3,719 research outputs found
A Scalable Correlator Architecture Based on Modular FPGA Hardware, Reuseable Gateware, and Data Packetization
A new generation of radio telescopes is achieving unprecedented levels of
sensitivity and resolution, as well as increased agility and field-of-view, by
employing high-performance digital signal processing hardware to phase and
correlate large numbers of antennas. The computational demands of these imaging
systems scale in proportion to BMN^2, where B is the signal bandwidth, M is the
number of independent beams, and N is the number of antennas. The
specifications of many new arrays lead to demands in excess of tens of PetaOps
per second.
To meet this challenge, we have developed a general purpose correlator
architecture using standard 10-Gbit Ethernet switches to pass data between
flexible hardware modules containing Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)
chips. These chips are programmed using open-source signal processing libraries
we have developed to be flexible, scalable, and chip-independent. This work
reduces the time and cost of implementing a wide range of signal processing
systems, with correlators foremost among them,and facilitates upgrading to new
generations of processing technology. We present several correlator
deployments, including a 16-antenna, 200-MHz bandwidth, 4-bit, full Stokes
parameter application deployed on the Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of
Reionization.Comment: Accepted to Publications of the Astronomy Society of the Pacific. 31
pages. v2: corrected typo, v3: corrected Fig. 1
Real-time refocusing using an FPGA-based standard plenoptic camera
Plenoptic cameras are receiving increased attention in scientific and commercial applications because they capture the entire structure of light in a scene, enabling optical transforms (such as focusing) to be applied computationally after the fact, rather than once and for all at the time a picture is taken. In many settings, real-time inter active performance is also desired, which in turn requires significant computational power due to the large amount of data required to represent a plenoptic image. Although GPUs have been shown to provide acceptable performance for real-time plenoptic rendering, their cost and power requirements make them prohibitive for embedded uses (such as in-camera). On the other hand, the computation to accomplish plenoptic rendering is well structured, suggesting the use of specialized hardware. Accordingly, this paper presents an array of switch-driven finite impulse response filters, implemented with FPGA to accomplish high-throughput spatial-domain rendering. The proposed architecture provides a power-efficient rendering hardware design suitable for full-video applications as required in broadcasting or cinematography. A benchmark assessment of the proposed hardware implementation shows that real-time performance can readily be achieved, with a one order of magnitude performance improvement over a GPU implementation and three orders ofmagnitude performance improvement over a general-purpose CPU implementation
Generalized Inpainting Method for Hyperspectral Image Acquisition
A recently designed hyperspectral imaging device enables multiplexed
acquisition of an entire data volume in a single snapshot thanks to
monolithically-integrated spectral filters. Such an agile imaging technique
comes at the cost of a reduced spatial resolution and the need for a
demosaicing procedure on its interleaved data. In this work, we address both
issues and propose an approach inspired by recent developments in compressed
sensing and analysis sparse models. We formulate our superresolution and
demosaicing task as a 3-D generalized inpainting problem. Interestingly, the
target spatial resolution can be adjusted for mitigating the compression level
of our sensing. The reconstruction procedure uses a fast greedy method called
Pseudo-inverse IHT. We also show on simulations that a random arrangement of
the spectral filters on the sensor is preferable to regular mosaic layout as it
improves the quality of the reconstruction. The efficiency of our technique is
demonstrated through numerical experiments on both synthetic and real data as
acquired by the snapshot imager.Comment: Keywords: Hyperspectral, inpainting, iterative hard thresholding,
sparse models, CMOS, Fabry-P\'ero
Image Processing Using FPGAs
This book presents a selection of papers representing current research on using field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) for realising image processing algorithms. These papers are reprints of papers selected for a Special Issue of the Journal of Imaging on image processing using FPGAs. A diverse range of topics is covered, including parallel soft processors, memory management, image filters, segmentation, clustering, image analysis, and image compression. Applications include traffic sign recognition for autonomous driving, cell detection for histopathology, and video compression. Collectively, they represent the current state-of-the-art on image processing using FPGAs
Bit error performance of diffuse indoor optical wireless channel pulse position modulation system employing artificial neural networks for channel equalisation
The bit-error rate (BER) performance of a pulse position modulation (PPM) scheme for non-line-of-sight indoor optical links employing channel equalisation based on the artificial neural network (ANN) is reported. Channel equalisation is achieved by training a multilayer perceptrons ANN. A comparative study of the unequalised `soft' decision decoding and the `hard' decision decoding along with the neural equalised `soft' decision decoding is presented for different bit resolutions for optical channels with different delay spread. We show that the unequalised `hard' decision decoding performs the worst for all values of normalised delayed spread, becoming impractical beyond a normalised delayed spread of 0.6. However, `soft' decision decoding with/without equalisation displays relatively improved performance for all values of the delay spread. The study shows that for a highly diffuse channel, the signal-to-noise ratio requirement to achieve a BER of 10−5 for the ANN-based equaliser is ~10 dB lower compared with the unequalised `soft' decoding for 16-PPM at a data rate of 155 Mbps. Our results indicate that for all range of delay spread, neural network equalisation is an effective tool of mitigating the inter-symbol interference
The standard plenoptic camera: applications of a geometrical light field model
A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyThe plenoptic camera is an emerging technology in computer vision able to capture
a light field image from a single exposure which allows a computational change of
the perspective view just as the optical focus, known as refocusing. Until now there was
no general method to pinpoint object planes that have been brought to focus or stereo
baselines of perspective views posed by a plenoptic camera.
Previous research has presented simplified ray models to prove the concept of refocusing
and to enhance image and depth map qualities, but lacked promising distance
estimates and an efficient refocusing hardware implementation. In this thesis, a pair of
light rays is treated as a system of linear functions whose solution yields ray intersections
indicating distances to refocused object planes or positions of virtual cameras that project
perspective views. A refocusing image synthesis is derived from the proposed ray model
and further developed to an array of switch-controlled semi-systolic FIR convolution
filters. Their real-time performance is verified through simulation and implementation by
means of an FPGA using VHDL programming.
A series of experiments is carried out with different lenses and focus settings, where
prediction results are compared with those of a real ray simulation tool and processed
light field photographs for which a blur metric has been considered. Predictions accurately
match measurements in light field photographs and signify deviations of less than 0.35 %
in real ray simulation. A benchmark assessment of the proposed refocusing hardware
implementation suggests a computation time speed-up of 99.91 % in comparison with a
state-of-the-art technique.
It is expected that this research supports in the prototyping stage of plenoptic cameras
and microscopes as it helps specifying depth sampling planes, thus localising objects and
provides a power-efficient refocusing hardware design for full-video applications as in
broadcasting or motion picture arts
- …