Streaming an image through the eye: The retina seen as a dithered scalable image coder

We propose the design of an original scalable image coder/decoder that is inspired from the mammalians retina. Our coder accounts for the time-dependent and also nondeterministic behavior of the actual retina. The present work brings two main contributions: As a first step, (i) we design a deterministic image coder mimicking most of the retinal processing stages and then (ii) we introduce a retinal noise in the coding process, that we model here as a dither signal, to gain interesting perceptual features. Regarding our first contribution, our main source of inspiration will be the biologically plausible model of the retina called Virtual Retina. The main novelty of this coder is to show that the time-dependent behavior of the retina cells could ensure, in an implicit way, scalability and bit allocation. Regarding our second contribution, we reconsider the inner layers of the retina. We emit a possible interpretation for the non-determinism observed by neurophysiologists in their output. For this sake, we model the retinal noise that occurs in these layers by a dither signal. The dithering process that we propose adds several interesting features to our image coder. The dither noise whitens the reconstruction error and decorrelates it from the input stimuli. Furthermore, integrating the dither noise in our coder allows a faster recognition of the fine details of the image during the decoding process. Our present paper goal is twofold. First, we aim at mimicking as closely as possible the retina for the design of a novel image coder while keeping encouraging performances. Second, we bring a new insight concerning the non-deterministic behavior of the retina.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1104.155

M32+/-1

WFPC-2 images are used to study the central structure of M31, M32, and M33. The dimmer peak, P2, of the M31 double nucleus is centered on the bulge to 0.1", implying that it is the dynamical center of M31. P2 contains a compact source discovered by King et al. (1995) at 1700 A. This source is resolved, with r_{1/2} approx0.2 pc. It dominates the nucleus at 3000 A, and is consistent with late B-early A stars. This probable cluster may consist of young stars and be an older version of the cluster of hot stars at the center of the Milky Way, or it may consist of heavier stars built up from collisions in a possible cold disk of stars orbiting P2. In M32, the central cusp rises into the HST limit with gamma approx0.5, and the central density rho_0>10^7M_sol pc^-3. The V-I and U-V color profiles are flat, and there is no sign of an inner disk, dust, or any other structure. This total lack of features seems at variance with a nominal stellar collision time of 2 X 10^10 yr, which implies that a significant fraction of the light in the central pixel should come from blue stragglers. InM33, the nucleus has an extremely steep gamma=1.49 power-law profile for 0.05"<r<0.2" that becomes shallower as the HST resolution limit is approached. The profile for r<0.04" has either a gamma approx 0.8 cusp or a small core with r_c ~<0.13 pc. The central density is rho_0 > 2 10^6M_sol pc^-3, and the implied relaxation time is only ~3 X 10^6 yr, indicating that the nucleus is highly relaxed. The accompanying short collision time of 7 X 10^9 yr predicts a central blue straggler component quantitatively consistent with the strong V-I and B-R color gradients seen with HST and from the ground.Comment: 44 pages, 22 figures (7 as separate JPEG images), submitted to The Astronomical Journal. Full postscript image available at http://www.noao.edu/noao/staff/lauer/lauer_paper

Uncovering Spiral Structure in Flocculent Galaxies

We present K'(2.1 micron) observations of four nearby flocculent spirals, which clearly show low-level spiral structure and suggest that kiloparsec-scale spiral structure is more prevalent in flocculent spirals than previously supposed. In particular, the prototypical flocculent spiral NGC 5055 is shown to have regular, two-arm spiral structure to a radius of 4 kpc in the near infrared, with an arm-interarm contrast of 1.3. The spiral structure in all four galaxies is weaker than that in grand design galaxies. Taken in unbarred galaxies with no large, nearby companions, these data are consistent with the modal theory of spiral density waves, which maintains that density waves are intrinsic to the disk. As an alternative, mechanisms for driving spiral structure with non-axisymmetric perturbers are also discussed. These observations highlight the importance of near infrared imaging for exploring the range of physical environments in which large-scale dynamical processes, such as density waves, are important.Comment: 12 pages AASTeX; 3 compressed PS figures can be retrieved from ftp://ftp.astro.umd.edu/pub/michele as file thornley.tar (1.6Mbytes). Accepted to Ap.J. Letters.(Figures now also available here, and from ftp://ftp.astro.umd.edu/pub/michele , in GIF format.

Optimal Compression of Floating-point Astronomical Images Without Significant Loss of Information

We describe a compression method for floating-point astronomical images that gives compression ratios of 6 -- 10 while still preserving the scientifically important information in the image. The pixel values are first preprocessed by quantizing them into scaled integer intensity levels, which removes some of the uncompressible noise in the image. The integers are then losslessly compressed using the fast and efficient Rice algorithm and stored in a portable FITS format file. Quantizing an image more coarsely gives greater image compression, but it also increases the noise and degrades the precision of the photometric and astrometric measurements in the quantized image. Dithering the pixel values during the quantization process can greatly improve the precision of measurements in the images. This is especially important if the analysis algorithm relies on the mode or the median which would be similarly quantized if the pixel values are not dithered. We perform a series of experiments on both synthetic and real astronomical CCD images to quantitatively demonstrate that the magnitudes and positions of stars in the quantized images can be measured with the predicted amount of precision. In order to encourage wider use of these image compression methods, we have made available a pair of general-purpose image compression programs, called fpack and funpack, which can be used to compress any FITS format image.Comment: Accepted PAS

An HST Snapshot Survey of Proto-Planetary Nebulae Candidates: Two Types of Axisymmetric Reflection Nebulosities

We report the results from an optical imaging survey of proto-planetary nebula candidates using the HST. We exploited the high resolving power and wide dynamic range of HST and detected nebulosities in 21 of 27 sources. All detected reflection nebulosities show elongation, and the nebula morphology bifurcates depending on the degree of the central star obscuration. The Star-Obvious Low-level-Elongated (SOLE) nebulae show a bright central star embedded in a faint, extended nebulosity, whereas the DUst-Prominent Longitudinally-EXtended (DUPLEX) nebulae have remarkable bipolar structure with a completely or partially obscured central star. The intrinsic axisymmetry of these proto-planetary nebula reflection nebulosities demonstrates that the axisymmetry frequently found in planetary nebulae predates the proto-planetary nebula phase, confirming previous independent results. We suggest that axisymmetry in proto-planetary nebulae is created by an equatorially enhanced superwind at the end of the asymptotic giant branch phase. We discuss that the apparent morphological dichotomy is caused by a difference in the optical thickness of the circumstellar dust/gas shell with a differing equator-to-pole density contrast. Moreover, we show that SOLE and DUPLEX nebulae are physically distinct types of proto-planetary nebulae, with a suggestion that higher mass progenitor AGB stars are more likely to become DUPLEX proto-planetary nebulae.Comment: 27 pages (w/ aaspp4.sty), 6 e/ps figures, 4 tables (w/ apjpt4.sty). Data images are available via ADIL (http://imagelib.ncsa.uiuc.edu/document/99.TU.01) To be published in Ap

Assessing the Formation Scenarios for the Double Nucleus of M31 Using Two-Dimensional Image Decomposition

The double nucleus geometry of M31 is currently best explained by the eccentric disk hypothesis of Tremaine, but whether the eccentric disk resulted from the tidal disruption of an inbounding star cluster by a nuclear black hole, or by an m=1 perturbation of a native nuclear disk, remains debatable. I perform detailed 2-D decomposition of the M31 double nucleus in the Hubble Space Telescope V-band to study the bulge structure and to address competing formation scenarios of the eccentric disk. I deblend the double nucleus (P1 and P2) and the bulge simultaneously using five Sersic and one Nuker components. P1 and P2 appear to be embedded inside an intermediate component (r_e=3.2") that is nearly spherical (q=0.97+/-m0.02), while the main galaxy bulge is more elliptical (q=0.81+/-0.01). The spherical bulge mass of 2.8x10^7 M_sol is comparable to the supermassive black hole mass (3x10^7 M_sol). In the 2-D decomposition, the bulge is consistent with being centered near the UV peak of P2, but the exact position is difficult to pinpoint because of dust in the bulge. P1 and P2 are comparable in mass. Within a radius r=1\arcsec of P2, the relative mass fraction of the nuclear components is M_BH:M_bulge:P1: P2 = 4.3:1.2:1:0.7, assuming the luminous components have a common mass-to-light ratio of 5.7. The eccentric disk as a whole (P1+P2) is massive, M ~ 2.1x10^7 M_sol, comparable to the black hole and the local bulge mass. As such, the eccentric disk could not have been formed entirely out of stars that were stripped from an inbounding star cluster. Hence, the more favored scenario is that of a disk formed in situ by an m=1 perturbation, caused possibly by the passing of a giant molecular cloud, or the passing/accretion of a small globular cluster.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures. AJ accepted. For the version of this paper with high resolution figures, go to: http://zwicky.as.arizona.edu/~cyp/work/m31.ps.g

Detail and contrast enhancement in images using dithering and fusion

This thesis focuses on two applications of wavelet transforms to achieve image enhancement. One of the applications is image fusion and the other one is image dithering. Firstly, to improve the quality of a fused image, an image fusion technique based on transform domain has been proposed as a part of this research. The proposed fusion technique has also been extended to reduce temporal redundancy associated with the processing. Experimental results show better performance of the proposed methods over other methods. In addition, achievements have been made in terms of enhancing image contrast, capturing more image details and efficiency in processing time when compared to existing methods. Secondly, of all the present image dithering methods, error diffusion-based dithering is the most widely used and explored. Error diffusion, despite its great success, has been lacking in image enhancement aspects because of the softening effects caused by this method. To compensate for the softening effects, wavelet-based dithering was introduced. Although wavelet-based dithering worked well in removing the softening effects, as the method is based on discrete wavelet transform, it lacked in aspects like poor directionality and shift invariance, which are responsible for making the resultant images look sharp and crisp. Hence, a new method named complex wavelet-based dithering has been introduced as part of this research to compensate for the softening effects. Image processed by the proposed method emphasises more on details and exhibits better contrast characteristics in comparison to the existing methods

Infrared Studies of Molecular Shocks in the Supernova Remnant HB 21: II. Thermal Admixture of Shocked H2_2 Gas in the South

We present near- and mid-infrared observations on the shock-cloud interaction region in the southern part of the supernova remnant HB 21, performed with the InfraRed Camera (IRC) aboard AKARI satellite and the Wide InfraRed Camera (WIRC) at the Palomar 5 m telescope. The IRC 4 um (N4), 7 um (S7), and 11 um (S11) band images and the WIRC H2 v=1->0 S(1) 2.12 um image show similar diffuse features, around a shocked CO cloud. We analyzed the emission through comparison with the H2 line emission of several shock models. The IRC colors are well explained by the thermal admixture model of H2 gas--whose infinitesimal H2 column density has a power-law relation with the temperature $T$, $dN\sim T^{-b}dT$--with n(H2) $\sim3.9\times10^4$ cm^{-2}, $b\sim4.2$, and N(H2;T>100K) $\sim2.8\times10^{21}$ cm^{-2}. We interpreted these parameters with several different pictures of the shock-cloud interactions--multiple planar C-shocks, bow shocks, and shocked clumps--and discuss their weaknesses and strengths. The observed H2 v=1->0 S(1) intensity is four times greater than the prediction from the power-law admixture model, the same tendency as found in the northern part of HB 21 (Paper I). We also explored the limitation of the thermal admixture model with respect to the derived model parameters.Comment: 35 pages, 10 figures, Accepted in "Advances in Space Research", higher resolution @ http://astro.snu.ac.kr/~jhshinn/asr-20090921-submitted_arxiv.pdf ; rev.2 - deletion of section 6.4 and the related content