The sixth meeting of CCQM, April 2000

A report is given of the sixth meeting of the Consultative Committee on Amount of Substance (CCQM). The CCQM has been active since 1993. It is the committee, established by the Comite International des Poids et Mesures, which is responsible for issues regarding metrology in chemistry. It has four established working groups in the fields of organic analysis, inorganic analysis, gas analysis and electrochemical analysis. A further twoad hoc working groups in the fields of surface analysis and metrology in biotechnology were established during the meeting. The working groups are involved in the identification, development and execution of a series of key comparisons, which will establish the technical basis for the mutual recognition of measurement capabilities among the National Measurement Institutes. 17 key comparisons are currently planned for the period 1999–2002, with 29 other international comparisons planned for the same period.     

Novel method for high accuracy figure measurement of optical flat

Phase Measuring Deflectometry (PMD) is a non-contact, high dynamic-range and full-field metrology which becomes a serious competitor to interferometry. However, the accuracy of deflectometry metrology is strongly influenced by the level of the calibrations, including test geometry, imaging pin-hole camera and digital display. In this paper, we propose a novel method that can measure optical flat surface figure to a high accuracy. We first calibrate the camera using a checker pattern shown on a LCD display at six different orientations, and the last orientation is aligned at the same position as the test optical flat. By using this method, lens distortions and the mapping relationship between the CCD pixels and the subaperture coordinates on the test optical flat can be determined at the same time. To further reduce the influence of the calibration errors on measurements, a reference optical flat with a high quality surface is measured, and then the system errors in our PMD setup can be eliminated by subtracting the figure of the reference flat from the figure of the test flat. Although any expensive coordinates measuring machine, such as laser tracker and coordinates measuring machine are not applied in our measurement, our experimental results of optical flat figure from low to high order aberrations still show a good agreement with that from the Fizeau interferometer.     

The combined effect of spatial compounding and nonlinear filtering on the speckle reduction in ultrasound images

Recently, a spatial compounding ultrasound imaging method was presented that utilizes a conventional 64-element phased array transducer with two unfocused pistons, each placed at one of the sides of the phased array transducer. This method is augmented here by inclusion of nonlinear filtering of the compounded images. The combined effects of the specific spatial compounding and nonlinear filtering on speckle reduction in the generated ultrasound images are studied and evaluated in two stages: First, the image quality is studied when nonlinear filtering is used as part of the spatial compounding. The study is performed by simulations using the Field II program, by processing several B-mode images of a kidney. The second stage compares the results obtained by the simulations to those obtained by in vitro laboratory experiments. Five different compounding strategies and two nonlinear filters, Gaussian and anisotropic diffusion, are investigated and evaluated in terms of image quality parameters-contrast and signal-to-noise ratio. It is shown that the combination of "averaging+nonlinear Gaussian filtering" produces the greatest improvement of image quality. When compared to a conventional phased array imaging system, the spatial compounding method that includes the conventional 64-element phased array transducer with two unfocused pistons, and employs the "averaging+nonlinear Gaussian filtering" strategy, obtains improvement in SNR that has reached 334%. Thus, though this method necessitates a somewhat wider probe, it produces significantly improved images.     

Metrology in chemistry – a public task

 The importance of analytical chemistry is increasing in many public fields, and the demand for reliable measurement results is growing accordingly. A measurement result will be reliable only if its uncertainty has been quantified. This can be achieved only by tracing the result back to a standard realizing the unit in which the measurement result is expressed. The National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) can contribute to the reliability of the measurement results by developing measuring methods, and by providing reference materials and standard measuring devices. In fields in which the comparability of measurement results is of particular importance, they establish traceability structures. Responding to the globalization of trade and industry the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) agreed on an arrangement on the mutual recognition of calibration certificates (CIPM MRA) issued by the NMIs. Received: 19 April 2000 / Accepted: 28 July 2000     

Measurement of pure curvature fringe distribution by using a double whole-field filtering technique

A double whole-field filtering technique to measure pure curvature fringe distribution of a deformed object is proposed. In this method, the slope fringes which are contained in the pattern of curvature fringes can be completely eliminated from the curvature fringes. Thus the pattern of pure curvature fringes with a good contrast can be obtained. Theoretical analysis and experimental results are given in this paper.     

Chemical metrology in New Zealand

Recent developments in international trade will have a significant impact on New Zealand’s measurement infrastructure, especially for chemical metrology. This article describes the background to these developments and outlines the activities of the Measurement Standards Laboratory, New Zealand’s National Metrology Institute, in response to these developments.     

基于散斑成像技术的扩展目标高分辨率复原

大气湍流对实现扩展目标的高分辨率重建具有重要影响.针对此问题,本文提出了一种改进的散斑成像算法.传统散斑成像算法在相位恢复计算中存在双谱数据量大和计算复杂等问题,改进算法利用图像的厄米特对称性和查找表技术将相位恢复和双谱计算紧密结合,通过计算截止频率内的每个空间频率点邻域双谱和添加双谱坐标约束使得双谱数据量减小.建立傅里叶频域相邻两象限共用的坐标查找表,确定双谱和相位恢复计算顺序,避免了双谱的对称操作从而使得整个计算简单易行.仿真实验结果表明:改进算法相对于双谱截切法使得双谱数据量至少减少了24%并准确恢复出目标相位谱,恢复相位谱经过傅里叶逆变换后清晰地显示了目标的轮廓和结构,再结合Labeyrie-Kroff法得到了目标的高分辨率图像;最后对实际天文图像进行处理,使恢复后图像的分辨率相对于原始图像得到明显提高,并且改进算法以更少的计算时间获得了与双谱截切法几乎同样的恢复效果.     

Low-cost speckle interferometry for measuring 3D deformation fields: Hardware and software

In the present paper the authors propose a portable and low-cost speckle interferometer for evaluating 3D deformation fields. The interferometer was designed and realized with the aim of carrying out measurements on small areas, hence it can be used to approach problems characterized by displacement field with highly localized gradients, such as the strain relief occurring in residual stress evaluation or the displacements which arise around notches or crack tips. The costs of the experimental equipment were reduced by employing laser diodes as light sources, a PZT actuator designed and calibrated by the authors and a control electronics realized on purpose. Moreover the configuration which was adopted allows further saving on optical components. The experimental results reported at the end of the paper, and obtained by a specimen subjected to 3D rigid body motions, show a high repeatability and accuracy. Furthermore the experimental results have shown that the geometry of the optical setup implies the variation of the sensitivity vectors on the inspected area, but this effect can be evaluated (analytically and/or experimentally) and taken into account in order to increase the accuracy of the measurements.