Medical image enhancement

Each image acquired from a medical imaging system is often part of a two-dimensional (2-D) image set whose total presents a three-dimensional (3-D) object for diagnosis. Unfortunately, sometimes these images are of poor quality. These distortions cause an inadequate object-of-interest presentation, which can result in inaccurate image analysis. Blurring is considered a serious problem. Therefore, “deblurring” an image to obtain better quality is an important issue in medical image processing. In our research, the image is initially decomposed. Contrast improvement is achieved by modifying the coefficients obtained from the decomposed image. Small coefficient values represent subtle details and are amplified to improve the visibility of the corresponding details. The stronger image density variations make a major contribution to the overall dynamic range, and have large coefficient values. These values can be reduced without much information loss

Fourier Transform to Detect Pine Seedlings in a Digital Image

Each year, u.s. forest nurseries produce approximately 200 million pine seedlings. Forest companies depend on an adequate number of seedlings in order to replant timber land. To monitor the progress of seedlings, nurseries periodically conduct an inventory. The procedure is performed manually and is based on a statistical estimate. The process is slow, tedious, and imprecise. Automating the inventory procedure is subject of this dissertation. A digital image processing technique to visually count pine seedlings is investigated. The technique is based on a proposed imaging system which resides on a platform behind a tractor. As the system passes over the seedling bed, image sensors capture an overhead view of individual seedlings. A computer analyzes the sensor values in order to detect and count individual seedlings. This dissertation is concerned with developing a computer algorithm. Several test images were obtained. Pertinent seedling features in the images are gray level contrast, lines formed by the needles, and circular distribution of the needles. Four different techniques were investigated in an attempt to use these features to detect pine seedlings. These techniques are gray level peaks geometric intersection of needle lines, gray level contour encoding 1 and a technique based on the Fourier transform.Agricultural Engineerin

Cognitive Biology: Dealing with Information from Bacteria to Minds

Providing a new conceptual scaffold for further research in biology and cognition, this text introduces the new field of cognitive biology, treating developing organisms as information processors which use cognition to control and modify their environments