Automated system for noise-measurements on low-ohmic samples andmagnetic sensors

An automated system for electronic noise measurements on metal films is presented. This new system, controlled by a personal computer which utilizes National Instruments' LabVIEW software, is designed to measure low frequency noise as a function of an externally imposed magnetic field and as a function of a dc bias current in low-ohmic samples and magnetic sensors. With this system we are able to measure continuously for several days, during which the measured spectra are collected, processed and stored for further analysis     

Multivariate hyperspectral Raman imaging using compressive detection

A multivariate hyperspectral imaging (MHI) instrument has been designed and constructed to achieve greatly increased Raman imaging speeds by utilizing a compressive spectral detection strategy. The instrument may be viewed as a generalized spectrometer, which can function either as a conventional monochromator or in a wide variety of other hyperspectral modalities. The MHI utilizes a spatial light modulator (SLM) to produce programmable optical filters to rapidly detect and map particular sample components. A sequence of Hadamard-transform or random filter functions may be used to regenerate full Raman spectra. Compressive detection is achieved either using multivariate signal processing filter functions or the actual component spectra. Compressive detection is shown to be capable of achieving sampling speeds exceeding 1 ms per image pixel and the collection of chemical images in less than a minute.     

Sensor performance conversions for infrared target acquisition and intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance imaging sensors

Target acquisition infrared imaging sensors are characterized by their minimum resolvable temperature parameter that is translated to the probability of identification (Pid) performance estimate for a given target. Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance (ISR) sensors are characterized by the general image quality equation to give a national imagery interpretability rating scale (NIIRS) performance estimate. Sensors, such as those on Predator and Global Hawk, will soon be used for both ISR and target acquisition purposes. We present a performance conversion that includes both sensor resolution and sensitivity. We also provide the first empirical results to our knowledge ever to be presented that relate NIIRS and Pid for a given set of targets.     

Automated tongue segmentation in hyperspectral images for medicine

Automatic tongue area segmentation is crucial for computer aided tongue diagnosis, but traditional intensity-based segmentation methods that make use of monochromatic images cannot provide accurate and robust results. We propose a novel tongue segmentation method that uses hyperspectral images and the support vector machine. This method combines spatial and spectral information to analyze the medical tongue image and can provide much better tongue segmentation results. The promising experimental results and quantitative evaluations demonstrate that our method can provide much better performance than the traditional method.     

一种应用于水下目标探测的激光声系统

用激光在海洋中产生声波的方式机动性非常好,在海洋监测方面具有非常强的潜在应用前景.介绍了已经成功研制出的一套可以用于水下目标探测的激光声技术实验系统,详尽地介绍了用于水下目标探测的激光声系统原理、硬件设计以及软件设计.该系统不仅通过了实验室的试验,并且参加了海上试验,实验结果表明本系统的原理正确,性能良好,工作稳定可靠,能够检测到水中目标的回波,探测到水下目标.说明激光声技术用于水下目标探测是切实可行的,这套激光声探测系统的研制成功填补了国内的空白.     

Virtues of mueller matrix imaging for underwater target detection

We present a theoretical analysis on use of polarized light in the detection of a model target in a scattering and absorbing medium similar to seawater. Monte Carlo numerical simulations are used in the calculation of the effective Mueller matrix which describes the scattering process. A target in the shape of a disk is divided into three regions, each of which has the same albedo but different reduced Mueller matrices. Contrast between various parts of the target and background is analyzed in the images created by ordinary radiance, by various elements of the Mueller matrix, and by certain suitable combinations of these elements. It is shown that the application of polarized light has distinct advantages in target detection and characterization when compared with use of unpolarized light.     

Characterization of a near-infrared laparoscopic hyperspectral imaging system for minimally invasive surgery

We developed and characterized a new imaging platform for minimally invasive surgical venues, specifically a system to help guide laparoscopic surgeons to visualize biliary anatomy. This platform is a novel combination of a near-infrared hyperspectral imaging system coupled with a conventional surgical laparoscope. Intraoperative tissues are illuminated by optical fibers arranged in a ring around a center-mounted relay lens collecting back-reflected light from tissues to the hyperspectral imaging system. The system consists of a focal plane array (FPA) and a liquid crystal tunable filter, which is continuously tunable in the near-infrared spectral range of 650-1100 nm with the capability of passing light with a mean bandwidth of 6.95 nm, and the FPA is a high-sensitivity back-illuminated, deep depleted charge-coupled device. Placing a standard resolution target 5.1 cm from the distal end of the laparoscope, a typical intraoperative working distance, produced a 7.6-cm-diameter field of view with an optimal spatial resolution of 0.24 mm. In addition, the system's spatial and spectral resolution and its wavelength tuning accuracy are characterized. The spectroscopic images are formatted into a three-dimensional hyperspectral image cube and processed using principle component analysis. The processed images provide contrast based on measured spectra associated with chemically different anatomical structures helping identify the main molecular chromophores inherent to each tissue. The principal component images were found to image swine gallbladder and biliary structures from surrounding tissues, in real time, during cholecystectomy surgery. Furthermore, it is shown that surgeons can interrogate selected image subregions for their molecular composition identifying biliary anatomy during surgery and before any invasive action is undertaken.     

Pulse tube cooler for flight hyperspectral imaging

A new version of TRW's miniature pulse tube cooler system maintains the short wave infrared–focal plane array (SWIR–FPA) (with wavelength spectrum of 0.9–2.5 μm in the hyperspectral imaging spectrometer for the Hyperion Instrument) interface at a temperature of 110 K. The cooler provides the nominally required cooling load of 0.84W to the FPA via a cold thermal strap, at 72% stroke consuming 14.7 W of electrical power, when the heat reject temperature is at 300 K. This cooler can operate up to 90% stroke, having 1.5 W cooling load, thus having 79% performance margin for the Hyperion mission. Before the installation and operation of the cooler onto the instrument, both the mechanical and the electronics assemblies underwent the environmental tests of launch vibration, thermal vacuum cycling, and burn-in. The cooler performance in terms of mechanical efficiency, electronics efficiency, load lines, temperature stability, self-induced vibrational force reduction, ripple current reduction, and magnetic radiated emission was measured and are reported here.     

Volume holographic hyperspectral imaging

A volume hologram has two degenerate Bragg-phase-matching dimensions and provides the capability of volume holographic imaging. We demonstrate two volume holographic imaging architectures and investigate their imaging resolution, aberration, and sensitivity. The first architecture uses the hologram directly as an objective imaging element where strong aberration is observed and confirmed by simulation. The second architecture uses an imaging lens and a transmission geometry hologram to achieve linear two-dimensional optical sectioning and imaging of a four-dimensional (spatial plus spectral dimensions) object hyperspace. Multiplexed holograms can achieve simultaneously three-dimensional imaging of an object without a scanning mechanism.     

Automated microarray system for the simultaneous detection of antibiotics in milk

A parallel affinity sensor array (PASA) for the rapid automated analysis of 10 antibiotics in milk is presented, using multianalyte immunoassays with an indirect competitive ELISA format. Microscope glass slides modified with (3-glycidyloxypropyl)trimethoxysilane were used for the preparation of hapten microarrays. Protein conjugates of the haptens were immobilized as spots on disposable chips, which were processed in a flow cell. Monoclonal antibodies against penicillin G, cloxacillin, cephapirin, sulfadiazine, sulfamethazine, streptomycin, gentamicin, neomycin, erythromycin, and tylosin allowed the simultaneous detection of the respective analytes. Antibody binding was detected by a second antibody labeled with horseradish peroxidase generating enhanced chemiluminescence, which was recorded with a sensitive CCD camera. All liquid handling and sample processing was fully automated, and one analysis was carried out in milk within less than 5 min. The detection limits ranged from 0.12 (cephapirin) to 32 microg/L (neomycin). Penicillin G could be detected at the maximum residue limit (MRL); the detection limits for all other analytes were far below the respective MRLs. The PASA system proved to be the first immunochemical biosensor platform having the potential to test for numerous antibiotics in parallel, such being of considerable interest for the control of milk in the dairy industry.     

Principal component-based radiative transfer model for hyperspectral sensors: theoretical concept

Modern infrared satellite sensors such as the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), the Cross-Track Infrared Sounder (CrIS), the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES), the Geosynchronous Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (GIFTS), and the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) are capable of providing high spatial and spectral resolution infrared spectra. To fully exploit the vast amount of spectral information from these instruments, superfast radiative transfer models are needed. We present a novel radiative transfer model based on principal component analysis. Instead of predicting channel radiance or transmittance spectra directly, the principal component-based radiative transfer model (PCRTM) predicts the principal component (PC) scores of these quantities. This prediction ability leads to significant savings in computational time. The parameterization of the PCRTM model is derived from the properties of PC scores and instrument line-shape functions. The PCRTM is accurate and flexible. Because of its high speed and compressed spectral information format, it has great potential for superfast one-dimensional physical retrieval and for numerical weather prediction large volume radiance data assimilation applications. The model has been successfully developed for the NAST-I and AIRS instruments. The PCRTM model performs monochromatic radiative transfer calculations and is able to include multiple scattering calculations to account for clouds and aerosols.     

Millimeter wave imaging system for land mine detection

Applications using millimeter wave (mmW) and THz radiation have increased during the past few years. One of the principal applications of these technologies is the detection and identification of objects buried beneath the soil, in particular land mines and unexploded ordnances. A novel active mmW scanning imaging system was developed for this purpose. It is a hyperspectral system that collects images at different mmW frequencies from 90 to 140 GHz using a vector network analyzer collecting backscattering mmW radiation from the buried sample. A multivariate statistical method, principal components analysis, is applied to extract useful information from these images. This method is applied to images of different objects and experimental conditions.     

Finite conjugate embedded relay lens hyperspectral imaging system (ERL-HIS)

We present a novel embedded relay lens hyperspectral imaging system (ERL-HIS) with high spectral resolution (nominal spectral resolution of 2.8 nm) and spatial resolution (30 μm×8 μm) that transfers the scanning plane to an additional imaging plane through the internal relay lens so as to alleviate all outside moving parts for the scanning mechanism used in the traditional HIS, where image scanning is achieved by the relative movement between the object and hyperspectrometer. The ERL-HIS also enables high-speed scanning and can attach to a variety of optical modules for versatile applications. Here, we also demonstrate an application of the proposed ERL-HIS attached to a microscopic system for observing autofluorescent images of sliced cancer tissue samples.     

Markov models of integrating spheres for hyperspectral imaging

Theoretical models of the signal detected by a CCD camera during hyperspectral imaging with an integrating sphere are derived using Markov chains with absorbing states. The models provide analytical expressions that describe the real reflectance of the sample as a function of the detected signal at each pixel of the image. Validation of the models was done by using reflectance standards and tissue phantoms. The models provide accurate analytical solutions for samples and spheres that are near-Lambertian reflectors.     

Automated target preparation for microarray-based gene expression analysis

DNA microarrays have rapidly evolved toward a platform for massively paralleled gene expression analysis. Despite its widespread use, the technology has been criticized to be vulnerable to technical variability. Addressing this issue, recent comparative, interplatform, and interlaboratory studies have revealed that, given defined procedures for "wet lab" experiments and data processing, a satisfactory reproducibility and little experimental variability can be achieved. In view of these advances in standardization, the requirement for uniform sample preparation becomes evident, especially if a microarray platform is used as a facility, i.e., by different users working in the laboratory. While one option to reduce technical variability is to dedicate one laboratory technician to all microarray studies, we have decided to automate the entire RNA sample preparation implementing a liquid handling system coupled to a thermocycler and a microtiter plate reader. Indeed, automated RNA sample preparation prior to chip analysis enables (1) the reduction of experimentally caused result variability, (2) the separation of (important) biological variability from (undesired) experimental variation, and (3) interstudy comparison of gene expression results. Our robotic platform can process up to 24 samples in parallel, using an automated sample preparation method that produces high-quality biotin-labeled cRNA ready to be hybridized on Affymetrix GeneChips. The results show that the technical interexperiment variation is less pronounced than with manually prepared samples. Moreover, experiments using the same starting material showed that the automated process yields a good reproducibility between samples.     

Spectrally reconfigurable pixels for dual-color-mode imaging sensors

The use of full color-sensitive photodetectors with three electrically tunable spectral responses allows the design of sensors that can be real-time reconfigured for different color acquisition modes. All the (physically identical) pixels can be biased in the same way, each giving the same set of RGB spectral responses: in this situation the conversion from the sensor color space to a reference color space can be implemented as usual, giving typical color errors ΔE(a,b) in the order of 2-3. Alternatively, pixels can be biased in two different ways (e.g., row by row), forming pairs: by joining the information from adjacent pixels, the sensor has six spectral responses, with a reduced resolution. By exploiting this plurality of spectral responses, color reproduction accuracy can be increased. In this work, an improved design of the Transverse Field Detector, a filterless and tunable three-color pixel, is used as the experimental device to propose a dual-color-mode reconfigurable sensor.     

电视图像传感器检测平台的研制

为了准确、客观评价面阵CCD器件和整机多项性能参数,研制了电视图像传感器试验检测平台系统.整套系统装置采用组合式的设计理念,由两部分构成,电视图像传感器性能参数测试系统测量噪声、响应度、饱和照度、阈照度、动态范围、系统信噪比(SNR)、信号传递函数(SiTF)、均匀性等,其测试系统误差为4.28%;电视图像传感器成像系统组件定标与试验检测系统测量系统调制传递函数(MTF)、系统畸变、视场角与焦距、系统分辨率、系统光学同轴度等,其系统误差为4.48%.     

Automated detection of fecal contamination of apples by multispectral laser-induced fluorescence imaging

Animal feces are a suspected source of contamination of apples by disease-causing organisms such as Echerichia coli O157. Laser-induced fluorescence was used to detect different amounts of feces from dairy cows, deer, and a dairy pasture applied to Red Delicious apples. One day after application, detection for 1:2 and 1:20 dilutions was nearly 100%, and for 1:200 dilutions (<15 ng of dry matter) detection was >80%. Detection after apples had been washed and brushed was lowest for pasture feces; detection for 1:2, 1:20, and 1:200 dilutions of feces was 100%, 30%, and 0%, respectively. This technology may encourage development of commercial systems for detecting fecal contamination of apples.