registered with the archival images through a technique we have developed we are able to perform a blink comparison of the image pairs. This technique appears to be far more effective than currently used techniques for detecting changed lesions on a comprehensive basis.

Virtual reality and telerobotics applications of an Address Recalculation Pipeline

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Regan, Matthew; Pose, Ronald

1994-01-01

The technology described in this paper was designed to reduce latency to user interactions in immersive virtual reality environments. It is also ideally suited to telerobotic applications such as interaction with remote robotic manipulators in space or in deep sea operations. in such circumstances the significant latency is observed response to user stimulus which is due to communications delays, and the disturbing jerkiness due to low and unpredictable frame rates on compressed video user feedback or computationally limited virtual worlds, can be masked by our techniques. The user is provided with highly responsive visual feedback independent of communication or computational delays in providing physical video feedback or in rendering virtual world images. Virtual and physical environments can be combined seamlessly using these techniques.

Stereo vision techniques for telescience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hewett, S.

1990-02-01

The Botanic Experiment is one of the pilot experiments in the Telescience Test Bed program at the ESTEC research and technology center of the European Space Agency. The aim of the Telescience Test Bed is to develop the techniques required by an experimenter using a ground based work station for remote control, monitoring, and modification of an experiment operating on a space platform. The purpose of the Botanic Experiment is to examine the growth of seedlings under various illumination conditions with a video camera from a number of viewpoints throughout the duration of the experiment. This paper describes the Botanic Experiment and the points addressed in developing a stereo vision software package to extract quantitative information about the seedlings from the recorded video images.

Human silhouette matching based on moment invariants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Yong-Chao; Qiu, Xian-Jie; Xia, Shi-Hong; Wang, Zhao-Qi

2005-07-01

This paper aims to apply the method of silhouette matching based on moment invariants to infer the human motion parameters from video sequences of single monocular uncalibrated camera. Currently, there are two ways of tracking human motion: Marker and Markerless. While a hybrid framework is introduced in this paper to recover the input video contents. A standard 3D motion database is built up by marker technique in advance. Given a video sequences, human silhouettes are extracted as well as the viewpoint information of the camera which would be utilized to project the standard 3D motion database onto the 2D one. Therefore, the video recovery problem is formulated as a matching issue of finding the most similar body pose in standard 2D library with the one in video image. The framework is applied to the special trampoline sport where we can obtain the complicated human motion parameters in the single camera video sequences, and a lot of experiments are demonstrated that this approach is feasible in the field of monocular video-based 3D motion reconstruction.

Analysis of Video-Based Microscopic Particle Trajectories Using Kalman Filtering

PubMed Central

Wu, Pei-Hsun; Agarwal, Ashutosh; Hess, Henry; Khargonekar, Pramod P.; Tseng, Yiider

2010-01-01

Abstract The fidelity of the trajectories obtained from video-based particle tracking determines the success of a variety of biophysical techniques, including in situ single cell particle tracking and in vitro motility assays. However, the image acquisition process is complicated by system noise, which causes positioning error in the trajectories derived from image analysis. Here, we explore the possibility of reducing the positioning error by the application of a Kalman filter, a powerful algorithm to estimate the state of a linear dynamic system from noisy measurements. We show that the optimal Kalman filter parameters can be determined in an appropriate experimental setting, and that the Kalman filter can markedly reduce the positioning error while retaining the intrinsic fluctuations of the dynamic process. We believe the Kalman filter can potentially serve as a powerful tool to infer a trajectory of ultra-high fidelity from noisy images, revealing the details of dynamic cellular processes. PMID:20550894

Flow visualization and characterization of evaporating liquid drops

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chao, David F. (Inventor); Zhang, Nengli (Inventor)

2004-01-01

An optical system, consisting of drop-reflection image, reflection-refracted shadowgraphy and top-view photography, is used to measure the spreading and instant dynamic contact angle of a volatile-liquid drop on a non-transparent substrate. The drop-reflection image and the shadowgraphy is shown by projecting the images of a collimated laser beam partially reflected by the drop and partially passing through the drop onto a screen while the top view photograph is separately viewed by use of a camera video recorder and monitor. For a transparent liquid on a reflective solid surface, thermocapillary convection in the drop, induced by evaporation, can be viewed nonintrusively, and the drop real-time profile data are synchronously recorded by video recording systems. Experimental results obtained from this technique clearly reveal that evaporation and thermocapillary convection greatly affect the spreading process and the characteristics of dynamic contact angle of the drop.

Low-complexity image processing for real-time detection of neonatal clonic seizures.

PubMed

Ntonfo, Guy Mathurin Kouamou; Ferrari, Gianluigi; Raheli, Riccardo; Pisani, Francesco

2012-05-01

In this paper, we consider a novel low-complexity real-time image-processing-based approach to the detection of neonatal clonic seizures. Our approach is based on the extraction, from a video of a newborn, of an average luminance signal representative of the body movements. Since clonic seizures are characterized by periodic movements of parts of the body (e.g., the limbs), by evaluating the periodicity of the extracted average luminance signal it is possible to detect the presence of a clonic seizure. The periodicity is investigated, through a hybrid autocorrelation-Yin estimation technique, on a per-window basis, where a time window is defined as a sequence of consecutive video frames. While processing is first carried out on a single window basis, we extend our approach to interlaced windows. The performance of the proposed detection algorithm is investigated, in terms of sensitivity and specificity, through receiver operating characteristic curves, considering video recordings of newborns affected by neonatal seizures.

Implementation issues in source coding

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sayood, Khalid; Chen, Yun-Chung; Hadenfeldt, A. C.

1989-01-01

An edge preserving image coding scheme which can be operated in both a lossy and a lossless manner was developed. The technique is an extension of the lossless encoding algorithm developed for the Mars observer spectral data. It can also be viewed as a modification of the DPCM algorithm. A packet video simulator was also developed from an existing modified packet network simulator. The coding scheme for this system is a modification of the mixture block coding (MBC) scheme described in the last report. Coding algorithms for packet video were also investigated.

Advancements in remote physiological measurement and applications in human-computer interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McDuff, Daniel

2017-04-01

Physiological signals are important for tracking health and emotional states. Imaging photoplethysmography (iPPG) is a set of techniques for remotely recovering cardio-pulmonary signals from video of the human body. Advances in iPPG methods over the past decade combined with the ubiquity of digital cameras presents the possibility for many new, lowcost applications of physiological monitoring. This talk will highlight methods for recovering physiological signals, work characterizing the impact of video parameters and hardware on these measurements, and applications of this technology in human-computer interfaces.

Bandwidth characteristics of multimedia data traffic on a local area network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chuang, Shery L.; Doubek, Sharon; Haines, Richard F.

1993-01-01

Limited spacecraft communication links call for users to investigate the potential use of video compression and multimedia technologies to optimize bandwidth allocations. The objective was to determine the transmission characteristics of multimedia data - motion video, text or bitmap graphics, and files transmitted independently and simultaneously over an ethernet local area network. Commercial desktop video teleconferencing hardware and software and Intel's proprietary Digital Video Interactive (DVI) video compression algorithm were used, and typical task scenarios were selected. The transmission time, packet size, number of packets, and network utilization of the data were recorded. Each data type - compressed motion video, text and/or bitmapped graphics, and a compressed image file - was first transmitted independently and its characteristics recorded. The results showed that an average bandwidth of 7.4 kilobits per second (kbps) was used to transmit graphics; an average bandwidth of 86.8 kbps was used to transmit an 18.9-kilobyte (kB) image file; a bandwidth of 728.9 kbps was used to transmit compressed motion video at 15 frames per second (fps); and a bandwidth of 75.9 kbps was used to transmit compressed motion video at 1.5 fps. Average packet sizes were 933 bytes for graphics, 498.5 bytes for the image file, 345.8 bytes for motion video at 15 fps, and 341.9 bytes for motion video at 1.5 fps. Simultaneous transmission of multimedia data types was also characterized. The multimedia packets used transmission bandwidths of 341.4 kbps and 105.8kbps. Bandwidth utilization varied according to the frame rate (frames per second) setting for the transmission of motion video. Packet size did not vary significantly between the data types. When these characteristics are applied to Space Station Freedom (SSF), the packet sizes fall within the maximum specified by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS). The uplink of imagery to SSF may be performed at minimal frame rates and/or within seconds of delay, depending on the user's allocated bandwidth. Further research to identify the acceptable delay interval and its impact on human performance is required. Additional studies in network performance using various video compression algorithms and integrated multimedia techniques are needed to determine the optimal design approach for utilizing SSF's data communications system.

Advances in Measurement of Skin Friction in Airflow

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, James L.; Naughton, Jonathan W.

2006-01-01

The surface interferometric skin-friction (SISF) measurement system is an instrument for determining the distribution of surface shear stress (skin friction) on a wind-tunnel model. The SISF system utilizes the established oil-film interference method, along with advanced image-data-processing techniques and mathematical models that express the relationship between interferograms and skin friction, to determine the distribution of skin friction over an observed region of the surface of a model during a single wind-tunnel test. In the oil-film interference method, a wind-tunnel model is coated with a thin film of oil of known viscosity and is illuminated with quasi-monochromatic, collimated light, typically from a mercury lamp. The light reflected from the outer surface of the oil film interferes with the light reflected from the oil-covered surface of the model. In the present version of the oil-film interference method, a camera captures an image of the illuminated model and the image in the camera is modulated by the interference pattern. The interference pattern depends on the oil-thickness distribution on the observed surface, and this distribution can be extracted through analysis of the image acquired by the camera. The oil-film technique is augmented by a tracer technique for observing the streamline pattern. To make the streamlines visible, small dots of fluorescentchalk/oil mixture are placed on the model just before a test. During the test, the chalk particles are embedded in the oil flow and produce chalk streaks that mark the streamlines. The instantaneous rate of thinning of the oil film at a given position on the surface of the model can be expressed as a function of the instantaneous thickness, the skin-friction distribution on the surface, and the streamline pattern on the surface; the functional relationship is expressed by a mathematical model that is nonlinear in the oil-film thickness and is known simply as the thin-oil-film equation. From the image data acquired as described, the time-dependent oil-thickness distribution and streamline pattern are extracted and by inversion of the thin-oil-film equation it is then possible to determine the skin-friction distribution. In addition to a quasi-monochromatic light source, the SISF system includes a beam splitter and two video cameras equipped with filters for observing the same area on a model in different wavelength ranges, plus a frame grabber and a computer for digitizing the video images and processing the image data. One video camera acquires the interference pattern in a narrow wavelength range of the quasi-monochromatic source. The other video camera acquires the streamline image of fluorescence from the chalk in a nearby but wider wavelength range. The interference- pattern and fluorescence images are digitized, and the resulting data are processed by an algorithm that inverts the thin-oil-film equation to find the skin-friction distribution.

Wholefield displacement measurements using speckle image processing techniques for crash tests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sriram, P.; Hanagud, S.; Ranson, W. F.

The digital correlation scheme of Peters et al. (1983) was extended to measure out-of-plane deformations, using a white light projection speckle technique. A simple ray optic theory and the digital correlation scheme are outlined. The technique was applied successfully to measure out-of-plane displacements of initially flat rotorcraft structures (an acrylic circular plate and a steel cantilever beam), using a low cost video camera and a desktop computer. The technique can be extended to measurements of three-dimensional deformations and dynamic deformations.

Forensic hash for multimedia information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Wenjun; Varna, Avinash L.; Wu, Min

2010-01-01

Digital multimedia such as images and videos are prevalent on today's internet and cause significant social impact, which can be evidenced by the proliferation of social networking sites with user generated contents. Due to the ease of generating and modifying images and videos, it is critical to establish trustworthiness for online multimedia information. In this paper, we propose novel approaches to perform multimedia forensics using compact side information to reconstruct the processing history of a document. We refer to this as FASHION, standing for Forensic hASH for informatION assurance. Based on the Radon transform and scale space theory, the proposed forensic hash is compact and can effectively estimate the parameters of geometric transforms and detect local tampering that an image may have undergone. Forensic hash is designed to answer a broader range of questions regarding the processing history of multimedia data than the simple binary decision from traditional robust image hashing, and also offers more efficient and accurate forensic analysis than multimedia forensic techniques that do not use any side information.

Keyhole imaging method for dynamic objects behind the occlusion area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hao, Conghui; Chen, Xi; Dong, Liquan; Zhao, Yuejin; Liu, Ming; Kong, Lingqin; Hui, Mei; Liu, Xiaohua; Wu, Hong

2018-01-01

A method of keyhole imaging based on camera array is realized to obtain the video image behind a keyhole in shielded space at a relatively long distance. We get the multi-angle video images by using a 2×2 CCD camera array to take the images behind the keyhole in four directions. The multi-angle video images are saved in the form of frame sequences. This paper presents a method of video frame alignment. In order to remove the non-target area outside the aperture, we use the canny operator and morphological method to realize the edge detection of images and fill the images. The image stitching of four images is accomplished on the basis of the image stitching algorithm of two images. In the image stitching algorithm of two images, the SIFT method is adopted to accomplish the initial matching of images, and then the RANSAC algorithm is applied to eliminate the wrong matching points and to obtain a homography matrix. A method of optimizing transformation matrix is proposed in this paper. Finally, the video image with larger field of view behind the keyhole can be synthesized with image frame sequence in which every single frame is stitched. The results show that the screen of the video is clear and natural, the brightness transition is smooth. There is no obvious artificial stitching marks in the video, and it can be applied in different engineering environment .

Method for accurate registration of tissue autofluorescence imaging data with corresponding histology: a means for enhanced tumor margin assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Unger, Jakob; Sun, Tianchen; Chen, Yi-Ling; Phipps, Jennifer E.; Bold, Richard J.; Darrow, Morgan A.; Ma, Kwan-Liu; Marcu, Laura

2018-01-01

An important step in establishing the diagnostic potential for emerging optical imaging techniques is accurate registration between imaging data and the corresponding tissue histopathology typically used as gold standard in clinical diagnostics. We present a method to precisely register data acquired with a point-scanning spectroscopic imaging technique from fresh surgical tissue specimen blocks with corresponding histological sections. Using a visible aiming beam to augment point-scanning multispectral time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy on video images, we evaluate two different markers for the registration with histology: fiducial markers using a 405-nm CW laser and the tissue block's outer shape characteristics. We compare the registration performance with benchmark methods using either the fiducial markers or the outer shape characteristics alone to a hybrid method using both feature types. The hybrid method was found to perform best reaching an average error of 0.78±0.67 mm. This method provides a profound framework to validate diagnostical abilities of optical fiber-based techniques and furthermore enables the application of supervised machine learning techniques to automate tissue characterization.

Video Extrapolation Method Based on Time-Varying Energy Optimization and CIP.

PubMed

Sakaino, Hidetomo

2016-09-01

Video extrapolation/prediction methods are often used to synthesize new videos from images. For fluid-like images and dynamic textures as well as moving rigid objects, most state-of-the-art video extrapolation methods use non-physics-based models that learn orthogonal bases from a number of images but at high computation cost. Unfortunately, data truncation can cause image degradation, i.e., blur, artifact, and insufficient motion changes. To extrapolate videos that more strictly follow physical rules, this paper proposes a physics-based method that needs only a few images and is truncation-free. We utilize physics-based equations with image intensity and velocity: optical flow, Navier-Stokes, continuity, and advection equations. These allow us to use partial difference equations to deal with the local image feature changes. Image degradation during extrapolation is minimized by updating model parameters, where a novel time-varying energy balancer model that uses energy based image features, i.e., texture, velocity, and edge. Moreover, the advection equation is discretized by high-order constrained interpolation profile for lower quantization error than can be achieved by the previous finite difference method in long-term videos. Experiments show that the proposed energy based video extrapolation method outperforms the state-of-the-art video extrapolation methods in terms of image quality and computation cost.

Computer-based desktop system for surgical videotape editing.

PubMed

Vincent-Hamelin, E; Sarmiento, J M; de la Puente, J M; Vicente, M

1997-05-01

The educational role of surgical video presentations should be optimized by linking surgical images to graphic evaluation of indications, techniques, and results. We describe a PC-based video production system for personal editing of surgical tapes, according to the objectives of each presentation. The hardware requirement is a personal computer (100 MHz processor, 1-Gb hard disk, 16 Mb RAM) with a PC-to-TV/video transfer card plugged into a slot. Computer-generated numerical data, texts, and graphics are transformed into analog signals displayed on TV/video. A Genlock interface (a special interface card) synchronizes digital and analog signals, to overlay surgical images to electronic illustrations. The presentation is stored as digital information or recorded on a tape. The proliferation of multimedia tools is leading us to adapt presentations to the objectives of lectures and to integrate conceptual analyses with dynamic image-based information. We describe a system that handles both digital and analog signals, production being recorded on a tape. Movies may be managed in a digital environment, with either an "on-line" or "off-line" approach. System requirements are high, but handling a single device optimizes editing without incurring such complexity that management becomes impractical to surgeons. Our experience suggests that computerized editing allows linking surgical scientific and didactic messages on a single communication medium, either a videotape or a CD-ROM.

Artificial Intelligence Techniques for Automatic Screening of Amblyogenic Factors

PubMed Central

Van Eenwyk, Jonathan; Agah, Arvin; Giangiacomo, Joseph; Cibis, Gerhard

2008-01-01

Purpose To develop a low-cost automated video system to effectively screen children aged 6 months to 6 years for amblyogenic factors. Methods In 1994 one of the authors (G.C.) described video vision development assessment, a digitizable analog video-based system combining Brückner pupil red reflex imaging and eccentric photorefraction to screen young children for amblyogenic factors. The images were analyzed manually with this system. We automated the capture of digital video frames and pupil images and applied computer vision and artificial intelligence to analyze and interpret results. The artificial intelligence systems were evaluated by a tenfold testing method. Results The best system was the decision tree learning approach, which had an accuracy of 77%, compared to the “gold standard” specialist examination with a “refer/do not refer” decision. Criteria for referral were strabismus, including microtropia, and refractive errors and anisometropia considered to be amblyogenic. Eighty-two percent of strabismic individuals were correctly identified. High refractive errors were also correctly identified and referred 90% of the time, as well as significant anisometropia. The program was less correct in identifying more moderate refractive errors, below +5 and less than −7. Conclusions Although we are pursuing a variety of avenues to improve the accuracy of the automated analysis, the program in its present form provides acceptable cost benefits for detecting ambylogenic factors in children aged 6 months to 6 years. PMID:19277222

Artificial intelligence techniques for automatic screening of amblyogenic factors.

PubMed

Van Eenwyk, Jonathan; Agah, Arvin; Giangiacomo, Joseph; Cibis, Gerhard

2008-01-01

To develop a low-cost automated video system to effectively screen children aged 6 months to 6 years for amblyogenic factors. In 1994 one of the authors (G.C.) described video vision development assessment, a digitizable analog video-based system combining Brückner pupil red reflex imaging and eccentric photorefraction to screen young children for amblyogenic factors. The images were analyzed manually with this system. We automated the capture of digital video frames and pupil images and applied computer vision and artificial intelligence to analyze and interpret results. The artificial intelligence systems were evaluated by a tenfold testing method. The best system was the decision tree learning approach, which had an accuracy of 77%, compared to the "gold standard" specialist examination with a "refer/do not refer" decision. Criteria for referral were strabismus, including microtropia, and refractive errors and anisometropia considered to be amblyogenic. Eighty-two percent of strabismic individuals were correctly identified. High refractive errors were also correctly identified and referred 90% of the time, as well as significant anisometropia. The program was less correct in identifying more moderate refractive errors, below +5 and less than -7. Although we are pursuing a variety of avenues to improve the accuracy of the automated analysis, the program in its present form provides acceptable cost benefits for detecting ambylogenic factors in children aged 6 months to 6 years.

Segmentation of Pollen Tube Growth Videos Using Dynamic Bi-Modal Fusion and Seam Carving.

PubMed

Tambo, Asongu L; Bhanu, Bir

2016-05-01

The growth of pollen tubes is of significant interest in plant cell biology, as it provides an understanding of internal cell dynamics that affect observable structural characteristics such as cell diameter, length, and growth rate. However, these parameters can only be measured in experimental videos if the complete shape of the cell is known. The challenge is to accurately obtain the cell boundary in noisy video images. Usually, these measurements are performed by a scientist who manually draws regions-of-interest on the images displayed on a computer screen. In this paper, a new automated technique is presented for boundary detection by fusing fluorescence and brightfield images, and a new efficient method of obtaining the final cell boundary through the process of Seam Carving is proposed. This approach takes advantage of the nature of the fusion process and also the shape of the pollen tube to efficiently search for the optimal cell boundary. In video segmentation, the first two frames are used to initialize the segmentation process by creating a search space based on a parametric model of the cell shape. Updates to the search space are performed based on the location of past segmentations and a prediction of the next segmentation.Experimental results show comparable accuracy to a previous method, but significant decrease in processing time. This has the potential for real time applications in pollen tube microscopy.

Image processing-based framework for continuous lane recognition in mountainous roads for driver assistance system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manoharan, Kodeeswari; Daniel, Philemon

2017-11-01

This paper presents a robust lane detection technique for roads on hilly terrain. The target of this paper is to utilize image processing strategies to recognize lane lines on structured mountain roads with the help of improved Hough transform. Vision-based approach is used as it performs well in a wide assortment of circumstances by abstracting valuable information contrasted with other sensors. The proposed strategy processes the live video stream, which is a progression of pictures, and concentrates on the position of lane markings in the wake of sending the edges through different channels and legitimate thresholding. The algorithm is tuned for Indian mountainous curved and paved roads. A technique of computation is utilized to discard the disturbing lines other than the credible lane lines and show just the required prevailing lane lines. This technique will consequently discover two lane lines that are nearest to the vehicle in a picture as right on time as could reasonably be expected. Various video sequences on hilly terrain are tested to verify the effectiveness of our method, and it has shown good performance with a detection accuracy of 91.89%.

Visually enhanced CCTV digital surveillance utilizing Intranet and Internet.

PubMed

Ozaki, Nobuyuki

2002-07-01

This paper describes a solution for integrated plant supervision utilizing closed circuit television (CCTV) digital surveillance. Three basic requirements are first addressed as the platform of the system, with discussion on the suitable video compression. The system configuration is described in blocks. The system provides surveillance functionality: real-time monitoring, and process analysis functionality: a troubleshooting tool. This paper describes the formulation of practical performance design for determining various encoder parameters. It also introduces image processing techniques for enhancing the original CCTV digital image to lessen the burden on operators. Some screenshots are listed for the surveillance functionality. For the process analysis, an image searching filter supported by image processing techniques is explained with screenshots. Multimedia surveillance, which is the merger with process data surveillance, or the SCADA system, is also explained.

Artificial Neural Network applied to lightning flashes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gin, R. B.; Guedes, D.; Bianchi, R.

2013-05-01

The development of video cameras enabled cientists to study lightning discharges comportment with more precision. The main goal of this project is to create a system able to detect images of lightning discharges stored in videos and classify them using an Artificial Neural Network (ANN)using C Language and OpenCV libraries. The developed system, can be split in two different modules: detection module and classification module. The detection module uses OpenCV`s computer vision libraries and image processing techniques to detect if there are significant differences between frames in a sequence, indicating that something, still not classified, occurred. Whenever there is a significant difference between two consecutive frames, two main algorithms are used to analyze the frame image: brightness and shape algorithms. These algorithms detect both shape and brightness of the event, removing irrelevant events like birds, as well as detecting the relevant events exact position, allowing the system to track it over time. The classification module uses a neural network to classify the relevant events as horizontal or vertical lightning, save the event`s images and calculates his number of discharges. The Neural Network was implemented using the backpropagation algorithm, and was trained with 42 training images , containing 57 lightning events (one image can have more than one lightning). TheANN was tested with one to five hidden layers, with up to 50 neurons each. The best configuration achieved a success rate of 95%, with one layer containing 20 neurons (33 test images with 42 events were used in this phase). This configuration was implemented in the developed system to analyze 20 video files, containing 63 lightning discharges previously manually detected. Results showed that all the lightning discharges were detected, many irrelevant events were unconsidered, and the event's number of discharges was correctly computed. The neural network used in this project achieved a success rate of 90%. The videos used in this experiment were acquired by seven video cameras installed in São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, that continuously recorded lightning events during the summer. The cameras were disposed in a 360 loop, recording all data at a time resolution of 33ms. During this period, several convective storms were recorded.

Video-based face recognition via convolutional neural networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bao, Tianlong; Ding, Chunhui; Karmoshi, Saleem; Zhu, Ming

2017-06-01

Face recognition has been widely studied recently while video-based face recognition still remains a challenging task because of the low quality and large intra-class variation of video captured face images. In this paper, we focus on two scenarios of video-based face recognition: 1)Still-to-Video(S2V) face recognition, i.e., querying a still face image against a gallery of video sequences; 2)Video-to-Still(V2S) face recognition, in contrast to S2V scenario. A novel method was proposed in this paper to transfer still and video face images to an Euclidean space by a carefully designed convolutional neural network, then Euclidean metrics are used to measure the distance between still and video images. Identities of still and video images that group as pairs are used as supervision. In the training stage, a joint loss function that measures the Euclidean distance between the predicted features of training pairs and expanding vectors of still images is optimized to minimize the intra-class variation while the inter-class variation is guaranteed due to the large margin of still images. Transferred features are finally learned via the designed convolutional neural network. Experiments are performed on COX face dataset. Experimental results show that our method achieves reliable performance compared with other state-of-the-art methods.

A manual for microcomputer image analysis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rich, P.M.; Ranken, D.M.; George, J.S.

1989-12-01

This manual is intended to serve three basic purposes: as a primer in microcomputer image analysis theory and techniques, as a guide to the use of IMAGE{copyright}, a public domain microcomputer program for image analysis, and as a stimulus to encourage programmers to develop microcomputer software suited for scientific use. Topics discussed include the principals of image processing and analysis, use of standard video for input and display, spatial measurement techniques, and the future of microcomputer image analysis. A complete reference guide that lists the commands for IMAGE is provided. IMAGE includes capabilities for digitization, input and output of images,more » hardware display lookup table control, editing, edge detection, histogram calculation, measurement along lines and curves, measurement of areas, examination of intensity values, output of analytical results, conversion between raster and vector formats, and region movement and rescaling. The control structure of IMAGE emphasizes efficiency, precision of measurement, and scientific utility. 18 refs., 18 figs., 2 tabs.« less

Selective visual region of interest to enhance medical video conferencing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonneau, Walt, Jr.; Read, Christopher J.; Shirali, Girish

1998-06-01

The continued economic pressure that is being placed upon the healthcare industry creates both challenge and opportunity to develop cost effective healthcare tools. Tools that provide improvements in the quality of medical care at the same time improve the distribution of efficient care will create product demand. Video Conferencing systems are one of the latest product technologies that are evolving their way into healthcare applications. The systems that provide quality Bi- directional video and imaging at the lowest system and communication cost are creating many possible options for the healthcare industry. A method to use only 128k bits/sec. of ISDN bandwidth while providing quality video images in selected regions will be applied to echocardiograms using a low cost video conferencing system operating within a basic rate ISDN line bandwidth. Within a given display area (frame) it has been observed that only selected informational areas of the frame of are of value when viewing for detail and precision within an image. Much in the same manner that a photograph is cropped. If a method to accomplish Region Of Interest (ROI) was applied to video conferencing using H.320 with H.263 (compression) and H.281 (camera control) international standards, medical image quality could be achieved in a cost-effective manner. For example, the cardiologist could be provided with a selectable three to eight end-point viewable ROI polygon that defines the ROI in the image. This is achieved by the video system calculating the selected regional end-points and creating an alpha mask to signify the importance of the ROI to the compression processor. This region is then applied to the compression algorithm in a manner that the majority of the video conferencing processor cycles are focused on the ROI of the image. An occasional update of the non-ROI area is processed to maintain total image coherence. The user could control the non-ROI area updates. Providing encoder side ROI specification is of value. However, the power of this capability is improved if remote access and selection of the ROI is also provided. Using the H.281 camera standard and proposing an additional option to the standard to allow for remote ROI selection would make this possible. When ROI is applied the ability to reach the equivalent of 384K bits/sec ISDN rates may be achieved or exceeded depending upon the size of the selected ROI using 128K bits/sec. This opens additional opportunity to establish international calling and reduced call rates by up to sixty- six percent making reoccurring communication costs attractive. Rates of twenty to thirty quality ROI updates could be achieved. It is however important to understand that this technique is still under development.

A super resolution framework for low resolution document image OCR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, Di; Agam, Gady

2013-01-01

Optical character recognition is widely used for converting document images into digital media. Existing OCR algorithms and tools produce good results from high resolution, good quality, document images. In this paper, we propose a machine learning based super resolution framework for low resolution document image OCR. Two main techniques are used in our proposed approach: a document page segmentation algorithm and a modified K-means clustering algorithm. Using this approach, by exploiting coherence in the document, we reconstruct from a low resolution document image a better resolution image and improve OCR results. Experimental results show substantial gain in low resolution documents such as the ones captured from video.

Applications of Phase-Based Motion Processing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Branch, Nicholas A.; Stewart, Eric C.

2018-01-01

Image pyramids provide useful information in determining structural response at low cost using commercially available cameras. The current effort applies previous work on the complex steerable pyramid to analyze and identify imperceptible linear motions in video. Instead of implicitly computing motion spectra through phase analysis of the complex steerable pyramid and magnifying the associated motions, instead present a visual technique and the necessary software to display the phase changes of high frequency signals within video. The present technique quickly identifies regions of largest motion within a video with a single phase visualization and without the artifacts of motion magnification, but requires use of the computationally intensive Fourier transform. While Riesz pyramids present an alternative to the computationally intensive complex steerable pyramid for motion magnification, the Riesz formulation contains significant noise, and motion magnification still presents large amounts of data that cannot be quickly assessed by the human eye. Thus, user-friendly software is presented for quickly identifying structural response through optical flow and phase visualization in both Python and MATLAB.

Development of a stereofluoroscopy system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rivers, D. B.

1979-01-01

A technique of 3-D video imaging, was developed for use on manned missions for observation and control of remote manipulators. An improved medical diagnostic fluoroscope with a stereo, real-time output was also developed. An explanation of how this system works, and recommendations for future work in this area are presented.

Ultraviolet Viewing with a Television Camera.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eisner, Thomas; And Others

1988-01-01

Reports on a portable video color camera that is fully suited for seeing ultraviolet images and offers some expanded viewing possibilities. Discusses the basic technique, specialized viewing, and the instructional value of this system of viewing reflectance patterns of flowers and insects that are invisible to the unaided eye. (CW)

Social Data Analytics Using Tensors and Sparse Techniques

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Miao

2014-01-01

The development of internet and mobile technologies is driving an earthshaking social media revolution. They bring the internet world a huge amount of social media content, such as images, videos, comments, etc. Those massive media content and complicate social structures require the analytic expertise to transform those flood of information into…

Use of a mobile device app: a potential new tool for poster presentations and surgical education.

PubMed

Atherton, S; Javed, M; Webster, Sv; Hemington-Gorse, S

2013-06-01

Poster presentations are an important part of presenting scientific techniques and represent an integral part of conferences and meetings. Traditionally, paper format is used; however, in recent years electronic posters and other methods, such as incorporating a DVD player as part of a poster, have been successfully used. We describe and demonstrate the use of an augmented reality application for smartphones and tablets as a potential future addition to the presentation of scientific work and surgical techniques in poster format. This method allows the audience to view surgical techniques and research as 3D animation or video by using a trigger image in a poster/journal/text book via their smart device. The author used the free Aurasma© application available on both iOS and Android 2.2 and higher platforms from iTunes App Store and Google Play. Once installed, any user with a 3G or WiFi connection via a smart phone or tablet can subscribe to the Medical Illustration channel for free. The user can then scan the trigger image placed on a poster with a mobile device to view videos, animations or 3D data. Further interaction can direct the user to a website for more content. The author has trialled this method at a regional burns and plastic surgery centre and found it to be highly effective. The use of this novel method adds a new dimension to the presentation of scientific work at surgical and medical conferences and as part of journals and textbooks by permitting users to view scientific data and techniques on mobile devices as videos or as three dimensional environments at their own leisure.

Eyelid contour detection and tracking for startle research related eye-blink measurements from high-speed video records.

PubMed

Bernard, Florian; Deuter, Christian Eric; Gemmar, Peter; Schachinger, Hartmut

2013-10-01

Using the positions of the eyelids is an effective and contact-free way for the measurement of startle induced eye-blinks, which plays an important role in human psychophysiological research. To the best of our knowledge, no methods for an efficient detection and tracking of the exact eyelid contours in image sequences captured at high-speed exist that are conveniently usable by psychophysiological researchers. In this publication a semi-automatic model-based eyelid contour detection and tracking algorithm for the analysis of high-speed video recordings from an eye tracker is presented. As a large number of images have been acquired prior to method development it was important that our technique is able to deal with images that are recorded without any special parametrisation of the eye tracker. The method entails pupil detection, specular reflection removal and makes use of dynamic model adaption. In a proof-of-concept study we could achieve a correct detection rate of 90.6%. With this approach, we provide a feasible method to accurately assess eye-blinks from high-speed video recordings. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

High frequency mode shapes characterisation using Digital Image Correlation and phase-based motion magnification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Molina-Viedma, A. J.; Felipe-Sesé, L.; López-Alba, E.; Díaz, F.

2018-03-01

High speed video cameras provide valuable information in dynamic events. Mechanical characterisation has been improved by the interpretation of the behaviour in slow-motion visualisations. In modal analysis, videos contribute to the evaluation of mode shapes but, generally, the motion is too subtle to be interpreted. In latest years, image treatment algorithms have been developed to generate a magnified version of the motion that could be interpreted by naked eye. Nevertheless, optical techniques such as Digital Image Correlation (DIC) are able to provide quantitative information of the motion with higher sensitivity than naked eye. For vibration analysis, mode shapes characterisation is one of the most interesting DIC performances. Full-field measurements provide higher spatial density than classical instrumentations or Scanning Laser Doppler Vibrometry. However, the accurateness of DIC is reduced at high frequencies as a consequence of the low displacements and hence it is habitually employed in low frequency spectra. In the current work, the combination of DIC and motion magnification is explored in order to provide numerical information in magnified videos and perform DIC mode shapes characterisation at unprecedented high frequencies through increasing the amplitude of displacements.

fMRI Validation of fNIRS Measurements During a Naturalistic Task

PubMed Central

Noah, J. Adam; Ono, Yumie; Nomoto, Yasunori; Shimada, Sotaro; Tachibana, Atsumichi; Zhang, Xian; Bronner, Shaw; Hirsch, Joy

2015-01-01

We present a method to compare brain activity recorded with near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in a dance video game task to that recorded in a reduced version of the task using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging). Recently, it has been shown that fNIRS can accurately record functional brain activities equivalent to those concurrently recorded with functional magnetic resonance imaging for classic psychophysical tasks and simple finger tapping paradigms. However, an often quoted benefit of fNIRS is that the technique allows for studying neural mechanisms of complex, naturalistic behaviors that are not possible using the constrained environment of fMRI. Our goal was to extend the findings of previous studies that have shown high correlation between concurrently recorded fNIRS and fMRI signals to compare neural recordings obtained in fMRI procedures to those separately obtained in naturalistic fNIRS experiments. Specifically, we developed a modified version of the dance video game Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) to be compatible with both fMRI and fNIRS imaging procedures. In this methodology we explain the modifications to the software and hardware for compatibility with each technique as well as the scanning and calibration procedures used to obtain representative results. The results of the study show a task-related increase in oxyhemoglobin in both modalities and demonstrate that it is possible to replicate the findings of fMRI using fNIRS in a naturalistic task. This technique represents a methodology to compare fMRI imaging paradigms which utilize a reduced-world environment to fNIRS in closer approximation to naturalistic, full-body activities and behaviors. Further development of this technique may apply to neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, late states of dementia, or those with magnetic susceptibility which are contraindicated for fMRI scanning. PMID:26132365

Rapid, High-Throughput Tracking of Bacterial Motility in 3D via Phase-Contrast Holographic Video Microscopy

PubMed Central

Cheong, Fook Chiong; Wong, Chui Ching; Gao, YunFeng; Nai, Mui Hoon; Cui, Yidan; Park, Sungsu; Kenney, Linda J.; Lim, Chwee Teck

2015-01-01

Tracking fast-swimming bacteria in three dimensions can be extremely challenging with current optical techniques and a microscopic approach that can rapidly acquire volumetric information is required. Here, we introduce phase-contrast holographic video microscopy as a solution for the simultaneous tracking of multiple fast moving cells in three dimensions. This technique uses interference patterns formed between the scattered and the incident field to infer the three-dimensional (3D) position and size of bacteria. Using this optical approach, motility dynamics of multiple bacteria in three dimensions, such as speed and turn angles, can be obtained within minutes. We demonstrated the feasibility of this method by effectively tracking multiple bacteria species, including Escherichia coli, Agrobacterium tumefaciens, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In addition, we combined our fast 3D imaging technique with a microfluidic device to present an example of a drug/chemical assay to study effects on bacterial motility. PMID:25762336

Image-guided surgery.

PubMed

Wagner, A; Ploder, O; Enislidis, G; Truppe, M; Ewers, R

1996-04-01

Interventional video tomography (IVT), a new imaging modality, achieves virtual visualization of anatomic structures in three dimensions for intraoperative stereotactic navigation. Partial immersion into a virtual data space, which is orthotopically coregistered to the surgical field, enhances, by means of a see-through head-mounted display (HMD), the surgeon's visual perception and technique by providing visual access to nonvisual data of anatomy, physiology, and function. The presented cases document the potential of augmented reality environments in maxillofacial surgery.

Action recognition in depth video from RGB perspective: A knowledge transfer manner

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Jun; Xiao, Yang; Cao, Zhiguo; Fang, Zhiwen

2018-03-01

Different video modal for human action recognition has becoming a highly promising trend in the video analysis. In this paper, we propose a method for human action recognition from RGB video to Depth video using domain adaptation, where we use learned feature from RGB videos to do action recognition for depth videos. More specifically, we make three steps for solving this problem in this paper. First, different from image, video is more complex as it has both spatial and temporal information, in order to better encode this information, dynamic image method is used to represent each RGB or Depth video to one image, based on this, most methods for extracting feature in image can be used in video. Secondly, as video can be represented as image, so standard CNN model can be used for training and testing for videos, beside, CNN model can be also used for feature extracting as its powerful feature expressing ability. Thirdly, as RGB videos and Depth videos are belong to two different domains, in order to make two different feature domains has more similarity, domain adaptation is firstly used for solving this problem between RGB and Depth video, based on this, the learned feature from RGB video model can be directly used for Depth video classification. We evaluate the proposed method on one complex RGB-D action dataset (NTU RGB-D), and our method can have more than 2% accuracy improvement using domain adaptation from RGB to Depth action recognition.

Video scrambling for privacy protection in video surveillance: recent results and validation framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dufaux, Frederic

2011-06-01

The issue of privacy in video surveillance has drawn a lot of interest lately. However, thorough performance analysis and validation is still lacking, especially regarding the fulfillment of privacy-related requirements. In this paper, we first review recent Privacy Enabling Technologies (PET). Next, we discuss pertinent evaluation criteria for effective privacy protection. We then put forward a framework to assess the capacity of PET solutions to hide distinguishing facial information and to conceal identity. We conduct comprehensive and rigorous experiments to evaluate the performance of face recognition algorithms applied to images altered by PET. Results show the ineffectiveness of naïve PET such as pixelization and blur. Conversely, they demonstrate the effectiveness of more sophisticated scrambling techniques to foil face recognition.

17 CFR 232.304 - Graphic, image, audio and video material.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... video material. 232.304 Section 232.304 Commodity and Securities Exchanges SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE... Submissions § 232.304 Graphic, image, audio and video material. (a) If a filer includes graphic, image, audio or video material in a document delivered to investors and others that is not reproduced in an...

17 CFR 232.304 - Graphic, image, audio and video material.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... video material. 232.304 Section 232.304 Commodity and Securities Exchanges SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE... Submissions § 232.304 Graphic, image, audio and video material. (a) If a filer includes graphic, image, audio or video material in a document delivered to investors and others that is not reproduced in an...

17 CFR 232.304 - Graphic, image, audio and video material.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... video material. 232.304 Section 232.304 Commodity and Securities Exchanges SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE... Submissions § 232.304 Graphic, image, audio and video material. (a) If a filer includes graphic, image, audio or video material in a document delivered to investors and others that is not reproduced in an...

17 CFR 232.304 - Graphic, image, audio and video material.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... video material. 232.304 Section 232.304 Commodity and Securities Exchanges SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE... Submissions § 232.304 Graphic, image, audio and video material. (a) If a filer includes graphic, image, audio or video material in a document delivered to investors and others that is not reproduced in an...

17 CFR 232.304 - Graphic, image, audio and video material.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... video material. 232.304 Section 232.304 Commodity and Securities Exchanges SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE... Submissions § 232.304 Graphic, image, audio and video material. (a) If a filer includes graphic, image, audio or video material in a document delivered to investors and others that is not reproduced in an...

Probabilistic image modeling with an extended chain graph for human activity recognition and image segmentation.

PubMed

Zhang, Lei; Zeng, Zhi; Ji, Qiang

2011-09-01

Chain graph (CG) is a hybrid probabilistic graphical model (PGM) capable of modeling heterogeneous relationships among random variables. So far, however, its application in image and video analysis is very limited due to lack of principled learning and inference methods for a CG of general topology. To overcome this limitation, we introduce methods to extend the conventional chain-like CG model to CG model with more general topology and the associated methods for learning and inference in such a general CG model. Specifically, we propose techniques to systematically construct a generally structured CG, to parameterize this model, to derive its joint probability distribution, to perform joint parameter learning, and to perform probabilistic inference in this model. To demonstrate the utility of such an extended CG, we apply it to two challenging image and video analysis problems: human activity recognition and image segmentation. The experimental results show improved performance of the extended CG model over the conventional directed or undirected PGMs. This study demonstrates the promise of the extended CG for effective modeling and inference of complex real-world problems.

An embedded processor for real-time atmoshperic compensation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bodnar, Michael R.; Curt, Petersen F.; Ortiz, Fernando E.; Carrano, Carmen J.; Kelmelis, Eric J.

2009-05-01

Imaging over long distances is crucial to a number of defense and security applications, such as homeland security and launch tracking. However, the image quality obtained from current long-range optical systems can be severely degraded by the turbulent atmosphere in the path between the region under observation and the imager. While this obscured image information can be recovered using post-processing techniques, the computational complexity of such approaches has prohibited deployment in real-time scenarios. To overcome this limitation, we have coupled a state-of-the-art atmospheric compensation algorithm, the average-bispectrum speckle method, with a powerful FPGA-based embedded processing board. The end result is a light-weight, lower-power image processing system that improves the quality of long-range imagery in real-time, and uses modular video I/O to provide a flexible interface to most common digital and analog video transport methods. By leveraging the custom, reconfigurable nature of the FPGA, a 20x speed increase over a modern desktop PC was achieved in a form-factor that is compact, low-power, and field-deployable.

Implementation of an RBF neural network on embedded systems: real-time face tracking and identity verification.

PubMed

Yang, Fan; Paindavoine, M

2003-01-01

This paper describes a real time vision system that allows us to localize faces in video sequences and verify their identity. These processes are image processing techniques based on the radial basis function (RBF) neural network approach. The robustness of this system has been evaluated quantitatively on eight video sequences. We have adapted our model for an application of face recognition using the Olivetti Research Laboratory (ORL), Cambridge, UK, database so as to compare the performance against other systems. We also describe three hardware implementations of our model on embedded systems based on the field programmable gate array (FPGA), zero instruction set computer (ZISC) chips, and digital signal processor (DSP) TMS320C62, respectively. We analyze the algorithm complexity and present results of hardware implementations in terms of the resources used and processing speed. The success rates of face tracking and identity verification are 92% (FPGA), 85% (ZISC), and 98.2% (DSP), respectively. For the three embedded systems, the processing speeds for images size of 288 /spl times/ 352 are 14 images/s, 25 images/s, and 4.8 images/s, respectively.

Degraded visual environment image/video quality metrics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baumgartner, Dustin D.; Brown, Jeremy B.; Jacobs, Eddie L.; Schachter, Bruce J.

2014-06-01

A number of image quality metrics (IQMs) and video quality metrics (VQMs) have been proposed in the literature for evaluating techniques and systems for mitigating degraded visual environments. Some require both pristine and corrupted imagery. Others require patterned target boards in the scene. None of these metrics relates well to the task of landing a helicopter in conditions such as a brownout dust cloud. We have developed and used a variety of IQMs and VQMs related to the pilot's ability to detect hazards in the scene and to maintain situational awareness. Some of these metrics can be made agnostic to sensor type. Not only are the metrics suitable for evaluating algorithm and sensor variation, they are also suitable for choosing the most cost effective solution to improve operating conditions in degraded visual environments.

A head-mounted display-based personal integrated-image monitoring system for transurethral resection of the prostate.

PubMed

Yoshida, Soichiro; Kihara, Kazunori; Takeshita, Hideki; Fujii, Yasuhisa

2014-12-01

The head-mounted display (HMD) is a new image monitoring system. We developed the Personal Integrated-image Monitoring System (PIM System) using the HMD (HMZ-T2, Sony Corporation, Tokyo, Japan) in combination with video splitters and multiplexers as a surgical guide system for transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP). The imaging information obtained from the cystoscope, the transurethral ultrasonography (TRUS), the video camera attached to the HMD, and the patient's vital signs monitor were split and integrated by the PIM System and a composite image was displayed by the HMD using a four-split screen technique. Wearing the HMD, the lead surgeon and the assistant could simultaneously and continuously monitor the same information displayed by the HMD in an ergonomically efficient posture. Each participant could independently rearrange the images comprising the composite image depending on the engaging step. Two benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients underwent TURP performed by surgeons guided with this system. In both cases, the TURP procedure was successfully performed, and their postoperative clinical courses had no remarkable unfavorable events. During the procedure, none of the participants experienced any HMD-wear related adverse effects or reported any discomfort.

A new user-assisted segmentation and tracking technique for an object-based video editing system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Hong Y.; Hong, Sung-Hoon; Lee, Mike M.; Choi, Jae-Gark

2004-03-01

This paper presents a semi-automatic segmentation method which can be used to generate video object plane (VOP) for object based coding scheme and multimedia authoring environment. Semi-automatic segmentation can be considered as a user-assisted segmentation technique. A user can initially mark objects of interest around the object boundaries and then the user-guided and selected objects are continuously separated from the unselected areas through time evolution in the image sequences. The proposed segmentation method consists of two processing steps: partially manual intra-frame segmentation and fully automatic inter-frame segmentation. The intra-frame segmentation incorporates user-assistance to define the meaningful complete visual object of interest to be segmentation and decides precise object boundary. The inter-frame segmentation involves boundary and region tracking to obtain temporal coherence of moving object based on the object boundary information of previous frame. The proposed method shows stable efficient results that could be suitable for many digital video applications such as multimedia contents authoring, content based coding and indexing. Based on these results, we have developed objects based video editing system with several convenient editing functions.

Encrypting Digital Camera with Automatic Encryption Key Deletion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oakley, Ernest C. (Inventor)

2007-01-01

A digital video camera includes an image sensor capable of producing a frame of video data representing an image viewed by the sensor, an image memory for storing video data such as previously recorded frame data in a video frame location of the image memory, a read circuit for fetching the previously recorded frame data, an encryption circuit having an encryption key input connected to receive the previously recorded frame data from the read circuit as an encryption key, an un-encrypted data input connected to receive the frame of video data from the image sensor and an encrypted data output port, and a write circuit for writing a frame of encrypted video data received from the encrypted data output port of the encryption circuit to the memory and overwriting the video frame location storing the previously recorded frame data.

Unconventional techniques of fundus imaging: A review

PubMed Central

Shanmugam, Mahesh P; Mishra, Divyansh Kailash Chandra; Rajesh, R; Madhukumar, R

2015-01-01

The methods of fundus examination include direct and indirect ophthalmoscopy and imaging with a fundus camera are an essential part of ophthalmic practice. The usage of unconventional equipment such as a hand-held video camera, smartphone, and a nasal endoscope allows one to image the fundus with advantages and some disadvantages. The advantages of these instruments are the cost-effectiveness, ultra portability and ability to obtain images in a remote setting and share the same electronically. These instruments, however, are unlikely to replace the fundus camera but then would always be an additional arsenal in an ophthalmologist's armamentarium. PMID:26458475

Improved segmentation of occluded and adjoining vehicles in traffic surveillance videos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Juneja, Medha; Grover, Priyanka

2013-12-01

Occlusion in image processing refers to concealment of any part of the object or the whole object from view of an observer. Real time videos captured by static cameras on roads often encounter overlapping and hence, occlusion of vehicles. Occlusion in traffic surveillance videos usually occurs when an object which is being tracked is hidden by another object. This makes it difficult for the object detection algorithms to distinguish all the vehicles efficiently. Also morphological operations tend to join the close proximity vehicles resulting in formation of a single bounding box around more than one vehicle. Such problems lead to errors in further video processing, like counting of vehicles in a video. The proposed system brings forward efficient moving object detection and tracking approach to reduce such errors. The paper uses successive frame subtraction technique for detection of moving objects. Further, this paper implements the watershed algorithm to segment the overlapped and adjoining vehicles. The segmentation results have been improved by the use of noise and morphological operations.

A Mosaicking Approach for In Vivo Thickness Mapping of the Human Tympanic Membrane Using Low Coherence Interferometry.

PubMed

Pande, Paritosh; Shelton, Ryan L; Monroy, Guillermo L; Nolan, Ryan M; Boppart, Stephen A

2016-10-01

The thickness of the human tympanic membrane (TM) is known to vary considerably across different regions of the TM. Quantitative determination of the thickness distribution and mapping of the TM is of significant importance in hearing research, particularly in mathematical modeling of middle-ear dynamics. Change in TM thickness is also associated with several middle-ear pathologies. Determination of the TM thickness distribution could therefore also enable a more comprehensive diagnosis of various otologic diseases. Despite its importance, very limited data on human TM thickness distribution, obtained almost exclusively from ex vivo samples, are available in the literature. In this study, the thickness distribution for the in vivo human TM is reported for the first time. A hand-held imaging system, which combines a low coherence interferometry (LCI) technique for single-point thickness measurement, with video-otoscopy for recording the image of the TM, was used to collect the data used in this study. Data were acquired by pointing the imaging probe over different regions of the TM, while simultaneously recording the LCI and concomitant TM surface video image data from an average of 500 locations on the TM. TM thickness distribution maps were obtained by mapping the LCI imaging sites onto an anatomically accurate wide-field image of the TM, which was generated by mosaicking the sequence of multiple small field-of-view video-otoscopy images. Descriptive statistics of the thickness measurements obtained from the different regions of the TM are presented, and the general thickness distribution trends are discussed.

Practical life log video indexing based on content and context

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tancharoen, Datchakorn; Yamasaki, Toshihiko; Aizawa, Kiyoharu

2006-01-01

Today, multimedia information has gained an important role in daily life and people can use imaging devices to capture their visual experiences. In this paper, we present our personal Life Log system to record personal experiences in form of wearable video and environmental data; in addition, an efficient retrieval system is demonstrated to recall the desirable media. We summarize the practical video indexing techniques based on Life Log content and context to detect talking scenes by using audio/visual cues and semantic key frames from GPS data. Voice annotation is also demonstrated as a practical indexing method. Moreover, we apply body media sensors to record continuous life style and use body media data to index the semantic key frames. In the experiments, we demonstrated various video indexing results which provided their semantic contents and showed Life Log visualizations to examine personal life effectively.

A Novel 24 GHz One-Shot, Rapid and Portable Microwave Imaging System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ghasr, M. T.; Abou-Khousa, M. A.; Kharkovsky, S.; Zoughi, R.; Pommerenke, D.

2008-01-01

Development of microwave and millimeter wave imaging systems has received significant attention in the past decade. Signals at these frequencies penetrate inside of dielectric materials and have relatively small wavelengths. Thus. imaging systems at these frequencies can produce images of the dielectric and geometrical distributions of objects. Although there are many different approaches for imaging at these frequencies. they each have their respective advantageous and limiting features (hardware. reconstruction algorithms). One method involves electronically scanning a given spatial domain while recording the coherent scattered field distribution from an object. Consequently. different reconstruction or imaging techniques may be used to produce an image (dielectric distribution and geometrical features) of the object. The ability to perform this accuratev and fast can lead to the development of a rapid imaging system that can be used in the same manner as a video camera. This paper describes the design of such a system. operating at 2-1 GHz. using modulated scatterer technique applied to 30 resonant slots in a prescribed measurement domain.

Strategies for combining physics videos and virtual laboratories in the training of physics teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dickman, Adriana; Vertchenko, Lev; Martins, Maria Inés

2007-03-01

Among the multimedia resources used in physics education, the most prominent are virtual laboratories and videos. On one hand, computer simulations and applets have very attractive graphic interfaces, showing an incredible amount of detail and movement. On the other hand, videos, offer the possibility of displaying high quality images, and are becoming more feasible with the increasing availability of digital resources. We believe it is important to discuss, throughout the teacher training program, both the functionality of information and communication technology (ICT) in physics education and, the varied applications of these resources. In our work we suggest the introduction of ICT resources in a sequence integrating these important tools in the teacher training program, as opposed to the traditional approach, in which virtual laboratories and videos are introduced separately. In this perspective, when we introduce and utilize virtual laboratory techniques we also provide for its use in videos, taking advantage of graphic interfaces. Thus the students in our program learn to use instructional software in the production of videos for classroom use.

Scintillator-fiber charged particle track-imaging detector

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Binns, W. R.; Israel, M. H.; Klarmann, J.

1983-01-01

A scintillator-fiber charged-particle track-imaging detector was developed using a bundle of square cross section plastic scintillator fiber optics, proximity focused onto an image intensified charge injection device (CID) camera. The tracks of charged particle penetrating into the scintillator fiber bundle are projected onto the CID camera and the imaging information is read out in video format. The detector was exposed to beams of 15 MeV protons and relativistic Neon, Manganese, and Gold nuclei and images of their tracks were obtained. Details of the detector technique, properties of the tracks obtained, and preliminary range measurements of 15 MeV protons stopping in the fiber bundle are presented.

Robotic Vehicle Communications Interoperability

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-08-01

starter (cold start) X X Fire suppression X Fording control X Fuel control X Fuel tank selector X Garage toggle X Gear selector X X X X Hazard warning...optic Sensors Sensor switch Video Radar IR Thermal imaging system Image intensifier Laser ranger Video camera selector Forward Stereo Rear Sensor control...optic sensors Sensor switch Video Radar IR Thermal imaging system Image intensifier Laser ranger Video camera selector Forward Stereo Rear Sensor

Perceptual distortion analysis of color image VQ-based coding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Charrier, Christophe; Knoblauch, Kenneth; Cherifi, Hocine

1997-04-01

It is generally accepted that a RGB color image can be easily encoded by using a gray-scale compression technique on each of the three color planes. Such an approach, however, fails to take into account correlations existing between color planes and perceptual factors. We evaluated several linear and non-linear color spaces, some introduced by the CIE, compressed with the vector quantization technique for minimum perceptual distortion. To study these distortions, we measured contrast and luminance of the video framebuffer, to precisely control color. We then obtained psychophysical judgements to measure how well these methods work to minimize perceptual distortion in a variety of color space.

An imaging system for quantitive surface temperature mapping using two-color thermographic phosphors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Buck, Gregory M.

1988-01-01

A technique for obtaining detailed quantitative temperature distributions on test models in hypersonic wind tunnels is presented. This technique is based on the ratio of blue to green (450, 520 nm) emission from an UV (365 nm) excited phosphor coating. Separately filtered images are recorded from a three-tube color camera, utilizing off-the-shelf front-end video optics to discriminate wavelengths. Two demonstration studies in a 31-inch Mach 10 tunnel are discussed. One study presents the windward surface temperature-time history for a transatmospheric vehicle, and the other illustrates nosetip heating on a spherically blunted slender cone.

Multilocation Video Conference By Optical Fiber

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gray, Donald J.

1982-10-01

An experimental system that permits interconnection of many offices in a single video conference is described. Video images transmitted to conference participants are selected by the conference chairman and switched by a microprocessor-controlled video switch. Speakers can, at their choice, transmit their own images or images of graphics they wish to display. Users are connected to the Switching Center by optical fiber subscriber loops that carry analog video, digitized telephone, data and signaling. The same system also provides user-selectable distribution of video program and video library material. Experience in the operation of the conference system is discussed.

[Detecting fire smoke based on the multispectral image].

PubMed

Wei, Ying-Zhuo; Zhang, Shao-Wu; Liu, Yan-Wei

2010-04-01

Smoke detection is very important for preventing forest-fire in the fire early process. Because the traditional technologies based on video and image processing are easily affected by the background dynamic information, three limitations exist in these technologies, i. e. lower anti-interference ability, higher false detection rate and the fire smoke and water fog being not easily distinguished. A novel detection method for detecting smoke based on the multispectral image was proposed in the present paper. Using the multispectral digital imaging technique, the multispectral image series of fire smoke and water fog were obtained in the band scope of 400 to 720 nm, and the images were divided into bins. The Euclidian distance among the bins was taken as a measurement for showing the difference of spectrogram. After obtaining the spectral feature vectors of dynamic region, the regions of fire smoke and water fog were extracted according to the spectrogram feature difference between target and background. The indoor and outdoor experiments show that the smoke detection method based on multispectral image can be applied to the smoke detection, which can effectively distinguish the fire smoke and water fog. Combined with video image processing method, the multispectral image detection method can also be applied to the forest fire surveillance, reducing the false alarm rate in forest fire detection.

Open source database of images DEIMOS: extension for large-scale subjective image quality assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vítek, Stanislav

2014-09-01

DEIMOS (Database of Images: Open Source) is an open-source database of images and video sequences for testing, verification and comparison of various image and/or video processing techniques such as compression, reconstruction and enhancement. This paper deals with extension of the database allowing performing large-scale web-based subjective image quality assessment. Extension implements both administrative and client interface. The proposed system is aimed mainly at mobile communication devices, taking into account advantages of HTML5 technology; it means that participants don't need to install any application and assessment could be performed using web browser. The assessment campaign administrator can select images from the large database and then apply rules defined by various test procedure recommendations. The standard test procedures may be fully customized and saved as a template. Alternatively the administrator can define a custom test, using images from the pool and other components, such as evaluating forms and ongoing questionnaires. Image sequence is delivered to the online client, e.g. smartphone or tablet, as a fully automated assessment sequence or viewer can decide on timing of the assessment if required. Environmental data and viewing conditions (e.g. illumination, vibrations, GPS coordinates, etc.), may be collected and subsequently analyzed.

Fast optically sectioned fluorescence HiLo endomicroscopy.

PubMed

Ford, Tim N; Lim, Daryl; Mertz, Jerome

2012-02-01

We describe a nonscanning, fiber bundle endomicroscope that performs optically sectioned fluorescence imaging with fast frame rates and real-time processing. Our sectioning technique is based on HiLo imaging, wherein two widefield images are acquired under uniform and structured illumination and numerically processed to reject out-of-focus background. This work is an improvement upon an earlier demonstration of widefield optical sectioning through a flexible fiber bundle. The improved device features lateral and axial resolutions of 2.6 and 17 μm, respectively, a net frame rate of 9.5 Hz obtained by real-time image processing with a graphics processing unit (GPU) and significantly reduced motion artifacts obtained by the use of a double-shutter camera. We demonstrate the performance of our system with optically sectioned images and videos of a fluorescently labeled chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) in the developing G. gallus embryo. HiLo endomicroscopy is a candidate technique for low-cost, high-speed clinical optical biopsies.

Fast optically sectioned fluorescence HiLo endomicroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ford, Tim N.; Lim, Daryl; Mertz, Jerome

2012-02-01

We describe a nonscanning, fiber bundle endomicroscope that performs optically sectioned fluorescence imaging with fast frame rates and real-time processing. Our sectioning technique is based on HiLo imaging, wherein two widefield images are acquired under uniform and structured illumination and numerically processed to reject out-of-focus background. This work is an improvement upon an earlier demonstration of widefield optical sectioning through a flexible fiber bundle. The improved device features lateral and axial resolutions of 2.6 and 17 μm, respectively, a net frame rate of 9.5 Hz obtained by real-time image processing with a graphics processing unit (GPU) and significantly reduced motion artifacts obtained by the use of a double-shutter camera. We demonstrate the performance of our system with optically sectioned images and videos of a fluorescently labeled chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) in the developing G. gallus embryo. HiLo endomicroscopy is a candidate technique for low-cost, high-speed clinical optical biopsies.

Contact-free determination of human body segment parameters by means of videometric image processing of an anthropomorphic body model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hatze, Herbert; Baca, Arnold

1993-01-01

The development of noninvasive techniques for the determination of biomechanical body segment parameters (volumes, masses, the three principal moments of inertia, the three local coordinates of the segmental mass centers, etc.) receives increasing attention from the medical sciences (e,.g., orthopaedic gait analysis), bioengineering, sport biomechanics, and the various space programs. In the present paper, a novel method is presented for determining body segment parameters rapidly and accurately. It is based on the video-image processing of four different body configurations and a finite mass-element human body model. The four video images of the subject in question are recorded against a black background, thus permitting the application of shape recognition procedures incorporating edge detection and calibration algorithms. In this way, a total of 181 object space dimensions of the subject's body segments can be reconstructed and used as anthropometric input data for the mathematical finite mass- element body model. The latter comprises 17 segments (abdomino-thoracic, head-neck, shoulders, upper arms, forearms, hands, abdomino-pelvic, thighs, lower legs, feet) and enables the user to compute all the required segment parameters for each of the 17 segments by means of the associated computer program. The hardware requirements are an IBM- compatible PC (1 MB memory) operating under MS-DOS or PC-DOS (Version 3.1 onwards) and incorporating a VGA-board with a feature connector for connecting it to a super video windows framegrabber board for which there must be available a 16-bit large slot. In addition, a VGA-monitor (50 - 70 Hz, horizontal scan rate at least 31.5 kHz), a common video camera and recorder, and a simple rectangular calibration frame are required. The advantage of the new method lies in its ease of application, its comparatively high accuracy, and in the rapid availability of the body segment parameters, which is particularly useful in clinical practice. An example of its practical application illustrates the technique.

Comparison of Inter-Observer Variability and Diagnostic Performance of the Fifth Edition of BI-RADS for Breast Ultrasound of Static versus Video Images.

PubMed

Youk, Ji Hyun; Jung, Inkyung; Yoon, Jung Hyun; Kim, Sung Hun; Kim, You Me; Lee, Eun Hye; Jeong, Sun Hye; Kim, Min Jung

2016-09-01

Our aim was to compare the inter-observer variability and diagnostic performance of the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) lexicon for breast ultrasound of static and video images. Ninety-nine breast masses visible on ultrasound examination from 95 women 19-81 y of age at five institutions were enrolled in this study. They were scheduled to undergo biopsy or surgery or had been stable for at least 2 y of ultrasound follow-up after benign biopsy results or typically benign findings. For each mass, representative long- and short-axis static ultrasound images were acquired; real-time long- and short-axis B-mode video images through the mass area were separately saved as cine clips. Each image was reviewed independently by five radiologists who were asked to classify ultrasound features according to the fifth edition of the BI-RADS lexicon. Inter-observer variability was assessed using kappa (κ) statistics. Diagnostic performance on static and video images was compared using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. No significant difference was found in κ values between static and video images for all descriptors, although κ values of video images were higher than those of static images for shape, orientation, margin and calcifications. After receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, the video images (0.83, range: 0.77-0.87) had higher areas under the curve than the static images (0.80, range: 0.75-0.83; p = 0.08). Inter-observer variability and diagnostic performance of video images was similar to that of static images on breast ultrasonography according to the new edition of BI-RADS. Copyright © 2016 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Large-Scale Machine Learning for Classification and Search

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Wei

2012-01-01

With the rapid development of the Internet, nowadays tremendous amounts of data including images and videos, up to millions or billions, can be collected for training machine learning models. Inspired by this trend, this thesis is dedicated to developing large-scale machine learning techniques for the purpose of making classification and nearest…

Creative Commons: A New Tool for Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pitler, Howard

2006-01-01

Technology-savvy instructors often require students to create Web pages or videos, tasks that require finding materials such as images, music, or text on the Web, reusing them, and then republishing them in a technique that author Howard Pitler calls "remixing." However, this requires both the student and the instructor to deal with often thorny…

Probe-based confocal laser endomicroscopy (pCLE) - a new imaging technique for in situ localization of spermatozoa.

PubMed

Trottmann, Matthias; Stepp, Herbert; Sroka, Ronald; Heide, Michael; Liedl, Bernhard; Reese, Sven; Becker, Armin J; Stief, Christian G; Kölle, Sabine

2015-05-01

In azoospermic patients, spermatozoa are routinely obtained by testicular sperm extraction (TESE). However, success rates of this technique are moderate, because the site of excision of testicular tissue is determined arbitrarily. Therefore the aim of this study was to establish probe-based laser endomicroscopy (pCLE) a noval biomedical imaging technique, which provides the opportunity of non-invasive, real-time visualisation of tissue at histological resolution. Using pCLE we clearly visualized longitudinal and horizontal views of the tubuli seminiferi contorti and localized vital spermatozoa. Obtained images and real-time videos were subsequently compared with confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) of spermatozoa and tissues, respectively. Comparative visualization of single native Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM, left) and probe-based laser endomicroscopy (pCLE, right) using Pro Flex(TM) UltraMini O after staining with acriflavine. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Synthetic schlieren—application to the visualization and characterization of air convection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taberlet, Nicolas; Plihon, Nicolas; Auzémery, Lucile; Sautel, Jérémy; Panel, Grégoire; Gibaud, Thomas

2018-05-01

Synthetic schlieren is a digital image processing optical method relying on the variation of optical index to visualize the flow of a transparent fluid. In this article, we present a step-by-step, easy-to-implement and affordable experimental realization of this technique. The method is applied to air convection caused by a warm surface. We show that the velocity of rising convection plumes can be linked to the temperature of the warm surface and propose a simple physical argument to explain this dependence. Moreover, using this method, one can reveal the tenuous convection plumes rising from one’s hand, a phenomenon invisible to the naked eye. This spectacular result may help students to realize the power of careful data acquisition combined with astute image processing techniques. This spectacular result may help students to realize the power of careful data acquisition combined with astute image processing techniques (refer to the video abstract).

Human Motion Capture Data Tailored Transform Coding.

PubMed

Junhui Hou; Lap-Pui Chau; Magnenat-Thalmann, Nadia; Ying He

2015-07-01

Human motion capture (mocap) is a widely used technique for digitalizing human movements. With growing usage, compressing mocap data has received increasing attention, since compact data size enables efficient storage and transmission. Our analysis shows that mocap data have some unique characteristics that distinguish themselves from images and videos. Therefore, directly borrowing image or video compression techniques, such as discrete cosine transform, does not work well. In this paper, we propose a novel mocap-tailored transform coding algorithm that takes advantage of these features. Our algorithm segments the input mocap sequences into clips, which are represented in 2D matrices. Then it computes a set of data-dependent orthogonal bases to transform the matrices to frequency domain, in which the transform coefficients have significantly less dependency. Finally, the compression is obtained by entropy coding of the quantized coefficients and the bases. Our method has low computational cost and can be easily extended to compress mocap databases. It also requires neither training nor complicated parameter setting. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme significantly outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of compression performance and speed.

Development of a video tampering dataset for forensic investigation.

PubMed

Ismael Al-Sanjary, Omar; Ahmed, Ahmed Abdullah; Sulong, Ghazali

2016-09-01

Forgery is an act of modifying a document, product, image or video, among other media. Video tampering detection research requires an inclusive database of video modification. This paper aims to discuss a comprehensive proposal to create a dataset composed of modified videos for forensic investigation, in order to standardize existing techniques for detecting video tampering. The primary purpose of developing and designing this new video library is for usage in video forensics, which can be consciously associated with reliable verification using dynamic and static camera recognition. To the best of the author's knowledge, there exists no similar library among the research community. Videos were sourced from YouTube and by exploring social networking sites extensively by observing posted videos and rating their feedback. The video tampering dataset (VTD) comprises a total of 33 videos, divided among three categories in video tampering: (1) copy-move, (2) splicing, and (3) swapping-frames. Compared to existing datasets, this is a higher number of tampered videos, and with longer durations. The duration of every video is 16s, with a 1280×720 resolution, and a frame rate of 30 frames per second. Moreover, all videos possess the same formatting quality (720p(HD).avi). Both temporal and spatial video features were considered carefully during selection of the videos, and there exists complete information related to the doctored regions in every modified video in the VTD dataset. This database has been made publically available for research on splicing, Swapping frames, and copy-move tampering, and, as such, various video tampering detection issues with ground truth. The database has been utilised by many international researchers and groups of researchers. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Data Visualization and Animation Lab (DVAL) overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stacy, Kathy; Vonofenheim, Bill

1994-01-01

The general capabilities of the Langley Research Center Data Visualization and Animation Laboratory is described. These capabilities include digital image processing, 3-D interactive computer graphics, data visualization and analysis, video-rate acquisition and processing of video images, photo-realistic modeling and animation, video report generation, and color hardcopies. A specialized video image processing system is also discussed.

D Architectural Videomapping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Catanese, R.

2013-07-01

3D architectural mapping is a video projection technique that can be done with a survey of a chosen building in order to realize a perfect correspondence between its shapes and the images in projection. As a performative kind of audiovisual artifact, the real event of the 3D mapping is a combination of a registered video animation file with a real architecture. This new kind of visual art is becoming very popular and its big audience success testifies new expressive chances in the field of urban design. My case study has been experienced in Pisa for the Luminara feast in 2012.

Linear Calibration of Radiographic Mineral Density Using Video-Digitizing Methods

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martin, R. Bruce; Papamichos, Thomas; Dannucci, Greg A.

1990-01-01

Radiographic images can provide quantitative as well as qualitative information if they are subjected to densitometric analysis. Using modem video-digitizing techniques, such densitometry can be readily accomplished using relatively inexpensive computer systems. However, such analyses are made more difficult by the fact that the density values read from the radiograph have a complex, nonlinear relationship to bone mineral content. This article derives the relationship between these variables from the nature of the intermediate physical processes, and presents a simple mathematical method for obtaining a linear calibration function using a step wedge or other standard.

Linear Calibration of Radiographic Mineral Density Using Video-Digitizing Methods

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martin, R. Bruce; Papamichos, Thomas; Dannucci, Greg A.

1990-01-01

Radiographic images can provide quantitative as well as qualitative information if they are subjected to densitometric analysis. Using modern video-digitizing techniques, such densitometry can be readily accomplished using relatively inexpensive computer systems. However, such analyses are made more difficult by the fact that the density values read from the radiograph have a complex, nonlinear relationship to bone mineral content. This article derives the relationship between these variables from the nature of the intermediate physical processes, and presents a simple mathematical method for obtaining a linear calibration function using a step wedge or other standard.

Computerized tomography using video recorded fluoroscopic images

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kak, A. C.; Jakowatz, C. V., Jr.; Baily, N. A.; Keller, R. A.

1975-01-01

A computerized tomographic imaging system is examined which employs video-recorded fluoroscopic images as input data. By hooking the video recorder to a digital computer through a suitable interface, such a system permits very rapid construction of tomograms.

Live animal myelin histomorphometry of the spinal cord with video-rate multimodal nonlinear microendoscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bélanger, Erik; Crépeau, Joël; Laffray, Sophie; Vallée, Réal; De Koninck, Yves; Côté, Daniel

2012-02-01

In vivo imaging of cellular dynamics can be dramatically enabling to understand the pathophysiology of nervous system diseases. To fully exploit the power of this approach, the main challenges have been to minimize invasiveness and maximize the number of concurrent optical signals that can be combined to probe the interplay between multiple cellular processes. Label-free coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy, for example, can be used to follow demyelination in neurodegenerative diseases or after trauma, but myelin imaging alone is not sufficient to understand the complex sequence of events that leads to the appearance of lesions in the white matter. A commercially available microendoscope is used here to achieve minimally invasive, video-rate multimodal nonlinear imaging of cellular processes in live mouse spinal cord. The system allows for simultaneous CARS imaging of myelin sheaths and two-photon excitation fluorescence microendoscopy of microglial cells and axons. Morphometric data extraction at high spatial resolution is also described, with a technique for reducing motion-related imaging artifacts. Despite its small diameter, the microendoscope enables high speed multimodal imaging over wide areas of tissue, yet at resolution sufficient to quantify subtle differences in myelin thickness and microglial motility.

[Digital imaging and robotics in endoscopic surgery].

PubMed

Go, P M

1998-05-23

The introduction of endoscopical surgery has among other things influenced technical developments in surgery. Owing to digitalisation, major progress will be made in imaging and in the sophisticated technology sometimes called robotics. Digital storage makes the results of imaging diagnostics (e.g. the results of radiological examination) suitable for transmission via video conference systems for telediagnostic purposes. The availability of digital video technique renders possible the processing, storage and retrieval of moving images as well. During endoscopical operations use may be made of a robot arm which replaces the camera man. The arm does not grow tired and provides a stable image. The surgeon himself can operate or address the arm and it can remember fixed image positions to which it can return if ordered to do so. The next step is to carry out surgical manipulations via a robot arm. This may make operations more patient-friendly. A robot arm can also have remote control: telerobotics. At the Internet site of this journal a number of supplements to this article can be found, for instance three-dimensional (3D) illustrations (which is the purpose of the 3D spectacles enclosed with this issue) and a quiz (http:@appendix.niwi. knaw.nl).

Measurement of interfacial tension by use of pendant drop video techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herd, Melvin D.; Thomas, Charles P.; Bala, Gregory A.; Lassahn, Gordon D.

1993-09-01

This report describes an instrument to measure the interfacial tension (IFT) of aqueous surfactant solutions and crude oil. The method involves injection of a drop of fluid (such as crude oil) into a second immiscible phase to determine the IFT between the two phases. The instrument is composed of an AT-class computer, optical cell, illumination, video camera and lens, video frame digitizer board, monitor, and software. The camera displays an image of the pendant drop on the monitor, which is then processed by the frame digitizer board and non-proprietary software to determine the IFT. Several binary and ternary phase systems were taken from the literature and used to measure the precision and accuracy of the instrument in determining IFT's. A copy of the software program is included in the report. A copy of the program on diskette can be obtained from the Energy Science and Technology Software Center, P.O. Box 1020, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-1020. The accuracy and precision of the technique and apparatus presented is very good for measurement of IFT's in the range from 72 to 10(exp -2) mN/m, which is adequate for many EOR applications. With modifications to the equipment and the numerical techniques, measurements of ultralow IFT's (less than 10(exp -3) mN/m) should be possible as well as measurements at reservoir temperature and pressure conditions. The instrument has been used at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory to support the research program on microbial enhanced oil recovery. Measurements of IFT's for several bacterial supernatants and unfractionated acid precipitates of microbial cultures containing biosurfactants against medium to heavy crude oils are reported. These experiments demonstrate that the use of automated video imaging of pendant drops is a simple and fast method to reliably determine interfacial tension between two immiscible liquid phases, or between a gas and a liquid phase.

Forensic photography. Ultraviolet imaging of wounds on skin.

PubMed

Barsley, R E; West, M H; Fair, J A

1990-12-01

The use of ultraviolet light (UVL) to study and document patterned injuries on human skin has opened a new frontier for law enforcement. This article discusses the photographic techniques involved in reflective and fluorescent UVL. Documentation of skin wounds via still photography and dynamic video photographic techniques, which utilize various methods of UV illumination, are covered. Techniques important for courtroom presentation of evidence gathered from lacerations, contusions, abrasions, and bite marks are presented through case studies and controlled experiments. Such injuries are common sequelae in the crimes of child abuse, rape, and assault.

An Automated Measurement of Ciliary Beating Frequency using a Combined Optical Flow and Peak Detection.

PubMed

Kim, Woojae; Han, Tae Hwa; Kim, Hyun Jun; Park, Man Young; Kim, Ku Sang; Park, Rae Woong

2011-06-01

The mucociliary transport system is a major defense mechanism of the respiratory tract. The performance of mucous transportation in the nasal cavity can be represented by a ciliary beating frequency (CBF). This study proposes a novel method to measure CBF by using optical flow. To obtain objective estimates of CBF from video images, an automated computer-based image processing technique is developed. This study proposes a new method based on optical flow for image processing and peak detection for signal processing. We compare the measuring accuracy of the method in various combinations of image processing (optical flow versus difference image) and signal processing (fast Fourier transform [FFT] vs. peak detection [PD]). The digital high-speed video method with a manual count of CBF in slow motion video play, is the gold-standard in CBF measurement. We obtained a total of fifty recorded ciliated sinonasal epithelium images to measure CBF from the Department of Otolaryngology. The ciliated sinonasal epithelium images were recorded at 50-100 frames per second using a charge coupled device camera with an inverted microscope at a magnification of ×1,000. The mean square errors and variance for each method were 1.24, 0.84 Hz; 11.8, 2.63 Hz; 3.22, 1.46 Hz; and 3.82, 1.53 Hz for optical flow (OF) + PD, OF + FFT, difference image [DI] + PD, and DI + FFT, respectively. Of the four methods, PD using optical flow showed the best performance for measuring the CBF of nasal mucosa. The proposed method was able to measure CBF more objectively and efficiently than what is currently possible.

Joint Transform Correlation for face tracking: elderly fall detection application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Katz, Philippe; Aron, Michael; Alfalou, Ayman

2013-03-01

In this paper, an iterative tracking algorithm based on a non-linear JTC (Joint Transform Correlator) architecture and enhanced by a digital image processing method is proposed and validated. This algorithm is based on the computation of a correlation plane where the reference image is updated at each frame. For that purpose, we use the JTC technique in real time to track a patient (target image) in a room fitted with a video camera. The correlation plane is used to localize the target image in the current video frame (frame i). Then, the reference image to be exploited in the next frame (frame i+1) is updated according to the previous one (frame i). In an effort to validate our algorithm, our work is divided into two parts: (i) a large study based on different sequences with several situations and different JTC parameters is achieved in order to quantify their effects on the tracking performances (decimation, non-linearity coefficient, size of the correlation plane, size of the region of interest...). (ii) the tracking algorithm is integrated into an application of elderly fall detection. The first reference image is a face detected by means of Haar descriptors, and then localized into the new video image thanks to our tracking method. In order to avoid a bad update of the reference frame, a method based on a comparison of image intensity histograms is proposed and integrated in our algorithm. This step ensures a robust tracking of the reference frame. This article focuses on face tracking step optimisation and evalutation. A supplementary step of fall detection, based on vertical acceleration and position, will be added and studied in further work.

Simple and cost-effective hardware and software for functional brain mapping using intrinsic optical signal imaging.

PubMed

Harrison, Thomas C; Sigler, Albrecht; Murphy, Timothy H

2009-09-15

We describe a simple and low-cost system for intrinsic optical signal (IOS) imaging using stable LED light sources, basic microscopes, and commonly available CCD cameras. IOS imaging measures activity-dependent changes in the light reflectance of brain tissue, and can be performed with a minimum of specialized equipment. Our system uses LED ring lights that can be mounted on standard microscope objectives or video lenses to provide a homogeneous and stable light source, with less than 0.003% fluctuation across images averaged from 40 trials. We describe the equipment and surgical techniques necessary for both acute and chronic mouse preparations, and provide software that can create maps of sensory representations from images captured by inexpensive 8-bit cameras or by 12-bit cameras. The IOS imaging system can be adapted to commercial upright microscopes or custom macroscopes, eliminating the need for dedicated equipment or complex optical paths. This method can be combined with parallel high resolution imaging techniques such as two-photon microscopy.

Distributing digital video to multiple computers

PubMed Central

Murray, James A.

2004-01-01

Video is an effective teaching tool, and live video microscopy is especially helpful in teaching dissection techniques and the anatomy of small neural structures. Digital video equipment is more affordable now and allows easy conversion from older analog video devices. I here describe a simple technique for bringing digital video from one camera to all of the computers in a single room. This technique allows students to view and record the video from a single camera on a microscope. PMID:23493464

Video enhancement workbench: an operational real-time video image processing system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yool, Stephen R.; Van Vactor, David L.; Smedley, Kirk G.

1993-01-01

Video image sequences can be exploited in real-time, giving analysts rapid access to information for military or criminal investigations. Video-rate dynamic range adjustment subdues fluctuations in image intensity, thereby assisting discrimination of small or low- contrast objects. Contrast-regulated unsharp masking enhances differentially shadowed or otherwise low-contrast image regions. Real-time removal of localized hotspots, when combined with automatic histogram equalization, may enhance resolution of objects directly adjacent. In video imagery corrupted by zero-mean noise, real-time frame averaging can assist resolution and location of small or low-contrast objects. To maximize analyst efficiency, lengthy video sequences can be screened automatically for low-frequency, high-magnitude events. Combined zoom, roam, and automatic dynamic range adjustment permit rapid analysis of facial features captured by video cameras recording crimes in progress. When trying to resolve small objects in murky seawater, stereo video places the moving imagery in an optimal setting for human interpretation.

Diseño, Construcción Y Desarrollo De Un Sistema Limitado Por Difracción Para Telescopios Terrestres: Fastcam

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lopez Lopez, Roberto

2013-02-01

This work describes the concept, design, development, evolution and application of the FastCam instrument. FastCam is an image photometer for astronomy with image capture in a high-frequency range and diraction limited, in order to apply the Lucky Imaging technique to medium- and large-sized ( 1.5 to 4 m) telescopes. The Lucky Imaging technique allows, for ground-based telescopes, to achieve the resolution limit for astronomical images under suitable conditions. This work describes the atmospheric problems and the active and adaptive optics techniques to solve them, as well as the Lucky Imaging fundamentals. A description of the considerations to the project development and design parameters is performed. Then, the optical design and dierent adaptations to several telescopes will be revised. In a next step, some of the scientic results obtained thanks to this project are shown, both in position astronomy and complex structures in globular cluster and binary systems. Dierent designs arising from the basic idea and the instruments now in development that are expanding the system's capabilities and the technique are explained. Some other possible applications to other elds in which the image sharpness is necessary despite uctuations or instabilities of the observing system will be also pointed out: ophthalmology, video-control, etc.

Fast widefield techniques for fluorescence and phase endomicroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ford, Tim N.

Endomicroscopy is a recent development in biomedical optics which gives researchers and physicians microscope-resolution views of intact tissue to complement macroscopic visualization during endoscopy screening. This thesis presents HiLo endomicroscopy and oblique back-illumination endomicroscopy, fast wide-field imaging techniques with fluorescence and phase contrast, respectively. Fluorescence imaging in thick tissue is often hampered by strong out-of-focus background signal. Laser scanning confocal endomicroscopy has been developed for optically-sectioned imaging free from background, but reliance on mechanical scanning fundamentally limits the frame rate and represents significant complexity and expense. HiLo is a fast, simple, widefield fluorescence imaging technique which rejects out-of-focus background signal without the need for scanning. It works by acquiring two images of the sample under uniform and structured illumination and synthesizing an optically sectioned result with real-time image processing. Oblique back-illumination microscopy (OBM) is a label-free technique which allows, for the first time, phase gradient imaging of sub-surface morphology in thick scattering tissue with a reflection geometry. OBM works by back-illuminating the sample with the oblique diffuse reflectance from light delivered via off-axis optical fibers. The use of two diametrically opposed illumination fibers allows simultaneous and independent measurement of phase gradients and absorption contrast. Video-rate single-exposure operation using wavelength multiplexing is demonstrated.

Rose Bengal Photothrombosis by Confocal Optical Imaging In Vivo: A Model of Single Vessel Stroke.

PubMed

Talley Watts, Lora; Zheng, Wei; Garling, R Justin; Frohlich, Victoria C; Lechleiter, James Donald

2015-06-23

In vivo imaging techniques have increased in utilization due to recent advances in imaging dyes and optical technologies, allowing for the ability to image cellular events in an intact animal. Additionally, the ability to induce physiological disease states such as stroke in vivo increases its utility. The technique described herein allows for physiological assessment of cellular responses within the CNS following a stroke and can be adapted for other pathological conditions being studied. The technique presented uses laser excitation of the photosensitive dye Rose Bengal in vivo to induce a focal ischemic event in a single blood vessel. The video protocol demonstrates the preparation of a thin-skulled cranial window over the somatosensory cortex in a mouse for the induction of a Rose Bengal photothrombotic event keeping injury to the underlying dura matter and brain at a minimum. Surgical preparation is initially performed under a dissecting microscope with a custom-made surgical/imaging platform, which is then transferred to a confocal microscope equipped with an inverted objective adaptor. Representative images acquired utilizing this protocol are presented as well as time-lapse sequences of stroke induction. This technique is powerful in that the same area can be imaged repeatedly on subsequent days facilitating longitudinal in vivo studies of pathological processes following stroke.

Clinical utility of BOLD fMRI in preoperative work-up of epilepsy

PubMed Central

Ganesan, Karthik; Ursekar, Meher

2014-01-01

Surgical techniques have emerged as a viable therapeutic option in patients with drug refractory epilepsy. Pre-surgical evaluation of epilepsy requires a comprehensive, multiparametric, and multimodal approach for precise localization of the epileptogenic focus. Various non-invasive techniques are available at the disposal of the treating physician to detect the epileptogenic focus, which include electroencephalography (EEG), video-EEG, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional MRI including blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) techniques, single photon emission tomography (SPECT), and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET). Currently, non-invasive high-resolution MR imaging techniques play pivotal roles in the preoperative detection of the seizure focus, and represent the foundation for successful epilepsy surgery. BOLD functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) maps allow for precise localization of the eloquent cortex in relation to the seizure focus. This review article focuses on the clinical utility of BOLD (fMRI) in the pre-surgical work-up of epilepsy patients. PMID:24851002

Picturing Video

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2000-01-01

Video Pics is a software program that generates high-quality photos from video. The software was developed under an SBIR contract with Marshall Space Flight Center by Redhawk Vision, Inc.--a subsidiary of Irvine Sensors Corporation. Video Pics takes information content from multiple frames of video and enhances the resolution of a selected frame. The resulting image has enhanced sharpness and clarity like that of a 35 mm photo. The images are generated as digital files and are compatible with image editing software.

Film grain noise modeling in advanced video coding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oh, Byung Tae; Kuo, C.-C. Jay; Sun, Shijun; Lei, Shawmin

2007-01-01

A new technique for film grain noise extraction, modeling and synthesis is proposed and applied to the coding of high definition video in this work. The film grain noise is viewed as a part of artistic presentation by people in the movie industry. On one hand, since the film grain noise can boost the natural appearance of pictures in high definition video, it should be preserved in high-fidelity video processing systems. On the other hand, video coding with film grain noise is expensive. It is desirable to extract film grain noise from the input video as a pre-processing step at the encoder and re-synthesize the film grain noise and add it back to the decoded video as a post-processing step at the decoder. Under this framework, the coding gain of the denoised video is higher while the quality of the final reconstructed video can still be well preserved. Following this idea, we present a method to remove film grain noise from image/video without distorting its original content. Besides, we describe a parametric model containing a small set of parameters to represent the extracted film grain noise. The proposed model generates the film grain noise that is close to the real one in terms of power spectral density and cross-channel spectral correlation. Experimental results are shown to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed scheme.

Snapshot spectral and polarimetric imaging; target identification with multispectral video

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bartlett, Brent D.; Rodriguez, Mikel D.

2013-05-01

As the number of pixels continue to grow in consumer and scientific imaging devices, it has become feasible to collect the incident light field. In this paper, an imaging device developed around light field imaging is used to collect multispectral and polarimetric imagery in a snapshot fashion. The sensor is described and a video data set is shown highlighting the advantage of snapshot spectral imaging. Several novel computer vision approaches are applied to the video cubes to perform scene characterization and target identification. It is shown how the addition of spectral and polarimetric data to the video stream allows for multi-target identification and tracking not possible with traditional RGB video collection.

Video Image Stabilization and Registration (VISAR) Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1999-01-01

Two scientists at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, atmospheric scientist Paul Meyer (left) and solar physicist Dr. David Hathaway, have developed promising new software, called Video Image Stabilization and Registration (VISAR), that may help law enforcement agencies to catch criminals by improving the quality of video recorded at crime scenes, VISAR stabilizes camera motion in the horizontal and vertical as well as rotation and zoom effects; produces clearer images of moving objects; smoothes jagged edges; enhances still images; and reduces video noise of snow. VISAR could also have applications in medical and meteorological imaging. It could steady images of Ultrasounds which are infamous for their grainy, blurred quality. It would be especially useful for tornadoes, tracking whirling objects and helping to determine the tornado's wind speed. This image shows two scientists reviewing an enhanced video image of a license plate taken from a moving automobile.

Correction of projective distortion in long-image-sequence mosaics without prior information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Chenhui; Mao, Hongwei; Abousleman, Glen; Si, Jennie

2010-04-01

Image mosaicking is the process of piecing together multiple video frames or still images from a moving camera to form a wide-area or panoramic view of the scene being imaged. Mosaics have widespread applications in many areas such as security surveillance, remote sensing, geographical exploration, agricultural field surveillance, virtual reality, digital video, and medical image analysis, among others. When mosaicking a large number of still images or video frames, the quality of the resulting mosaic is compromised by projective distortion. That is, during the mosaicking process, the image frames that are transformed and pasted to the mosaic become significantly scaled down and appear out of proportion with respect to the mosaic. As more frames continue to be transformed, important target information in the frames can be lost since the transformed frames become too small, which eventually leads to the inability to continue further. Some projective distortion correction techniques make use of prior information such as GPS information embedded within the image, or camera internal and external parameters. Alternatively, this paper proposes a new algorithm to reduce the projective distortion without using any prior information whatsoever. Based on the analysis of the projective distortion, we approximate the projective matrix that describes the transformation between image frames using an affine model. Using singular value decomposition, we can deduce the affine model scaling factor that is usually very close to 1. By resetting the image scale of the affine model to 1, the transformed image size remains unchanged. Even though the proposed correction introduces some error in the image matching, this error is typically acceptable and more importantly, the final mosaic preserves the original image size after transformation. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this new correction algorithm on two real-world unmanned air vehicle (UAV) sequences. The proposed method is shown to be effective and suitable for real-time implementation.

MO-A-BRD-06: In Vivo Cherenkov Video Imaging to Verify Whole Breast Irradiation Treatment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhang, R; Glaser, A; Jarvis, L

Purpose: To show in vivo video imaging of Cherenkov emission (Cherenkoscopy) can be acquired in the clinical treatment room without affecting the normal process of external beam radiation therapy (EBRT). Applications of Cherenkoscopy, such as patient positioning, movement tracking, treatment monitoring and superficial dose estimation, were examined. Methods: In a phase 1 clinical trial, including 12 patients undergoing post-lumpectomy whole breast irradiation, Cherenkov emission was imaged with a time-gated ICCD camera synchronized to the radiation pulses, during 10 fractions of the treatment. Images from different treatment days were compared by calculating the 2-D correlations corresponding to the averaged image. Anmore » edge detection algorithm was utilized to highlight biological features, such as the blood vessels. Superficial dose deposited at the sampling depth were derived from the Eclipse treatment planning system (TPS) and compared with the Cherenkov images. Skin reactions were graded weekly according to the Common Toxicity Criteria and digital photographs were obtained for comparison. Results: Real time (fps = 4.8) imaging of Cherenkov emission was feasible and feasibility tests indicated that it could be improved to video rate (fps = 30) with system improvements. Dynamic field changes due to fast MLC motion were imaged in real time. The average 2-D correlation was about 0.99, suggesting the stability of this imaging technique and repeatability of patient positioning was outstanding. Edge enhanced images of blood vessels were observed, and could serve as unique biological markers for patient positioning and movement tracking (breathing). Small discrepancies exists between the Cherenkov images and the superficial dose predicted from the TPS but the former agreed better with actual skin reactions than did the latter. Conclusion: Real time Cherenkoscopy imaging during EBRT is a novel imaging tool that could be utilized for patient positioning, movement tracking, treatment monitoring, superficial dose and skin reaction estimation and prediction.« less

Binary video codec for data reduction in wireless visual sensor networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khursheed, Khursheed; Ahmad, Naeem; Imran, Muhammad; O'Nils, Mattias

2013-02-01

Wireless Visual Sensor Networks (WVSN) is formed by deploying many Visual Sensor Nodes (VSNs) in the field. Typical applications of WVSN include environmental monitoring, health care, industrial process monitoring, stadium/airports monitoring for security reasons and many more. The energy budget in the outdoor applications of WVSN is limited to the batteries and the frequent replacement of batteries is usually not desirable. So the processing as well as the communication energy consumption of the VSN needs to be optimized in such a way that the network remains functional for longer duration. The images captured by VSN contain huge amount of data and require efficient computational resources for processing the images and wide communication bandwidth for the transmission of the results. Image processing algorithms must be designed and developed in such a way that they are computationally less complex and must provide high compression rate. For some applications of WVSN, the captured images can be segmented into bi-level images and hence bi-level image coding methods will efficiently reduce the information amount in these segmented images. But the compression rate of the bi-level image coding methods is limited by the underlined compression algorithm. Hence there is a need for designing other intelligent and efficient algorithms which are computationally less complex and provide better compression rate than that of bi-level image coding methods. Change coding is one such algorithm which is computationally less complex (require only exclusive OR operations) and provide better compression efficiency compared to image coding but it is effective for applications having slight changes between adjacent frames of the video. The detection and coding of the Region of Interest (ROIs) in the change frame efficiently reduce the information amount in the change frame. But, if the number of objects in the change frames is higher than a certain level then the compression efficiency of both the change coding and ROI coding becomes worse than that of image coding. This paper explores the compression efficiency of the Binary Video Codec (BVC) for the data reduction in WVSN. We proposed to implement all the three compression techniques i.e. image coding, change coding and ROI coding at the VSN and then select the smallest bit stream among the results of the three compression techniques. In this way the compression performance of the BVC will never become worse than that of image coding. We concluded that the compression efficiency of BVC is always better than that of change coding and is always better than or equal that of ROI coding and image coding.

Near Infrared Imaging As a Method of Studying Tsetse Fly (Diptera: Glossinidae) Pupal Development

PubMed Central

Moran, Zelda R.; Parker, Andrew G.

2016-01-01

Abstract Near infrared (NIR) photography and video was investigated as a method for observing and recording intrapuparial development in the tsetse fly Glossina palpalis gambiensis and other Muscomorpha (Cyclorrhapha) Diptera. We showed that NIR light passes through the puparium, permitting images of the true pupae and pharate adult to be captured. Various wavelengths of NIR light from 880 to 1060 nm were compared to study the development of tsetse fly pupae from larviposition to emergence, using time-lapse videos and photographs. This study was carried out to advance our understanding of tsetse pupal development, specifically with the goal of improving a sorting technique which could separate male from female tsetse flies several days before emergence. Separation of the sexes at this stage is highly desirable for operational tsetse sterile insect technique control programmes, as it would permit the easy retention of females for the colony while allowing the males to be handled, irradiated and shipped in the pupal stage when they are less sensitive to vibration. In addition, it presents a new methodology for studying the pupal stage of many coarctate insects for many applications. NIR imaging permits observation of living pupae, allowing the entire development process to be observed without disruption. PMID:27402791

Neuroimaging evaluation in refractory epilepsy

PubMed Central

Granados, Ana M; Orejuela, Juan F

2015-01-01

Purpose To describe the application of neuroimaging analysis, compared to neuropsychological tests and video-electroencephalogram, for the evaluation of refractory epilepsy in a reference centre in Cali, Colombia. Methods Between March 2013 and November 2014, 29 patients, 19 men and 10 women, aged 9–65 years and with refractory epilepsy, were assessed by structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing tasks related to language, verbal and non-verbal memory. Also, volumetric evaluation was performed. A 1.5 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging scanner was used in all cases. Results Neuroimaging evaluation identified 13 patients with mesial temporal sclerosis. The remaining patients were classified as: 10 patients with neoplastic masses, two patients with cortical atrophy, two patients with scarring lesions and two patients with non-structural aetiology. Among patients with mesial temporal sclerosis, comparison between techniques for lateralising the epileptogenic foci was made; the κ index between functional magnetic resonance imaging and hippocampi volumetry was κ = 1.00, agreement between neuroimaging and video-electroencephalogram was good (κ = 0.78) and comparison with a neuropsychological test was mild (κ = 0.24). Conclusions Neuroimaging studies allow the assessment of functional and structural damage related to epileptogenic lesions and foci, and are helpful to select surgical treatment, conduct intraoperative neuronavigation techniques, predict surgical deficits and evaluate patient recovery. PMID:26427897

From Video to Photo

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2004-01-01

Ever wonder whether a still shot from a home video could serve as a "picture perfect" photograph worthy of being framed and proudly displayed on the mantle? Wonder no more. A critical imaging code used to enhance video footage taken from spaceborne imaging instruments is now available within a portable photography tool capable of producing an optimized, high-resolution image from multiple video frames.

13 point video tape quality guidelines

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gaunt, R.

1997-05-01

Until high definition television (ATV) arrives, in the U.S. we must still contend with the National Television Systems Committee (NTSC) video standard (or PAL or SECAM-depending on your country). NTSC, a 40-year old standard designed for transmission of color video camera images over a small bandwidth, is not well suited for the sharp, full-color images that todays computers are capable of producing. PAL and SECAM also suffers from many of NTSC`s problems, but to varying degrees. Video professionals, when working with computer graphic (CG) images, use two monitors: a computer monitor for producing CGs and an NTSC monitor to viewmore » how a CG will look on video. More often than not, the NTSC image will differ significantly from the CG image, and outputting it to NTSC as an artist works enables the him or her to see the images as others will see it. Below are thirteen guidelines designed to increase the quality of computer graphics recorded onto video tape. Viewing your work in NTSC and attempting to follow the below tips will enable you to create higher quality videos. No video is perfect, so don`t expect to abide by every guideline every time.« less

Peri-operative imaging of cancer margins with reflectance confocal microscopy during Mohs micrographic surgery: feasibility of a video-mosaicing algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flores, Eileen; Yelamos, Oriol; Cordova, Miguel; Kose, Kivanc; Phillips, William; Rossi, Anthony; Nehal, Kishwer; Rajadhyaksha, Milind

2017-02-01

Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) imaging shows promise for guiding surgical treatment of skin cancers. Recent technological advancements such as the introduction of the handheld version of the reflectance confocal microscope, video acquisition and video-mosaicing have improved RCM as an emerging tool to evaluate cancer margins during routine surgical skin procedures such as Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS). Detection of residual non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) tumor during MMS is feasible, as demonstrated by the introduction of real-time perioperative imaging on patients in the surgical setting. Our study is currently testing the feasibility of a new mosaicing algorithm for perioperative RCM imaging of NMSC cancer margins on patients during MMS. We report progress toward imaging and image analysis on forty-five patients, who presented for MMS at the MSKCC Dermatology service. The first 10 patients were used as a training set to establish an RCM imaging algorithm, which was implemented on the remaining test set of 35 patients. RCM imaging, using 35% AlCl3 for nuclear contrast, was performed pre- and intra-operatively with the Vivascope 3000 (Caliber ID). Imaging was performed in quadrants in the wound, to simulate the Mohs surgeon's examination of pathology. Videos were taken at the epidermal and deep dermal margins. Our Mohs surgeons assessed all videos and video-mosaics for quality and correlation to histology. Overall, our RCM video-mosaicing algorithm is feasible. RCM videos and video-mosaics of the epidermal and dermal margins were found to be of clinically acceptable quality. Assessment of cancer margins was affected by type of NMSC, size and location. Among the test set of 35 patients, 83% showed acceptable imaging quality, resolution and contrast. Visualization of nuclear and cellular morphology of residual BCC/SCC tumor and normal skin features could be detected in the peripheral and deep dermal margins. We observed correlation between the RCM videos/video-mosaics and the corresponding histology in 32 lesions. Peri-operative RCM imaging shows promise for improved and faster detection of cancer margins and guiding MMS in the surgical setting.

Detecting imperceptible movements in structures by means of video magnification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ordóñez, Celestino; Cabo, Carlos; García-Cortés, Silverio; Menéndez, Agustín.

2017-06-01

The naked eye is not able to perceive very slow movements such as those occurring in certain structures under external forces. This might be the case of metallic or concrete bridges, tower cranes or steel beams. However, sometimes it is of interest to view such movements, since they can provide useful information regarding the mechanical state of those structures. In this work, we analyze the utility of video magnification to detect imperceptible movements in several types of structures. First, laboratory experiments were conducted to validate the method. Then, two different tests were carried out on real structures: one on a water slide and another on a tower crane. The results obtained allow us to conclude that image cross-correlation and video magnification is indeed a promising low-cost technique for structure health monitoring.

Beach Observations using Quadcopter Imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Yi-Chung; Wang, Hsing-Yu; Fang, Hui-Ming; Hsiao, Sung-Shan; Tsai, Cheng-Han

2017-04-01

Beaches are the places where the interaction of the land and sea takes place, and it is under the influence of many environmental factors, including meteorological and oceanic ones. To understand the evolution or changes of beaches, it may require constant monitoring. One way to monitor the beach changes is to use optical cameras. With careful placements of ground control points, land-based optical cameras, which are inexpensive compared to other remote sensing apparatuses, can be used to survey a relatively large area in a short time. For example, we have used terrestrial optical cameras incorporated with ground control points to monitor beaches. The images from the cameras were calibrated by applying the direct linear transformation, projective transformation, and Sobel edge detector to locate the shoreline. The terrestrial optical cameras can record the beach images continuous, and the shorelines can be satisfactorily identified. However, the terrestrial cameras have some limitations. First, the camera system set a sufficiently high level so that the camera can cover the whole area that is of interest; such a location may not be available. The second limitation is that objects in the image have a different resolution, depending on the distance of objects from the cameras. To overcome these limitations, the present study tested a quadcopter equipped with a down-looking camera to record video and still images of a beach. The quadcopter can be controlled to hover at one location. However, the hovering of the quadcopter can be affected by the wind, since it is not positively anchored to a structure. Although the quadcopter has a gimbal mechanism to damp out tiny shakings of the copter, it will not completely counter movements due to the wind. In our preliminary tests, we have flown the quadcopter up to 500 m high to record 10-minnte video. We then took a 10-minute average of the video data. The averaged image of the coast was blurred because of the time duration of the video and the small movement caused by the quadcopter trying to return to its original position, which is caused by the wind. To solve this problem, the feature detection technique of Speeded Up Robust Features (SURF) method was used on the image of the video, and the resulting image was much sharper than that original image. Next, we extracted the maximum and minimum of RGB value of each pixel, respectively, of the 10-minutes videos. The beach breaker zone showed up in the maximum RGB image as white color areas. Moreover, we were also able to remove the breaker from the images and see the breaker zone bottom features using minimum RGB value of the images. From this test, we also identified the location of the coastline. It was found that the correlation coefficient between the coastline identified by the copter image and that by the ground survey was as high as 0.98. By repeating this copter flight at different times, we could measure the evolution of the coastline.

3D Surface Reconstruction of Rills in a Spanish Olive Grove

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brings, Christine; Gronz, Oliver; Seeger, Manuel; Wirtz, Stefan; Taguas, Encarnación; Ries, Johannes B.

2016-04-01

The low-cost, user-friendly photogrammetric Structure from Motion (SfM) technique is used for 3D surface reconstruction and difference calculation of an 18 meter long rill in South Spain (Andalusia, Puente Genil). The images were taken with a Canon HD video camera before and after a rill experiment in an olive grove. Recording with a video camera has compared to a photo camera a huge time advantage and the method also guarantees more than adequately overlapping sharp images. For each model, approximately 20 minutes of video were taken. As SfM needs single images, the sharpest image was automatically selected from 8 frame intervals. The sharpness was estimated using a derivative-based metric. Then, VisualSfM detects feature points in each image, searches matching feature points in all image pairs and recovers the camera and feature positions. Finally, by triangulation of camera positions and feature points the software reconstructs a point cloud of the rill surface. From the point cloud, 3D surface models (meshes) are created and via difference calculations of the pre and post model a visualization of the changes (erosion and accumulation areas) and quantification of erosion volumes are possible. The calculated volumes are presented in spatial units of the models and so real values must be converted via references. The results show that rills in olive groves have a high dynamic due to the lack of vegetation cover under the trees, so that the rill can incise until the bedrock. Another reason for the high activity is the intensive employment of machinery.

Video capsule endoscopy: Perspectives of a revolutionary technique

PubMed Central

Bouchard, Simon; Ibrahim, Mostafa; Van Gossum, Andre

2014-01-01

Video capsule endoscopy (VCE) was launched in 2000 and has revolutionized direct endoscopic imaging of the gut. VCE is now a first-line procedure for exploring the small bowel in cases of obscure digestive bleeding and is also indicated in some patients with Crohn’s disease, celiac disease, and polyposis syndrome. A video capsule has also been designed for visualizing the esophagus in order to detect Barrett’s esophagus or esophageal varices. Different capsules are now available and differ with regard to dimensions, image acquisition rate, battery life, field of view, and possible optical enhancements. More recently, the use of VCE has been extended to exploring the colon. Within the last 5 years, tremendous developments have been made toward increasing the capabilities of the colon capsule. Although colon capsule cannot be proposed as a first-line colorectal cancer screening procedure, colon capsule may be used in patients with incomplete colonoscopy or in patients who are unwilling to undergo colonoscopy. In the near future, new technological developments will improve the diagnostic yield of VCE and broaden its therapeutic capabilities. PMID:25516644

Integrated bronchoscopic video tracking and 3D CT registration for virtual bronchoscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Higgins, William E.; Helferty, James P.; Padfield, Dirk R.

2003-05-01

Lung cancer assessment involves an initial evaluation of 3D CT image data followed by interventional bronchoscopy. The physician, with only a mental image inferred from the 3D CT data, must guide the bronchoscope through the bronchial tree to sites of interest. Unfortunately, this procedure depends heavily on the physician's ability to mentally reconstruct the 3D position of the bronchoscope within the airways. In order to assist physicians in performing biopsies of interest, we have developed a method that integrates live bronchoscopic video tracking and 3D CT registration. The proposed method is integrated into a system we have been devising for virtual-bronchoscopic analysis and guidance for lung-cancer assessment. Previously, the system relied on a method that only used registration of the live bronchoscopic video to corresponding virtual endoluminal views derived from the 3D CT data. This procedure only performs the registration at manually selected sites; it does not draw upon the motion information inherent in the bronchoscopic video. Further, the registration procedure is slow. The proposed method has the following advantages: (1) it tracks the 3D motion of the bronchoscope using the bronchoscopic video; (2) it uses the tracked 3D trajectory of the bronchoscope to assist in locating sites in the 3D CT "virtual world" to perform the registration. In addition, the method incorporates techniques to: (1) detect and exclude corrupted video frames (to help make the video tracking more robust); (2) accelerate the computation of the many 3D virtual endoluminal renderings (thus, speeding up the registration process). We have tested the integrated tracking-registration method on a human airway-tree phantom and on real human data.

Evaluation of privacy in high dynamic range video sequences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Řeřábek, Martin; Yuan, Lin; Krasula, Lukáš; Korshunov, Pavel; Fliegel, Karel; Ebrahimi, Touradj

2014-09-01

The ability of high dynamic range (HDR) to capture details in environments with high contrast has a significant impact on privacy in video surveillance. However, the extent to which HDR imaging affects privacy, when compared to a typical low dynamic range (LDR) imaging, is neither well studied nor well understood. To achieve such an objective, a suitable dataset of images and video sequences is needed. Therefore, we have created a publicly available dataset of HDR video for privacy evaluation PEViD-HDR, which is an HDR extension of an existing Privacy Evaluation Video Dataset (PEViD). PEViD-HDR video dataset can help in the evaluations of privacy protection tools, as well as for showing the importance of HDR imaging in video surveillance applications and its influence on the privacy-intelligibility trade-off. We conducted a preliminary subjective experiment demonstrating the usability of the created dataset for evaluation of privacy issues in video. The results confirm that a tone-mapped HDR video contains more privacy sensitive information and details compared to a typical LDR video.

IMAGE ENHANCEMENT FOR IMPAIRED VISION: THE CHALLENGE OF EVALUATION

PubMed Central

PELI, ELI; WOODS, RUSSELL L

2009-01-01

With the aging of the population, the prevalence of eye diseases and thus of vision impairment is increasing. The TV watching habits of people with vision impairments are comparable to normally sighted people1, however their vision loss prevents them from fully benefiting from this medium. For over 20 years we have been developing video image-enhancement techniques designed to assist people with visual impairments, particularly those due to central retinal vision loss. A major difficulty in this endeavor is the lack of evaluation techniques to assess and compare the effectiveness of various enhancement methods. This paper reviews our approaches to image enhancement and the results we have obtained, with special emphasis on the difficulties encountered in the evaluation of the benefits of enhancement and the solutions we have developed to date. PMID:20161188

Vision-aided Monitoring and Control of Thermal Spray, Spray Forming, and Welding Processes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Agapakis, John E.; Bolstad, Jon

1993-01-01

Vision is one of the most powerful forms of non-contact sensing for monitoring and control of manufacturing processes. However, processes involving an arc plasma or flame such as welding or thermal spraying pose particularly challenging problems to conventional vision sensing and processing techniques. The arc or plasma is not typically limited to a single spectral region and thus cannot be easily filtered out optically. This paper presents an innovative vision sensing system that uses intense stroboscopic illumination to overpower the arc light and produce a video image that is free of arc light or glare and dedicated image processing and analysis schemes that can enhance the video images or extract features of interest and produce quantitative process measures which can be used for process monitoring and control. Results of two SBIR programs sponsored by NASA and DOE and focusing on the application of this innovative vision sensing and processing technology to thermal spraying and welding process monitoring and control are discussed.

Automated management for pavement inspection system (AMPIS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chung, Hung Chi; Girardello, Roberto; Soeller, Tony; Shinozuka, Masanobu

2003-08-01

An automated in-situ road surface distress surveying and management system, AMPIS, has been developed on the basis of video images within the framework of GIS software. Video image processing techniques are introduced to acquire, process and analyze the road surface images obtained from a moving vehicle. ArcGIS platform is used to integrate the routines of image processing and spatial analysis in handling the full-scale metropolitan highway surface distress detection and data fusion/management. This makes it possible to present user-friendly interfaces in GIS and to provide efficient visualizations of surveyed results not only for the use of transportation engineers to manage road surveying documentations, data acquisition, analysis and management, but also for financial officials to plan maintenance and repair programs and further evaluate the socio-economic impacts of highway degradation and deterioration. A review performed in this study on fundamental principle of Pavement Management System (PMS) and its implementation indicates that the proposed approach of using GIS concept and its tools for PMS application will reshape PMS into a new information technology-based system providing a convenient and efficient pavement inspection and management.

GIS-based automated management of highway surface crack inspection system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chung, Hung-Chi; Shinozuka, Masanobu; Soeller, Tony; Girardello, Roberto

2004-07-01

An automated in-situ road surface distress surveying and management system, AMPIS, has been developed on the basis of video images within the framework of GIS software. Video image processing techniques are introduced to acquire, process and analyze the road surface images obtained from a moving vehicle. ArcGIS platform is used to integrate the routines of image processing and spatial analysis in handling the full-scale metropolitan highway surface distress detection and data fusion/management. This makes it possible to present user-friendly interfaces in GIS and to provide efficient visualizations of surveyed results not only for the use of transportation engineers to manage road surveying documentations, data acquisition, analysis and management, but also for financial officials to plan maintenance and repair programs and further evaluate the socio-economic impacts of highway degradation and deterioration. A review performed in this study on fundamental principle of Pavement Management System (PMS) and its implementation indicates that the proposed approach of using GIS concept and its tools for PMS application will reshape PMS into a new information technology-based system that can provide convenient and efficient pavement inspection and management.

Video indexing based on image and sound

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faudemay, Pascal; Montacie, Claude; Caraty, Marie-Jose

1997-10-01

Video indexing is a major challenge for both scientific and economic reasons. Information extraction can sometimes be easier from sound channel than from image channel. We first present a multi-channel and multi-modal query interface, to query sound, image and script through 'pull' and 'push' queries. We then summarize the segmentation phase, which needs information from the image channel. Detection of critical segments is proposed. It should speed-up both automatic and manual indexing. We then present an overview of the information extraction phase. Information can be extracted from the sound channel, through speaker recognition, vocal dictation with unconstrained vocabularies, and script alignment with speech. We present experiment results for these various techniques. Speaker recognition methods were tested on the TIMIT and NTIMIT database. Vocal dictation as experimented on newspaper sentences spoken by several speakers. Script alignment was tested on part of a carton movie, 'Ivanhoe'. For good quality sound segments, error rates are low enough for use in indexing applications. Major issues are the processing of sound segments with noise or music, and performance improvement through the use of appropriate, low-cost architectures or networks of workstations.

Breakup phenomena of a coaxial jet in the non-dilute region using real-time X-ray radiography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheung, F. B.; Kuo, K. K.; Woodward, R. D.; Garner, K. N.

1990-07-01

An innovative approach to the investigation of liquid jet breakup processes in the near-injector region has been developed to overcome the experimental difficulties associated with optically opaque, dense sprays. Real-time X-ray radiography (RTR) has been employed to observe the inner structure and breakup phenomena of coaxial jets. In the atomizing regime, droplets much smaller than the exit diameter are formed beginning essentially at the injector exit. Through the use of RTR, the instantaneous contour of the liquid core was visualized. Experimental results consist of controlled-exposure digital video images of the liquid jet breakup process. Time-averaged video images have also been recorded for comparison. A digital image processing system is used to analyze the recorded images by creating radiance level distributions of the jet. A rudimentary method for deducing intact-liquid-core length has been suggested. The technique of real-time X-ray radiography has been shown to be a viable approach to the study of the breakup processes of high-speed liquid jets.

DCT-based cyber defense techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amsalem, Yaron; Puzanov, Anton; Bedinerman, Anton; Kutcher, Maxim; Hadar, Ofer

2015-09-01

With the increasing popularity of video streaming services and multimedia sharing via social networks, there is a need to protect the multimedia from malicious use. An attacker may use steganography and watermarking techniques to embed malicious content, in order to attack the end user. Most of the attack algorithms are robust to basic image processing techniques such as filtering, compression, noise addition, etc. Hence, in this article two novel, real-time, defense techniques are proposed: Smart threshold and anomaly correction. Both techniques operate at the DCT domain, and are applicable for JPEG images and H.264 I-Frames. The defense performance was evaluated against a highly robust attack, and the perceptual quality degradation was measured by the well-known PSNR and SSIM quality assessment metrics. A set of defense techniques is suggested for improving the defense efficiency. For the most aggressive attack configuration, the combination of all the defense techniques results in 80% protection against cyber-attacks with PSNR of 25.74 db.

Automated Thermal Image Processing for Detection and Classification of Birds and Bats - FY2012 Annual Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Duberstein, Corey A.; Matzner, Shari; Cullinan, Valerie I.

Surveying wildlife at risk from offshore wind energy development is difficult and expensive. Infrared video can be used to record birds and bats that pass through the camera view, but it is also time consuming and expensive to review video and determine what was recorded. We proposed to conduct algorithm and software development to identify and to differentiate thermally detected targets of interest that would allow automated processing of thermal image data to enumerate birds, bats, and insects. During FY2012 we developed computer code within MATLAB to identify objects recorded in video and extract attribute information that describes the objectsmore » recorded. We tested the efficiency of track identification using observer-based counts of tracks within segments of sample video. We examined object attributes, modeled the effects of random variability on attributes, and produced data smoothing techniques to limit random variation within attribute data. We also began drafting and testing methodology to identify objects recorded on video. We also recorded approximately 10 hours of infrared video of various marine birds, passerine birds, and bats near the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Marine Sciences Laboratory (MSL) at Sequim, Washington. A total of 6 hours of bird video was captured overlooking Sequim Bay over a series of weeks. An additional 2 hours of video of birds was also captured during two weeks overlooking Dungeness Bay within the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Bats and passerine birds (swallows) were also recorded at dusk on the MSL campus during nine evenings. An observer noted the identity of objects viewed through the camera concurrently with recording. These video files will provide the information necessary to produce and test software developed during FY2013. The annotation will also form the basis for creation of a method to reliably identify recorded objects.« less

Autonomous target tracking of UAVs based on low-power neural network hardware

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Wei; Jin, Zhanpeng; Thiem, Clare; Wysocki, Bryant; Shen, Dan; Chen, Genshe

2014-05-01

Detecting and identifying targets in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images and videos have been challenging problems due to various types of image distortion. Moreover, the significantly high processing overhead of existing image/video processing techniques and the limited computing resources available on UAVs force most of the processing tasks to be performed by the ground control station (GCS) in an off-line manner. In order to achieve fast and autonomous target identification on UAVs, it is thus imperative to investigate novel processing paradigms that can fulfill the real-time processing requirements, while fitting the size, weight, and power (SWaP) constrained environment. In this paper, we present a new autonomous target identification approach on UAVs, leveraging the emerging neuromorphic hardware which is capable of massively parallel pattern recognition processing and demands only a limited level of power consumption. A proof-of-concept prototype was developed based on a micro-UAV platform (Parrot AR Drone) and the CogniMemTMneural network chip, for processing the video data acquired from a UAV camera on the y. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility and potential of incorporating emerging neuromorphic hardware into next-generation UAVs and their superior performance and power advantages towards the real-time, autonomous target tracking.

Functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles for controlling the movement of immune cells

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

White, Ethan E.; Pai, Alex; Weng, Yiming; Suresh, Anil K.; van Haute, Desiree; Pailevanian, Torkom; Alizadeh, Darya; Hajimiri, Ali; Badie, Behnam; Berlin, Jacob M.

2015-04-01

Immunotherapy is currently being investigated for the treatment of many diseases, including cancer. The ability to control the location of immune cells during or following activation would represent a powerful new technique for this field. Targeted magnetic delivery is emerging as a technique for controlling cell movement and localization. Here we show that this technique can be extended to microglia, the primary phagocytic immune cells in the central nervous system. The magnetized microglia were generated by loading the cells with iron oxide nanoparticles functionalized with CpG oligonucleotides, serving as a proof of principle that nanoparticles can be used to both deliver an immunostimulatory cargo to cells and to control the movement of the cells. The nanoparticle-oligonucleotide conjugates are efficiently internalized, non-toxic, and immunostimulatory. We demonstrate that the in vitro migration of the adherent, loaded microglia can be controlled by an external magnetic field and that magnetically-induced migration is non-cytotoxic. In order to capture video of this magnetically-induced migration of loaded cells, a novel 3D-printed ``cell box'' was designed to facilitate our imaging application. Analysis of cell movement velocities clearly demonstrate increased cell velocities toward the magnet. These studies represent the initial step towards our final goal of using nanoparticles to both activate immune cells and to control their trafficking within the diseased brain.Immunotherapy is currently being investigated for the treatment of many diseases, including cancer. The ability to control the location of immune cells during or following activation would represent a powerful new technique for this field. Targeted magnetic delivery is emerging as a technique for controlling cell movement and localization. Here we show that this technique can be extended to microglia, the primary phagocytic immune cells in the central nervous system. The magnetized microglia were generated by loading the cells with iron oxide nanoparticles functionalized with CpG oligonucleotides, serving as a proof of principle that nanoparticles can be used to both deliver an immunostimulatory cargo to cells and to control the movement of the cells. The nanoparticle-oligonucleotide conjugates are efficiently internalized, non-toxic, and immunostimulatory. We demonstrate that the in vitro migration of the adherent, loaded microglia can be controlled by an external magnetic field and that magnetically-induced migration is non-cytotoxic. In order to capture video of this magnetically-induced migration of loaded cells, a novel 3D-printed ``cell box'' was designed to facilitate our imaging application. Analysis of cell movement velocities clearly demonstrate increased cell velocities toward the magnet. These studies represent the initial step towards our final goal of using nanoparticles to both activate immune cells and to control their trafficking within the diseased brain. Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Transmission electron microscopy images of the particles, additional independent experiments for the NFκB activity and exocytosis assays, TEM images for the SPION untreated cells, bright field microscopy images of the cells alone in the presence and absence of magnet, images of the magnetic movement experiments at higher doses of SPION, full uncropped images of the post-migration LIVE/DEAD assay, and a video file of cell movement. See DOI: 10.1039/c3nr04421a

Video image position determination

DOEpatents

Christensen, Wynn; Anderson, Forrest L.; Kortegaard, Birchard L.

1991-01-01

An optical beam position controller in which a video camera captures an image of the beam in its video frames, and conveys those images to a processing board which calculates the centroid coordinates for the image. The image coordinates are used by motor controllers and stepper motors to position the beam in a predetermined alignment. In one embodiment, system noise, used in conjunction with Bernoulli trials, yields higher resolution centroid coordinates.

Differential dynamic microscopy to characterize Brownian motion and bacteria motility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Germain, David; Leocmach, Mathieu; Gibaud, Thomas

2016-03-01

We have developed a lab module for undergraduate students, which involves the process of quantifying the dynamics of a suspension of microscopic particles using Differential Dynamic Microscopy (DDM). DDM is a relatively new technique that constitutes an alternative method to more classical techniques such as dynamic light scattering (DLS) or video particle tracking (VPT). The technique consists of imaging a particle dispersion with a standard light microscope and a camera and analyzing the images using a digital Fourier transform to obtain the intermediate scattering function, an autocorrelation function that characterizes the dynamics of the dispersion. We first illustrate DDM in the textbook case of colloids under Brownian motion, where we measure the diffusion coefficient. Then we show that DDM is a pertinent tool to characterize biological systems such as motile bacteria.

On-screen-display (OSD) menu detection for proper stereo content reproduction for 3D TV

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tolstaya, Ekaterina V.; Bucha, Victor V.; Rychagov, Michael N.

2011-03-01

Modern consumer 3D TV sets are able to show video content in two different modes: 2D and 3D. In 3D mode, stereo pair comes from external device such as Blue-ray player, satellite receivers etc. The stereo pair is split into left and right images that are shown one after another. The viewer sees different image for left and right eyes using shutter-glasses properly synchronized with a 3DTV. Besides, some devices that provide TV with a stereo content are able to display some additional information by imposing an overlay picture on video content, an On-Screen-Display (OSD) menu. Some OSDs are not always 3D compatible and lead to incorrect 3D reproduction. In this case, TV set must recognize the type of OSD, whether it is 3D compatible, and visualize it correctly by either switching off stereo mode, or continue demonstration of stereo content. We propose a new stable method for detection of 3D incompatible OSD menus on stereo content. Conventional OSD is a rectangular area with letters and pictograms. OSD menu can be of different transparency levels and colors. To be 3D compatible, an OSD is overlaid separately on both images of a stereo pair. The main problem in detecting OSD is to distinguish whether the color difference is due to OSD presence, or due to stereo parallax. We applied special techniques to find reliable image difference and additionally used a cue that usually OSD has very implicit geometrical features: straight parallel lines. The developed algorithm was tested on our video sequences database, with several types of OSD with different colors and transparency levels overlaid upon video content. Detection quality exceeded 99% of true answers.

Investigation of Critical Heat Flux in Reduced Gravity Using Photomicrographic Techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mudawar, Issam; Zhang, Hui

2003-01-01

Experiments were performed to examine the effects of body force on flow boiling critical heat flux (CHF). FC-72 was boiled along one wall of a transparent rectangular flow channel that permitted photographic study of the vapor-liquid interface just prior to CHF. High-speed video imaging techniques were used to identify dominant CHF mechanisms corresponding to different flow orientations and liquid velocities. Six different CHF regimes were identified: Wavy Vapor Layer, Pool Boiling, Stratification, Vapor Counterflow, Vapor Stagnation, and Separated Concurrent Vapor Flow. CHF showed significant sensitivity to orientation for flow velocities below 0.2 m/s, where extremely low CHF values where measured, especially with downward-facing heated wall and downflow orientations. High flow velocities dampened the effects of orientation considerably. The CHF data were used to assess the suitability of previous CHF models and correlations. It is shown the Interfacial Lift-off Model is very effective at predicting CHF for high velocities at all orientations. The flooding limit, on the other hand, is useful at estimating CHF at low velocities and for downflow orientations. A new method consisting of three dimensionless criteria is developed for determining the minimum flow velocity required to overcome body force effects on near-saturated flow boiling CHF. Vertical upflow boiling experiments were performed in pursuit of identifying the trigger mechanism for subcooled flow boiling CHF. While virtually all prior studies on flow boiling CHF concern the prediction or measurement of conditions that lead to CHF, this study was focused on events that take place during the CHF transient. High-speed video imaging and photomicrographic techniques were used to record the transient behavior of interfacial features from the last steady-state power level before CHF until the moment of power cut-off following CHF. The video records show the development of a wavy vapor layer which propagates along the heated wall, permitting cooling prior to CHF only in wetting fronts corresponding to the wave troughs. Image analysis software was developed to estimate void fraction from the individual video images. The void fraction records for subcooled flow boiling show the CHF transient is accompanied by gradual lift-off of wetting fronts culminating in some maximum vapor layer mean thickness, following which the vapor layer begins to thin down as the transition to film boiling ensues. This study proves the Interfacial Lift-off Model, which has been validated for near-saturated flow boiling CHF, is equally valid for subcooled conditions.

Real-time demonstration hardware for enhanced DPCM video compression algorithm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bizon, Thomas P.; Whyte, Wayne A., Jr.; Marcopoli, Vincent R.

1992-01-01

The lack of available wideband digital links as well as the complexity of implementation of bandwidth efficient digital video CODECs (encoder/decoder) has worked to keep the cost of digital television transmission too high to compete with analog methods. Terrestrial and satellite video service providers, however, are now recognizing the potential gains that digital video compression offers and are proposing to incorporate compression systems to increase the number of available program channels. NASA is similarly recognizing the benefits of and trend toward digital video compression techniques for transmission of high quality video from space and therefore, has developed a digital television bandwidth compression algorithm to process standard National Television Systems Committee (NTSC) composite color television signals. The algorithm is based on differential pulse code modulation (DPCM), but additionally utilizes a non-adaptive predictor, non-uniform quantizer and multilevel Huffman coder to reduce the data rate substantially below that achievable with straight DPCM. The non-adaptive predictor and multilevel Huffman coder combine to set this technique apart from other DPCM encoding algorithms. All processing is done on a intra-field basis to prevent motion degradation and minimize hardware complexity. Computer simulations have shown the algorithm will produce broadcast quality reconstructed video at an average transmission rate of 1.8 bits/pixel. Hardware implementation of the DPCM circuit, non-adaptive predictor and non-uniform quantizer has been completed, providing realtime demonstration of the image quality at full video rates. Video sampling/reconstruction circuits have also been constructed to accomplish the analog video processing necessary for the real-time demonstration. Performance results for the completed hardware compare favorably with simulation results. Hardware implementation of the multilevel Huffman encoder/decoder is currently under development along with implementation of a buffer control algorithm to accommodate the variable data rate output of the multilevel Huffman encoder. A video CODEC of this type could be used to compress NTSC color television signals where high quality reconstruction is desirable (e.g., Space Station video transmission, transmission direct-to-the-home via direct broadcast satellite systems or cable television distribution to system headends and direct-to-the-home).

SEMG signal compression based on two-dimensional techniques.

PubMed

de Melo, Wheidima Carneiro; de Lima Filho, Eddie Batista; da Silva Júnior, Waldir Sabino

2016-04-18

Recently, two-dimensional techniques have been successfully employed for compressing surface electromyographic (SEMG) records as images, through the use of image and video encoders. Such schemes usually provide specific compressors, which are tuned for SEMG data, or employ preprocessing techniques, before the two-dimensional encoding procedure, in order to provide a suitable data organization, whose correlations can be better exploited by off-the-shelf encoders. Besides preprocessing input matrices, one may also depart from those approaches and employ an adaptive framework, which is able to directly tackle SEMG signals reassembled as images. This paper proposes a new two-dimensional approach for SEMG signal compression, which is based on a recurrent pattern matching algorithm called multidimensional multiscale parser (MMP). The mentioned encoder was modified, in order to efficiently work with SEMG signals and exploit their inherent redundancies. Moreover, a new preprocessing technique, named as segmentation by similarity (SbS), which has the potential to enhance the exploitation of intra- and intersegment correlations, is introduced, the percentage difference sorting (PDS) algorithm is employed, with different image compressors, and results with the high efficiency video coding (HEVC), H.264/AVC, and JPEG2000 encoders are presented. Experiments were carried out with real isometric and dynamic records, acquired in laboratory. Dynamic signals compressed with H.264/AVC and HEVC, when combined with preprocessing techniques, resulted in good percent root-mean-square difference [Formula: see text] compression factor figures, for low and high compression factors, respectively. Besides, regarding isometric signals, the modified two-dimensional MMP algorithm outperformed state-of-the-art schemes, for low compression factors, the combination between SbS and HEVC proved to be competitive, for high compression factors, and JPEG2000, combined with PDS, provided good performance allied to low computational complexity, all in terms of percent root-mean-square difference [Formula: see text] compression factor. The proposed schemes are effective and, specifically, the modified MMP algorithm can be considered as an interesting alternative for isometric signals, regarding traditional SEMG encoders. Besides, the approach based on off-the-shelf image encoders has the potential of fast implementation and dissemination, given that many embedded systems may already have such encoders available, in the underlying hardware/software architecture.

Detection and localization of copy-paste forgeries in digital videos.

PubMed

Singh, Raahat Devender; Aggarwal, Naveen

2017-12-01

Amidst the continual march of technology, we find ourselves relying on digital videos to proffer visual evidence in several highly sensitive areas such as journalism, politics, civil and criminal litigation, and military and intelligence operations. However, despite being an indispensable source of information with high evidentiary value, digital videos are also extremely vulnerable to conscious manipulations. Therefore, in a situation where dependence on video evidence is unavoidable, it becomes crucial to authenticate the contents of this evidence before accepting them as an accurate depiction of reality. Digital videos can suffer from several kinds of manipulations, but perhaps, one of the most consequential forgeries is copy-paste forgery, which involves insertion/removal of objects into/from video frames. Copy-paste forgeries alter the information presented by the video scene, which has a direct effect on our basic understanding of what that scene represents, and so, from a forensic standpoint, the challenge of detecting such forgeries is especially significant. In this paper, we propose a sensor pattern noise based copy-paste detection scheme, which is an improved and forensically stronger version of an existing noise-residue based technique. We also study a demosaicing artifact based image forensic scheme to estimate the extent of its viability in the domain of video forensics. Furthermore, we suggest a simplistic clustering technique for the detection of copy-paste forgeries, and determine if it possess the capabilities desired of a viable and efficacious video forensic scheme. Finally, we validate these schemes on a set of realistically tampered MJPEG, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and H.264/AVC encoded videos in a diverse experimental set-up by varying the strength of post-production re-compressions and transcodings, bitrates, and sizes of the tampered regions. Such an experimental set-up is representative of a neutral testing platform and simulates a real-world forgery scenario where the forensic investigator has no control over any of the variable parameters of the tampering process. When tested in such an experimental set-up, the four forensic schemes achieved varying levels of detection accuracies and exhibited different scopes of applicabilities. For videos compressed using QFs in the range 70-100, the existing noise residue based technique generated average detection accuracy in the range 64.5%-82.0%, while the proposed sensor pattern noise based scheme generated average accuracy in the range 89.9%-98.7%. For the aforementioned range of QFs, average accuracy rates achieved by the suggested clustering technique and the demosaicing artifact based approach were in the range 79.1%-90.1% and 83.2%-93.3%, respectively. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Video library for video imaging detection at intersection stop lines.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-04-01

The objective of this activity was to record video that could be used for controlled : evaluation of video image vehicle detection system (VIVDS) products and software upgrades to : existing products based on a list of conditions that might be diffic...

Does Instructor's Image Size in Video Lectures Affect Learning Outcomes?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pi, Z.; Hong, J.; Yang, J.

2017-01-01

One of the most commonly used forms of video lectures is a combination of an instructor's image and accompanying lecture slides as a picture-in-picture. As the image size of the instructor varies significantly across video lectures, and so do the learning outcomes associated with this technology, the influence of the instructor's image size should…

Data simulation for the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Boeck, William L.

1991-01-01

This project aims to build a data analysis system that will utilize existing video tape scenes of lightning as viewed from space. The resultant data will be used for the design and development of the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) software and algorithm analysis. The desire for statistically significant metrics implies that a large data set needs to be analyzed. Before 1990 the quality and quantity of video was insufficient to build a usable data set. At this point in time, there is usable data from missions STS-34, STS-32, STS-31, STS-41, STS-37, and STS-39. During the summer of 1990, a manual analysis system was developed to demonstrate that the video analysis is feasible and to identify techniques to deduce information that was not directly available. Because the closed circuit television system used on the space shuttle was intended for documentary TV, the current value of the camera focal length and pointing orientation, which are needed for photoanalysis, are not included in the system data. A large effort was needed to discover ancillary data sources as well as develop indirect methods to estimate the necessary parameters. Any data system coping with full motion video faces an enormous bottleneck produced by the large data production rate and the need to move and store the digitized images. The manual system bypassed the video digitizing bottleneck by using a genlock to superimpose pixel coordinates on full motion video. Because the data set had to be obtained point by point by a human operating a computer mouse, the data output rate was small. The loan and subsequent acquisition of a Abekas digital frame store with a real time digitizer moved the bottleneck from data acquisition to a problem of data transfer and storage. The semi-automated analysis procedure was developed using existing equipment and is described. A fully automated system is described in the hope that the components may come on the market at reasonable prices in the next few years.

Performance characterization of image and video analysis systems at Siemens Corporate Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramesh, Visvanathan; Jolly, Marie-Pierre; Greiffenhagen, Michael

2000-06-01

There has been a significant increase in commercial products using imaging analysis techniques to solve real-world problems in diverse fields such as manufacturing, medical imaging, document analysis, transportation and public security, etc. This has been accelerated by various factors: more advanced algorithms, the availability of cheaper sensors, and faster processors. While algorithms continue to improve in performance, a major stumbling block in translating improvements in algorithms to faster deployment of image analysis systems is the lack of characterization of limits of algorithms and how they affect total system performance. The research community has realized the need for performance analysis and there have been significant efforts in the last few years to remedy the situation. Our efforts at SCR have been on statistical modeling and characterization of modules and systems. The emphasis is on both white-box and black box methodologies to evaluate and optimize vision systems. In the first part of this paper we review the literature on performance characterization and then provide an overview of the status of research in performance characterization of image and video understanding systems. The second part of the paper is on performance evaluation of medical image segmentation algorithms. Finally, we highlight some research issues in performance analysis in medical imaging systems.

Potential usefulness of a video printer for producing secondary images from digitized chest radiographs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nishikawa, Robert M.; MacMahon, Heber; Doi, Kunio; Bosworth, Eric

1991-05-01

Communication between radiologists and clinicians could be improved if a secondary image (copy of the original image) accompanied the radiologic report. In addition, the number of lost original radiographs could be decreased, since clinicians would have less need to borrow films. The secondary image should be simple and inexpensive to produce, while providing sufficient image quality for verification of the diagnosis. We are investigating the potential usefulness of a video printer for producing copies of radiographs, i.e. images printed on thermal paper. The video printer we examined (Seikosha model VP-3500) can provide 64 shades of gray. It is capable of recording images up to 1,280 pixels by 1,240 lines and can accept any raster-type video signal. The video printer was characterized in terms of its linearity, contrast, latitude, resolution, and noise properties. The quality of video-printer images was also evaluated in an observer study using portable chest radiographs. We found that observers could confirm up to 90 of the reported findings in the thorax using video- printer images, when the original radiographs were of high quality. The number of verified findings was diminished when high spatial resolution was required (e.g. detection of a subtle pneumothorax) or when a low-contrast finding was located in the mediastinal area or below the diaphragm (e.g. nasogastric tubes).

Real-time UAV trajectory generation using feature points matching between video image sequences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Byun, Younggi; Song, Jeongheon; Han, Dongyeob

2017-09-01

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), equipped with navigation systems and video capability, are currently being deployed for intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance mission. In this paper, we present a systematic approach for the generation of UAV trajectory using a video image matching system based on SURF (Speeded up Robust Feature) and Preemptive RANSAC (Random Sample Consensus). Video image matching to find matching points is one of the most important steps for the accurate generation of UAV trajectory (sequence of poses in 3D space). We used the SURF algorithm to find the matching points between video image sequences, and removed mismatching by using the Preemptive RANSAC which divides all matching points to outliers and inliers. The inliers are only used to determine the epipolar geometry for estimating the relative pose (rotation and translation) between image sequences. Experimental results from simulated video image sequences showed that our approach has a good potential to be applied to the automatic geo-localization of the UAVs system

Researching on the process of remote sensing video imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, He-rao; Zheng, Xin-qi; Sun, Yi-bo; Jia, Zong-ren; Wang, He-zhan

Unmanned air vehicle remotely-sensed imagery on the low-altitude has the advantages of higher revolution, easy-shooting, real-time accessing, etc. It's been widely used in mapping , target identification, and other fields in recent years. However, because of conditional limitation, the video images are unstable, the targets move fast, and the shooting background is complex, etc., thus it is difficult to process the video images in this situation. In other fields, especially in the field of computer vision, the researches on video images are more extensive., which is very helpful for processing the remotely-sensed imagery on the low-altitude. Based on this, this paper analyzes and summarizes amounts of video image processing achievement in different fields, including research purposes, data sources, and the pros and cons of technology. Meantime, this paper explores the technology methods more suitable for low-altitude video image processing of remote sensing.

The tensile testing of individual wood fibers using environmental scanning electron microscopy and video image analysis

Treesearch

Laurence Mott; Stephen M. Shaler; Leslie H. Groom; Bei-Hong Liang

1995-01-01

Relationships between virgin fiber types, fiber production techniques and mechanical properties are well understood and documented. For recycled fivers, however, these same relationships are confounded by unquantified degrees of further mechanical and chemical damage. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of recycling on secondary fibers, the...

The tensile testing of individual wood fibers using environmental scanning electron microscopy and video image analysis

Treesearch

Laurence Mott; Stephen M. Shaler; Leslie H. Groom; Bei-Hong Liang

1995-01-01

Relationships between virgin fiber types, fiber production techniques and mechanical properties are well understood and documented. For recycled fibers, however, these same relationships are confounded by unquantified degrees of further mechanical and chemical damage. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of recycling on secondary fibers, the...

Video Browsing on Handheld Devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hürst, Wolfgang

Recent improvements in processing power, storage space, and video codec development enable users now to playback video on their handheld devices in a reasonable quality. However, given the form factor restrictions of such a mobile device, screen size still remains a natural limit and - as the term "handheld" implies - always will be a critical resource. This is not only true for video but any data that is processed on such devices. For this reason, developers have come up with new and innovative ways to deal with large documents in such limited scenarios. For example, if you look at the iPhone, innovative techniques such as flicking have been introduced to skim large lists of text (e.g. hundreds of entries in your music collection). Automatically adapting the zoom level to, for example, the width of table cells when double tapping on the screen enables reasonable browsing of web pages that have originally been designed for large, desktop PC sized screens. A multi touch interface allows you to easily zoom in and out of large text documents and images using two fingers. In the next section, we will illustrate that advanced techniques to browse large video files have been developed in the past years, as well. However, if you look at state-of-the-art video players on mobile devices, normally just simple, VCR like controls are supported (at least at the time of this writing) that only allow users to just start, stop, and pause video playback. If supported at all, browsing and navigation functionality is often restricted to simple skipping of chapters via two single buttons for backward and forward navigation and a small and thus not very sensitive timeline slider.

Digital video system for on-line portal verification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leszczynski, Konrad W.; Shalev, Shlomo; Cosby, N. Scott

1990-07-01

A digital system has been developed for on-line acquisition, processing and display of portal images during radiation therapy treatment. A metal/phosphor screen combination is the primary detector, where the conversion from high-energy photons to visible light takes place. A mirror angled at 45 degrees reflects the primary image to a low-light-level camera, which is removed from the direct radiation beam. The image registered by the camera is digitized, processed and displayed on a CRT monitor. Advanced digital techniques for processing of on-line images have been developed and implemented to enhance image contrast and suppress the noise. Some elements of automated radiotherapy treatment verification have been introduced.

Optically sectioned in vivo imaging with speckle illumination HiLo microscopy

PubMed Central

Lim, Daryl; Ford, Tim N.; Chu, Kengyeh K.; Mertz, Jerome

2011-01-01

We present a simple wide-field imaging technique, called HiLo microscopy, that is capable of producing optically sectioned images in real time, comparable in quality to confocal laser scanning microscopy. The technique is based on the fusion of two raw images, one acquired with speckle illumination and another with standard uniform illumination. The fusion can be numerically adjusted, using a single parameter, to produce optically sectioned images of varying thicknesses with the same raw data. Direct comparison between our HiLo microscope and a commercial confocal laser scanning microscope is made on the basis of sectioning strength and imaging performance. Specifically, we show that HiLo and confocal 3-D imaging of a GFP-labeled mouse brain hippocampus are comparable in quality. Moreover, HiLo microscopy is capable of faster, near video rate imaging over larger fields of view than attainable with standard confocal microscopes. The goal of this paper is to advertise the simplicity, robustness, and versatility of HiLo microscopy, which we highlight with in vivo imaging of common model organisms including planaria, C. elegans, and zebrafish. PMID:21280920

Optically sectioned in vivo imaging with speckle illumination HiLo microscopy.

PubMed

Lim, Daryl; Ford, Tim N; Chu, Kengyeh K; Mertz, Jerome

2011-01-01

We present a simple wide-field imaging technique, called HiLo microscopy, that is capable of producing optically sectioned images in real time, comparable in quality to confocal laser scanning microscopy. The technique is based on the fusion of two raw images, one acquired with speckle illumination and another with standard uniform illumination. The fusion can be numerically adjusted, using a single parameter, to produce optically sectioned images of varying thicknesses with the same raw data. Direct comparison between our HiLo microscope and a commercial confocal laser scanning microscope is made on the basis of sectioning strength and imaging performance. Specifically, we show that HiLo and confocal 3-D imaging of a GFP-labeled mouse brain hippocampus are comparable in quality. Moreover, HiLo microscopy is capable of faster, near video rate imaging over larger fields of view than attainable with standard confocal microscopes. The goal of this paper is to advertise the simplicity, robustness, and versatility of HiLo microscopy, which we highlight with in vivo imaging of common model organisms including planaria, C. elegans, and zebrafish.

Optically sectioned in vivo imaging with speckle illumination HiLo microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lim, Daryl; Ford, Tim N.; Chu, Kengyeh K.; Mertz, Jerome

2011-01-01

We present a simple wide-field imaging technique, called HiLo microscopy, that is capable of producing optically sectioned images in real time, comparable in quality to confocal laser scanning microscopy. The technique is based on the fusion of two raw images, one acquired with speckle illumination and another with standard uniform illumination. The fusion can be numerically adjusted, using a single parameter, to produce optically sectioned images of varying thicknesses with the same raw data. Direct comparison between our HiLo microscope and a commercial confocal laser scanning microscope is made on the basis of sectioning strength and imaging performance. Specifically, we show that HiLo and confocal 3-D imaging of a GFP-labeled mouse brain hippocampus are comparable in quality. Moreover, HiLo microscopy is capable of faster, near video rate imaging over larger fields of view than attainable with standard confocal microscopes. The goal of this paper is to advertise the simplicity, robustness, and versatility of HiLo microscopy, which we highlight with in vivo imaging of common model organisms including planaria, C. elegans, and zebrafish.

Extended image differencing for change detection in UAV video mosaics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saur, Günter; Krüger, Wolfgang; Schumann, Arne

2014-03-01

Change detection is one of the most important tasks when using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for video reconnaissance and surveillance. We address changes of short time scale, i.e. the observations are taken in time distances from several minutes up to a few hours. Each observation is a short video sequence acquired by the UAV in near-nadir view and the relevant changes are, e.g., recently parked or moved vehicles. In this paper we extend our previous approach of image differencing for single video frames to video mosaics. A precise image-to-image registration combined with a robust matching approach is needed to stitch the video frames to a mosaic. Additionally, this matching algorithm is applied to mosaic pairs in order to align them to a common geometry. The resulting registered video mosaic pairs are the input of the change detection procedure based on extended image differencing. A change mask is generated by an adaptive threshold applied to a linear combination of difference images of intensity and gradient magnitude. The change detection algorithm has to distinguish between relevant and non-relevant changes. Examples for non-relevant changes are stereo disparity at 3D structures of the scene, changed size of shadows, and compression or transmission artifacts. The special effects of video mosaicking such as geometric distortions and artifacts at moving objects have to be considered, too. In our experiments we analyze the influence of these effects on the change detection results by considering several scenes. The results show that for video mosaics this task is more difficult than for single video frames. Therefore, we extended the image registration by estimating an elastic transformation using a thin plate spline approach. The results for mosaics are comparable to that of single video frames and are useful for interactive image exploitation due to a larger scene coverage.

Dual Use of Image Based Tracking Techniques: Laser Eye Surgery and Low Vision Prosthesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Juday, Richard D.; Barton, R. Shane

1994-01-01

With a concentration on Fourier optics pattern recognition, we have developed several methods of tracking objects in dynamic imagery to automate certain space applications such as orbital rendezvous and spacecraft capture, or planetary landing. We are developing two of these techniques for Earth applications in real-time medical image processing. The first is warping of a video image, developed to evoke shift invariance to scale and rotation in correlation pattern recognition. The technology is being applied to compensation for certain field defects in low vision humans. The second is using the optical joint Fourier transform to track the translation of unmodeled scenes. Developed as an image fixation tool to assist in calculating shape from motion, it is being applied to tracking motions of the eyeball quickly enough to keep a laser photocoagulation spot fixed on the retina, thus avoiding collateral damage.

Dual use of image based tracking techniques: Laser eye surgery and low vision prosthesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Juday, Richard D.

1994-01-01

With a concentration on Fourier optics pattern recognition, we have developed several methods of tracking objects in dynamic imagery to automate certain space applications such as orbital rendezvous and spacecraft capture, or planetary landing. We are developing two of these techniques for Earth applications in real-time medical image processing. The first is warping of a video image, developed to evoke shift invariance to scale and rotation in correlation pattern recognition. The technology is being applied to compensation for certain field defects in low vision humans. The second is using the optical joint Fourier transform to track the translation of unmodeled scenes. Developed as an image fixation tool to assist in calculating shape from motion, it is being applied to tracking motions of the eyeball quickly enough to keep a laser photocoagulation spot fixed on the retina, thus avoiding collateral damage.

Fuzzy Filtering Method for Color Videos Corrupted by Additive Noise

PubMed Central

Ponomaryov, Volodymyr I.; Montenegro-Monroy, Hector; Nino-de-Rivera, Luis

2014-01-01

A novel method for the denoising of color videos corrupted by additive noise is presented in this paper. The proposed technique consists of three principal filtering steps: spatial, spatiotemporal, and spatial postprocessing. In contrast to other state-of-the-art algorithms, during the first spatial step, the eight gradient values in different directions for pixels located in the vicinity of a central pixel as well as the R, G, and B channel correlation between the analogous pixels in different color bands are taken into account. These gradient values give the information about the level of contamination then the designed fuzzy rules are used to preserve the image features (textures, edges, sharpness, chromatic properties, etc.). In the second step, two neighboring video frames are processed together. Possible local motions between neighboring frames are estimated using block matching procedure in eight directions to perform interframe filtering. In the final step, the edges and smoothed regions in a current frame are distinguished for final postprocessing filtering. Numerous simulation results confirm that this novel 3D fuzzy method performs better than other state-of-the-art techniques in terms of objective criteria (PSNR, MAE, NCD, and SSIM) as well as subjective perception via the human vision system in the different color videos. PMID:24688428

Visualizing and quantifying the in vivo structure and dynamics of the Arabidopsis cortical cytoskeleton using CLSM and VAEM.

PubMed

Rosero, Amparo; Zárský, Viktor; Cvrčková, Fatima

2014-01-01

The cortical microtubules, and to some extent also the actin meshwork, play a central role in the shaping of plant cells. Transgenic plants expressing fluorescent protein markers specifically tagging the two main cytoskeletal systems are available, allowing noninvasive in vivo studies. Advanced microscopy techniques, in particular confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and variable angle epifluorescence microscopy (VAEM), can be nowadays used for imaging the cortical cytoskeleton of living cells with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. With the aid of suitable computing techniques, quantitative information can be extracted from microscopic images and video sequences, providing insight into both architecture and dynamics of the cortical cytoskeleton.

Estimating Number of People Using Calibrated Monocular Camera Based on Geometrical Analysis of Surface Area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arai, Hiroyuki; Miyagawa, Isao; Koike, Hideki; Haseyama, Miki

We propose a novel technique for estimating the number of people in a video sequence; it has the advantages of being stable even in crowded situations and needing no ground-truth data. By analyzing the geometrical relationships between image pixels and their intersection volumes in the real world quantitatively, a foreground image directly indicates the number of people. Because foreground detection is possible even in crowded situations, the proposed method can be applied in such situations. Moreover, it can estimate the number of people in an a priori manner, so it needs no ground-truth data unlike existing feature-based estimation techniques. Experiments show the validity of the proposed method.

Development of an imaging system for single droplet characterization using a droplet generator.

PubMed

Minov, S Vulgarakis; Cointault, F; Vangeyte, J; Pieters, J G; Hijazi, B; Nuyttens, D

2012-01-01

The spray droplets generated by agricultural nozzles play an important role in the application accuracy and efficiency of plant protection products. The limitations of the non-imaging techniques and the recent improvements in digital image acquisition and processing increased the interest in using high speed imaging techniques in pesticide spray characterisation. The goal of this study was to develop an imaging technique to evaluate the characteristics of a single spray droplet using a piezoelectric single droplet generator and a high speed imaging technique. Tests were done with different camera settings, lenses, diffusers and light sources. The experiments have shown the necessity for having a good image acquisition and processing system. Image analysis results contributed in selecting the optimal set-up for measuring droplet size and velocity which consisted of a high speed camera with a 6 micros exposure time, a microscope lens at a working distance of 43 cm resulting in a field of view of 1.0 cm x 0.8 cm and a Xenon light source without diffuser used as a backlight. For measuring macro-spray characteristics as the droplet trajectory, the spray angle and the spray shape, a Macro Video Zoom lens at a working distance of 14.3 cm with a bigger field of view of 7.5 cm x 9.5 cm in combination with a halogen spotlight with a diffuser and the high speed camera can be used.

Image processing analysis on the air-water slug two-phase flow in a horizontal pipe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dinaryanto, Okto; Widyatama, Arif; Majid, Akmal Irfan; Deendarlianto, Indarto

2016-06-01

Slug flow is a part of intermittent flow which is avoided in industrial application because of its irregularity and high pressure fluctuation. Those characteristics cause some problems such as internal corrosion and the damage of the pipeline construction. In order to understand the slug characteristics, some of the measurement techniques can be applied such as wire-mesh sensors, CECM, and high speed camera. The present study was aimed to determine slug characteristics by using image processing techniques. Experiment has been carried out in 26 mm i.d. acrylic horizontal pipe with 9 m long. Air-water flow was recorded 5 m from the air-water mixer using high speed video camera. Each of image sequence was processed using MATLAB. There are some steps including image complement, background subtraction, and image filtering that used in this algorithm to produce binary images. Special treatments also were applied to reduce the disturbance effect of dispersed bubble around the bubble. Furthermore, binary images were used to describe bubble contour and calculate slug parameter such as gas slug length, gas slug velocity, and slug frequency. As a result the effect of superficial gas velocity and superficial liquid velocity on the fundamental parameters can be understood. After comparing the results to the previous experimental results, the image processing techniques is a useful and potential technique to explain the slug characteristics.

Speckle imaging for planetary research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nisenson, P.; Goody, R.; Apt, J.; Papaliolios, C.

1983-01-01

The present study of speckle imaging technique effectiveness encompasses image reconstruction by means of a division algorithm for Fourier amplitudes, and the Knox-Thompson (1974) algorithm for Fourier phases. Results which have been obtained for Io, Titan, Pallas, Jupiter and Uranus indicate that spatial resolutions lower than the seeing limit by a factor of four are obtainable for objects brighter than Uranus. The resolutions obtained are well above the diffraction limit, due to inadequacies of the video camera employed. A photon-counting camera has been developed to overcome these difficulties, making possible the diffraction-limited resolution of objects as faint as Charon.

Guiding synchrotron X-ray diffraction by multimodal video-rate protein crystal imaging

DOE PAGES

Newman, Justin A.; Zhang, Shijie; Sullivan, Shane Z.; ...

2016-05-16

Synchronous digitization, in which an optical sensor is probed synchronously with the firing of an ultrafast laser, was integrated into an optical imaging station for macromolecular crystal positioning prior to synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Using the synchronous digitization instrument, second-harmonic generation, two-photon-excited fluorescence and bright field by laser transmittance were all acquired simultaneously with perfect image registry at up to video-rate (15 frames s –1). A simple change in the incident wavelength enabled simultaneous imaging by two-photon-excited ultraviolet fluorescence, one-photon-excited visible fluorescence and laser transmittance. Development of an analytical model for the signal-to-noise enhancement afforded by synchronous digitization suggests a 15.6-foldmore » improvement over previous photon-counting techniques. This improvement in turn allowed acquisition on nearly an order of magnitude more pixels than the preceding generation of instrumentation and reductions of well over an order of magnitude in image acquisition times. These improvements have allowed detection of protein crystals on the order of 1 µm in thickness under cryogenic conditions in the beamline. Lastly, these capabilities are well suited to support serial crystallography of crystals approaching 1 µm or less in dimension.« less

Guiding synchrotron X-ray diffraction by multimodal video-rate protein crystal imaging

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Newman, Justin A.; Zhang, Shijie; Sullivan, Shane Z.

Synchronous digitization, in which an optical sensor is probed synchronously with the firing of an ultrafast laser, was integrated into an optical imaging station for macromolecular crystal positioning prior to synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Using the synchronous digitization instrument, second-harmonic generation, two-photon-excited fluorescence and bright field by laser transmittance were all acquired simultaneously with perfect image registry at up to video-rate (15 frames s –1). A simple change in the incident wavelength enabled simultaneous imaging by two-photon-excited ultraviolet fluorescence, one-photon-excited visible fluorescence and laser transmittance. Development of an analytical model for the signal-to-noise enhancement afforded by synchronous digitization suggests a 15.6-foldmore » improvement over previous photon-counting techniques. This improvement in turn allowed acquisition on nearly an order of magnitude more pixels than the preceding generation of instrumentation and reductions of well over an order of magnitude in image acquisition times. These improvements have allowed detection of protein crystals on the order of 1 µm in thickness under cryogenic conditions in the beamline. Lastly, these capabilities are well suited to support serial crystallography of crystals approaching 1 µm or less in dimension.« less

3D Reconstruction of Static Human Body with a Digital Camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Remondino, Fabio

2003-01-01

Nowadays the interest in 3D reconstruction and modeling of real humans is one of the most challenging problems and a topic of great interest. The human models are used for movies, video games or ergonomics applications and they are usually created with 3D scanner devices. In this paper a new method to reconstruct the shape of a static human is presented. Our approach is based on photogrammetric techniques and uses a sequence of images acquired around a standing person with a digital still video camera or with a camcorder. First the images are calibrated and orientated using a bundle adjustment. After the establishment of a stable adjusted image block, an image matching process is performed between consecutive triplets of images. Finally the 3D coordinates of the matched points are computed with a mean accuracy of ca 2 mm by forward ray intersection. The obtained point cloud can then be triangulated to generate a surface model of the body or a virtual human model can be fitted to the recovered 3D data. Results of the 3D human point cloud with pixel color information are presented.

Vehicle Surveillance with a Generic, Adaptive, 3D Vehicle Model.

PubMed

Leotta, Matthew J; Mundy, Joseph L

2011-07-01

In automated surveillance, one is often interested in tracking road vehicles, measuring their shape in 3D world space, and determining vehicle classification. To address these tasks simultaneously, an effective approach is the constrained alignment of a prior model of 3D vehicle shape to images. Previous 3D vehicle models are either generic but overly simple or rigid and overly complex. Rigid models represent exactly one vehicle design, so a large collection is needed. A single generic model can deform to a wide variety of shapes, but those shapes have been far too primitive. This paper uses a generic 3D vehicle model that deforms to match a wide variety of passenger vehicles. It is adjustable in complexity between the two extremes. The model is aligned to images by predicting and matching image intensity edges. Novel algorithms are presented for fitting models to multiple still images and simultaneous tracking while estimating shape in video. Experiments compare the proposed model to simple generic models in accuracy and reliability of 3D shape recovery from images and tracking in video. Standard techniques for classification are also used to compare the models. The proposed model outperforms the existing simple models at each task.

Guiding synchrotron X-ray diffraction by multimodal video-rate protein crystal imaging

PubMed Central

Newman, Justin A.; Zhang, Shijie; Sullivan, Shane Z.; Dow, Ximeng Y.; Becker, Michael; Sheedlo, Michael J.; Stepanov, Sergey; Carlsen, Mark S.; Everly, R. Michael; Das, Chittaranjan; Fischetti, Robert F.; Simpson, Garth J.

2016-01-01

Synchronous digitization, in which an optical sensor is probed synchronously with the firing of an ultrafast laser, was integrated into an optical imaging station for macromolecular crystal positioning prior to synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Using the synchronous digitization instrument, second-harmonic generation, two-photon-excited fluorescence and bright field by laser transmittance were all acquired simultaneously with perfect image registry at up to video-rate (15 frames s−1). A simple change in the incident wavelength enabled simultaneous imaging by two-photon-excited ultraviolet fluorescence, one-photon-excited visible fluorescence and laser transmittance. Development of an analytical model for the signal-to-noise enhancement afforded by synchronous digitization suggests a 15.6-fold improvement over previous photon-counting techniques. This improvement in turn allowed acquisition on nearly an order of magnitude more pixels than the preceding generation of instrumentation and reductions of well over an order of magnitude in image acquisition times. These improvements have allowed detection of protein crystals on the order of 1 µm in thickness under cryogenic conditions in the beamline. These capabilities are well suited to support serial crystallography of crystals approaching 1 µm or less in dimension. PMID:27359145

AGARD Flight Test Techniques Series. Volume 14. Introduction to Flight Test Engineering (Introduction a la Technique d’essais en vol)

DTIC Science & Technology

1995-09-01

path and aircraft attitude and other flight or aircraft parameters • Calculations in the frequency domain ( Fast Fourier Transform) • Data analysis...Signal filtering Image processing of video and radar data Parameter identification Statistical analysis Power spectral density Fast Fourier Transform...airspeeds both fast and slow, altitude, load factor both above and below 1g, centers of gravity (fore and aft), and with system/subsystem failures. Whether

See-What-I-Do: Increasing Mentor and Trainee Sense of Co-Presence in Trauma Surgeries with the STAR Platform

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-04-01

publications, images, and videos.  Technologies or techniques . The technique for one shot gesture recognition is a result from the research activity... shot learning concept for gesture recognition. Name: Aditya Ajay Shanghavi Project Role: Master Student Researcher Identifier (e.g. ORCID ID...use case . The transparency error depends more on the x than the z head tracking error. Head tracking is typically accurate to less than 10mm in x

Real-time broadband terahertz spectroscopic imaging by using a high-sensitivity terahertz camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kanda, Natsuki; Konishi, Kuniaki; Nemoto, Natsuki; Midorikawa, Katsumi; Kuwata-Gonokami, Makoto

2017-02-01

Terahertz (THz) imaging has a strong potential for applications because many molecules have fingerprint spectra in this frequency region. Spectroscopic imaging in the THz region is a promising technique to fully exploit this characteristic. However, the performance of conventional techniques is restricted by the requirement of multidimensional scanning, which implies an image data acquisition time of several minutes. In this study, we propose and demonstrate a novel broadband THz spectroscopic imaging method that enables real-time image acquisition using a high-sensitivity THz camera. By exploiting the two-dimensionality of the detector, a broadband multi-channel spectrometer near 1 THz was constructed with a reflection type diffraction grating and a high-power THz source. To demonstrate the advantages of the developed technique, we performed molecule-specific imaging and high-speed acquisition of two-dimensional (2D) images. Two different sugar molecules (lactose and D-fructose) were identified with fingerprint spectra, and their distributions in one-dimensional space were obtained at a fast video rate (15 frames per second). Combined with the one-dimensional (1D) mechanical scanning of the sample, two-dimensional molecule-specific images can be obtained only in a few seconds. Our method can be applied in various important fields such as security and biomedicine.

An adaptive enhancement algorithm for infrared video based on modified k-means clustering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Linze; Wang, Jingqi; Wu, Wen

2016-09-01

In this paper, we have proposed a video enhancement algorithm to improve the output video of the infrared camera. Sometimes the video obtained by infrared camera is very dark since there is no clear target. In this case, infrared video should be divided into frame images by frame extraction, in order to carry out the image enhancement. For the first frame image, which can be divided into k sub images by using K-means clustering according to the gray interval it occupies before k sub images' histogram equalization according to the amount of information per sub image, we used a method to solve a problem that final cluster centers close to each other in some cases; and for the other frame images, their initial cluster centers can be determined by the final clustering centers of the previous ones, and the histogram equalization of each sub image will be carried out after image segmentation based on K-means clustering. The histogram equalization can make the gray value of the image to the whole gray level, and the gray level of each sub image is determined by the ratio of pixels to a frame image. Experimental results show that this algorithm can improve the contrast of infrared video where night target is not obvious which lead to a dim scene, and reduce the negative effect given by the overexposed pixels adaptively in a certain range.

Video Image Stabilization and Registration (VISAR) Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1999-01-01

Two scientists at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center,atmospheric scientist Paul Meyer and solar physicist Dr. David Hathaway, developed promising new software, called Video Image Stabilization and Registration (VISAR). VISAR may help law enforcement agencies catch criminals by improving the quality of video recorded at crime scenes. In this photograph, the single frame at left, taken at night, was brightened in order to enhance details and reduce noise or snow. To further overcome the video defects in one frame, Law enforcement officials can use VISAR software to add information from multiple frames to reveal a person. Images from less than a second of videotape were added together to create the clarified image at right. VISAR stabilizes camera motion in the horizontal and vertical as well as rotation and zoom effects producing clearer images of moving objects, smoothes jagged edges, enhances still images, and reduces video noise or snow. VISAR could also have applications in medical and meteorological imaging. It could steady images of ultrasounds, which are infamous for their grainy, blurred quality. The software can be used for defense application by improving recornaissance video imagery made by military vehicles, aircraft, and ships traveling in harsh, rugged environments.

Modification of the Miyake-Apple technique for simultaneous anterior and posterior video imaging of wet laboratory-based corneal surgery.

PubMed

Tan, Johnson C H; Meadows, Howard; Gupta, Aanchal; Yeung, Sonia N; Moloney, Gregory

2014-03-01

The aim of this study was to describe a modification of the Miyake-Apple posterior video analysis for the simultaneous visualization of the anterior and posterior corneal surfaces during wet laboratory-based deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK). A human donor corneoscleral button was affixed to a microscope slide and placed onto a custom-made mounting box. A big bubble DALK was performed on the cornea in the wet laboratory. An 11-diopter intraocular lens was positioned over the aperture of the back camera of an iPhone. This served to video record the posterior view of the corneoscleral button during the big bubble formation. An overhead operating microscope with an attached video camcorder recorded the anterior view during the surgery. The anterior and posterior views of the wet laboratory-based DALK surgery were simultaneously captured and edited using video editing software. The formation of the big bubble can be studied. This video recording camera system has the potential to act as a valuable research and teaching tool in corneal lamellar surgery, especially in the behavior of the big bubble formation in DALK.

Using underwater video imaging as an assessment tool for coastal condition

EPA Science Inventory

As part of an effort to monitor ecological conditions in nearshore habitats, from 2009-2012 underwater videos were captured at over 400 locations throughout the Laurentian Great Lakes. This study focuses on developing a video rating system and assessing video images. This ratin...

Change-based threat detection in urban environments with a forward-looking camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morton, Kenneth, Jr.; Ratto, Christopher; Malof, Jordan; Gunter, Michael; Collins, Leslie; Torrione, Peter

2012-06-01

Roadside explosive threats continue to pose a significant risk to soldiers and civilians in conflict areas around the world. These objects are easy to manufacture and procure, but due to their ad hoc nature, they are difficult to reliably detect using standard sensing technologies. Although large roadside explosive hazards may be difficult to conceal in rural environments, urban settings provide a much more complicated background where seemingly innocuous objects (e.g., piles of trash, roadside debris) may be used to obscure threats. Since direct detection of all innocuous objects would flag too many objects to be of use, techniques must be employed to reduce the number of alarms generated and highlight only a limited subset of possibly threatening regions for the user. In this work, change detection techniques are used to reduce false alarm rates and increase detection capabilities for possible threat identification in urban environments. The proposed model leverages data from multiple video streams collected over the same regions by first applying video aligning and then using various distance metrics to detect changes based on image keypoints in the video streams. Data collected at an urban warfare simulation range at an Eastern US test site was used to evaluate the proposed approach, and significant reductions in false alarm rates compared to simpler techniques are illustrated.

Combining multi-layered bitmap files using network specific hardware

DOEpatents

DuBois, David H [Los Alamos, NM; DuBois, Andrew J [Santa Fe, NM; Davenport, Carolyn Connor [Los Alamos, NM

2012-02-28

Images and video can be produced by compositing or alpha blending a group of image layers or video layers. Increasing resolution or the number of layers results in increased computational demands. As such, the available computational resources limit the images and videos that can be produced. A computational architecture in which the image layers are packetized and streamed through processors can be easily scaled so to handle many image layers and high resolutions. The image layers are packetized to produce packet streams. The packets in the streams are received, placed in queues, and processed. For alpha blending, ingress queues receive the packetized image layers which are then z sorted and sent to egress queues. The egress queue packets are alpha blended to produce an output image or video.

Two-dimensional real-time imaging system for subtraction angiography using an iodine filter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Umetani, Keiji; Ueda, Ken; Takeda, Tohoru; Anno, Izumi; Itai, Yuji; Akisada, Masayoshi; Nakajima, Teiichi

1992-01-01

A new type of subtraction imaging system was developed using an iodine filter and a single-energy broad bandwidth monochromatized x ray. The x-ray images of coronary arteries made after intravenous injection of a contrast agent are enhanced by an energy-subtraction technique. Filter chopping of the x-ray beam switches energies rapidly, so that a nearly simultaneous pair of filtered and nonfiltered images can be made. By using a high-speed video camera, a pair of two 512 × 512 pixel images can be obtained within 9 ms. Three hundred eighty-four images (raw data) are stored in a 144-Mbyte frame memory. After phantom studies, in vivo subtracted images of coronary arteries in dogs were obtained at a rate of 15 images/s.

Trans-Pacific tele-ultrasound image transmission of fetal central nervous system structures.

PubMed

Ferreira, Adilson Cunha; Araujo Júnior, Edward; Martins, Wellington P; Jordão, João Francisco; Oliani, Antônio Hélio; Meagher, Simon E; Da Silva Costa, Fabricio

2015-01-01

To assess the quality of images and video clips of fetal central nervous (CNS) structures obtained by ultrasound and transmitted via tele-ultrasound from Brazil to Australia. In this cross-sectional study, 15 normal singleton pregnant women between 20 and 26 weeks were selected. Fetal CNS structures were obtained by images and video clips. The exams were transmitted in real-time using a broadband internet and an inexpensive video streaming device. Four blinded examiners evaluated the quality of the exams using the Likert scale. We calculated the mean, standard deviation, mean difference, and p values were obtained from paired t tests. The quality of the original video clips was slightly better than that observed by the transmitted video clips; mean difference considering all observers = 0.23 points. In 47/60 comparisons (78.3%; 95% CI = 66.4-86.9%) the quality of the video clips were judged to be the same. In 182/240 still images (75.8%; 95% CI = 70.0-80.8%) the scores of transmitted image were considered the same as the original. We demonstrated that long distance tele-ultrasound transmission of fetal CNS structures using an inexpensive video streaming device provided images of subjective good quality.

Innovative Video Diagnostic Equipment for Material Science

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Capuano, G.; Titomanlio, D.; Soellner, W.; Seidel, A.

2012-01-01

Materials science experiments under microgravity increasingly rely on advanced optical systems to determine the physical properties of the samples under investigation. This includes video systems with high spatial and temporal resolution. The acquisition, handling, storage and transmission to ground of the resulting video data are very challenging. Since the available downlink data rate is limited, the capability to compress the video data significantly without compromising the data quality is essential. We report on the development of a Digital Video System (DVS) for EML (Electro Magnetic Levitator) which provides real-time video acquisition, high compression using advanced Wavelet algorithms, storage and transmission of a continuous flow of video with different characteristics in terms of image dimensions and frame rates. The DVS is able to operate with the latest generation of high-performance cameras acquiring high resolution video images up to 4Mpixels@60 fps or high frame rate video images up to about 1000 fps@512x512pixels.

Method and apparatus for reading meters from a video image

DOEpatents

Lewis, Trevor J.; Ferguson, Jeffrey J.

1997-01-01

A method and system to enable acquisition of data about an environment from one or more meters using video images. One or more meters are imaged by a video camera and the video signal is digitized. Then, each region of the digital image which corresponds to the indicator of the meter is calibrated and the video signal is analyzed to determine the value indicated by each meter indicator. Finally, from the value indicated by each meter indicator in the calibrated region, a meter reading is generated. The method and system offer the advantages of automatic data collection in a relatively non-intrusive manner without making any complicated or expensive electronic connections, and without requiring intensive manpower.

Cooperative multisensor system for real-time face detection and tracking in uncontrolled conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marchesotti, Luca; Piva, Stefano; Turolla, Andrea; Minetti, Deborah; Regazzoni, Carlo S.

2005-03-01

The presented work describes an innovative architecture for multi-sensor distributed video surveillance applications. The aim of the system is to track moving objects in outdoor environments with a cooperative strategy exploiting two video cameras. The system also exhibits the capacity of focusing its attention on the faces of detected pedestrians collecting snapshot frames of face images, by segmenting and tracking them over time at different resolution. The system is designed to employ two video cameras in a cooperative client/server structure: the first camera monitors the entire area of interest and detects the moving objects using change detection techniques. The detected objects are tracked over time and their position is indicated on a map representing the monitored area. The objects" coordinates are sent to the server sensor in order to point its zooming optics towards the moving object. The second camera tracks the objects at high resolution. As well as the client camera, this sensor is calibrated and the position of the object detected on the image plane reference system is translated in its coordinates referred to the same area map. In the map common reference system, data fusion techniques are applied to achieve a more precise and robust estimation of the objects" track and to perform face detection and tracking. The work novelties and strength reside in the cooperative multi-sensor approach, in the high resolution long distance tracking and in the automatic collection of biometric data such as a person face clip for recognition purposes.

Validation of a semi-automatic protocol for the assessment of the tear meniscus central area based on open-source software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pena-Verdeal, Hugo; Garcia-Resua, Carlos; Yebra-Pimentel, Eva; Giraldez, Maria J.

2017-08-01

Purpose: Different lower tear meniscus parameters can be clinical assessed on dry eye diagnosis. The aim of this study was to propose and analyse the variability of a semi-automatic method for measuring lower tear meniscus central area (TMCA) by using open source software. Material and methods: On a group of 105 subjects, one video of the lower tear meniscus after fluorescein instillation was generated by a digital camera attached to a slit-lamp. A short light beam (3x5 mm) with moderate illumination in the central portion of the meniscus (6 o'clock) was used. Images were extracted from each video by a masked observer. By using an open source software based on Java (NIH ImageJ), a further observer measured in a masked and randomized order the TMCA in the short light beam illuminated area by two methods: (1) manual method, where TMCA images was "manually" measured; (2) semi-automatic method, where TMCA images were transformed in an 8-bit-binary image, then holes inside this shape were filled and on the isolated shape, the area size was obtained. Finally, both measurements, manual and semi-automatic, were compared. Results: Paired t-test showed no statistical difference between both techniques results (p = 0.102). Pearson correlation between techniques show a significant positive near to perfect correlation (r = 0.99; p < 0.001). Conclusions: This study showed a useful tool to objectively measure the frontal central area of the meniscus in photography by free open source software.

Online multispectral fluorescence lifetime values estimation and overlay onto tissue white-light video frames

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gorpas, Dimitris; Ma, Dinglong; Bec, Julien; Yankelevich, Diego R.; Marcu, Laura

2016-03-01

Fluorescence lifetime imaging has been shown to be a robust technique for biochemical and functional characterization of tissues and to present great potential for intraoperative tissue diagnosis and guidance of surgical procedures. We report a technique for real-time mapping of fluorescence parameters (i.e. lifetime values) onto the location from where the fluorescence measurements were taken. This is achieved by merging a 450 nm aiming beam generated by a diode laser with the excitation light in a single delivery/collection fiber and by continuously imaging the region of interest with a color CMOS camera. The interrogated locations are then extracted from the acquired frames via color-based segmentation of the aiming beam. Assuming a Gaussian profile of the imaged aiming beam, the segmentation results are fitted to ellipses that are dynamically scaled at the full width of three automatically estimated thresholds (50%, 75%, 90%) of the Gaussian distribution's maximum value. This enables the dynamic augmentation of the white-light video frames with the corresponding fluorescence decay parameters. A fluorescence phantom and fresh tissue samples were used to evaluate this method with motorized and hand-held scanning measurements. At 640x512 pixels resolution the area of interest augmented with fluorescence decay parameters can be imaged at an average 34 frames per second. The developed method has the potential to become a valuable tool for real-time display of optical spectroscopy data during continuous scanning applications that subsequently can be used for tissue characterization and diagnosis.

Near-infrared dye marking for thoracoscopic resection of small-sized pulmonary nodules: comparison of percutaneous and bronchoscopic injection techniques.

PubMed

Anayama, Takashi; Hirohashi, Kentaro; Miyazaki, Ryohei; Okada, Hironobu; Kawamoto, Nobutaka; Yamamoto, Marino; Sato, Takayuki; Orihashi, Kazumasa

2018-01-12

Minimally invasive video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for small-sized pulmonary nodules is challenging, and image-guided preoperative localisation is required. Near-infrared indocyanine green fluorescence is capable of deep tissue penetration and can be distinguished regardless of the background colour of the lung; thus, indocyanine green has great potential for use as a near-infrared fluorescent marker in video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery. Thirty-seven patients with small-sized pulmonary nodules, who were scheduled to undergo video-assisted thoracoscopic wedge resection, were enrolled in this study. A mixture of diluted indocyanine green and iopamidol was injected into the lung parenchyma as a marker, using either computed tomography-guided percutaneous or bronchoscopic injection techniques. Indications and limitations of the percutaneous and bronchoscopic injection techniques for marking nodules with indocyanine green fluorescence were examined and compared. In the computed tomography-guided percutaneous injection group (n = 15), indocyanine green fluorescence was detected in 15/15 (100%) patients by near-infrared thoracoscopy. A small pneumothorax occurred in 3/15 (20.0%) patients, and subsequent marking was unsuccessful after a pneumothorax occurred. In the bronchoscopic injection group (n = 22), indocyanine green fluorescence was detected in 21/22 (95.5%) patients. In 6 patients who underwent injection marking at 2 different lesion sites, 5/6 (83.3%) markers were successfully detected. Either computed tomography-guided percutaneous or bronchoscopic injection techniques can be used to mark pulmonary nodules with indocyanine green fluorescence. Indocyanine green is a safe and easily detectable fluorescent marker for video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery. Furthermore, the bronchoscopic injection approach enables surgeons to mark multiple lesion areas with less risk of causing a pneumothorax. UMIN-CTR R000027833 accepted by ICMJE. Registered 5 January 2013.

Secure Video Surveillance System Acquisition Software

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

2009-12-04

The SVSS Acquisition Software collects and displays video images from two cameras through a VPN, and store the images onto a collection controller. The software is configured to allow a user to enter a time window to display up to 2 1/2, hours of video review. The software collects images from the cameras at a rate of 1 image per second and automatically deletes images older than 3 hours. The software code operates in a linux environment and can be run in a virtual machine on Windows XP. The Sandia software integrates the different COTS software together to build themore » video review system.« less

Intrinsic dimensionality predicts the saliency of natural dynamic scenes.

PubMed

Vig, Eleonora; Dorr, Michael; Martinetz, Thomas; Barth, Erhardt

2012-06-01

Since visual attention-based computer vision applications have gained popularity, ever more complex, biologically inspired models seem to be needed to predict salient locations (or interest points) in naturalistic scenes. In this paper, we explore how far one can go in predicting eye movements by using only basic signal processing, such as image representations derived from efficient coding principles, and machine learning. To this end, we gradually increase the complexity of a model from simple single-scale saliency maps computed on grayscale videos to spatiotemporal multiscale and multispectral representations. Using a large collection of eye movements on high-resolution videos, supervised learning techniques fine-tune the free parameters whose addition is inevitable with increasing complexity. The proposed model, although very simple, demonstrates significant improvement in predicting salient locations in naturalistic videos over four selected baseline models and two distinct data labeling scenarios.

Video bioinformatics analysis of human embryonic stem cell colony growth.

PubMed

Lin, Sabrina; Fonteno, Shawn; Satish, Shruthi; Bhanu, Bir; Talbot, Prue

2010-05-20

Because video data are complex and are comprised of many images, mining information from video material is difficult to do without the aid of computer software. Video bioinformatics is a powerful quantitative approach for extracting spatio-temporal data from video images using computer software to perform dating mining and analysis. In this article, we introduce a video bioinformatics method for quantifying the growth of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) by analyzing time-lapse videos collected in a Nikon BioStation CT incubator equipped with a camera for video imaging. In our experiments, hESC colonies that were attached to Matrigel were filmed for 48 hours in the BioStation CT. To determine the rate of growth of these colonies, recipes were developed using CL-Quant software which enables users to extract various types of data from video images. To accurately evaluate colony growth, three recipes were created. The first segmented the image into the colony and background, the second enhanced the image to define colonies throughout the video sequence accurately, and the third measured the number of pixels in the colony over time. The three recipes were run in sequence on video data collected in a BioStation CT to analyze the rate of growth of individual hESC colonies over 48 hours. To verify the truthfulness of the CL-Quant recipes, the same data were analyzed manually using Adobe Photoshop software. When the data obtained using the CL-Quant recipes and Photoshop were compared, results were virtually identical, indicating the CL-Quant recipes were truthful. The method described here could be applied to any video data to measure growth rates of hESC or other cells that grow in colonies. In addition, other video bioinformatics recipes can be developed in the future for other cell processes such as migration, apoptosis, and cell adhesion.

Moving object detection and tracking in videos through turbulent medium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Halder, Kalyan Kumar; Tahtali, Murat; Anavatti, Sreenatha G.

2016-06-01

This paper addresses the problem of identifying and tracking moving objects in a video sequence having a time-varying background. This is a fundamental task in many computer vision applications, though a very challenging one because of turbulence that causes blurring and spatiotemporal movements of the background images. Our proposed approach involves two major steps. First, a moving object detection algorithm that deals with the detection of real motions by separating the turbulence-induced motions using a two-level thresholding technique is used. In the second step, a feature-based generalized regression neural network is applied to track the detected objects throughout the frames in the video sequence. The proposed approach uses the centroid and area features of the moving objects and creates the reference regions instantly by selecting the objects within a circle. Simulation experiments are carried out on several turbulence-degraded video sequences and comparisons with an earlier method confirms that the proposed approach provides a more effective tracking of the targets.

Online tracking of outdoor lighting variations for augmented reality with moving cameras.

PubMed

Liu, Yanli; Granier, Xavier

2012-04-01

In augmented reality, one of key tasks to achieve a convincing visual appearance consistency between virtual objects and video scenes is to have a coherent illumination along the whole sequence. As outdoor illumination is largely dependent on the weather, the lighting condition may change from frame to frame. In this paper, we propose a full image-based approach for online tracking of outdoor illumination variations from videos captured with moving cameras. Our key idea is to estimate the relative intensities of sunlight and skylight via a sparse set of planar feature-points extracted from each frame. To address the inevitable feature misalignments, a set of constraints are introduced to select the most reliable ones. Exploiting the spatial and temporal coherence of illumination, the relative intensities of sunlight and skylight are finally estimated by using an optimization process. We validate our technique on a set of real-life videos and show that the results with our estimations are visually coherent along the video sequences.

Innovative Solution to Video Enhancement

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2001-01-01

Through a licensing agreement, Intergraph Government Solutions adapted a technology originally developed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center for enhanced video imaging by developing its Video Analyst(TM) System. Marshall's scientists developed the Video Image Stabilization and Registration (VISAR) technology to help FBI agents analyze video footage of the deadly 1996 Olympic Summer Games bombing in Atlanta, Georgia. VISAR technology enhanced nighttime videotapes made with hand-held camcorders, revealing important details about the explosion. Intergraph's Video Analyst System is a simple, effective, and affordable tool for video enhancement and analysis. The benefits associated with the Video Analyst System include support of full-resolution digital video, frame-by-frame analysis, and the ability to store analog video in digital format. Up to 12 hours of digital video can be stored and maintained for reliable footage analysis. The system also includes state-of-the-art features such as stabilization, image enhancement, and convolution to help improve the visibility of subjects in the video without altering underlying footage. Adaptable to many uses, Intergraph#s Video Analyst System meets the stringent demands of the law enforcement industry in the areas of surveillance, crime scene footage, sting operations, and dash-mounted video cameras.

Improving stop line detection using video imaging detectors.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-11-01

The Texas Department of Transportation and other state departments of transportation as well as cities : nationwide are using video detection successfully at signalized intersections. However, operational : issues with video imaging vehicle detection...

Stackable middleware services for advanced multimedia applications. Final report for period July 14, 1999 - July 14, 2001

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Feng, Wu-chi; Crawfis, Roger, Weide, Bruce

2002-02-01

In this project, the authors propose the research, development, and distribution of a stackable component-based multimedia streaming protocol middleware service. The goals of this stackable middleware interface include: (1) The middleware service will provide application writers and scientists easy to use interfaces that support their visualization needs. (2) The middleware service will support a variety of image compression modes. Currently, many of the network adaptation protocols for video have been developed with DCT-based compression algorithms like H.261, MPEG-1, or MPEG-2 in mind. It is expected that with advanced scientific computing applications that the lossy compression of the image data willmore » be unacceptable in certain instances. The middleware service will support several in-line lossless compression modes for error-sensitive scientific visualization data. (3) The middleware service will support two different types of streaming video modes: one for interactive collaboration of scientists and a stored video streaming mode for viewing prerecorded animations. The use of two different streaming types will allow the quality of the video delivered to the user to be maximized. Most importantly, this service will happen transparently to the user (with some basic controls exported to the user for domain specific tweaking). In the spirit of layered network protocols (like ISO and TCP/IP), application writers should not have to know a large amount about lower level network details. Currently, many example video streaming players have their congestion management techniques tightly integrated into the video player itself and are, for the most part, ''one-off'' applications. As more networked multimedia and video applications are written in the future, a larger percentage of these programmers and scientist will most likely know little about the underlying networking layer. By providing a simple, powerful, and semi-transparent middleware layer, the successful completion of this project will help serve as a catalyst to support future video-based applications, particularly those of advanced scientific computing applications.« less

Video analysis of the biomechanics of a bicycle accident resulting in significant facial fractures.

PubMed

Syed, Shameer H; Willing, Ryan; Jenkyn, Thomas R; Yazdani, Arjang

2013-11-01

This study aimed to use video analysis techniques to determine the velocity, impact force, angle of impact, and impulse to fracture involved in a video-recorded bicycle accident resulting in facial fractures. Computed tomographic images of the resulting facial injury are presented for correlation with data and calculations. To our knowledge, such an analysis of an actual recorded trauma has not been reported in the literature. A video recording of the accident was split into frames and analyzed using an image editing program. Measurements of velocity and angle of impact were obtained from this analysis, and the force of impact and impulse were calculated using the inverse dynamic method with connected rigid body segments. These results were then correlated with the actual fracture pattern found on computed tomographic imaging of the subject's face. There was an impact velocity of 6.25 m/s, impact angles of 14 and 6.3 degrees of neck extension and axial rotation, respectively, an impact force of 1910.4 N, and an impulse to fracture of 47.8 Ns. These physical parameters resulted in clinically significant bilateral mid-facial Le Fort II and III pattern fractures. These data confer further understanding of the biomechanics of bicycle-related accidents by correlating an actual clinical outcome with the kinematic and dynamic parameters involved in the accident itself and yielding a concrete evidence of the velocity, force, and impulse necessary to cause clinically significant facial trauma. These findings can aid in the design of protective equipment for bicycle riders to help avoid this type of injury.

Augmenting real-time video with virtual models for enhanced visualization for simulation, teaching, training and guidance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Potter, Michael; Bensch, Alexander; Dawson-Elli, Alexander; Linte, Cristian A.

2015-03-01

In minimally invasive surgical interventions direct visualization of the target area is often not available. Instead, clinicians rely on images from various sources, along with surgical navigation systems for guidance. These spatial localization and tracking systems function much like the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) that we are all well familiar with. In this work we demonstrate how the video feed from a typical camera, which could mimic a laparoscopic or endoscopic camera used during an interventional procedure, can be used to identify the pose of the camera with respect to the viewed scene and augment the video feed with computer-generated information, such as rendering of internal anatomy not visible beyond the imaged surface, resulting in a simple augmented reality environment. This paper describes the software and hardware environment and methodology for augmenting the real world with virtual models extracted from medical images to provide enhanced visualization beyond the surface view achieved using traditional imaging. Following intrinsic and extrinsic camera calibration, the technique was implemented and demonstrated using a LEGO structure phantom, as well as a 3D-printed patient-specific left atrial phantom. We assessed the quality of the overlay according to fiducial localization, fiducial registration, and target registration errors, as well as the overlay offset error. Using the software extensions we developed in conjunction with common webcams it is possible to achieve tracking accuracy comparable to that seen with significantly more expensive hardware, leading to target registration errors on the order of 2 mm.

Dynamic quantitative analysis of adherent cell cultures by means of lens-free video microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allier, C.; Vincent, R.; Navarro, F.; Menneteau, M.; Ghenim, L.; Gidrol, X.; Bordy, T.; Hervé, L.; Cioni, O.; Bardin, S.; Bornens, M.; Usson, Y.; Morales, S.

2018-02-01

We present our implementation of lens-free video microscopy setup for the monitoring of adherent cell cultures. We use a multi-wavelength LED illumination together with a dedicated holographic reconstruction algorithm that allows for an efficient removal of twin images from the reconstructed phase image for densities up to those of confluent cell cultures (>500 cells/mm2). We thereby demonstrate that lens-free video microscopy, with a large field of view ( 30 mm2) can enable us to capture the images of thousands of cells simultaneously and directly inside the incubator. It is then possible to trace and quantify single cells along several cell cycles. We thus prove that lens-free microscopy is a quantitative phase imaging technique enabling estimation of several metrics at the single cell level as a function of time, for example the area, dry mass, maximum thickness, major axis length and aspect ratio of each cell. Combined with cell tracking, it is then possible to extract important parameters such as the initial cell dry mass (just after cell division), the final cell dry mass (just before cell division), the average cell growth rate, and the cell cycle duration. As an example, we discuss the monitoring of a HeLa cell cultures which provided us with a data-set featuring more than 10 000 cell cycle tracks and more than 2x106 cell morphological measurements in a single time-lapse.

Transmission of digital images within the NTSC analog format

DOEpatents

Nickel, George H.

2004-06-15

HDTV and NTSC compatible image communication is done in a single NTSC channel bandwidth. Luminance and chrominance image data of a scene to be transmitted is obtained. The image data is quantized and digitally encoded to form digital image data in HDTV transmission format having low-resolution terms and high-resolution terms. The low-resolution digital image data terms are transformed to a voltage signal corresponding to NTSC color subcarrier modulation with retrace blanking and color bursts to form a NTSC video signal. The NTSC video signal and the high-resolution digital image data terms are then transmitted in a composite NTSC video transmission. In a NTSC receiver, the NTSC video signal is processed directly to display the scene. In a HDTV receiver, the NTSC video signal is processed to invert the color subcarrier modulation to recover the low-resolution terms, where the recovered low-resolution terms are combined with the high-resolution terms to reconstruct the scene in a high definition format.

Capturing and displaying microscopic images used in medical diagnostics and forensic science using 4K video resolution - an application in higher education.

PubMed

Maier, Hans; de Heer, Gert; Ortac, Ajda; Kuijten, Jan

2015-11-01

To analyze, interpret and evaluate microscopic images, used in medical diagnostics and forensic science, video images for educational purposes were made with a very high resolution of 4096 × 2160 pixels (4K), which is four times as many pixels as High-Definition Video (1920 × 1080 pixels). The unprecedented high resolution makes it possible to see details that remain invisible to any other video format. The images of the specimens (blood cells, tissue sections, hair, fibre, etc.) are recorded using a 4K video camera which is attached to a light microscope. After processing, this resulted in very sharp and highly detailed images. This material was then used in education for classroom discussion. Spoken explanation by experts in the field of medical diagnostics and forensic science was also added to the high-resolution video images to make it suitable for self-study. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Microscopy published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Microscopical Society.

[Development of a video image system for wireless capsule endoscopes based on DSP].

PubMed

Yang, Li; Peng, Chenglin; Wu, Huafeng; Zhao, Dechun; Zhang, Jinhua

2008-02-01

A video image recorder to record video picture for wireless capsule endoscopes was designed. TMS320C6211 DSP of Texas Instruments Inc. is the core processor of this system. Images are periodically acquired from Composite Video Broadcast Signal (CVBS) source and scaled by video decoder (SAA7114H). Video data is transported from high speed buffer First-in First-out (FIFO) to Digital Signal Processor (DSP) under the control of Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD). This paper adopts JPEG algorithm for image coding, and the compressed data in DSP was stored to Compact Flash (CF) card. TMS320C6211 DSP is mainly used for image compression and data transporting. Fast Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) algorithm and fast coefficient quantization algorithm are used to accelerate operation speed of DSP and decrease the executing code. At the same time, proper address is assigned for each memory, which has different speed;the memory structure is also optimized. In addition, this system uses plenty of Extended Direct Memory Access (EDMA) to transport and process image data, which results in stable and high performance.

Fast optically sectioned fluorescence HiLo endomicroscopy

PubMed Central

Lim, Daryl; Mertz, Jerome

2012-01-01

Abstract. We describe a nonscanning, fiber bundle endomicroscope that performs optically sectioned fluorescence imaging with fast frame rates and real-time processing. Our sectioning technique is based on HiLo imaging, wherein two widefield images are acquired under uniform and structured illumination and numerically processed to reject out-of-focus background. This work is an improvement upon an earlier demonstration of widefield optical sectioning through a flexible fiber bundle. The improved device features lateral and axial resolutions of 2.6 and 17 μm, respectively, a net frame rate of 9.5 Hz obtained by real-time image processing with a graphics processing unit (GPU) and significantly reduced motion artifacts obtained by the use of a double-shutter camera. We demonstrate the performance of our system with optically sectioned images and videos of a fluorescently labeled chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) in the developing G. gallus embryo. HiLo endomicroscopy is a candidate technique for low-cost, high-speed clinical optical biopsies. PMID:22463023

NASA's Myriad Uses of Digital Video

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Grubbs, Rodney; Lindblom, Walt; George, Sandy

1999-01-01

Since it's inception, NASA has created many of the most memorable images seen this Century. From the fuzzy video of Neil Armstrong taking that first step on the moon, to images of the Mars surface available to all on the internet, NASA has provided images to inspire a generation, all because a scientist or researcher had a requirement to see something unusual. Digital Television technology will give NASA unprecedented new tools for acquiring, analyzing, and distributing video. This paper will explore NASA's DTV future. The agency has a requirement to move video from one NASA Center to another, in real time. Specifics will be provided relating to the NASA video infrastructure, including video from the Space Shuttle and from the various Centers. A comparison of the pros and cons of interlace and progressive scanned images will be presented. Film is a major component of NASA's image acquisition for analysis usage. The future of film within the context of DTV will be explored.

Effective evaluation of privacy protection techniques in visible and thermal imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nawaz, Tahir; Berg, Amanda; Ferryman, James; Ahlberg, Jörgen; Felsberg, Michael

2017-09-01

Privacy protection may be defined as replacing the original content in an image region with a (less intrusive) content having modified target appearance information to make it less recognizable by applying a privacy protection technique. Indeed, the development of privacy protection techniques also needs to be complemented with an established objective evaluation method to facilitate their assessment and comparison. Generally, existing evaluation methods rely on the use of subjective judgments or assume a specific target type in image data and use target detection and recognition accuracies to assess privacy protection. An annotation-free evaluation method that is neither subjective nor assumes a specific target type is proposed. It assesses two key aspects of privacy protection: "protection" and "utility." Protection is quantified as an appearance similarity, and utility is measured as a structural similarity between original and privacy-protected image regions. We performed an extensive experimentation using six challenging datasets (having 12 video sequences), including a new dataset (having six sequences) that contains visible and thermal imagery. The new dataset is made available online for the community. We demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed method by evaluating six image-based privacy protection techniques and also show comparisons of the proposed method over existing methods.

Deep linear autoencoder and patch clustering-based unified one-dimensional coding of image and video

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Honggui

2017-09-01

This paper proposes a unified one-dimensional (1-D) coding framework of image and video, which depends on deep learning neural network and image patch clustering. First, an improved K-means clustering algorithm for image patches is employed to obtain the compact inputs of deep artificial neural network. Second, for the purpose of best reconstructing original image patches, deep linear autoencoder (DLA), a linear version of the classical deep nonlinear autoencoder, is introduced to achieve the 1-D representation of image blocks. Under the circumstances of 1-D representation, DLA is capable of attaining zero reconstruction error, which is impossible for the classical nonlinear dimensionality reduction methods. Third, a unified 1-D coding infrastructure for image, intraframe, interframe, multiview video, three-dimensional (3-D) video, and multiview 3-D video is built by incorporating different categories of videos into the inputs of patch clustering algorithm. Finally, it is shown in the results of simulation experiments that the proposed methods can simultaneously gain higher compression ratio and peak signal-to-noise ratio than those of the state-of-the-art methods in the situation of low bitrate transmission.

Enhanced video indirect ophthalmoscopy (VIO) via robust mosaicing.

PubMed

Estrada, Rolando; Tomasi, Carlo; Cabrera, Michelle T; Wallace, David K; Freedman, Sharon F; Farsiu, Sina

2011-10-01

Indirect ophthalmoscopy (IO) is the standard of care for evaluation of the neonatal retina. When recorded on video from a head-mounted camera, IO images have low quality and narrow Field of View (FOV). We present an image fusion methodology for converting a video IO recording into a single, high quality, wide-FOV mosaic that seamlessly blends the best frames in the video. To this end, we have developed fast and robust algorithms for automatic evaluation of video quality, artifact detection and removal, vessel mapping, registration, and multi-frame image fusion. Our experiments show the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

Video Image Stabilization and Registration (VISAR) Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1999-01-01

Two scientists at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, atmospheric scientist Paul Meyer and solar physicist Dr. David Hathaway, developed promising new software, called Video Image Stabilization and Registration (VISAR), which is illustrated in this Quick Time movie. VISAR is a computer algorithm that stabilizes camera motion in the horizontal and vertical as well as rotation and zoom effects producing clearer images of moving objects, smoothes jagged edges, enhances still images, and reduces video noise or snow. It could steady images of ultrasounds, which are infamous for their grainy, blurred quality. VISAR could also have applications in law enforcement, medical, and meteorological imaging. The software can be used for defense application by improving reconnaissance video imagery made by military vehicles, aircraft, and ships traveling in harsh, rugged environments.