Edge-enhanced Images Research Articles

Nonuniform blind deblurring for single images based on adaptive edge-enhanced regularization

Natural images inevitably suffer from spatially variant blur caused by the relative motion between a camera and objects. We present an effective and efficient patch-wise edge-enhanced image regularization and a robust kernel similarity constraint to perform an accurate kernel estimation from coarse-to-fine iterations. The proposed adaptive regularization introduces a gradient magnitude penalty function into total variation to preserve and enhance salient edges while smoothing out harmful subtle structures. In addition, the similarity constraint is engaged in each patch without camera rotation effects, ensuring that the erroneous kernels can be identified by measuring the similarity among the kernels of neighbor patches and be replaced with the well-estimated ones. After obtaining accurate kernels, numerous nonblind deblurring methods can be applied to restore an image. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the proposed algorithm performs favorably without ringing artifacts and possesses high processing efficiency for natural nonuniform blurred images.

Symmetric spin splitting of elliptically polarized vortex beams reflected at air-gold interface via pseudo-Brewster angle.

A simple expression of the transverse spatial spin splitting of light-carrying intrinsic orbital angular momentum (IOAM) is theoretically derived for reflections at strong absorbing media surfaces. By introducing an asymmetric spin splitting (ASS) factor, the transverse spatial symmetric spin splitting (SSS) and ASS of an arbitrary polarized vortex beam can be distinguished. Here, the transverse spatial SSS of an elliptically polarized vortex beam with a phase difference of 90° is predicted when the incident angle is close to the pseudo-Brewster angle. Remarkably, the larger transverse spatial SSS reaches 1100 nm for the incident circularly polarized LG beam with l=3. It is noteworthy that the transverse spatial SSS can be flexibly manipulated by changing the polarized angle, meaning it is theoretically possible to realize fully polarization-controllable transverse spatial SSS for elliptically polarized incident vortex beams. These results could potentially be applied to precision polarization metrology and edge-enhanced imaging.

Photonic Spin-Multiplexing Metasurface for Switchable Spiral Phase Contrast Imaging

As the two most representative operation modes in an optical imaging system, bright-field imaging and phase contrast imaging can extract different morphological information on an object. Developing a miniature and low-cost system capable of switching between these two imaging modes is thus very attractive for a number of applications, such as biomedical imaging. Here, we propose and demonstrate that a Fourier transform setup incorporating an all-dielectric metasurface can perform a two-dimensional spatial differentiation operation and thus achieve isotropic edge detection. In addition, the metasurface can provide two spin-dependent, uncorrelated phase profiles across the entire visible spectrum. Therefore, based on the spin-state of incident light, the system can be used for either diffraction-limited bright-field imaging or isotropic edge-enhanced phase contrast imaging. Combined with the advantages of planar architecture and ultrathin thickness of the metasurface, we envision this approach may open new vistas in the very interdisciplinary field of imaging and microscopy.

Upconversion dark-field imaging with extended field of view at video frame rate.

Dark-field imaging is a well-known optical method for obtaining edge-enhanced images of objects containing steep gradients in either amplitude or phase. Edge enhancement is commonly achieved by using a small physical obstruction in the center of the Fourier plane of a 4f imaging setup. By blocking the low spatial frequencies in the center of the Fourier plane, only the higher spatial frequencies from the object reach the image plane. In this work, simultaneous optical image processing (i.e., dark-field imaging) and sum-frequency generation are performed by placing a periodically poled lithium niobate crystal in the Fourier plane of a 4f setup and using a 1575 nm upconversion pump beam with a dark core. We demonstrate upconversion dark-field (UDF) imaging in which edge-enhanced images are obtained at the upconverted wavelength ($\sim{630}\;{\rm nm}$∼630nm) as a result of infrared object illumination ($\sim 1\;\unicode{x00B5}{\rm m}$∼1µm). Furthermore, we experimentally confirm that UDF imaging can be extended from collinear to noncollinear interactions between the signal and pump. The presented system allows for adjustment of the spatial cutoff frequency while maximizing the power conversion efficiency. Simultaneous collinear and noncollinear upconversion imaging of phase objects is demonstrated using broadband 1 µm illumination with a spectral bandwidth of 6 nm-resulting in a UDF imaging system with an enhanced field of view at video frame rates.

Underwater image enhancement and restoration based on local fusion

Underwater imaging and image processing play important roles in oceanic scientific research. However, because the light is absorbed and scattered, the obtained underwater images are seriously degraded. Color distortion, low contrast, and detail (edge information) loss are the major problems of underwater images. We propose a method to solve these problems. First, a local adaptive proportion fusion algorithm is proposed to produce a color-balanced image, which is the first input image. Second, an edge-enhanced image is produced as the second input image. Third, a proportion fusion image is produced as the third input image. Finally, the image formation model-based local triple fusion method is used to merge these three input images and get the final result. Experimental results show that the proposed method could effectively balance color distortion and enhance edges of the degraded images. Subjective and objective evaluations show that our method is superior to many state-of-the-art methods.

Augmenting Soft Tissue Contrast Using Edge-Enhancing Phase-Imaging Techniques in X-Ray Microtomography.

Conventional X-ray imaging is based on the attenuation of X-rays and the technique provides sufficient contrast when the difference between attenuation coefficients of neighboring structures is sufficient. A promising imaging possibility on a μCT is the use of phase information of an X-ray beam to generate an image of the sample. This is known as phase-contrast imaging. Propagation-based phase imaging sets the least amount of requirements on the imaging setup - lateral coherence for the X-ray source and a movable detector and source. The Zeiss Xradia MicroXCT-400 at our laboratory provides this possibility. Therefore, the phase-contrast imaging protocol, which provides an edge-enhancement effect, on the μCT device was optimized using thin polylactic acid fibers in order to enhance the visibility of low density samples. The optimization consisted of source and detector distance variation measurements. To demonstrate the contrast enhancement results, the optimization was applied to two types of collagen samples embedded in air, ethanol, and water.The results showed enhanced contrast for the edge-enhanced phase-contrast images compared to absorption images. Most importantly, the results indicated that the source does not need to placed at the negative limit to obtain useful phase information. Additionally, the visibility increases with increasing sample-to-detector distance. Finally, significantly enhanced contrast was obtained for the collagen sample embedded in water using phase-imaging techniques. The technique is limited due to the focal spot size and voltage of the X-ray source. The phase-imaging technique has the possibility to enhance contrast of low density samples and to reveal structures that cannot be seen using other imaging techniques.

An investigation of ramie fiber cross-section image analysis methodology based on edge-enhanced image fusion

Usually the quality of cross sectional fiber image is affected by the slicing and imaging device, some image processing techniques could be used to solve this problem instead of hardware operation. In this paper, a series of edge detection and weighted average image fusion algorithms are used to enhance the ramie fiber image to improve the quality of fiber cross-section image obtained by the traditional section and optical microscope. The cross-section characteristic parameters of ramie fiber could be extracted after the image pre-processing including threshold segmentation, median filtering and corrosion. The experimental results show that this method can be used to solve the identification problem of low contrast ramie fiber cross-section images caused by background blur, improve the accuracy of image recognition and analysis, it provides an effective algorithm basis for the digital measurement of ramie fibers.

Infrared upconverted image edge enhancement using spiral phase filter

We present a theoretical and experimental demonstration of infrared upconverted image edge enhancement, acquired with quasi-phase-matching for the sum-frequency conversion process and a spiral phase filter. By illuminating a transmission mask with a 1559.5 nm Gaussian beam to create an infrared image and pumped with a 1064 nm vortex beam, an upconverted edge-enhanced image at 632.5 nm is generated. The theoretical model for the process is derived, which well explains the deviation of experimental results. The proposed technique can be further adapted for other spectral regions and nonlinear optical processes.

Peeking into the Black Box of Coregistration in Clinical fMRI: Which Registration Methods Are Used and How Well Do They Perform?

Interpretation of fMRI depends on accurate functional-to-structural alignment. This study explores registration methods used by FDA-approved software for clinical fMRI and aims to answer the following question: What is the degree of misalignment when registration is not performed, and how well do current registration methods perform? This retrospective study of presurgical fMRI for brain tumors compares nonregistered images and 5 registration cost functions: Hellinger, mutual information, normalized mutual information, correlation ratio, and local Pearson correlation. To adjudicate the accuracy of coregistration, we edge-enhanced echo-planar maps and rated them for alignment with structural anatomy. Lesion-to-activation distances were measured to evaluate the effects of different cost functions. Transformation parameters were congruent among Hellinger, mutual information, normalized mutual information, and the correlation ratio but divergent from the local Pearson correlation. Edge-enhanced images validated the local Pearson correlation as the most accurate. Hellinger worsened misalignment in 59% of cases, primarily exaggerating the inferior translation; no cases were worsened by the local Pearson correlation. Three hundred twenty lesion-to-activation distances from 25 patients were analyzed among nonregistered images, Hellinger, and the local Pearson correlation. ANOVA analysis revealed significant differences in the coronal (P < .001) and sagittal (P = .04) planes. If registration is not performed, 8% of cases may have a >3-mm discrepancy and up to a 5.6-mm lesion-to-activation distance difference. If a poor registration method is used, 23% of cases may have a >3-mm discrepancy and up to a 6.9-mm difference. The local Pearson correlation is a special-purpose cost function specifically designed for T2*-T1 coregistration and should be more widely incorporated into software tools as a better method for coregistration in clinical fMRI.

Detection of Proximal Caries at The Molar Teeth Using Edge Enhancement Algorithm

&lt;span&gt;Panoramic X-Ray produces produces the most common oral digital radiographic image that it used in dentistry practice. The image can further improve accuracy compared to analog one. This study aims to establish proximal caries edge on enhancement images so they can be easily recognized. The images were obtained from the Department of Radiology, General Hospital of M. Djamil Padang Indonesia. Total file of images to be tested were 101. Firstly, the images are analyzed by dentists who practiced at Segment Padang Hospital Indonesia. They concluded that there is proximal caries in 30 molar teeth. Furthermore, the images were processed using Matlab software with the following steps, i.e. cropping, enhancement, edge detection, and edge enhancement. The accuracy rate of detection of edge enhancement images being compared with that of dentist analysis was 73.3%. In the edge enhancement images proximal caries edge can be found conclusively in 22 teeth and dubiously in eight teeth. The results of this study convinced that edge enhancement images can be recommended to assist dentists in detecting proximal caries. &lt;/span&gt;

A Modified Framework for Multislice Image Fusion for High Contrast Liver Cancer Detection

ABSTRACTThe exact boundary extraction of liver using abdominal computed tomography (CT) images continues to be the greatest challenge in the computer-assisted diagnosis of liver tumour, as the organ boundary is very weak. In this paper, an efficient algorithm is proposed to enhance the edge information of the CT images prior to segmentation, by means of multislice image fusion and anisotropic diffusion filtering in non-subsampled contourlet (NSCT) domain. The two adjacent slices of CT images are decomposed using NSCT, and the fusion of low- and high-frequency coefficients is obtained by means of phase congruency and sum-modified Laplacian operators, respectively. The major highlight of this work is that, prior to high-frequency fusion; the high-frequency coefficients of both images are processed using anisotropic diffusion to strengthen the edge information. Finally, the edge-enhanced image is obtained by NSCT reconstruction. The performance metrics show that the information pertaining to the edges is found to be precise in the fused image. The proposed logic, when applied to the real-time contrast-enhanced triple-phase CT image, has proven to be highly effective. All the image samples used in this work for test purpose were obtained from Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education Research (JIPMER), a Medical Research Institute and Hospital at Puducherry, India.

Fractal spiral zone plates

We present diffractive optical elements with an extended depth of focus, namely, fractal spiral zone plates (FSZPs), which combine a fractal structure and spiral zone plates (SZPs) to generate a sequence of coaxial vortices in the focal volume along the propagation direction. The axial irradiance of the FSZPs is examined both experimentally and in a simulation and is compared with that of SZPs and that of fractal zone plates. The focusing properties of the FSZPs with different parameters are investigated, and a potential application to edge-enhancement images is also shown.

Bedside Chest Radiographs in the Intensive care Setting: Wireless Direct Radiography Compared to Computed Radiography

To compare image quality, visibility of anatomic landmarks, tubes and lines, and other clinically significant findings on portable (bedside) chest radiographs acquired with wireless direct radiography (DRw) and computed radiography (CR). In a prospective IRB-approved and HIPAA-compliant study, portable DRw (DRX-1C mobile retrofit portable wireless direct radiography, CareStream Inc., Rochester, NY) and portable CR (AGFA CR (DXG) version; NIM2103, AGFA Healthcare, Ridgefield Park, NJ) images of the chest were acquired within 24-hours in 80 patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). Image pairs of 75 patients (37% female) with a mean age of 60.7±16 years were independently compared side-by-side by 7 experienced thoracic radiologists using a five-point scale. When tubes and lines were present, the radiologist also compared an edge-enhanced copy of the DRw image to the CR image. Most radiologists found significantly fewer artifacts on DRw images compared to CR images and all readers agreed that when present, these artifacts did not significantly preclude the ability to evaluate anatomic landmarks, tubes and lines, or clinically significant findings. None of the radiologists (0/7) reported superior visibility of anatomic structures on CR images compared to DRw images and some radiologists (3/7) found DRw images significantly better for visibility of anatomic landmarks such as the carina (p=0.01-0.001). Most radiologists (6/7) found DRw images to be better or clearly better than CR images for position of tubes and lines, and edge-enhanced DRw images to be especially helpful for evaluation of central venous catheters and esophageal tubes (p=0.027-0.001). None of the radiologists deemed CR images superior for visibility of clinically significant findings. Critical care chest radiography with a portable DRw system can provide similar or superior information compared to a CR system regarding clinically significant findings and position of tubes and lines.

Review on Image Enhancement of the Neutron Dosimeter Bubble Detector Image

Filtering is a technique for enhancing an image. With the help of filtering Smoothing, sharpening and edge enhancement Image processing operations can be implemented. Under intense gamma field bubble detector is used to detect the amount of neutron dose. The number of nucleated bubbles yields the neutron dose. The methodologies proposed here is to apply various algorithms to those images of bubble detector and analyzing it, there by contributing an enhanced image to accurately calculate the number of bubbles in the detector.

Rank-ordered filter for edge enhancement of cellular images using interval type II fuzzy set.

An edge-enhancement technique using an interval type II fuzzy set that uses rank-ordered filter to enhance the edges of cellular images is proposed. When cellular images from any laboratory are digitized, scanned, and stored, some kind of degradation occurs, and directly using a rank-ordered filter may not produce clear edges. These images contain uncertainties, present in edges or boundaries of the image. Fuzzy sets that take into account these uncertainties may be a good tool to process these images. However, a fuzzy set sometimes does not produce better results. We used an interval type II fuzzy set, which considers the uncertainty in a different way. It considers the membership function in the fuzzy set as "fuzzy," so the membership values lie within an interval range. A type II fuzzy set has upper and lower membership levels, and with the two levels, a new membership function is computed using Hamacher t-conorm. A new fuzzy image is formed. A rank-ordered filter is applied to the image to obtain an edge-enhanced image. The proposed method is compared with the existing methods visually and quantitatively using entropic method. Entropy of the proposed method is higher (0.4418) than the morphology method (0.2275), crisp method (0.3599), and Sobel method (0.2669), implying that the proposed method is better.

Coronary stent imaging with dual-source CT: assessment of lumen visibility using different convolution kernels and postprocessing filters

Assesment of the coronary arteries after stent placement using coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) currently requires reconstruction of images with soft kernels for the assessment of atherosclerotic plaques and dedicated edge enhancing kernels for the evaluation of the stent lumen. To evaluate a two-dimensional filter tool that provides instant postprocessing of images reconstructed with soft kernels into edge-enhanced images and vice versa and thus may eliminate the need for two separate reconstrcutions for the assessment of coronary artery stents using CCTA. Twenty stents with a diameter of 3.0 mm placed in a vascular phantom were scanned with a dual-source CT using standard parameters. Images were reconstructed with a soft B30f and an edge-enhancing B46f kernel and postprocessed with the corresponding filter algorithm (F30 for B30f images; F46 for B46f images). The resulting four data-sets were evaluated for lumen visibility, intraluminal attenuation, and image noise by two independent readers. Results were validated invivo against invasive coronary angiography in data-sets from patients with coronary artery stents. Average intraluminal attenuation was 552.6 HU, 527.3 HU, 207.9 HU, and 267.5 HU for B30f, F30, B46f, and F46 images, respectively (P < 0.0001). Average image noise was 11.3, 10.6, 19.2, and 15.0 HU, respectively (P < 0.0001). The visible stent diameter was significantly higher in the B46f (59.6%) and F46 images (54%) compared to the B30f (48.3%) and F30 (51.5%) images (P < 0.0001). In the patient study, lumen assessability was significantly better in B46f images than in F46 images. Sensitivity for stenosis detection was best in the original B46f images with a sensitivity of 67% and a specificity of 94%. The postprocessing filter reduces image noise, however currently it does not offer an alternative to image reconstruction using the edge-enhancing kernels for the evaluation of the stent lumen.

Direct assessment of 3D foot bone kinematics using biplanar X-ray fluoroscopy and an automatic model registration method.

BackgroundQuantifying detailed 3-dimensional (3D) kinematics of the foot in contact with the ground during locomotion is crucial for understanding the biomechanical functions of the complex musculoskeletal structure of the foot. Biplanar X-ray fluoroscopic systems and model-based registration techniques have recently been employed to capture and visualise 3D foot bone movements in vivo, but such techniques have generally been performed manually. In the present study, we developed an automatic model-registration method with biplanar fluoroscopy for accurate measurement of 3D movements of the skeletal foot.MethodsThree-dimensional surface models of foot bones were generated prior to motion measurement based on computed tomography. The bone models generated were then registered to biplanar fluoroscopic images in a frame-by-frame manner using an optimisation technique, to maximise similarity measures between occluding contours of the bone surface models with edge-enhanced fluoroscopic images, while avoiding mutual penetration of bones. A template-matching method was also introduced to estimate the amount of bone translation and rotation prior to automatic registration.ResultsWe analysed 3D skeletal movements of a cadaver foot mobilized by a robotic gait simulator. The 3D kinematics of the calcaneus, talus, navicular and cuboid in the stance phase of the gait were successfully reconstructed and quantified using the proposed model-registration method. The accuracy of bone registration was evaluated as 0.27 ± 0.19 mm and 0.24 ± 0.19° (mean ± standard deviation) in translation and rotation, respectively, under static conditions, and 0.36 ± 0.19 mm and 0.42 ± 0.30° in translation and rotation, respectively, under dynamic conditions.ConclusionsThe measurement was confirmed to be sufficiently accurate for actual analysis of foot kinematics. The proposed method may serve as an effective tool for understanding the biomechanical function of the human foot during locomotion.

Real-time edge detection by cyclic-path polarization interferometer

In a triangular path cyclic interferometer employing a polarizing beam splitter (PBS), the two counterpropagating beams are orthogonally polarized. A sample placed almost equidistant from the PBS is imaged by a lens placed in the path of the emerging beams so that two defocused images of the sample are recorded on a CCD. Using a linear polarizer in the path of the orthogonally polarized imaging beams, it is possible to achieve amplitude subtraction between the two images, resulting in an edge-enhanced image of the sample. The proposed real-time edge-enhancement technique is experimentally demonstrated.

Multi-spectral image registration and evaluation based on edge-enhanced MSER

In this paper, we propose an edge-enhanced maximally stable extremal region (E-MSER) method in the multi-spectral image registration. To increase the detection rate of MSERs, an edge-enhanced image with an adjustment factor is well prepared in advance. Then, E-MSERs are detected based on the new one. Although the grey level of multi-spectral images varies a lot from different imaging bands, E-MSERs show a good stability. Scale-invariant feature transform descriptor can be used to describe the E-MSERs. Four criteria such as matching score, repeatability, precision and recall are applied to evaluate the detectors’ performance and root mean square error is used to analyse the registration accuracy. The experiments made in multi-spectral images with same scene have shown that the E-MSER method performs better than the untouched MSER method. Moreover, comparative experiments have been made with E-MSER, MSER and some other feature detectors (e.g. Harris-Affine, Hessian-Affine and DoG-based) under the scenes of affine transformation. The values of evaluation criteria show that the E-MSER performs better than MSER. At the same time, the registration accuracies of E-MSER and MSER are <1 pixel, which are much smaller than those of other detectors.

Direct assessment of foot kinematics during human gait using a dynamic cadaver simulator and a biplane X‐ray fluoroscopy

Direct measurement of detailed kinematics of individual anatomical structures in the foot during human locomotion is crucial for understanding morphofunctional roles of the human foot structure that mechanically interacts with the ground in a favourable manner to maintain stable gait. In the present study, we constructed a dynamic gait simulator to load and mobilize the cadaver foot and directly measured the three-dimensional kinematics of foot bones using a biplane X-ray fluoroscopy. A robotic gait simulator was developed to load and mobilize the cadaver foot in a manner similar to the way human foot actually moves and interacts with the ground during walking. The simulator has three legs, fore, middle and hind legs, with the cadaver foot fixed to the middle leg (Figure ​(Figure1A).1A). After the middle cadaver foot contacts the ground, the hind leg departs from the ground. The fore leg replicates the foot-contact with the ground in the next step and toe-off of the middle cadaver foot follows afterward. Tendons of tibialis anterior and soleus were connected to pneumatic actuators to apply forces at the appropriate moment to reproduce how the foot would function during walking. Figure 1 A robotic gait simulator to load and mobilize the cadaver foot in a manner similar to the way human foot moves and interacts with the ground during walking (A). Automatic method to register bone surface models with the two fluoroscopic images recorded ... A biplanar dynamic X-ray fluoroscopic system was developed with Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto, Japan. The system consists of two sets of x-ray sources and flat panels with a resolution of 2688 x 2208 pixels. We recorded biplanar X-ray videos of foot movement using the system using the dynamic cadaver model at 15 fps. For direct measurement of 3D kinematics of the foot bones, we developed an automatic method to register bone surface models with the two fluoroscopic images (Figure ​(Figure1B).1B). Specifically, the 3D surface models of the foot were generated based on computed tomography (CT), and a similarity measure between occluding contours of the bone surface models with edge-enhanced fluoroscopic images was evaluated to reconstruct the position and orientation of each bone model in a 3D space. Collisions among the reconstructed bones were also evaluated to avoid penetration. Using the biplanar X-ray fluoroscopic images and the proposed reconstruction methodology based on CT, we reconstructed 3D movements of the calcaneus, talus, navicular and cuboid when a human cadaveric foot walked on a flat surface using the simulator. The surface models of the four bones were successfully matched with the corresponding fluoroscopic images and the joint movements were quantified and visualized. The present methodology must be undergone further evaluation, but the proposed framework may serve as an effective tool for understanding the morphofunctional roles of the human foot structure during walking.