Journal of Imaging

13 pages, 7252 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparative Study of Contact Repulsion in Control and Mutant Macrophages Using a Novel Interaction Detection

by José Alonso Solís-Lemus, Besaiz J Sánchez-Sánchez, Stefania Marcotti, Mubarik Burki, Brian Stramer and Constantino Carlos Reyes-Aldasoro

J. Imaging 2020, 6(5), 36; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging6050036 - 20 May 2020

Viewed by 4261

Abstract

In this paper, a novel method for interaction detection is presented to compare the contact dynamics of macrophages in the Drosophila embryo. The study is carried out by a framework called macrosight, which analyses the movement and interaction of migrating macrophages. The framework [...] Read more.

In this paper, a novel method for interaction detection is presented to compare the contact dynamics of macrophages in the Drosophila embryo. The study is carried out by a framework called macrosight, which analyses the movement and interaction of migrating macrophages. The framework incorporates a segmentation and tracking algorithm into analysing the motion characteristics of cells after contact. In this particular study, the interactions between cells is characterised in the case of control embryos and Shot mutants, a candidate protein that is hypothesised to regulate contact dynamics between migrating cells. Statistical significance between control and mutant cells was found when comparing the direction of motion after contact in specific conditions. Such discoveries provide insights for future developments in combining biological experiments with computational analysis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue MIUA2019)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

12 pages, 1311 KiB

Open AccessArticle

On a Method For Reconstructing Computed Tomography Datasets from an Unstable Source

by Nicholas Stull, Josh McCumber, Lawrence D'Aries, Michelle Espy, Cort Gautier and James Hunter

J. Imaging 2020, 6(5), 35; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging6050035 - 19 May 2020

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3183

Abstract

As work continues in neutron computed tomography, at Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) and other locations, source reliability over the long imaging times is an issue of increasing importance. Moreover, given the time commitment involved in a single neutron image, it is [...] Read more.

As work continues in neutron computed tomography, at Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) and other locations, source reliability over the long imaging times is an issue of increasing importance. Moreover, given the time commitment involved in a single neutron image, it is impractical to simply discard a scan and restart in the event of beam instability. In order to mitigate the cost and time associated with these options, strategies are presented in the current work to produce a successful reconstruction of computed tomography data from an unstable source. The present work uses a high energy neutron tomography dataset from a simulated munition collected at LANSCE to demonstrate the method, which is general enough to be of use in conjunction with unstable X-ray computed tomography sources as well. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neutron Imaging)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

17 pages, 1322 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Multilevel Analysis of the Influence of Maternal Smoking and Alcohol Consumption on the Facial Shape of English Adolescents

by Jennifer Galloway, Damian J.J. Farnell, Stephen Richmond and Alexei I. Zhurov

J. Imaging 2020, 6(5), 34; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging6050034 - 18 May 2020

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3162

Abstract

This cross-sectional study aims to assess the influence of maternal smoking and alcohol consumption during pregnancy on the facial shape of non-syndromic English adolescents and demonstrate the potential benefits of using multilevel principal component analysis (mPCA). A cohort of 3755 non-syndromic 15-year-olds from [...] Read more.

This cross-sectional study aims to assess the influence of maternal smoking and alcohol consumption during pregnancy on the facial shape of non-syndromic English adolescents and demonstrate the potential benefits of using multilevel principal component analysis (mPCA). A cohort of 3755 non-syndromic 15-year-olds from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), England, were included. Maternal smoking and alcohol consumption during the 1st and 2nd trimesters of pregnancy were determined via questionnaire at 18 weeks gestation. 21 facial landmarks, used as a proxy for the main facial features, were manually plotted onto 3D facial scans of the participants. The effect of maternal smoking and maternal alcohol consumption (average 1–2 glasses per week) was minimal, with 0.66% and 0.48% of the variation in the 21 landmarks of non-syndromic offspring explained, respectively. This study provides a further example of mPCA being used effectively as a descriptive analysis in facial shape research. This is the first example of mPCA being extended to four levels to assess the influence of environmental factors. Further work on the influence of high/low levels of smoking and alcohol and providing inferential evidence is required. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue MIUA2019)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

20 pages, 7387 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Subpixel Localization of Isolated Edges and Streaks in Digital Images

by Devin T. Renshaw and John A. Christian

J. Imaging 2020, 6(5), 33; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging6050033 - 18 May 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4106

Abstract

Many modern sensing systems rely on the accurate extraction of measurement data from digital images. The localization of edges and streaks in digital images is an important example of this type of measurement, with these techniques appearing in many image processing pipelines. Several [...] Read more.

Many modern sensing systems rely on the accurate extraction of measurement data from digital images. The localization of edges and streaks in digital images is an important example of this type of measurement, with these techniques appearing in many image processing pipelines. Several approaches attempt to solve this problem at both the pixel level and subpixel level. While the subpixel methods are often necessary for applications requiring best-possible accuracy, they are often susceptible to noise, use iterative methods, or require pre-processing. This work investigates a unified framework for subpixel edge and streak localization using Zernike moments with ramp-based and wedge-based signal models. The method described here is found to outperform the current state-of-the-art for digital images with common signal-to-noise ratios. Performance is demonstrated on both synthetic and real images. Full article

► Show Figures

Graphical abstract

17 pages, 10112 KiB

Open AccessArticle

CNN-Based Page Segmentation and Object Classification for Counting Population in Ottoman Archival Documentation

by Yekta Said Can and M. Erdem Kabadayı

J. Imaging 2020, 6(5), 32; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging6050032 - 14 May 2020

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3872

Abstract

Historical document analysis systems gain importance with the increasing efforts in the digitalization of archives. Page segmentation and layout analysis are crucial steps for such systems. Errors in these steps will affect the outcome of handwritten text recognition and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) [...] Read more.

Historical document analysis systems gain importance with the increasing efforts in the digitalization of archives. Page segmentation and layout analysis are crucial steps for such systems. Errors in these steps will affect the outcome of handwritten text recognition and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) methods, which increase the importance of the page segmentation and layout analysis. Degradation of documents, digitization errors, and varying layout styles are the issues that complicate the segmentation of historical documents. The properties of Arabic scripts such as connected letters, ligatures, diacritics, and different writing styles make it even more challenging to process Arabic script historical documents. In this study, we developed an automatic system for counting registered individuals and assigning them to populated places by using a CNN-based architecture. To evaluate the performance of our system, we created a labeled dataset of registers obtained from the first wave of population registers of the Ottoman Empire held between the 1840s and 1860s. We achieved promising results for classifying different types of objects and counting the individuals and assigning them to populated places. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Historical Document Processing)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

14 pages, 2857 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Measurement of Tongue Tip Velocity from Real-Time MRI and Phase-Contrast Cine-MRI in Consonant Production

by Karyna Isaieva, Yves Laprie, Freddy Odille, Ioannis K. Douros, Jacques Felblinger and Pierre-André Vuissoz

J. Imaging 2020, 6(5), 31; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging6050031 - 13 May 2020

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3516

Abstract

We evaluate velocity of the tongue tip with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using two independent approaches. The first one consists in acquisition with a real-time technique in the mid-sagittal plane. Tracking of the tongue tip manually and with a computer vision method allows [...] Read more.

We evaluate velocity of the tongue tip with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using two independent approaches. The first one consists in acquisition with a real-time technique in the mid-sagittal plane. Tracking of the tongue tip manually and with a computer vision method allows its trajectory to be found and the velocity to be calculated as the derivative of the coordinate. We also propose to use another approach—phase contrast MRI—which enables velocities of the moving tissues to be measured directly. We recorded the sound simultaneously with the MR acquisition which enabled us to make conclusions regarding the relation between the movements and the sound. We acquired the data from two French-speaking subjects articulating /tata/. The results of both methods are in qualitative agreement and are consistent with other reviewer techniques used for evaluation of the tongue tip velocity. Full article

► Show Figures

Figure 1

22 pages, 5416 KiB

Open AccessProject Report

Influence of Image TIFF Format and JPEG Compression Level in the Accuracy of the 3D Model and Quality of the Orthophoto in UAV Photogrammetry

by Vincenzo Saverio Alfio, Domenica Costantino and Massimiliano Pepe

J. Imaging 2020, 6(5), 30; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging6050030 - 11 May 2020

Cited by 29 | Viewed by 6281

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the degradation of the accuracy and quality of the images in relation to the TIFF format and the different compression level of the JPEG format compared to the raw images acquired by UAV platform. Experiments [...] Read more.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the degradation of the accuracy and quality of the images in relation to the TIFF format and the different compression level of the JPEG format compared to the raw images acquired by UAV platform. Experiments were carried out using DJI Mavic 2 Pro and Hasselblad L1D-20c camera on three test sites. Post-processing of images was performed using software based on structure from motion and multi-view stereo approaches. The results show a slight influence of image format and compression levels in flat or slightly flat surfaces; in the case of a complex 3D model, instead, the choice of a format became important. Across all tests, processing times were found to also play a key role, especially in point cloud generation. The qualitative and quantitative analysis, carried out on the different orthophotos, allowed to highlight a modest impact in the use of the TIFF format and a strong influence as the JPEG compression level increases. Full article

► Show Figures

Figure 1

12 pages, 3099 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Unsupervised Clustering of Hyperspectral Paper Data Using t-SNE

by Binu Melit Devassy, Sony George and Peter Nussbaum

J. Imaging 2020, 6(5), 29; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging6050029 - 5 May 2020

Cited by 42 | Viewed by 5830

Abstract

For a suspected forgery that involves the falsification of a document or its contents, the investigator will primarily analyze the document’s paper and ink in order to establish the authenticity of the subject under investigation. As a non-destructive and contactless technique, Hyperspectral Imaging [...] Read more.

For a suspected forgery that involves the falsification of a document or its contents, the investigator will primarily analyze the document’s paper and ink in order to establish the authenticity of the subject under investigation. As a non-destructive and contactless technique, Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) is gaining popularity in the field of forensic document analysis. HSI returns more information compared to conventional three channel imaging systems due to the vast number of narrowband images recorded across the electromagnetic spectrum. As a result, HSI can provide better classification results. In this publication, we present results of an approach known as the t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) algorithm, which we have applied to HSI paper data analysis. Even though t-SNE has been widely accepted as a method for dimensionality reduction and visualization of high dimensional data, its usefulness has not yet been evaluated for the classification of paper data. In this research, we present a hyperspectral dataset of paper samples, and evaluate the clustering quality of the proposed method both visually and quantitatively. The t-SNE algorithm shows exceptional discrimination power when compared to traditional PCA with k-means clustering, in both visual and quantitative evaluations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multispectral Imaging)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 2892 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Redesigned Skip-Network for Crowd Counting with Dilated Convolution and Backward Connection

by Sorn Sooksatra, Toshiaki Kondo, Pished Bunnun and Atsuo Yoshitaka

J. Imaging 2020, 6(5), 28; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging6050028 - 2 May 2020

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3644

Abstract

Crowd counting is a challenging task dealing with the variation of an object scale and a crowd density. Existing works have emphasized on skip connections by integrating shallower layers with deeper layers, where each layer extracts features in a different object scale and [...] Read more.

Crowd counting is a challenging task dealing with the variation of an object scale and a crowd density. Existing works have emphasized on skip connections by integrating shallower layers with deeper layers, where each layer extracts features in a different object scale and crowd density. However, only high-level features are emphasized while ignoring low-level features. This paper proposes an estimation network by passing high-level features to shallow layers and emphasizing its low-level feature. Since an estimation network is a hierarchical network, a high-level feature is also emphasized by an improved low-level feature. Our estimation network consists of two identical networks for extracting a high-level feature and estimating the final result. To preserve semantic information, dilated convolution is employed without resizing the feature map. Our method was tested in three datasets for counting humans and vehicles in a crowd image. The counting performance is evaluated by mean absolute error and root mean squared error indicating the accuracy and robustness of an estimation network, respectively. The experimental result shows that our network outperforms other related works in a high crowd density and is effective for reducing over-counting error in the overall case. Full article

► Show Figures

Figure 1

24 pages, 9281 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Fusing Appearance and Spatio-Temporal Models for Person Re-Identification and Tracking

by Andrew Tzer-Yeu Chen, Morteza Biglari-Abhari and Kevin I-Kai Wang

J. Imaging 2020, 6(5), 27; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging6050027 - 1 May 2020

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3889

Abstract

Knowing who is where is a common task for many computer vision applications. Most of the literature focuses on one of two approaches: determining who a detected person is (appearance-based re-identification) and collating positions into a list, or determining the motion of a [...] Read more.

Knowing who is where is a common task for many computer vision applications. Most of the literature focuses on one of two approaches: determining who a detected person is (appearance-based re-identification) and collating positions into a list, or determining the motion of a person (spatio-temporal-based tracking) and assigning identity labels based on tracks formed. This paper presents a model fusion approach, aiming towards combining both sources of information together in order to increase the accuracy of determining identity classes for detected people using re-ranking. First, a Sequential k-Means re-identification approach is presented, followed by a Kalman filter-based spatio-temporal tracking approach. A linear weighting approach is used to fuse the outputs from these models together, with modification of the weights using a decay function and a rule-based system to reflect the strengths and weaknesses of the models under different conditions. Preliminary experimental results with two different person detection algorithms on an indoor person tracking dataset show that fusing the appearance and spatio-temporal models significantly increases the overall accuracy of the classification operation. Full article

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

J. Imaging, Volume 6, Issue 5 (May 2020) – 10 articles

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI