A polynomial hybrid reflection model and measurement of its parameters based on images of sample

Reflectance model is a basic concept in computer vision. Some existing models combining the classical diffuse reflectance model and those for surfaces containing specular components can approximately describe real reflectance. But the ratio of diffuse and specular reflection decided manually has no clear meaning.We propose a new polynomial hybrid reflectance model. The reflectance map equation with a known shape (for example cylinder) as a sample is used to estimate parameters of the proposed reflectance model by least square regression algorithm. Then the reflectance parameters for surfaces of the same class of materials can be determined. Experiments are performed for a metal surface. The synthesis images produced by the proposed method and existing ones are compared with the real acquired image, and the results show that the proposed reflectance model is suitable for describing real reflectance.     

Thermal diffusivity measurement of insulating material using infrared thermography

The article presents the results of research developing methods for determining the coefficient of thermal diffusivity of thermal insulating material. This method applies a periodic heating as an excitation and an infrared camera is used to measure the temperature distribution on the surface of tested material. In simulation study, the usefulness of known analytical solution of the inverse problem was examined using a three-dimensional model of the phenomenon of heat diffusion in the sample of tested material. To solve the coefficient inverse problem, an approach using artificial neural network is proposed. The measurements were performed on an experimental setup equipped with a ThermaCAM PM 595 infrared camera and frame grabber. The experiment allowed to verify the chosen 3D model of heat diffusion phenomenon and to determine suitability of the proposed test method.     

Nondestructive testing of objects of complex shape using infrared thermography: Determination of the spatiotemporal distribution of the irradiation heat flux

The existing inverse methods used to determine the heat flux density require that the forward problem and the problem domain (geometry) be known. In this paper, in order to determine the spatiotemporal heat flux density without knowing the real problem domain, we propose an approach based on temporal tracking of the thermal front. The proposed approach is particularly relevant when a three-dimensional formulation is adopted for nondestructive testing using infrared thermography. For such a formulation, heat flux density resulting from the external thermal stimulus is needed and must be determined to accurately characterize the defects and reconstruct the internal geometry of the inspected objects. The proposed approach uses only two inputs: the time-dependent temperature of the frontal surface recorded by an infrared camera and the 3D point cloud of the frontal surface collected by a 3D scanner. The method is evaluated numerically on an object of complex shape. We consider the case of pulsed thermal stimulus as well as the cases of unit step and modulated thermal stimuli. An experimental validation is performed on a cylindrical object submitted to a pulsed thermal stimulus and a modulated thermal stimulus. The results show the accuracy of the method which can easily be implemented as the initial step of the three-dimensional quantitative nondestructive testing of objects using infrared thermography.     

Polarization shifting interferometric profilometer

A phase sensitive Michelson interferometer based on interference microscope configuration with a polarization adjustment approach is proposed to determine the two-dimensional (2-D) surface profile of optical grating with real time capability. In the proposed method, nonlinear behavior of a PZT phase shifter is avoided by use of polarization stepping and a phase map is developed with the four-bucket algorithm. The phase map is unwrapped to give the true surface profile of the sample. A close agreement of measurements is found between the measured result determined by the proposed method and that determined by an atomic force microscope (AFM). We also analyzed the estimated uncertainty of measurement in the nanometer range for the random fluctuations of the experimental parameters.     

Real-time camera pose estimation based on volleyball court view

The use of technology in sports has increased in recent years. One of the most influential of these technologies is referee support systems. Team sports such as volleyball require accurate and robust tracking systems that do not affect either the players or the court. This paper introduces the application of intrinsic and extrinsic camera calibration in a 12-camera volleyball referee system. Intrinsic parameters are calculated by using the classic pinhole model and Zhang’s method. To perform extrinsic calibration in real time, the volleyball court is treated as a global calibration artifact. Calibration keypoints are defined as court-line intersections. In addition, a new keypoint detection algorithm is proposed. It enables achievement of an accurate camera pose in regard to the court. With all 12 cameras calibrated in a common coordinate system, a dynamic camera stereo pair creation is possible. Therefore, with known ball 2D image coordinates, the 3D real ball coordinates can be reconstructed and the ball trajectory can be estimated. The performance of the proposed method is tested on a synthetic data set, including 3Ds Max rendering and real data scenarios. The mean camera pose error calculated for data biased with keypoint detection errors is approximately equal to 0.013% of the measurement volume. For the real data experiment with a human hand phantom, it is possible to determine the presence of the human phantom on the basis of the ball reflection attitude.     

An effusion-evaporation model for image edge detection

A novel quasi-physical edge detection model is presented. The model, referred to as the effusion-evaporation model (EEM), is inspired by the natural phenomenon that the water effusing from the ground evaporates in the sunshine and leaves a wire like water stain on the ground surface, which reflects the physiognomy of the terrain. Based on the simulation of water effusing and evaporating, an EEM regards the complement of gradient magnitude image as a three-dimensional terrain, and the concave regions, which contain the residual water in the evolution final state, are used to determine the edges. Subjective and objective comparisons are performed on the proposed algorithm and two conventional edge detectors, namely Canny and LoG. The comparison results show that the proposed method outperforms Canny and LoG detectors for the real images and the standard test images with Gaussian noise.     

Surface shape estimation from photometric images

One of the most studied techniques for recovering surface shapes using a computer vision system is the photometric. This method is based on the analysis of one or several images of an object illuminated from a known direction . This kind of images can be considered reflectance maps that give us information of the surface gradient. In computer vision, the problem of recovering 3D information from shaded images is considered an inverse problem. To integrate surface gradient information it is proposed a regularization technique that gives a stable solution of the inverse problem and allows the possibility of reducing errors caused by noise. Results applied on synthetic and real experimental images are presented.     

Application of the electrostatic mean value theorem to electrostatic sensor electrodes

We present a method for approximating the potential of conducting objects due to a known electrostatic source. The method involves averaging the incident potential over the conductor surface or volume region, which is known to give the exact value for a perfectly conducting sphere. The method is extended to spheroidal geometries, both prolate and oblate, to study the error incurred for deviations from the spherical case. Exact values for the spheroid potentials are derived and compared with those obtained by the mean value approximations. The result for the oblate spheroid is extended to the case of a two-dimensional electrostatic disk. The approximations are proposed as a method for predicting the potential of conducting electrodes used with electrostatic sensors for the measurement of electrostatic field disturbances. In this regard, the mean value approximation is applied to determine the source to electrode mutual capacitance, which is implemented in the model for the sensor system. Electrostatic disk electrodes are used with an electrostatic disturbance sensor to experimentally validate the application of the mean value approximation.     

Regional stretch method to measure the elastic and hyperelastic properties of soft materials

Characterizing the mechanical properties of soft materials and biological tissues is of great significance for understanding their deformation behaviors. In this paper, a regional stretching method is proposed to measure the elastic and hyperelastic properties of a soft material with an adhesive surface or with the aid of glue. Theoretical and dimensional analyses are performed to investigate the regional stretch problem for soft materials that obey the neo-Hookean model, the Mooney-Rivlin model, or the Arruda-Boyce model. Finite element simulations are made to determine the expressions of the dimensionless functions that correlate the stretch response with the constitutive parameters. Thereby, an inverse approach is established to determine the elastic and hyperelastic properties of the tested materials. The regional stretch method is also compared to the indentation technique. Finally, experiments are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Prediction of optical properties of paints

The field of predictive rendering concerns itself with those methods of image synthesis which yield results that do not only look real, but are also radiometrically correct renditions of nature, i.e., which are accurate predictions of what a real scene would look like under given lighting conditions. A real coating consists of pigments, effect pigments, clear lacquer and glaze. A novel and unique combination of real parameters that are commonly measured in the industry and a theoretical reflectance model consisting of measurable parameters is required. Here, the authors design perception parameters and put them into well known surface reflection functions such as He and Torrance. The original contributions are the study of the sub-surface scattering of real paint and the prediction of its appearance in rendered images by the proposed model of light reflection beneath the paint surface. Presented at 5-th International Conference Solid State Surfaces and Interfaces, November 19–24, 2006, Smolenice Castle, Slovakia     

Integrated evaluation of diffraction image quality in optical lithography using the rigorous diffraction solution for a slot

The method of integrated evaluation of quality of optical diffraction image is proposed. It uses several scalar parameters defined by integral comparison of two functions on the image surface. The first function represents real distribution of electric energy density on this surface, and can be simulated by the solution of corresponding exact or approximate diffraction problem of image formation. The second function describes required energy distribution on the given surface. The method is demonstrated by the example of evaluation of images formed by contactless printing from a mask in optical lithography, where the image function is computed by the known exact solution of plane wave diffraction by a slot in a conducting screen.     

X射线能量谱间接测量方法

X光机的X射线能量谱在CT图像硬化校正、散射校正和定量CT成像等技术中扮演着重要角色。提出了一种通过由质量衰减系数已知的材料构成的楔型模体的扫描数据来恢复X射线能量谱的方法。经GEANT4模拟数据及实采数据验证,该方法能够较好地恢复X光机的X射线能量谱。通过仿真实验,分析了在几个常用电压下模体材质和厚度对恢复X射线能量谱的影响。     

旋转支撑法去除元件面形测量的夹持误差

为实现对光学元件的高精度面形测量,建立了一种旋转支撑结构的高精度测量方法。对该方法的理论原理、数值仿真和误差分析等进行了研究。首先根据元件夹持工况仿真分析了支撑变形的特性。接着用泽尼克多项式拟合波面,建立了旋转支撑法的理论模型,并推导出光学元件去除支撑影响后的面形公式。用仿真分析的方式验证了理论模型,对计算的面形结果与理论面形进行了比较分析。最后,分析了影响旋转支撑法测量精度的误差项。仿真分析结果表明,通过两次旋转支撑结构的方式,可以有效地去除元件支撑造成的面形误差,计算值与真实值之间的误差为支撑误差的泽尼克多项式的高阶对称项,满足元件面形的高精度检测要求。     

A new fractal algorithm to model discrete sequences

Employing the properties of the affine mappings, a very novel fractal model scheme based on the iterative function system is proposed. We obtain the vertical scaling factors by a set of the middle points in each affine transform, solving the difficulty in determining the vertical scaling factors, one of the most difficult challenges faced by the fractal interpolation. The proposed method is carried out by interpolating the known attractor and the real discrete sequences from seismic data. The results show that a great accuracy in reconstruction of the known attractor and seismic profile is found, leading to a significant improvement over other fractal interpolation schemes.     

A robust method for detecting nuclear materials when the underlying model is inexact

This paper is concerned with the detection and identification of nuclides from weak and poorly resolved gamma-ray energy spectra when the underlying model is not known exactly. The algorithm proposed and tested here pairs an exciting and relatively new model selection algorithm with the method of total least squares. Gamma-ray counts are modeled as Poisson processes where the average part is taken to be the model and the difference between the observed gamma-ray counts and the model is considered random noise. Physics provides a template for the model, but we add uncertainty to this template to simulate real life conditions. Unlike most model selection algorithms whose utilities are demonstrated asymptotically, our method emphasizes selection when data is fixed and finite (after all, detector data is undoubtedly finite). Simulation examples provided here demonstrate the proposed algorithm performs well.     

Optical superimposition of infrared thermography through video projection

This paper presents a novel infrared thermography visualization technique where a sequence of captured thermal images is optically and simultaneously superimposed onto the target object via video projection in real time. In conventional thermography visualization, observers have to frequently move their eyes from the object to a 2D screen where a thermal image is displayed. In contrast, the heat distribution of the object’s surface emerges directly onto its physical surface in the proposed method. As a result, the observer can intuitively understand the object’s heat information just by looking at it in the real space. This paper explains the methods of geometric registration and radiometric compensation of the captured thermal image, which are required before video projection. Furthermore, several projection results are shown to validate the intuitiveness and usefulness of the proposed visualization method.     

Determining the micro-optical element surfaces profiles using transmission deflectometry with liquids

We propose a method for simultaneously measuring the front and back surface profiles of transparent optical components. The proposed method combines dual wavelength transmission deflectometry with liquids to record distorted phases at different wavelengths, and then numerically reconstructs the three-dimensional phase information to image the front and back surfaces of the lens. We propose a theoretical model to determine the surface information, and the imaging of achromatic lenses is experimentally demonstrated. Unlike conventional transmission deflectometry, our proposed method supports direct observation of the front and back surface profiles of the optical elements. Compared with other techniques such as interferometry, the proposed setup is simpler to align, has lower cost, and does not require coherent illumination. The proposed method can be applied to normal transmission deflectometry for determining the three-dimensional surface profiles of optical components.     

A new interactive thermoluminescence mixed-order glow curve deconvolution function

An interactive mixed-order thermoluminescence (TL) glow curve deconvolution function is presented for the first time in which the retrapping of thermally stimulated charge carriers in deep traps during the heating stage is taken into account. Considering this transition in the set of differential equations by describing the TL process and by solving them, an analytical function for TL intensity was obtained. This equation reduces to the known deconvolution function for the mixed-order model in the limiting case of saturation of deep trapping (DT) states. In intermediate cases, where the DT states are partially occupied, the proposed function acts as a real interactive model which allows the thermally stimulated electrons to be retrapped to deep electron traps. Applicability of the proposed model in a real TL system is also presented and discussed.