Seong-deok Lee

Complex wavefront shaping for optimal depth-selective focusing in optical coherence tomography

We report on an approach to exploit multiple light scattering by shaping the incident wavefront in optical coherence tomography (OCT). Most of the reflected signal from biological tissue consists of multiply scattered light, which is regarded as noise in OCT. A digital mirror device (DMD) is utilized to shape the incident wavefront such that the maximal energy is focused at a specific depth in a highly scattering sample using a coherence-gated reflectance signal as feedback. The proof-of-concept experiment demonstrates that this approach enhances depth-selective focusing in the presence of optical inhomogeneity, and thus extends the penetration depth in spectral domain-OCT (SD-OCT).

9.2: Implementation of RGBW Color System in TFT‐LCDs

Last year, we introduced a TFT-LCD with RGBW color system. The primary advantage of the RGBW system is that its optical efficiency is at least 50% higher than the RGB system. However, it is not a simple task to incorporate the new color system into the existing infrastructure of the RGB system: the driving circuitry, fabrication of color filter, and color conversion. In this report, the practical hurdles are discussed and the solutions are presented.

Factors affecting the psychophysical image quality evaluation of mobile phone displays: the case of transmissive liquid-crystal displays

Display manufacturers require new data and computational models that consider the effect of ambient illumination in order to develop higher-quality displays. In this study, typical variations of small-sized mobile LCDs that exist in the real world were first simulated using a device characterization technique. In addition, psychophysical attributes (e.g., naturalness, clearness, sharpness, contrast, colorfulness, and preference) affecting the image quality evaluation process were analyzed. Consequently, naturalness and clearness were found to be the most statistically significant psychophysical attributes for modeling image quality. As the ambient-illumination level was increased, the image quality was exponentially impaired and the contribution of clearness increased.

Luminance contrast and chromaticity contrast preference on the colour display for young and elderly users

Abstract The human visual system changes with aging and one of the most important changes is the decrease of spatial contrast sensitivity. We investigated this change both for luminance contrast and chromaticity contrast, and both for threshold contrast and preferred contrast, (preferred by users to carry out a visual recognition task), in a series of psycho-physical experiments with achromatic and chromatic sinusoid gratings of different values of spatial frequency, hue, and luminance level, and with two observer groups: young and elderly observers. We investigated the spatial frequency range of 0.1–10 cycles per degrees. Our results indicate that, beyond the expected luminance contrast sensitivity decline of the elderly observers, the difference between the preferred luminance contrast of the elderly and the preferred luminance contrast of the young is even more significant than the threshold difference. The small preference differences between the age groups for chromaticity contrast compared to luminance contrast suggests that while with increasing age both the chromatic and the achromatic contrast sensitivity drops, preferred contrast stays more stable for chromaticity contrast than for luminance contrast.

An Asynchronous Sampling-Based 128

This paper presents a direct photon-counting X-ray image detector with a HgI2 photoconductor for high-quality medical imaging applications. The proposed sampling-based charge preamplifier with asynchronous self-reset enables a pixel to detect single X-ray photon energy with higher sensitivity and faster processing rate. The use of the correlated double sampling enabled by the sampling-based architecture also reduces flicker noise and contributes to the achievement of high pixel-to-pixel uniformity. Discrimination of the energy level of the detected X-rays is performed by the proposed compact in-pixel ADC with low power consumption. Three 15-bit counters in each pixel count up energy-discriminated photons for the reconstruction of multispectral X-ray images. A 128 × 128 X-ray image detector with a pixel size of 60 × 60 μm2 is implemented and measured using a 0.13-μm/0.35-μm standard CMOS process. It discriminates 3 energy levels of photon energy with a gain of 107 mV/ke- and a static power consumption of 4.6 μW/pixel. The measured equivalent noise charge (ENC) and minimum detectable energy level of the detector pixel are 68 e- rms and 290 e-, respectively. The measured maximum threshold dispersion in the pixel array is 164 e- rms without any calibration. The functionality of our chip is also successfully demonstrated using real X-ray images.

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Digital images captured from CMOS image sensors suffer Gaussian noise and impulsive noise. To efficiently reduce the noise in Image Signal Processor (ISP), we analyze noise feature for imaging pipeline of ISP where noise reduction algorithm is performed. The Gaussian noise reduction and impulsive noise reduction method are proposed for proper ISP implementation in Bayer domain. The proposed method takes advantage of the analyzed noise feature to calculate noise reduction filter coefficients. Thus, noise is adaptively reduced according to the scene environment. Since noise is amplified and characteristic of noise varies while the image sensor signal undergoes several image processing steps, it is better to remove noise in earlier stage on imaging pipeline of ISP. Thus, noise reduction is carried out in Bayer domain on imaging pipeline of ISP. The method is tested on imaging pipeline of ISP and images captured from Samsung 2M CMOS image sensor test module. The experimental results show that the proposed method removes noise while effectively preserves edges.

128 Direct Photon-Counting X-Ray Image Detector with Multi-Energy Discrimination and High Spatial Resolution

— This study aims to develop an image-color-quality (ICQ) model for a 2-in. mobile transmissive liquid-crystal display (LCD). A hypothetical framework for ICQ judgment was made to visually assess ICQ based the cognitive processes of the human visual system (HVS), and then an illumination adaptive ICQ model applicable for various surround conditions was developed. The memory color reproduction ratio (MCRR) of a locally adapted region of interest in a complex image reproduced on a mobile display was first computed. The colorfulness index and luminance contrast for all of the pixels in the image were then calculated by a global adaptation process. Finally, an ICQ model including all of the three attributes was developed under dark conditions using an assessed set of psychophysical data. The model gave more accurate performance than the mean accuracy for all of the observers. It was also visually tested under three different outdoor conditions, including overcast, bright, and very bright conditions, and the illuminance level range was from 7000 to 35,000 to 70,000 lx. The effect of outdoor illumination could be quantified as an exponential decay function and the ICQ model could be extended to cover a wide variety of outdoor illuminations conditions.

CMOS image sensor noise reduction method for image signal processor in digital cameras and camera phones

Traditional application of computer to fermentation processes has focused on the measurement and control of parameters such as temperature, pH, vessel pressure, sparge rate, dissolved oxygen, substrate concentration, and product concentration. In a fed-batch reactor with the photosynthetic green sulfur bacterium Chlorobium thiosulfatophilum which converts hydrogen sulfide to elementary sulfur or sulfate, separate measurement of cell mass concentration and sulfur particle concentration turbidimetrically was difficult due to their combined contributions to the total turbidity. Instead of on-line measurement of many process variables, a model-based control of feed rate and illuminance was designed. Optimal operation condition relating feed rate vs. light intensity was obtained to suppress the accumulation of sulfate and sulfide, and to save light energy in a 4-1 photosynthetic fed-batch reactor. This relation was correlated with the inreasing cell mass concentration. A model which describes the cell growth by considering the light attenuation effects due to scattering and absorption, and to crowding effect of the cells, was established beforehand with the results from the experiments. Based on these optimal operating conditions and the cell growth model, automatic controls of feed rate and illuminance were carried out alternatively to the traditional application of computer to fermentation with on-line measurement, realtime response and adjustment of process variables.

Image-color-quality modeling under various surround conditions for a 2-in. mobile transmissive LCD

X-ray projection is not effective for representing complex overlapping objects. This paper presents a novel computational framework to decompose X-ray projections into multiple images with non-overlapping objects that are differentiated by their own material compositions. Based on energy-dependent X-ray attenuation characteristics for each material, multiple energy X-ray images are analyzed to obtain material-selective images, which correspond to projections of basis materials that constitute objects. We show that material-selective images can be considered as linear mixtures of independent components that are associated with object-selective images. As a result, multiple objects can be decomposed by independent component analysis (ICA) of material-selective images or ICA of multiple monochromatic energy X-ray images. To demonstrate the concept of the proposed method, we apply it to simulated images based on a 3-D human model.

Model-based control of feed rate and illuminance in a photosynthetic fed-batch reactor for H2S removal

The theoretical approach is introduced to design the optimal chromaticities for primaries with a given size of triangular color gamut in xy-plane. Optimal primaries are defined as a set of chromaticities of red, green and blue primaries with fixed white point that most optimally satisfying four criteria, i.e. gamut size, gamut shape, coverage of object colors and hue of the primaries, in the visually uniform color space, CIECAM02. It is assumed that the optimal gamut should cover that of sRGB and have similar maximum chroma for each hue. The number of SOCS data located outside the gamut is used as a criterion to judge the coverage of object colors. Also it is set the hues of primaries to be close to those of sRGB. The simulation results showed that the optimal primaries for 85% of NTSC area have similar points with sRGB for red and blue, and green primary is located in between sRGB and NTSC. For 100% of NTSC area, the optimal chromaticities are located near those of NTSC for red and green and that of sRGB for blue.