A virtual object point model for the calibration of underwater stereo cameras to recover accurate 3D information

The focus of this thesis is on recovering accurate 3D information from underwater images. Underwater 3D reconstruction differs significantly from 3D reconstruction in air due to the refraction of light. In this thesis, the concepts of stereo 3D reconstruction in air get extended for underwater environments by an explicit consideration of refractive effects with the aid of a virtual object point model. Within underwater stereo 3D reconstruction, the focus of this thesis is on the refractive calibration of underwater stereo cameras

Hyperspectral benthic mapping from underwater robotic platforms

We live on a planet of vast oceans; 70% of the Earth's surface is covered in water. They are integral to supporting life, providing 99% of the inhabitable space on Earth. Our oceans and the habitats within them are under threat due to a variety of factors. To understand the impacts and possible solutions, the monitoring of marine habitats is critically important. Optical imaging as a method for monitoring can provide a vast array of information however imaging through water is complex. To compensate for the selective attenuation of light in water, this thesis presents a novel light propagation model and illustrates how it can improve optical imaging performance. An in-situ hyperspectral system is designed which comprised of two upward looking spectrometers at different positions in the water column. The downwelling light in the water column is continuously sampled by the system which allows for the generation of a dynamic water model. In addition to the two upward looking spectrometers the in-situ system contains an imaging module which can be used for imaging of the seafloor. It consists of a hyperspectral sensor and a trichromatic stereo camera. New calibration methods are presented for the spatial and spectral co-registration of the two optical sensors. The water model is used to create image data which is invariant to the changing optical properties of the water and changing environmental conditions. In this thesis the in-situ optical system is mounted onboard an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. Data from the imaging module is also used to classify seafloor materials. The classified seafloor patches are integrated into a high resolution 3D benthic map of the surveyed site. Given the limited imaging resolution of the hyperspectral sensor used in this work, a new method is also presented that uses information from the co-registered colour images to inform a new spectral unmixing method to resolve subpixel materials

Selected Papers from the 2018 IEEE International Workshop on Metrology for the Sea

This Special Issue is devoted to recent developments in instrumentation and measurement techniques applied to the marine field. ¶The sea is the medium that has allowed people to travel from one continent to another using vessels, even today despite the use of aircraft. It has also been acting as a great reservoir and source of food for all living beings. However, for many generations, it served as a landfill for depositing conventional and nuclear wastes, especially in its deep seabeds, and we are assisting in a race to exploit minerals and resources, different from foods, encompassed in it. Its health is a great challenge for the survival of all humanity since it is one of the most important environmental components targeted by global warming. ¶ As everyone may know, measuring is a step that generates substantial knowledge about a phenomenon or an asset, which is the basis for proposing correct solutions and making proper decisions. However, measurements in the sea environment pose unique difficulties and opportunities, which is made clear from the research results presented in this Special Issue

Signals and Images in Sea Technologies

Life below water is the 14th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) envisaged by the United Nations and is aimed at conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development. It is not difficult to argue that signals and image technologies may play an essential role in achieving the foreseen targets linked to SDG 14. Besides increasing the general knowledge of ocean health by means of data analysis, methodologies based on signal and image processing can be helpful in environmental monitoring, in protecting and restoring ecosystems, in finding new sensor technologies for green routing and eco-friendly ships, in providing tools for implementing best practices for sustainable fishing, as well as in defining frameworks and intelligent systems for enforcing sea law and making the sea a safer and more secure place. Imaging is also a key element for the exploration of the underwater world for various scopes, ranging from the predictive maintenance of sub-sea pipelines and other infrastructure projects, to the discovery, documentation, and protection of sunken cultural heritage. The scope of this Special Issue encompasses investigations into techniques and ICT approaches and, in particular, the study and application of signal- and image-based methods and, in turn, exploration of the advantages of their application in the previously mentioned areas

Recent Advances in Signal Processing

The signal processing task is a very critical issue in the majority of new technological inventions and challenges in a variety of applications in both science and engineering fields. Classical signal processing techniques have largely worked with mathematical models that are linear, local, stationary, and Gaussian. They have always favored closed-form tractability over real-world accuracy. These constraints were imposed by the lack of powerful computing tools. During the last few decades, signal processing theories, developments, and applications have matured rapidly and now include tools from many areas of mathematics, computer science, physics, and engineering. This book is targeted primarily toward both students and researchers who want to be exposed to a wide variety of signal processing techniques and algorithms. It includes 27 chapters that can be categorized into five different areas depending on the application at hand. These five categories are ordered to address image processing, speech processing, communication systems, time-series analysis, and educational packages respectively. The book has the advantage of providing a collection of applications that are completely independent and self-contained; thus, the interested reader can choose any chapter and skip to another without losing continuity

A scanning cavity microscope

Nano ist überall! Nanoskalige Systeme sind allgegenwärtig, wie in farbigen Gläsern, neuartigen Solarzellen oder in Lebewesen. Für ein umfassendes Verständnis des Nanokosmos ist es unabdingbar, Nanoteilchen einzeln zu untersuchen, um einen tiefen und faszinierenden Einblick in eine Welt, die dem Betrachter auf dem ersten Blick verborgen ist, zu erlangen. Optische Spektroskopie von einzelnen Nanosystemen liefert grundlegende Erkenntnisse von deren physikalischen und chemischen Eigenschaften. Quantitative Messungen von Extinktion und Dispersion an einzelnen Teilchen sind sehr schwierig, gleichzeitig sind solche Messungen sehr wünschenswert, da sich die Teilchen in Form, Größe oder Zusammensetzung unterscheiden können. Diese Arbeit zeigt eine Methode zur gleichzeitigen Messung von Extinktion und Dispersion einzelner Nanopartikel mit Ortsauflösung. Tausende Umläufe von Licht in einem optischen Resonator verstärken dieWechselwirkung von Licht mit Materie und ermöglichen sehr sensitive Messungen an einzelnen Teilchen. Die Mode eines Fabry-Pérot Resonators mit einer Finesse von bis zu 85 000 wird als Rastersonde verwendet, um die Extinktion von Nanoteilchen im Resonator zu bestimmen. Der Resonator ist aus einer mikrobearbeiteten und hochreflektiv beschichteten Glasfaser und einem makroskopischen Planspiegel, der gleichzeitig als Probenhalter dient, aufgebaut. Transversales Verschieben von Faser und Planspiegel zueinander liefert Ortsauflösung. Zur Messung der Verschiebung der Resonanzfrequenz aufgrund eines Teilchens im Resonator werden Transversalmoden höherer Ordnung genutzt. Die Kombination beider Messungen erlaubt es, die komplexe Polarisierbarkeit, die die optischen Eigenschaften eines Nanoteilchens im Rayleigh-Grenzfall vollständig beschreibt, zu bestimmen. In dieser Arbeit werden Extinktions-, Dispersions- und Polarisierbarkeitsmessungen an Goldnanoteilchen verschiedener Form und Größe gezeigt. Verglichen mit beugungsbegrenzter Mikrokopie liefert die Rasterresonatormikroskopie um mehr als 3200fach stärkere Messsignale, die zu einer Sensitivität für Extinktionsmessungen von 1.7 nm² und zu Frequenzverschiebungen aufgrund von Dispersion von weniger als 200 MHz, was der Verschiebung durch eine Glaskugel mit einem Durchmesser von 31.6 nm entspricht, führen. Darüber hinaus werden höhere Transversalmoden dazu verwendet, um die Ortsauflösung zu erhöhen. Durch die Kombination von Extinktionskarten, die mit der Grundmode und den darauf folgenden, höheren Transversalmoden aufgenommen wurden, ist eine signifikante Erhöhung der Ortsauflösung, gegebenenfalls sogar jenseits der Beugungsgrenze, möglich. Das Rasterresonatormikroskop ist zunächst für die Untersuchung von Nanoteilchen in einer trockenen Umgebung konzipiert worden. Viele Nanosysteme, darunter biologische Proben, zeigen ihre einzigartigen Eigenschaften jedoch erst in einer wässrigen Umgebung. Um den Untersuchungsbereich dorthin auszuweiten, wurde ein faserbasierter Resonator hoher Finesse mit einer mikrofluidischen Zelle kombiniert. Mit diesem System können nicht nur die Extinktion oder Dispersion von Teilchen gemessen, sondern auch Teilchen gefangen werden, um beispielsweise deren Reaktionsdynamik zu beobachten. In dieser Arbeit wird demonstriert, dass es möglich ist, einen Fabry-Pérot Resonator hoher Finesse in einer wässrigen Umgebung zu betreiben und es werden erste Messsignale von Teilchen, die den Resonator passieren, als auch vom Resonator gefangen werden, gezeigt. Dieses System, das optische Detektion mit einem kontrollierten Flüssigkeitsstrom vereint, öffnet Möglichkeiten für neuartige Experimente mit einzelnen, unmarkierten Nanosystemen.Nano is everywhere! All around us, there are nanoscaled systems such as in coloured glass, novel solar cells or in living beings. For a detailed understanding of the nanocosmos, studying it at a single particle level is indispensable, leading to deep and intriguing insights into a world that is at a first glance hidden to the eye. Optical spectroscopy of nanosystems at the single particle level provides profound insight into their physical and chemical properties. Retrieving quantitative signals for extinction as well as dispersion at this level is very challenging. At the same time it is desirable to investigate individual particles as they may vary in size, shape or composition. This work presents a spatially resolved method for simultaneous extinction and dispersion measurements of single nanoparticles. Harnessing thousands of round trips of light within an optical microresonator, the interaction of light with the particle gets enhanced and very sensitive quantitative measurements become possible. The cavity mode of a Fabry-Pérot cavity with a finesse up to 85 000 is used as a scanning probe to assess the extinction of nanoobjects placed into the cavity. The resonator consists of a micro-machined and high-reflectively coated end-facet of an optical fibre and a macroscopic plane mirror that serves as a sampleholder and that can be scanned transversally with respect to the fibre, allowing for spatially resolved measurements. Higher order transverse cavity modes are exploited to retrieve the cavity’s resonance frequency shift due to a particle inside. Combining both measurements allows to quantify the complex polarizability, which fully determines the particle’s optical properties at the Rayleigh limit. Extinction, dispersion and polarizability measurements of gold nanoparticles of various size and shape are presented in this work. Compared to diffraction limited microscopy, scanning cavity microscopy reaches a signal enhancement by a factor of more than 3200 resulting in a sensitivity for extinction of 1.7 nm² and for frequency shifts due to dispersion below 200 MHz which corresponds to the shift due to a glass sphere with a diameter of 31.6 nm. Furthermore, the higher order cavity modes are used to increase the spatial resolution of the scanning cavity microscope. By combining extinction maps taken with the fundamental and subsequent higher order modes, a significant increase in resolution potentially beyond the diffraction limit is demonstrated. The scanning cavity microscope is dedicated to investigate nanoparticles in a dry environment. Many nanosystems, especially biological samples, show their unique properties only in an aqueous environment. To extend the field of investigation to these nanosystems a fibre-based high-finesse microcavity has been combined with a microfluidic cell. This system would not only allow to measure the extinction or dispersion of a particle, but also to trap it to monitor e.g. reaction dynamics. In this work, the feasibility of bringing a high-finesse Fabry-Pérot cavity to an aqueous environment is demonstrated and first signals of trapping glass nanoparticles with the cavity mode as well as of particle transitions through the mode are shown. This combined system of optical detection and fluid control opens the perspective for novel experiments with label-free individual nanosystems

Modern Applications in Optics and Photonics: From Sensing and Analytics to Communication

Optics and photonics are among the key technologies of the 21st century, and offer potential for novel applications in areas such as sensing and spectroscopy, analytics, monitoring, biomedical imaging/diagnostics, and optical communication technology. The high degree of control over light fields, together with the capabilities of modern processing and integration technology, enables new optical measurement systems with enhanced functionality and sensitivity. They are attractive for a range of applications that were previously inaccessible. This Special Issue aims to provide an overview of some of the most advanced application areas in optics and photonics and indicate the broad potential for the future

Underwater Vehicles

For the latest twenty to thirty years, a significant number of AUVs has been created for the solving of wide spectrum of scientific and applied tasks of ocean development and research. For the short time period the AUVs have shown the efficiency at performance of complex search and inspection works and opened a number of new important applications. Initially the information about AUVs had mainly review-advertising character but now more attention is paid to practical achievements, problems and systems technologies. AUVs are losing their prototype status and have become a fully operational, reliable and effective tool and modern multi-purpose AUVs represent the new class of underwater robotic objects with inherent tasks and practical applications, particular features of technology, systems structure and functional properties

Realistic visualisation of cultural heritage objects

This research investigation used digital photography in a hemispherical dome, enabling a set of 64 photographic images of an object to be captured in perfect pixel register, with each image illuminated from a different direction. This representation turns out to be much richer than a single 2D image, because it contains information at each point about both the 3D shape of the surface (gradient and local curvature) and the directionality of reflectance (gloss and specularity). Thereby it enables not only interactive visualisation through viewer software, giving the illusion of 3D, but also the reconstruction of an actual 3D surface and highly realistic rendering of a wide range of materials. The following seven outcomes of the research are claimed as novel and therefore as representing contributions to knowledge in the field: A method for determining the geometry of an illumination dome; An adaptive method for finding surface normals by bounded regression; Generating 3D surfaces from photometric stereo; Relationship between surface normals and specular angles; Modelling surface specularity by a modified Lorentzian function; Determining the optimal wavelengths of colour laser scanners; Characterising colour devices by synthetic reflectance spectra