High-speed Image Processing System Research Articles

An advanced 3D lymphatic system for assaying human cutaneous lymphangiogenesis in a microfluidic platform

The human cutaneous lymphatic system strictly controls lymphatic functions by coordinating with skin cells. The lymphatic system plays important roles in removing cell waste, residual proteins, various antigens, and immune cells from tissues to maintain homeostasis and activate the immune system through the drainage of interstitial fluid1,2. The skin protects our body from external stimuli such as pathogens through the cutaneous lymphatic system3,4. Herein, to develop an in vitro human cutaneous lymphatic model, we present two 3D microfluidic platforms: a lymphangiogenesis model with a precollecting lymphatic vessel-like structure and an advanced lymphangiogenesis model with a functional cutaneous barrier and a precollecting lymphatic vessel-like structure. In addition, we rapidly analyzed prolymphangiogenic effects using methods that incorporate a high-speed image processing system and a deep learning-based vascular network analysis algorithm by 12 indices. Using these platforms, we evaluated the pro-lymphangiogenic effect of Lymphanax, a natural product derived from fresh ginseng. As a result, we demonstrated that Lymphanax induces robust lymphangiogenesis without any structural abnormalities. In conclusion, we suggest that these innovative platforms are useful for studying the interaction between the skin and lymphatic system as well as evaluating the prolymphangiogenic effects of drugs and cosmetics.

Meta-optic accelerators for object classifiers.

Rapid advances in deep learning have led to paradigm shifts in a number of fields, from medical image analysis to autonomous systems. These advances, however, have resulted in digital neural networks with large computational requirements, resulting in high energy consumption and limitations in real-time decision-making when computation resources are limited. Here, we demonstrate a meta-optic–based neural network accelerator that can off-load computationally expensive convolution operations into high-speed and low-power optics. In this architecture, metasurfaces enable both spatial multiplexing and additional information channels, such as polarization, in object classification. End-to-end design is used to co-optimize the optical and digital systems, resulting in a robust classifier that achieves 93.1% accurate classification of handwriting digits and 93.8% accuracy in classifying both the digit and its polarization state. This approach could enable compact, high-speed, and low-power image and information processing systems for a wide range of applications in machine vision and artificial intelligence.

Development of High-Speed Image Acquisition and Processing System for Real-Time Plasma Control on EAST

In order to realize advanced plasma control based on visible cameras, a high-speed image acquisition and processing system has been developed recently on Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). This system is optimized in many ways to achieve high-speed, real-time, low-latency performance, and to load multiple acquisition cards simultaneously. The acquisition rate of this system can be close to 10 000 FPS when the frame size is set as 320 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times240$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and the pixel depth is set as 8 bits. DMA is used for high-speed data transmission; the memory copy function is optimized for reducing the time cost on data memory reading and writing. Besides, the visualization subsystem based on the Python web can communicate with the acquisition machines and also can synthesize data of multiple acquisition machines in real time to perform image fusion and access display. In addition, a thermal event recognition function based on visible imaging is also included in this system. The convolutional neural network (CNN) model of hot spots and multifaceted asymmetric radiation from the edge (MARFE) detection for EAST plasma discharge has been developed so far. The detection results can be visualized in quasi-real time. In terms of data storage, a new data storage format is designed; a GUI for off-line data analysis and processing based on MATLAB is provided.

All-optical neuromorphic binary convolution with a spiking VCSEL neuron for image gradient magnitudes

All-optical binary convolution with a photonic spiking vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) neuron is proposed and demonstrated experimentally for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. Optical inputs, extracted from digital images and temporally encoded using rectangular pulses, are injected in the VCSEL neuron, which delivers the convolution result in the number of fast ( &lt; 100 ps long) spikes fired. Experimental and numerical results show that binary convolution is achieved successfully with a single spiking VCSEL neuron and that all-optical binary convolution can be used to calculate image gradient magnitudes to detect edge features and separate vertical and horizontal components in source images. We also show that this all-optical spiking binary convolution system is robust to noise and can operate with high-resolution images. Additionally, the proposed system offers important advantages such as ultrafast speed, high-energy efficiency, and simple hardware implementation, highlighting the potentials of spiking photonic VCSEL neurons for high-speed neuromorphic image processing systems and future photonic spiking convolutional neural networks.

A time division multiplexing algorithm based on FPGA buffer shift to realize high speed image processing

With the development of medical image technology, two-dimensional imaging technology bottlenecks highlighted, three-dimensional imaging technology needs more and more urgent. Cone beam projection computer reorganization tomography equipment principle, which is also called “CBCT”, is the X-ray generator with a lower ray around the projection body to do a circular DR digital projection. Then the data obtained in the “intersection” after projection of the projection body has reconstructed in the computer to obtain the three-dimensional image. Image processing has still faced with image processing problems, such as processing speed and stability. In this paper, the key technology of high-speed image processing system based on FPGA is studied, and a high-speed and high-definition cone-shaped beam projection computerized tomo-graphic image processing platform based on FPGA is realized. The design of this paper is based on the image processing algorithm module of the pipeline. According to the structural characteristics of FPGA, a time division-multiplexing algorithm based on buffer shift is proposed to solve the problem of time division multiplexing for shared resources in image processing process, which facilitates the allocation of buffer memory resources. In this paper, the parallel CORDIC algorithm has introduced to solve the problem of the transcendental function in the image algorithm. The iterative speed advantage is obvious, which provides a powerful guarantee for the later image registration.

High-Speed Visible Image Acquisition and Processing System for Plasma Shape and Position Control of EAST Tokamak

Currently, the fast evolution of cameras in recent years has made them promising tools for diagnostics of Tokamak. The solution presented in this paper consists of a prototype of high-speed visible image acquisition and processing system (HVIAPs) dedicated for experimental advanced superconducting tokamak shape and position control. Graphics processing unit (GPU) and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) are typically used as accelerators or co-processors in addition to a CPU. Such a heterogeneous computing system can combine the advantages of its individual components. The main imaging equipment components used for this system are four high-resolution fast cameras equipped with fiber interface. Image data from the cameras are received by the frame grabber card based on the FPGA and transmitted to the GPU via the peripheral component interconnect express interface. The software support for the system includes low-level drivers and application programming interface libraries for all components and the algorithm developed for image processing. The offline image process results are compared to equilibrium fitting code, which is a commonly used reconstruction method, with an average error of 1.5 cm. The total processing time for one frame is less than 0.3 ms.

Experiment Study on Fluidelastic Instability of Tube Bundles Consisting of Different Frequency Tubes With Visual Image Processing System

Fluidelastic instability (FEI) is the most harmful vibration mechanism for heat exchangers. Due to the inevitable manufacturing precision and assembly error, natural frequencies of tubes are not equal in the ideal condition. In order to describe the dispersion characteristic of tube bundles, a new factor named dispersion ratio is proposed in this paper. A series of tubes experiments in normal square and rotated triangular array with pitch ratio s = 1.4 and s = 1.28 were designed and conducted with high-speed camera and visual image processing system. Results show that FEI behaviors of tubes were greatly affected by tubes array geometry, pitch ratio, and dispersion ratio. Reduced critical velocity (Vcr) increased with dispersion ratio in normal square array but no obvious phenomenon was observed in rotated triangular array.

High-speed image processing systems in non-destructive testing

Digital imaging systems are using in most of both industrial and scientific industries. Such systems effectively solve a wide range of tasks in the field of non-destructive testing. There are problems in digital image processing for decades associated with the speed of the operation of such systems, sufficient to efficiently process and analyze video streams in real time, ideally in mobile small-sized devices. In this paper, we consider the use of parallel-pipeline computing architectures in image processing problems using the example of an algorithm for calculating the area of an object on a binary image. The approach used allows us to achieve high-speed performance in the tasks of digital image processing.

FPGA based accelerated 3D affine transform for real-time image processing applications

Affine Transform (AT) is widely used in high-speed image processing systems. This transform plays an important role in various high-speed image processing applications. AT, an important process during the intensity-based image registration, is applied iteratively during the registration. This is also used for the analysis of the interior of an organ and to get a better view of the organs from various angles in 3D coordinate system. Hence, for real-time medical image registration and visualization of the acquired volumetric images, acceleration of AT is very much sought for. In this paper, a parallel and pipelined architecture of the proposed AT algorithm has been presented. This will accelerate the transform process and reduce the processing time of medical image registration. The architecture is mapped in Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) for prototyping and verification. The results show that the computational complexity of the proposed parallel algorithm is almost 4 times better than that of the conventional algorithm.

Fast image processing for optical metrology utilizing heterogeneous computer architectures

Industrial image processing tasks, especially in the domain of optical metrology, are becoming more and more complex. While in recent years standard PC components were sufficient to fulfill the requirements, special architectures have to be used to build high-speed image processing systems today. For example, for adaptive optical systems in large scale telescopes, the latency between capturing an image and steering the mirrors is critical for the quality of the resulting images. Commonly, the applied image processing algorithms consist of several tasks with different granularities and complexities. Therefore, we combined the advantages of multicore CPUs, GPUs, and FPGAs to build a heterogeneous image processing pipeline for adaptive optical systems by presenting new architectures and algorithms. Each architecture is well-suited to solve a particular task efficiently, which is proven by a detailed evaluation. With the developed pipeline it is possible to achieve a high throughput and to reduce the latency of the whole steering system significantly.

High-Speed Image Measurement Technology and its Application under Toner Drop Impact Test

A transport package cushioning property evaluation test system is established to achieve the goal of high-precision, real-time, non-contact, and full-field measurement. It consists of a shock testing machine, a shock measuring instrument and a high-speed image acquisition and processing system. High-speed imaging measurement techniques and digital image processing method are used to make a comprehensive assessment on the cushioning properties of air-cushion package. In this paper, the developed system was used to measure the drop shock responses of the toner and air cushion deformation under drop impact test.

Parallel architecture for accelerating affine transform in high-speed imaging systems

Affine transform is widely used in the high speed image processing systems. This transform plays an important role in various high speed applications like Optical quadrature microscopy (OQM), image stabilisation in digital camera and image registration etc. In these applications, transformations of image consume most of the execution time. Hence, for high speed imaging systems, acceleration of Affine transform is very much sought for. In this paper, the pipelined architecture implementation of a proposed inherent parallel algorithm for Affine transform has been presented. The acceleration of the image transformation will help in reducing the processing time of high speed imaging systems. The architecture is mapped in Field programmable gate array (FPGA) and the result shows that the proposed algorithm is almost 4 times faster than the conventional algorithm while retaining the image quality. Using the proposed algorithm, an image of size 1,920 × 1,080 can be transformed with a frame rate of 540 frames per second and the multiplane image synthesis for image stabilisation on the same digital image can be performed with a frame rate of 65 fps.

High-speed generation of digital holographic interferograms and shearograms for non-destructive testing

Digital holographic interferometry is the state-of-the-art technique in holography having applications in the fields of non-destructive testing, flow analysis and vibration measurement covering a wide range from huge aerospace structures to micro objects such as MEMS [1,2,3] In holographic non-destructive testing (HNDT), transient thermal loading is an extensively used method of stressing the objects for defect detection [4] . Test objects are stressed thermally using infrared lamps, flat heater or hot-water tanks depending on the object configuration and geometry, defect type and nature and the safety aspects. Holograms at different stress states of the object are recorded continuously, either during heating or during cooling after the removal of the heating element, to obtain interferograms. However, in order to capture and analyse the fast transient response of the structures upon thermal stressing, a system that records holograms and generates holographic interferograms in high speed is essential. Added to this, if the system can simultaneously generate shearograms, which provide a displacement derivative fringe pattern, this would increase its defect detection capability during NDT. In this paper the development of a digital hologram processing system which can record a digital hologram in high speed and generate holographic interferograms and shearograms simultaneously is reported. The design of the high-speed image processing system and selection of digital camera is also explained. The paper also gives details of the software developed and its features. The need for the high-speed system to record and generate interferograms during NDT of highly porous materials is also demonstrated in this paper.

The Application of Virtex-II Pro FPGA in High-Speed Image Processing Technology of Robot Vision Sensor

The Virtex-II Pro FPGA is applied to the vision sensor tracking system of IRB2400 robot. The hardware platform, which undertakes the task of improving SNR and compressing data, is constructed by using the high-speed image processing of FPGA. The lower level image-processing algorithm is realized by combining the FPGA frame and the embedded CPU. The velocity of image processing is accelerated due to the introduction of FPGA and CPU. The usage of the embedded CPU makes it easily to realize the logic design of interface. Some key techniques are presented in the text, such as read-write process, template matching, convolution, and some modules are simulated too. In the end, the compare among the modules using this design, using the PC computer and using the DSP, is carried out. Because the high-speed image processing system core is a chip of FPGA, the function of which can renew conveniently, therefore, to a degree, the measure system is intelligent.

영상 처리 방법을 이용한 구조물의 큰 변위 저주파 진동 계측

This paper is concerned with the measurement of low-frequency vibrations of structures using the image processing method. To measure the vibrations visually, the measurement system consists of a camera, an image grabber board, and a computer. The specific target installed on the structure is used to calculate the vibration of structure. The captured image is then converted into a pixel-based data and then analyzed numerically. The limitation of the system depends on the image capturing speed and the size of image. In this paper, we propose the methodology for the vibration measurement using the image processing method. The method enables us to measure the displacement directly without any contact. The current resolution of the vibration measurement is limited to sub centimeter scale. However, the frequency bandwidth and resolution can be enhanced by a high-speed and high-resolution image processing system.

Unsteady Behavior of Cavity Boundary Directly Related to Cavity Discharge

The cavitation jet technique has progressively developed in several industrial fields, such as cleanings and peenings in water, since the destructive capabilities of the jets are directly related to the unsteady behavior of the cavitating jet. As such behavior deeply depends on the interferences between the discharge of the cavity and the explosive growth of the bubble-cloud, it is therefore necessary to study such interferences. We study the time-dependent feature of the bubble-clouds on the cavity boundary as well as the discharge in cavitating jets within x/d=0-90 of the standoff distance, by means of a high-speed camera, a high-speed video-camera and image processing system. It is found that the periodical discharge of the cavity does not take place simultaneously with the periodical growth of the bubble cloud.

The measurement of bubble diameter distributions and liquid side mass transfer coefficients in a gas-liquid agitated vessel using a real-time,high-speed image processing system

In this study, we report the measurement results of various spatial distributions, such as Sauter diameter, gas holdup ratio, and interface area per unit liquid volume, in a vessel using a real-time, high-speed image processing system developed by ourselves. We attempted to separate liquid side mass transfer coefficients, k L , from overall volumetric mass transfer coefficients, k L a, based on the results mentioned above. And we examined the relations between power consumption per unit volume, P v , and both k L and k L a in order to establish correlation equations of k L and k L a with P v , gas holdup ratio, gas superficial velocity, v s , and surface tension.

Method of Evaluating the Liquid-Liquid Dispersion by the Indices Defined Based on Shape of the Drop Size Distribution in Various Impeller Stirred Tanks.

In the present work, for expression and evaluation of characteristics of the drop size distribution, we propose the indices of representative diameter, Ds*, sharpness, Ss* and skewness, Sa. We investigated the drop size distributions with varying dispersed phase concentrations and impeller speeds as stirred operation condition factors in various impeller stirred tanks using a real-time high-speed image processing system, which was developed by ourselves. From the drop size distribution obtained, we discuss quantitatively the characteristics of the drop size distribution in various impeller stirred tanks with three defined indices. As a result, it is found that the defined indices can express and be used to evaluate more accurately the drop size distribution over a wide range of dispersed phase concentrations and impeller speeds. It is also found that three-dimensional plots showing the dependence of the defined indices on the dispersed phase concentration and the impeller speed as stirred operation condition factors can express and be used to evaluate the characteristics of the liquid-liquid dispersion conditions in each stirred tank. Furthermore it is found that the relationship between the defined indices and the dispersed phase concentration for constant power consumption per volume can be used to discuss the quality of performance of the liquid-liquid dispersions in various impeller stirred tanks.

Real-time system for virtually touching objects in the real world using modality transformation from images to haptic information

A system was developed that supports virtually touching objects in a real environment by real-time transformation of visual data into haptic data. With the proposed system, local visual data of real objects are acquired using active vision; the visual data are then subjected to high-speed parallel image processing, and transformed into virtual reactive forces from objects. A virtual tactile sensation is generated by exerting a reactive force on the operator's fingertip with a force display device. By using an original high-speed image processing system, the loop from visual data sensing through haptic display is operated at about 200 Hz. The present paper presents the basic concept of modality transformation, the system configuration, and results of experiments with objects of various shape carried out to verify the system's operation. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Syst Comp Jpn, 30(9): 17–24, 1999

Optically interconnected parallel computing systems

Tomorrow's systems will need high-bandwidth and dense communication paths at various levels. Commercial high-performance computers are now beginning to use optical interconnections at the inter-cabinet level. These connections usually consist of optical fiber ribbons, with each fiber carrying signals at 1 to 2 Gbit/s over distances of 200 to 300 m. The aggregate bandwidth is as much as 30 Gbit/s. The authors propose integrating suitable optoelectronic devices with silicon electronics, which will allow designers to use optical communication channels to transfer data on and off chips. The authors describe an optically interconnected architecture for high-speed computation, image processing and robotic vision systems. They conclude that optoelectronic parallel processing systems will overcome some of the interconnection problems facing conventional electronic technology-allowing high-speed computers powerful enough for vision and image processing applications.