Spatial Augmented Reality Using Structured Light Illumination

Spatial augmented reality is a particular kind of augmented reality technique that uses projector to blend the real objects with virtual contents. Coincidentally, as a means of 3D shape measurement, structured light illumination makes use of projector as part of its system as well. It uses the projector to generate important clues to establish the correspondence between the 2D image coordinate system and the 3D world coordinate system. So it is appealing to build a system that can carry out the functionalities of both spatial augmented reality and structured light illumination. In this dissertation, we present all the hardware platforms we developed and their related applications in spatial augmented reality and structured light illumination. Firstly, it is a dual-projector structured light 3D scanning system that has two synchronized projectors operate simultaneously, consequently it outperforms the traditional structured light 3D scanning system which only include one projector in terms of the quality of 3D reconstructions. Secondly, we introduce a modified dual-projector structured light 3D scanning system aiming at detecting and solving the multi-path interference. Thirdly, we propose an augmented reality face paint system which detects human face in a scene and paints the face with any favorite colors by projection. Additionally, the system incorporates a second camera to realize the 3D space position tracking by exploiting the principle of structured light illumination. At last, a structured light 3D scanning system with its own built-in machine vision camera is presented as the future work. So far the standalone camera has been completed from the a bare CMOS sensor. With this customized camera, we can achieve high dynamic range imaging and better synchronization between the camera and projector. But the full-blown system that includes HDMI transmitter, structured light pattern generator and synchronization logic has yet to be done due to the lack of a well designed high speed PCB

Tailoring the frictional properties of granular media

A method of modifying the roughness of soda-lime glass spheres is presented, with the purpose of tuning inter-particle friction. The effect of chemical etching on the surface topography and the bulk frictional properties of grains is systematically investigated. The surface roughness of the grains is measured using white light interferometry and characterised by the lateral and vertical roughness length scales. The underwater angle of repose is measured to characterise the bulk frictional behaviour. We observe that the co-efficient of friction depends on the vertical roughness length scale. We also demonstrate a bulk surface roughness measurement using a carbonated soft drink.Comment: 10 pages, 17 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

A Multi-Material Approach to Beam Hardening Correction and Calibration in X-Ray Microtomography

PhDX-ray microtomogaphy is a non-clinical, non-destructive, and quantitative technique for determining three-dimensional mineral concentration distributions in variably radiolucent samples with a spatial resolution on the micron scale. For reasons of practicality, particularly for longterm studies, it is often not possible or desirable to utilise a monochromatic X-ray source and so microtomography using a conventional impact-source X-ray generator to produce a polychromatic photon beam is carried out instead. The use of photons of multiple energies causes the production of projection artefacts arising from preferential absorption, which impair the greyscale accuracy of the resulting reconstruction and the material concentration measurements that are derived from the linear attenuation coefficients (LACs). The purpose of the project described in this thesis is to identify weaknesses in the current method of beam hardening correction and to develop and test a tomographic calibration and projection processing method which may demonstrably improve the quality of current beam hardening correction methods as used with the MuCAT microtomography equipment, which provides a worldclass impact-source microtomography research and production facility at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. An overview of the physical basis of X-ray computed tomography and X-ray microtomography is given from first principles, and examples of quantitative applications of the techniques, which generally depend on accurate reconstruction of linear attenuation coefficient values, are discussed. The major sources of artefacts in X-ray microtomography are discussed, particularly those with a direct impact on reconstructed linear attenuation coefficient values. Beam hardening is identified as an error source of particular interest, with secondary research on the effects of any beam hardening correction method on the severity of Compton scatter artefacts, and a critical review is carried out of historical attempts to reduce or mitigate these artefacts, particularly the single-material parameter-optimisation approach in service at the beginning of the research project. A ‘carousel’ test piece comprising multiple attenuators of multiple materials along with attenuation optimisation software based on varying multiple system parameters in order to extend the functionality and usability of the existing correction model, and qualitative results have so far been gathered suggesting the use of this system over the pre-existing attenuation wedge and parameter-optimisation method. A study of the effects of tuning the photon energy to which calibrations are made is carried out, showing improved linear attenuation coefficient recovery at a higher energy than was previously believed to be optimal, and a significant effect arising from X-ray generator target evaporation leading to spatial changes and time-dependence of the target thickness parameter is measured, suggesting that automated calibration as a standard part of the measurement process is required. A stability experiment is carried out using this method in order to examine the possibility of inconsistency resulting from ageing of the filament cathode, which is found not to significantly impact the quality of results. An immersion tank is developed in order to ensure beam hardening correction validity in the case of dual-material specimens where a radiodensity-matching fluid can be provided and the sample is suitable for immersion. Experimental comparison using a commercial beam hardening calibration device as the specimen reveals significantly improved hydroxyapatite concentration measurement recovery. An in-scatter experiment was carried out on the immersion tank, and it was found that there was a significant scatter contribution when the tank was filled in the case where the sample thickness is much less than the tank thickness. Proposals are presented for further work to improve reconstruction quality through of scatter reduction techniques in impactsource microtomographic systems, and to utilise the immersion tank for in situ chemical erosion experiments. The effects of the improvements to the beam hardening process are demonstrated using a biological specimen to demonstrate qualitative changes in reconstruction, particularly in improved dark levels surrounding the specimen. A second experiment is carried out in order to test the reproducibility of results, which is found to be improved by approximately four times over the same dataset corrected using the pre-existingbeam-hardening calibration methodEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grant number EP/G007845/1

The Aerosol Limb Imager

Stratospheric aerosol has been measured globally from satellite platforms over the past three decades. The variability of the natural and anthropogenic sources and resulting effect on climate make continued and improved measurements a priority. Yet, few satellite instruments capable of measuring stratospheric aerosol currently exist, with a lack of planned missions to fill the gap left by the ultimate loss of current instruments. The Aerosol Limb Imager (ALI) is an optical remote sensing instrument designed to image scattered sunlight from the atmospheric limb. These measurements are used to retrieve spatially resolved information of the stratospheric aerosol distribution, including spectral extinction coefficient and particle size. Here we present the design, development and test results of an ALI prototype. The instrument design uses a large aperture Acousto-Optic Tunable Filter (AOTF) to image the sunlit stratospheric limb in a selectable narrow wavelength band ranging from the visible to the near infrared. Through the nature of the AOTF operation, ALI measures one orientation of the polarized limb radiance, rather than the historically observed total radiance. A modelling study on the impact of this approach on the retrievals shows that while there is no distinct advantage to the linearly polarized measurement, there are also no clear disadvantages assuming the somewhat lower overall signal levels can be handled in the instrument design or operation. The long term goal of this work is the eventual realization of ALI on a satellite platform in low earth orbit, where it can provide high spatial resolution observations, both in the vertical and cross-track dimensions. The ALI prototype was tested on a stratospheric balloon flight from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) launch facility in Timmins, Canada, in September 2014. Preliminary analysis of the hyperspectral images indicate that the radiance measurements are of high quality, and these are used to successfully retrieve vertical profiles of stratospheric aerosol extinction coefficient from 650–950 nm, along with one moment of the particle size distribution

Light-Matter Interaction in Hybrid Quantum Plasmonic Systems

Attempting to implement quantum information related applications utilizing atoms and photons, as they naturally form quantum systems supporting superposition states, hybrid quantum plasmonic systems emerged in the past as a platform to study and engineer light-matter interaction. This platform combines the unrivaled electromagnetic field localization of surface plasmon polaritons, boosting the light-matter coupling rate, with the tremendous integration potential of truly nanoscale structures, and both the significant emission rates of nanoantennas and photonic transmission velocities. In this work, a classical description of surface plasmon polaritons is combined with a light-matter interaction model based on a cavity quantum electrodynamical formalism. The resulting composite semi-classical method, introduced and described in this thesis, provides efficient and versatile means to simulate the dynamical behavior of radiative atomic transitions coupled to plasmonic cavity modes in the weak incoherent coupling regime. Both the emission into the far field and various dissipation mechanisms are included by expanding the model to an open quantum system. The variety of light-matter interaction applications that can be modeled with the outlined method is indicated by the four different exemplary scenarios detailed in the application chapter of this thesis. The classical description of localized surface plasmon polaritons is benchmarked by reproducing the experimental measurements of the molecular fluorescence manipulation through optical nanoantennas in a collaborative effort with experimental partners. Furthermore, in the weak light-matter coupling regime, the potential of achieving a higher nanoantenna functionality and simultaneously realizing more elaborate quantum dynamics is revealed by the three remaining applications. Each pivotally involving a bimodal nanoantenna and demonstrating different quantum optical phenomena, the implementation of cavity radiation mode conversion, non-classical cavity emission statistics, and non-classical cavity emission properties is shown and described in the application chapter

Chemical and statistical soot modeling

The combustion of petroleum based fuels like kerosene, gasoline, or diesel leads to the formation of several kind of pollutants. Among them, soot particles are particularly bad for their severe consequences on human health. Over the past decades, strict regulations have been placed on car and aircraft engines in order to limit these particulate matter emissions. Designing low emission engines requires the use of predictive soot models which can be applied to the combustion of real fuels. Towards this goal, the present work addresses the formation of soot particles both from a chemical and statistical point of view. As a first step, a chemical model is developed to describe the formation of soot precursors from the combustion of several components typically found in surrogates, including n-heptane, iso-octane, benzene, and toluene. The same mechanism is also used to predict the formation of large Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) up to cyclopenta[cd]pyrene (C_(18)H_(10)). Then, a new soot model which represents soot particles as fractal aggregates is used. In this model, a soot particle is described by three variables: its volume (V), its surface area (S), and the number of hydrogen sites on the surface (H). The Direct Quadrature Method of Moments (DQMOM) is used as a precise representation of the population of soot particles which includes small spherical particles and large aggregates. This model is shown to predict accurately the formation of soot in a wide range of flames including premixed and counter flow diffusion flames, low and high temperature flames and for a wide range of fuels from ethylene to iso-octane. Finally, this model predicts several aggregate properties like the primary particle diameter and gives insight into the reactivity of the soot surface

Experimental setup for fast BEC generation and number-stabilized atomic ensembles

Ultracold atomic ensembles represent a cornerstone of today’s modern quantum experiments. In particular, the generation of Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) has paved the way for a myriad of fundamental research topics as well as novel experimental concepts and related applications. As coherent matter waves, BECs promise to be a valuable resource for atom interferometry that allows for high-precision sensing of gravitational fields or inertial moments as accelerations and rotations. In general, the sensitivity of state-of-the-art atom interferometers is fundamentally restricted by the Standard Quantum Limit (SQL). Multi-particle entangled states (e.g. spin-squeezed states, Twin-Fock states, Schrödinger cat states) generated in BECs can be employed to surpass the SQL and shift the sensitivity limit further towards the more fundamental Heisenberg Limit (HL). However, in current real-world atom interferometric applications, ultracold but uncondensed atomic clouds are employed, due to their speed advantage in the sample preparation. The creation of a BEC can take up several tens of seconds, while standard high-precision atom interferometers operate with a cycle rate of several Hz. In addition, the pursued entangled states can be only beneficial if technical noise sources, such as magnetic field or detection noise are not dominating the measurement resolution. These challenges need to be overcome in order to fully exploit the potential sensitivity gain offered by a quantum-enhanced atom interferometer. This thesis describes the design and implementation of a new experimental setup for Heisenberg-limited atom interferometry, which incorporates a high-flux BEC source and the manipulation and detection of atoms at the single-particle level. The presented fast BEC preparation includes a high-flux atom source in a double magneto-optical trap (MOT) configuration that allows to collect 87Rb atoms in a 3D-MOT, which is supplied by a 2D+-MOT with 2×10^10 atoms/s. Forced evaporative cooling of the atoms is divided into two stages, which is sequentially carried out in a magnetic quadrupole trap (QPT) and a crossed-beam optical dipole trap (cODT). The high-flux atom source together with the hybrid evaporation scheme allows to consistently produce BECs with an average of 2×10^5 atoms within 3.5 s. The capabilities of the single-particle resolving detection are demonstrated by realizing a feedback control loop to stabilize the captured number of atoms in a small MOT. A proof-of-principle measurement is demonstrated for the successful stabilization of a target number of 7 atoms with sub-Poissonian fluctuations. The number noise is suppressed by 18 dB below shot noise, which corresponds to a preparation fidelity of 92%. Based on this success, the thesis presents an even improved single-particle resolution. The system comprises a six-channel fiber-based optical setup, which provides independent intensity stabilization and frequency detuning, improved pointing stability as well as a better spatial overlap of the MOT beams. The presented high-speed BEC production combined with accurate atom number preparation and detection, as the two main features of the experimental apparatus, pave the way for a future entanglement-enhanced performance of atom interferometers