Built-in Camera Research Articles

Instant wireless transmission of radiological images using a personal digital assistant phone for emergency teleconsultation

The instant transmission of radiological images may be important for making rapid clinical decisions about emergency patients. We have examined an instant image transfer system based on a personal digital assistant (PDA) phone with a built-in camera. Images displayed on a picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) monitor can be captured by the camera in the PDA phone directly. Images can then be transmitted from an emergency centre to a remote physician via a wireless high-bandwidth network (CDMA 1 x EVDO). We reviewed the radiological lesions in 10 normal and 10 abnormal cases produced by modalities such as computerized tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR) and digital angiography. The images were of 24-bit depth and 1,144 x 880, 1,120 x 840, 1,024 x 768, 800 x 600, 640 x 480 and 320 x 240 pixels. Three neurosurgeons found that for satisfactory remote consultation a minimum size of 640 x 480 pixels was required for CT and MR images and 1,024 x 768 pixels for angiography images. Although higher resolution produced higher clinical satisfaction, it also required more transmission time. At the limited bandwidth employed, higher resolutions could not be justified.

Determining digital hemispherical photograph exposure for leaf area index estimation

A correct exposure is of crucial importance for accurate retrieval of canopy parameters using hemispherical photograph techniques. Digital hemispherical photographs were collected under different sky brightness conditions using a Nikon CoolPix 4500 camera with an FC-E8 fish-eye lens for canopies of different species and openness. Different exposure schemes were employed to investigate the effects of photographic exposure on the estimations of the effective leaf area index ( L e) and gap fraction. The contrast between the sky and foliage under each exposure scheme was calculated to determine the correct exposure under different weather conditions. The results demonstrated that digital hemispherical photographs taken with automatic exposure are not reliable, causing L e underestimations by 16–71% for medium and high density canopies ( L e = 3.2–4.8) and corresponding gap fraction overestimations by 18–72%. While for open canopies with L e < 1.26, L e was overestimated by 11–29%, and the corresponding gap fraction was underestimated by 4–28%. Studies showed that increasing one stop of exposure results in 3–28% differences in L e for canopies with different openness. Based on the analysis, we determined the optimum exposure and developed a protocol for acquiring digital hemispherical photographs. The protocol requires first measuring reference exposure for the open sky using a built-in camera light meter, and then take photographs inside the canopy using the same camera with two stops of more exposure than the reference exposure in order to make the sky appear white and consequently also maximize the contrast between the sky and foliage. This protocol is applicable for different sky brightness and for different canopy openness. In dense canopies, this procedure requires much less exposure than automatic exposure, but in very open canopies, this procedure requires more exposure than automatic exposure. Using the exposure determined with this procedure rather than the automatic exposure, the comparison of L e values from the LAI-2000 and digital photographs is greatly improved, with R 2 increasing from 0.77 to 0.95, and RMSE decreasing from 1.29 to 0.38.

A nutrition management system using mobile phones with built-in cameras

A nutrition management system using mobile phones with built-in cameras

Camera/video phones in schools: law and practice

The emergence of mobile phones with built-in digital cameras is creating legal and ethical concerns for school systems throughout the world. Users of such phones can instantly email, print or post pictures to other MMS1 phones or websites. Local authorities and schools in Britain, Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and elsewhere have introduced outright bans on their use because of the problems or risks they pose if misused. Risks concerned with pupils surreptitiously photographing other pupils in changing rooms or photographing examination papers are obvious examples. The article examines some worldwide examples of the misuse of camera phones in schools and the issues and problems that emerged. A landmark decision concerning the European Data Privacy Directive (Directive 95/46/EC) in the case of Bodil Lindqvist by the European Court of Justice is explored and the implications for camera phones considered. The article concludes by stating that because of their ubiquity and social potency, it is probably a mis...

A remote-controlled teleinjection system for the low-stress capture of large mammals

To recapture trap-shy Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in Switzerland, we developed a selective and minimally invasive capture system (MICS). The device consists of a blowgun remotely controlled by means of 2 built-in cameras and a swiveling 2-way pan-tilt head. The blowgun is monitored and triggered from a distance of up to 400 m and is capable of shooting darts with high accuracy at distances of about 12 m. We darted lynx at kill sites, but the system generally can be used in any situation where a medium to large mammal stands still for a moment at a predictable distance. The MICS allows selection of specific individuals, thereby avoiding capture of nontarget animals. As there is no holding device, risk of injuries due to capture is minimized. Preliminary data on hematology and serum cortisol levels furthermore indicated that captures with the MICS induced less stress than captures with either box traps or foot-snares. We believe this new system opens new possibilities to capture cautious animals and provides considerable progress regarding animal welfare considerations.

MUSEpad: Supporting Information Accessibility Through Mobile Location-Based Technology

Since performing this testing in 2003, there have already been great advancements in computer technologies. For example, OQO has developed a new computer that is as powerful as the Tablet PC that we used and as small as a PDA (http://www.oqo.com). It has a retractable tactile keyboard that would facilitate use by low vision users and has built in 802.11b wireless and Bluetooth capability. It also has a shock mounted hard drive to protect against accidental drops. Still the cost of this device may be prohibitive for many small museums to loan freely to patrons visiting their museum. There have also been great advancements in cellular technology. It is now common for cell phones to have the ability to access the Internet. Many have built-in cameras and others have been combined with PDAs. It is quite likely that in the next few years these devices may provide the ideal platform for achieving the aims of this research. By designing software to deliver content to such devices, the museums would be free of the cost of purchasing mobile computing devices for patrons to use. Museums wishing to support the diverse information needs of their patrons would simply develop the digital content that could be delivered to these mobile devices. Furthermore, this information could serve multiple purposes such as electronically documenting the museum’s collection and populating the museums Web site with a rich set of content that could be used to attract visitors to their museum, while at the same time increasing the accessibility of their online presence

Using Mobile Phones for Secure, Distributed Document Processing in the Developing World

Paper plays an essential role in many information ecologies in the developing world, but it can be inefficient and inflexible. We've developed an information services architecture that uses a smart phone equipped with a built-in digital camera to process augmented paper documents. The CAM document-processing framework exploits smart mobile phones' utility, usability, and growing ubiquity to link paper with modern information tools. CAM, so called because the phone's camera plays a key role in the user interface, is a three-tiered, document-based architecture for providing remote rural information services. The CAM framework comprises four components: CamForms, CamShell, CamBrowser, and CamServer.

Using visual tags to bypass Bluetooth device discovery

One factor that has limited the use of Bluetooth as a networking technology for publicly accessible mobile services is the way in which it handles Device Discovery. Establishing a Bluetooth connection between two devices that have not seen each other before is slow and, from a usability perspective, often awkward. In this paper we present the implementation of an end-to-end Bluetooth-based mobile service framework designed specifically to address this issue. Rather than using the standard Bluetooth Device Discovery model to detect nearby mobile services, our system relies on machine-readable visual tags for out-of-band device and service selection. Our work is motivated by the recent proliferation of cameraphones and PDAs with built-in cameras. We have implemented the described framework completely for Nokia Series 60 cameraphones and demonstrated that our tag-based connection-establishment technique (i) offers order of magnitude time improvements over the standard Bluetooth Device Discovery model; and (ii) is significantly easier to use in a variety of realistic scenarios. Our implementation is available for free download.

携帯電話用カメラモジュールにおけるピント無調整化の開発

We have developed optical-adjustment-free camera modules for mobile phones. Because of the currentboom in mobile phones with built-in cameras, easy camera assembly to speed unit output is important. Adjustment-free manufacturing helps camera module assembly makers deliver mass products with short turnovertime. In particular, focus-adjustment-free cameras can be made smaller and task time speeded up. We have examined the trade off between resolution and optical focal depth for mobile phones. And we have developed a new structure for camera modules that has an optical system set on the CMOS sensor to minimize the margin of error in assembly.

Towards automatic redeye effect removal

The redeye effect is typically formed in amateur photographs taken with a built-in camera flash. Analysis of the available techniques and products indicates that their efficiency in correcting this artifact is limited and their performance is inconsistent. In this work we propose a user friendly solution, which could be used to restore amateur photographs. In the proposed method the redeye effect is detected using a skin detection module and eye colors are restored using morphological image processing. The new method is computationally efficient, robust to parameter settings and versatile, as it can work in conjunction with a number of skin detection methods.

An Infrared Camera Based on Schottky Barriers for Daytime Observations of Stars

The daytime-sky background spectrum is analyzed. It is shown that the spectrum has a minimum in the vicinity of 2.5 μm, which is close to the position of the peak of the spectral characteristic of elements of an array based on PtSi Schottky barriers. The optical layout of an АЗС-26 telescope with a built-in IR camera and an alignment channel is presented. The technique of adjusting the IR camera as a part of the telescope is described. The threshold sensitivity of the system, which consisted of the telescope with a 600-mm-diameter lens and an IR camera based on PtSi Schottky barriers, was experimentally measured in the spectral region of 1.2–3.3 μm and was found to be equal to three stellar magnitudes.

カメラ付携帯電話で撮影された画像のマッチング処理

With the popularity of cellular phones featuring built-in cameras, it is no surprise that content for information transfer using images taken from these phones is in great demand. Therefore, the need for correspondent image processing technology and a system to support content development is becoming much more urgent. A new method of image matching, which contains two approaches, is described. The first approach is to segment objects from images having a relatively simple background by applying a method for growing recursive regions and for the matching. The other is to do matching directly by using a presented GA algorithm in images with complex backgrounds to extract remarkable characters such as magazine titles and brand names on commodities, which are difficult to be segmented from their environment using existing methods. Experimental results show that the approaches work effectively in our system.

Digital Red Eye Removal

The current paper provides methods to correct the artifact known as &#x201C;red eye&#x201D; by means of digital color image processing. This artifact is typically formed in amateur photographs taken with a built-in camera flash. To correct red eye artifacts, an image mask is computed by calculating a colorimetric distance between a prototypical reference &#x201C;red eye&#x201D; color and each pixel of the image containing the red eye. Various image processing algorithms such as thresholding, blob analysis, and morphological filtering, are applied to the mask, in order to eliminate noise, reduce errors, and facilitate a more natural looking result. The mask serves to identify pixels in the color image needing correction, and further serves to identify the amount of correction needed. Pixels identified as having red eye artifacts are modified to a substantially monochrome color, while the bright specular reflection of the eye is preserved.

The Optical and Vesta Projects: Ophthalmic Visualization and Virtual Surgery

In this paper we describe two projects. The first is our novel and superior method of calculating the shape of the cornea of the eye from measuring instuments, called videokeratographs, that typically shine a pattern (usually rings) of light onto the cornea and then capture the reflection pattern on a CCD array using a built-in video camera. Accurate and detailed information about the shape of the cornea is critical for the diagnosis and correction of vision problems. The second project is a virtual environment simulation of the surgical procedure of minimallyinvasive gallbladder removal, which is known as laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Our simulation is designed to enable us to easily experiment with different approaches to addressing the major issues of surgical simulation, and it represents our attempt to leverage a great deal of surgical experience in creating a simulation that focuses on the most important, most error-prone steps in the procedure. Currently we are expanding the simulation code to serve as a general-purpose surgical simulation authoring tool, experimenting with new tissue modeling techniques, and constructing a new haptic interface device.

Outpatient frozen sections by telepathology in a Veterans Administration Medical Center

A relatively simple telepathology system is described for evaluating the margins of excision of cutaneous basal and squamous carcinomas. The system uses a microscope with a built-in television camera, but no eyepieces. The image is projected onto an adjacent monitor and transmitted by T1 line at 768 Kbs to a remote, large screen monitor. The microscope is operated by the surgeon under the telephone direction of the pathologist at the remote site. In a series of 66 cases involving more than 400 individual tissue blocks, we have had only 2 cases with false-negative interpretations and 2 in which the block was not fully displayed on the frozen section. In 15 cases, 1 or more surgical margins were positive, and the surgeon proceeded to excise additional tissue. Our success is attributed to dedicated involvement by the surgeon, very high-quality frozen sections, and the experience of the pathologist. HUM PATHOL 31:786-788.

画像合成技術による小径配管内面溶接部外観観察装置の開発

It is often difficult to grasp clearly an entire view from partial images of welds (circumferential joint) of inside of small caliber (about 50-300 mm) pipe or tube by industrial endoscopes because of their narrow sight.In this study, an effective system which helps inspect welds of inside of pipes or tubes accurately and immediately by composing panoramic views from their partial images is proposed. The partial images of inside of pipes or tubes were taken with the instrument with built-in CCD camera which was developed in this study. The partial images were composed using the overlapping image data. If geometric distortions exist on images, it is impossible to compose those by reason of the disagreement of overlapping areas, so geometric distortions were corrected as preprocessing. As a result, it is possible to get complete panoramic views of welds of inside of small caliber pipes or tubes automatically. Quality of pictures and operating time reaches a practical level.

The use of a modular skills center for the maintenance of laparoscopic skills

A reliable method supplying graduated experience and practice is needed to develop and refine laparoscopic skills. The laparoscopic surgeon, like the microvascular surgeon, must have ongoing training to refine and maintain his or her skills. The authors describe a new modular training unit. The unit consists of a box with a built-in television camera, a light source, and a rotating platform. A videotape recorder with a timing device documents the actual "operating time" required for the various exercises. The first phase of training consists of a basic skills board. This initial phase enhances the use of dominant and nondominant hand motor activity. The surgeon then progresses to lifelike models (biliary, suturing, hernia, gynecologic) to simulate the human operative setting. Ten surgeons spent 5 h each working with the module. The specific exercises were recorded and timed. Their progress is described. The modular laparoscopic skills center is an integral part of any laparoscopic educational program. It facilitates the acquisition and maintenance of laparoscopic skills.

Image quality in digital chromosome analysis systems.

This paper reports on an investigation into the differences in image quality of different components used in a digital image processing system for chromosome analysis. As chromosome aberrations are important tools in the cloning of genes, it is important to know if the introduction of computerized analysis systems increases the risk of missing small aberrations. In this investigation the number of visible bands on a number of chromosomes has been used as a measure of quality. The images compared are microscope ocular images, photographs from a microscope built-in camera, digital images from a high and from a standard resolution camera, presented both on screen and print-out on paper. The main conclusions are that: (1) the view in the microscope ocular gives the best resolution, (2) there are risks of losing vital information using the digital image processing system for chromosome analysis, and (3) this risk is significantly reduced when using a high resolution camera.

The Application of a Free-Swimming ROV in Aquaculture

In 1985, SINTEF and SIMRAD Subsea ifs started to deveLope an autonomous free swimming vehicLe. The main task in this project was to deveLope a prototype of a smaLL vehicLe, in order to get knowLedge and experience in designing, controLLing and operating such vehicLes.A prototype of a vehicLe was ready for testing at the end of 1985. The vehicLe is commanded by an acoustic data teLemetry system. The vehicle has a buiLt-in teLevision camera and containers for other sensors. It wiLL be weLL suited for inspection purposes.The paper is describing the vehicLe and some of the principLes used. System tests are presentLy going on, and we expect to present the test resuLts during the conference in August 1986.

Image Reversal in Microscopy

Image Reversal in Microscopy