Wide-field Optical System Research Articles

High resolution, wide field optical imaging of macaque visual cortex with a curved detector

Objective. Cortical activity can be recorded using a variety of tools, ranging in scale from the single neuron (microscopic) to the whole brain (macroscopic). There is usually a trade-off between scale and resolution; optical imaging techniques, with their high spatio-temporal resolution and wide field of view, are best suited to study brain activity at the mesoscale. Optical imaging of cortical areas is however in practice limited by the curvature of the brain, which causes the image quality to deteriorate significantly away from the center of the image. Approach. To address this issue and harness the full potential of optical cortical imaging techniques, we developed a new wide-field optical imaging system adapted to the macaque brain. Our system is composed of a curved detector, an aspherical lens and a ring composed of light emitting diodes providing uniform illumination at wavelengths relevant for the different optical imaging methods, including intrinsic and fluorescence imaging. Main results. The system was characterized and compared with the standard macroscope used for cortical imaging, and a three-fold increase of the area in focus was measured as well as a four-fold increase in the evenness of the optical quality in vivo. Significance. This new instrument, which is to the best of our knowledge the first use of a curved detector for cortical imaging, should facilitate the observation of wide mesoscale phenomena such as dynamic propagating waves within and between cortical maps, which are otherwise difficult to observe due to technical limitations of the currently available recording tools.

Dual-Branch Feature Fusion Network for Salient Object Detection

Proper features matter for salient object detection. Existing methods mainly focus on designing a sophisticated structure to incorporate multi-level features and filter out cluttered features. We present the dual-branch feature fusion network (DBFFNet), a simple effective framework mainly composed of three modules: global information perception module, local information concatenation module and refinement fusion module. The local information of a salient object is extracted from the local information concatenation module. The global information perception module exploits the U-Net structure to transmit the global information layer by layer. By employing the refinement fusion module, our approach is able to refine features from two branches and detect salient objects with final details without any post-processing. Experiments on standard benchmarks demonstrate that our method outperforms almost all of the state-of-the-art methods in terms of accuracy, and achieves the best performance in terms of speed under fair settings. Moreover, we design a wide-field optical system and combine with DBFFNet to achieve salient object detection with large field of view.

Development of a Microfluidic Device for CD4+ T Cell Isolation and Automated Enumeration from Whole Blood.

The development of point-of-care, cost-effective, and easy-to-use assays for the accurate counting of CD4+ T cells remains an important focus for HIV-1 disease management. The CD4+ T cell count provides an indication regarding the overall success of HIV-1 treatments. The CD4+ T count information is equally important for both resource-constrained regions and areas with extensive resources. Hospitals and other allied facilities may be overwhelmed by epidemics or other disasters. An assay for a physician’s office or other home-based setting is becoming increasingly popular. We have developed a technology for the rapid quantification of CD4+ T cells. A double antibody selection process, utilizing anti-CD4 and anti-CD3 antibodies, is tested and provides a high specificity. The assay utilizes a microfluidic chip coated with the anti-CD3 antibody, having an improved antibody avidity. As a result of enhanced binding, a higher flow rate can be applied that enables an improved channel washing to reduce non-specific bindings. A wide-field optical imaging system is also developed that provides the rapid quantification of cells. The designed optical setup is portable and low-cost. An ImageJ-based program is developed for the automatic counting of CD4+ T cells. We have successfully isolated and counted CD4+ T cells with high specificity and efficiency greater than 90%.

Research Progress of Wide-Field and High-Resolution Computational Optical Imaging System

Research Progress of Wide-Field and High-Resolution Computational Optical Imaging System

Wide-field optical spectroscopy system integrating reflectance and spatial frequency domain imaging to measure attenuation-corrected intrinsic tissue fluorescence in radical prostatectomy specimens.

The development of a multimodal optical imaging system is presented that integrates endogenous fluorescence and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy with single-wavelength spatial frequency domain imaging (SFDI) and surface profilometry. The system images specimens at visible wavelengths with a spatial resolution of 70 µm, a field of view of 25 cm2 and a depth of field of ∼1.5 cm. The results of phantom experiments are presented demonstrating the system retrieves absorption and reduced scattering coefficient maps using SFDI with <6% reconstruction errors. A phase-shifting profilometry technique is implemented and the resulting 3-D surface used to compute a geometric correction ensuring optical properties reconstruction errors are maintained to <6% in curved media with height variations <20 mm. Combining SFDI-computed optical properties with data from diffuse reflectance spectra is shown to correct fluorescence using a model based on light transport in tissue theory. The system is used to image a human prostate, demonstrating its ability to distinguish prostatic tissue (anterior stroma, hyperplasia, peripheral zone) from extra-prostatic tissue (urethra, ejaculatory ducts, peri-prostatic tissue). These techniques could be integrated in robotic-assisted surgical systems to enhance information provided to surgeons and improve procedural accuracy by minimizing the risk of damage to extra-prostatic tissue during radical prostatectomy procedures and eventually detect residual cancer.

Wide-field and full-focus optical microscopic imaging system.

As a precision instrument, the microscope is typically used by researchers in criminal investigation, information forensics, biology, metallography, etc. However, the traditional microscope has a dilemma in that if it uses higher magnification, its field of view is smaller and its depth of field is more limited. Hence, it seriously challenges the endurance and brain of the observer to observe an object thoroughly. This paper proposes a wide-field and full-focus imaging method for solving the above problem. First, a high-precision multi-focus image acquisition platform is improved, and its motion displacement is used directly for image calculation, which greatly reduces the amount of calculation. Second, the focus area of each image is segmented by the mask generation algorithm based on a graph cut. Third, a fusion algorithm, whose contrast pyramid is based on the mask region, is proposed, which utilizes the position of the clear area on the mask pyramid to guide the fusion of the contrast pyramid. Finally, a fast and fault-tolerant stitching algorithm based on mechanical and optical parameters is proposed, which effectively eliminates the interference of the cumulative error and successfully completes hundreds of image-stitching tasks. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed imaging system is obviously superior to the traditional image fusion algorithms and image-stitching approaches. Both the imaging effect and execution time are satisfactory.

OBSERVACIONES DE EVENTOS TRANSITORIOS CON EL SISTEMA DE MONITOREO DE CAMPO ANCHO MINI-MEGATORTORA CON RESOLUCIÓN TEMPORAL SUB-SEGUNDO

Here we present the summary of operation of a novel 9-channel wide-field optical monitoring system with subsecond temporal resolution, Mini-MegaTORTORA, which systematically surveys the sky since 2014 at Special Astrophysical Observatory on Russian Caucasus. The system is able to observe the sky simultaneously in either wide (∼900 square degrees) or narrow (∼100 square degrees fields of view, either in clear light or with any combination of color (Johnson-Cousins B, V or R) and polarimetric filters installed, with exposure times ranging from 0.1 s to hundreds of seconds. The real-time system data analysis pipeline performs automatic detection of rapid transient events, both near-Earth and extragalactic. The objects routinely detected by Mini-MegaTORTORA also include faint meteors and artificial satellites. The imaging survey performed by Mini-MegaTORTORA also allows to look for a slower variability of various kinds of objects.

Wide-field retinal optical coherence tomography with wavefront sensorless adaptive optics for enhanced imaging of targeted regions.

The peripheral retina of the human eye offers a unique opportunity for assessment and monitoring of ocular diseases. We have developed a novel wide-field (>70°) optical coherence tomography system (WF-OCT) equipped with wavefront sensorless adaptive optics (WSAO) for enhancing the visualization of smaller (<25°) targeted regions in the peripheral retina. We iterated the WSAO algorithm at the speed of individual OCT B-scans (~20 ms) by using raw spectral interferograms to calculate the optimization metric. Our WSAO approach with a 3 mm beam diameter permitted primarily low- but also high- order peripheral wavefront correction in less than 10 seconds. In preliminary imaging studies in five normal human subjects, we quantified statistically significant changes with WSAO correction, corresponding to a 10.4% improvement in average pixel brightness (signal) and 7.0% improvement in high frequency content (resolution) when visualizing 1 mm (~3.5°) B-scans of the peripheral (>23°) retina. We demonstrated the ability of our WF-OCT system to acquire non wavefront-corrected wide-field images rapidly, which could then be used to locate regions of interest, zoom into targeted features, and visualize the same region at different time points. A pilot clinical study was conducted on seven healthy volunteers and two subjects with prodromal Alzheimer's disease which illustrated the capability to image Drusen-like pathologies as far as 32.5° from the fovea in un-averaged volume scans. This work suggests that the proposed combination of WF-OCT and WSAO may find applications in the diagnosis and treatment of ocular, and potentially neurodegenerative, diseases of the peripheral retina, including diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.

Untriggered search for rapid optical transients with Mini-MegaTORTORA wide-field monitoring system

AbstractHere we report ongoing efforts for an untriggered search of rapid optical transients of various astrophysical and non-astrophysical origins on time scales down to fractions of a second with Mini-MegaTORTORA. Mini-MegaTORTORA is a novel 9-channel wide-field optical monitoring system in operation since 2014 at Special Astrophysical Observatory on Russian Caucasus.

The First Light of Mini-MegaTORTORA Wide-Field Monitoring System

Abstract We describe the first light of a new 9-channel wide-field optical monitoring system with sub-second temporal resolution, Mini-MegaTORTORA, which is being tested now at the Special Astrophysical Observatory in Russian Caucasus. The system is able to observe the sky simultaneously in either wide (~900 deg2) or narrow (~100 deg2) fields of view, either in clear light or with any combination of color (Johnson B, V or R) and polarimetric filters installed, with exposure times ranging from 100 ms to 100 s. The primary goal of the system is the detection of rapid (with sub-second characteristic time scales) optical transients, but it may be also used for studying variability of sky objects over longer time scales.

Design of wide-field Nasmyth optical system for a submillimeter camera

A wide-field Nasmyth optical system that connects a planned 10-m Ritchey-Chrétien telescope to a submillimeter camera is reported. This diffraction-limited system has a 1-deg field of view at 850 GHz, filled with a more than 20,000-pixel camera. The system enables us to carry out large field surveys of distant galaxies within reasonable time scales. The size of the Nasmyth optics is reasonably compact and its cryogenic part including the vacuum window, cryogenic lens, and IR block filters can be built using existing technologies at a reasonable cost. This type of optical system can be applied for the optical design of millimeter, terahertz, and other submillimeter instruments.

Retinal pigment epithelium findings in patients with albinism using wide-field polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography.

To investigate pigmentation characteristics of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) in patients with albinism using wide-field polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography compared with intensity-based spectral domain optical coherence tomography and fundus autofluorescence imaging. Five patients (10 eyes) with previously genetically diagnosed albinism and 5 healthy control subjects (10 eyes) were imaged by a wide-field polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography system (scan angle: 40 × 40° on the retina), sensitive to melanin contained in the RPE, based on the polarization state of backscattered light. Conventional intensity-based spectral domain optical coherence tomography and fundus autofluorescence examinations were performed. Retinal pigment epithelium-pigmentation was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively based on depolarization assessed by polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography. This study revealed strong evidence of polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography to specifically image melanin in the RPE. Depolarization of light backscattered by the RPE in patients with albinism was reduced compared with normal subjects. Heterogeneous RPE-specific depolarization characteristics were observed in patients with albinism. Reduction of depolarization observed in the light backscattered by the RPE in patients with albinism corresponds to expected decrease of RPE pigmentation. The degree of depigmentation of the RPE is possibly associated with visual acuity. Findings suggest that different albinism genotypes result in heterogeneous levels of RPE pigmentation. Polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography showed a heterogeneous appearance of RPE pigmentation in patients with albinism depending on different genotypes.

Catadioptric null test of ultra-deep concave aspheric lens in wide-field optical system

To test the ultra-deep conic surface in wide-field optical systems, a catadioptric null test method is researched in this paper. Equations of infinite conjugate null test system are established and solved using optical path length. The numeric results of a self-aligning mirror's shapes are fitted by coefficients and validation is done in optical design software. The rms wavefront error is 0.0019λ (λ=632.8 nm) in the example fitted by five coefficients. Furthermore, by adjusting spherical aberration distributions, an all-spherical finite conjugate null test system is designed, whose rms wavefront error is 0.0309λ. The test methods in this paper have been proven to be adaptive to many other similar ultra-deep surfaces, even with higher orders.

A prelimiary study of the usefulness of wide-field optical imaging system on objective detection of actinic cheilitis

A prelimiary study of the usefulness of wide-field optical imaging system on objective detection of actinic cheilitis

Orthogonal Aberration Functions for Microlithographic Optics

Newly developed orthogonal aberration functions are reviewed. The new functions can be utilized to express aberrations of a high NA and wide field optical system like a microlithographic projection lens. The new functions are orthogonal to each other and expressed by a simple combination of Zernike function(s) of pupil coordinates and Zernike function(s) of field coordinates.

Aberration Functions for Microlithographic Optics

In this paper a newly proposed polynomial series for aberration expression is reviewed. The new series can be utilized to express aberration distribution of a high NA and wide field optical system like a microlithographic projection lens. Moreover, the new aberration functions can be used for the microlithographic lens manufacturing process because they can express each aberration component of a rotationally symmetric system with a small amount of decentering error and astigmatic (toric) error.

Wide-Field-Imaging 3-Mirror-Systems by High Light Gathering Power and a Wide-Field Optical System for the ‘Large Imaging Telescope’ (Lite)

The desire of astronomers for wide field telescope systems which surpass the RCC (1:8 max. 1.5 degree) in light gathering power and field of view are relative concrete today. For this type of telescope, detectors planned ARE CCDs in multichip arrangement.