Wavelet-based partial discharge image denoising

An application of wavelet-based denoising to phase-resolved partial discharge images is presented. The basic principles of wavelet denoising analysis, with a special focus on image decomposition, as well as examples of hard- and soft denoising thresholding are reported. For the purposes of decomposition, the Deabuchies wavelet and wavelet packets at different levels were applied. Simulations are discussed and the results obtained during online measurements on a 6 kV/200 kW motor are presented. The method described is especially suited to cases in which an external additive noise uncorrelated with a partial discharge (PD) signal is present during acquisition, for example, in cables, transformers, rotating machines and gas-insulated switchgears. The fundamental issue in image recovery using wavelet denoising seems to be the choice of the threshold value and the type of the wavelet. Proper preprocessing is crucial prior to pattern recognition on the basis of a correlation with predefined PD forms. In addition, wavelet decomposition could be treated as lossy image compression in applications such as image internet transfer to/from external databases, in which only wavelet coefficients could be sent discarding the ones below a certain threshold level. The method presented can be applied during PD acquisition, for example, in high voltage cables, transformers, rotating machines and gas-insulated switchgears. The wavelet denoising processing will definitely find future applications in PD analysers, besides the boxcar accumulation method and spatial or FFT-based digital filtering     

Soft x-ray holographic computerized tomography imaging: experimental research

A high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) imaging technology has been developed, which is a combination of x-ray holography and computerized tomography (CT) technology called holographic computerized tomography (HCT). The theory and experimental techniques on biological specimens with the use of synchrotron radiation are discussed. Projections at different angles are reconstructed with the numerical method of in-line holography, and then the reconstructed data with a higher lateral resolution are used to restore the 3D image by the CT technique. With this method, the degradation caused by the diffraction of x rays is canceled, and 3D images with high resolution of micrometer magnitude in both the lateral and the longitudinal directions are obtained.     

Magnification-type x-ray imaging system: optimum design and image restoration

A magnification-type x-ray imaging system, that is, an x-ray microscope, is evaluated by taking into account the partial coherency of the illumination of the objects. The transfer characteristic proposed in an earlier paper [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 1, 11 (1984)] is used for the evaluation, and based on the results, an optimum design for a high-resolution x-ray imaging system is discussed. The image restoration method for this system is also shown.     

Quantitative assessment of image quality enhancement due to unsharp-mask processing in x-ray fluoroscopy

Spatial unsharp-mask processing and its variants are commonly used in x-ray radiography to enhance image contrast. We investigated the effect of three unsharp-masking filter kernels of different sizes on the detection of an advanced guidewire tip in simulated x-ray fluoroscopy image sequences. To isolate the effect of visual temporal processing, we repeated the experiments on single images. Filter gains were selected so that all three kernels increased the contrast of a 0.018-in. (0.457-mm) guidewire by a factor of 2 but had different effects on image noise and signal profiles. There was no statistically significant effect of unsharp masking on human-observer performance in single images. However, all three kernels significantly improved average performance in image sequences, and the guidewire contrast required for detection was reduced by 32%-40%. A prewhitening channelized observer model predicted the disparity between sequences and single images and fitted measurements at different kernel sizes well. A nonprewhitening observer model did not. We conclude that unsharp masking is a simple and effective method of improving guidewire visualization in fluoroscopically guided interventional procedures and that quantitative image quality studies are essential for evaluation of image-processing techniques in sequences such as x-ray fluoroscopy.     

Coherence-contrast x-ray imaging based on x-ray interferometry

Coherence-contrast x-ray imaging--which detects changes in the degree of coherence caused by the placement of a sample in an x-ray interferometer--was developed for biomedical applications. Because the technique's sensitivity depends on the density gradient in the sample, it is particularly suitable for observing biomedical samples with large density differences, such as samples that include both biological soft tissue and bone. A measurement principle and method of this technique are described, and a fine coherence-contrast image of a mouse leg is given as an example result.     

Real-time underwater image enhancement: An improved approach for imaging with AUV-150

An RGB YCbCr Processing method (RYPro) is proposed for underwater images commonly suffering from low contrast and poor color quality. The degradation in image quality may be attributed to absorption and backscattering of light by suspended underwater particles. Moreover, as the depth increases, different colors are absorbed by the surrounding medium depending on the wavelengths. In particular, blue/green color is dominant in the underwater ambience which is known as color cast. For further processing of the image, enhancement remains an essential preprocessing operation. Color equalization is a widely adopted approach for underwater image enhancement. Traditional methods normally involve blind color equalization for enhancing the image under test. In the present work, processing sequence of the proposed method includes noise removal using linear and non-linear filters followed by adaptive contrast correction in the RGB and YCbCr color planes. Performance of the proposed method is evaluated and compared with three golden methods, namely, Gray World (GW), White Patch (WP), Adobe Photoshop Equalization (APE) and a recently developed method entitled “Unsupervised Color Correction Method (UCM)”. In view of its simplicity and computational ease, the proposed method is recommended for real-time applications. Suitability of the proposed method is validated by real-time implementation during the testing of the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV-150) developed indigenously by CSIR-CMERI.     

荧光扫描成象中的增强方法

本文针对应用于石油地质部门的荧光图象采集系统中被采集对象光强度弱这一特殊的应用环境 ,提出了一种用面阵CCD来实现线阵扫描方式的方法 ,避免了在以普通面阵采集方式采集任意长图象时所必须的图象拼接问题 ,同时通过从面阵CCD靶面抽取多列像元 ,经过移位叠加并作平均处理来改善由于荧光强度较弱导致采集得到的图象灰度对比偏低问题 ,增强了扫描得到的图象质量 ,满足了该应用的要求 ,提高了工作效率。     

Partially coherent image formation with x-ray microscopes

Image formation with partially coherent radiation is evaluated with the Hopkins formula and then applied to x-ray microscopy. Image characteristics expected from instruments with circular and annular pupils in partially coherent conditions are considered for two-point objects and a knife-edge object. The theoretically expected values for image characteristics that are easy accessible by an experiment, such as the width of a knife edge, are given for various x-ray microscopes.     

Resolution enhancement in computerized tomographic imaging

We consider the problem of reconstructing an object function f(r) from finitely many linear functional values. In our main application, the function f(r) is a tomographic image, and the data are integrals of f(r) along thin strips. Because the data are limited, resolution can be enhanced through the inclusion of prior knowledge. One way to do that, a generalization of the prior discrete Fourier transform (PDFT) method, was suggested in 1982 [SIAM J. Appl. Math.42,933 (1982)] but was found to be difficult to implement for the tomography problem, and that application was not pursued. Recent advances in approximating the PDFT make it possible to achieve the desired resolution enhancement in an easily implemented procedure.     

Phase-space formulation for phase-contrast x-ray imaging

Phase-space formulation based on the Wigner distribution has been presented for analyzing phase-contrast image formation. Based on the statistical nature and affine canonical covariance of Wigner distributions in the phase space, we show that the partial coherence effects of incident x-ray wave field on image intensity are simply accounted for by a multiplication factor, which is the reduced complex degree of coherence of the incident x-ray wave field. We show especially that with the undulator sources one cannot obtain the phase-contrast intensity by summing over the contributions from all electron positions, since the van Cittert-Zernike theorem fails in general for undulators. We derive a comprehensive formula that quantifies the effects of partial spatial coherence, polychromatic spectrum, body attenuation, imaging-detector resolution, and radiation dose on phase-contrast visibility in clinical imaging. The results of our computer modeling and simulations show how the formula can provide design guidelines and optimal parameters for clinical x-ray phase-contrast imaging systems.     

Detection improvement in spatially filtered x-ray fluoroscopy image sequences

The effect of spatial noise-reduction filtering on human observer detection of stationary cylinders mimicking arteries, catheters, and guide wires in x-ray fluoroscopy was investigated in both single image frames and image sequences. Ideal edge-preserving spatial filtering was simulated by filtering of the noise before addition of the target cylinder. This allowed us to separate the effect of edge blurring from those of noise reduction and spatial noise correlation. We used three different center-weighted averagers that reduced pixel noise variance by factors of 0.75, 0.50, and 0.25. As compared with no filtering, the effect of filtering on detection in single images was statistically insignificant. This indicated an adverse effect of spatial noise correlation on detection that countered the effect of noise reduction. By comparison, spatial filtering significantly improved detection in image sequences and yielded potential x-ray dose savings of 26-34%. Comparison of results with two observer models suggested that human observers have an improved detection efficiency in spatially filtered image sequences as compared with white-noise sequences. Pixel noise reduction, a measure commonly used to assess filter performance, overestimated the effect of filtering on detection and was not a good indicator of image quality. We conclude that edge-preserving spatial filtering is more effective in sequences than in single images and that such filtering can be used to improve image quality in noisy image sequences such as x-ray fluoroscopy.     

Phase-space evolution of x-ray coherence in phase-sensitive imaging

X-ray coherence evolution in the imaging process plays a key role for x-ray phase-sensitive imaging. In this work we present a phase-space formulation for the phase-sensitive imaging. The theory is reformulated in terms of the cross-spectral density and associated Wigner distribution. The phase-space formulation enables an explicit and quantitative account of partial coherence effects on phase-sensitive imaging. The presented formulas for x-ray spectral density at the detector can be used for performing accurate phase retrieval and optimizing the phase-contrast visibility. The concept of phase-space shearing length derived from this phase-space formulation clarifies the spatial coherence requirement for phase-sensitive imaging with incoherent sources. The theory has been applied to x-ray Talbot interferometric imaging as well. The peak coherence condition derived reveals new insights into three-grating-based Talbot-interferometric imaging and gratings-based x-ray dark-field imaging.     

一种声图像局部自适应增强方法

声图像具有分辨率较低、混响干扰强、物体区域面积小、边界轮廓模糊不清等特点，因此采用全局的增强算法不能取得满意的结果。根据声图像特点，定义了局部增强函数，以边缘数目、边缘强度和熵定义了评价函数，通过采用PSO算法对增强函数中的参数进行了优化选取。最后与已实现的迭代自适应增强算法和直方图均衡化算法进行了对比分析，结果表明，该算法在保持了原图的灰度级的基础上，不但明显改善图像视觉效果，而且有效地增强和保留图像细节，改善图像质量，利于后续图像检测，是一种适合于声图像的增强方法。     

Selective image enhancement using attribute morphology

Abstract

Numerous applications in image interpretation involve feature extraction. In many low-contrast images, this process is pre-empted by an image enhancement phase to improve the quality of features and accentuate fine details. Few attempts at image enhancement have focused on a selective approach, whereby features are enhanced based on their characteristics. This technical note presents preliminary work on a novel image enhancement algorithm based on attribute morphology. The algorithm is amorphous, that is, it does not rely on the shape of a neighbourhood operator, but rather on a feature attribute such as area or contrast. The algorithm can be directed towards differently shaped structures simultaneously without undue noise amplification. The algorithm is demonstrated through the enhancement of features in various biological images.     

Recent advances in fuzzy techniques for image enhancement

Enhancement of noisy image data is a very challenging issue in many research and application areas. In the last few years, nonlinear filters based on fuzzy models have been shown to be very effective in removing noise without destroying the useful information contained in the image data. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of most significant methods in the literature and to present some new advances in the field of evolutionary neural fuzzy filters