Feedforward data-aided phase noise estimation from a DCT basis expansion

This contribution deals with phase noise estimation from pilot symbols. The phase noise process is approximated by an expansion of discrete cosine transform (DCT) basis functions containing only a few terms. We propose a feedforward algorithm that estimates the DCT coefficients without requiring detailed knowledge about the phase noise statistics. We demonstrate that the resulting (linearized) mean-square phase estimation error consists of two contributions: a contribution from the additive noise, that equals the Cramer-Rao lower bound, and a noise independent contribution, that results front the phase noise modeling error. We investigate the effect of the symbol sequence length, the pilot symbol positions, the number of pilot symbols, and the number of estimated DCT coefficients it the estimation accuracy and on the corresponding bit error rate (PER). We propose a pilot symbol configuration allowing to estimate any number of DCT coefficients not exceeding the number of pilot Symbols, providing a considerable Performance improvement as compared to other pilot symbol configurations. For large block sizes, the DCT-based estimation algorithm substantially outperforms algorithms that estimate only the time-average or the linear trend of the carrier phase. Copyright (C) 2009 J. Bhatti and M. Moeneclaey

Multi-View Vision System for Laparoscopy Surgery.

International audienceThis paper deals with the development of a new generation of augmented laparoscopy system. We propose to equip a traditional endoscope, or a robotic endoscope holder, with a miniature stereovision device. The system includes two miniature high resolution CMOS cameras mounted around the endoscope as a pair of glasses that provides a global view of the abdominal cavity completing the traditional view. Each camera can reach a frame rate of 30 images/second with a resolution of 1600 _ 1200 pixels. A deployment, fixation and rapid extraction system of the proposed device through the trocar was designed and validated through preclinical experiments (testbench and human cadaver). The main benefit of the proposed system in the minimally invasive surgery domain is to provide simultaneously local/global views, and with perspectives in 3D reconstruction of the organ being treated

Using Commodity Graphics Hardware for Real-Time Digital Hologram View-Reconstruction

View-reconstruction and display is an important part of many applications in digital holography such as computer vision and microscopy. Thus far, this has been an offline procedure for megapixel sized holograms. This paper introduces an implementation of real-time view-reconstruction using programmable graphics hardware. The theory of Fresnel-based view-reconstruction is introduced, after which an implementation using stream programming is presented. Two different fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based reconstruction methods are implemented, as well as two different FFT strategies. The efficiency of the methods is evaluated and compared to a CPU-based implementation, providing over 100 times speedup for a hologram size of 2048 x 2048

Using Commodity Graphics Hardware for Real-Time Digital Hologram View-Reconstruction

View-reconstruction and display is an important part of many applications in digital holography such as computer vision and microscopy. Thus far, this has been an offline procedure for megapixel sized holograms. This paper introduces an implementation of real-time view-reconstruction using programmable graphics hardware. The theory of Fresnel-based view-reconstruction is introduced, after which an implementation using stream programming is presented. Two different fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based reconstruction methods are implemented, as well as two different FFT strategies. The efficiency of the methods is evaluated and compared to a CPU-based implementation, providing over 100 times speedup for a hologram size of 2048 x 2048

Feature Encoding Strategies for Multi-View Image Classification

Machine vision systems can vary greatly in size and complexity depending on the task at hand. However, the purpose of inspection, quality and reliability remains the same. This work sets out to bridge the gap between traditional machine vision and computer vision. By applying powerful computer vision techniques, we are able to achieve more robust solutions in manufacturing settings. This thesis presents a framework for applying powerful new image classification techniques used for image retrieval in the Bag of Words (BoW) framework. In addition, an exhaustive evaluation of commonly used feature pooling approaches is conducted with results showing that spatial augmentation can outperform mean and max descriptor pooling on an in-house dataset and the CalTech 3D dataset. The results for the experiments contained within, details a framework that performs classification using multiple view points. The results show that the feature encoding method known as Triangulation Embedding outperforms the Vector of Locally Aggregated Descriptors (VLAD) and the standard BoW framework with an accuracy of 99.28%. This improvement is also seen on the public Caltech 3D dataset where the improvement over VLAD and BoW was 5.64% and 12.23% respectively. This proposed multiple view classification system is also robust enough to handle the real world problem of camera failure and still classify with a high reliability. A missing camera input was simulated and showed that using the Triangulation Embedding method, the system could perform classification with a very minor reduction in accuracy at 98.89%, compared to the BoW baseline at 96.60% using the same techniques. The presented solution tackles the traditional machine vision problem of object identification and also allows for the training of a machine vision system that can be done without any expert level knowledge

Towards markerless orthopaedic navigation with intuitive Optical See-through Head-mounted displays

The potential of image-guided orthopaedic navigation to improve surgical outcomes has been well-recognised during the last two decades. According to the tracked pose of target bone, the anatomical information and preoperative plans are updated and displayed to surgeons, so that they can follow the guidance to reach the goal with higher accuracy, efficiency and reproducibility. Despite their success, current orthopaedic navigation systems have two main limitations: for target tracking, artificial markers have to be drilled into the bone and calibrated manually to the bone, which introduces the risk of additional harm to patients and increases operating complexity; for guidance visualisation, surgeons have to shift their attention from the patient to an external 2D monitor, which is disruptive and can be mentally stressful. Motivated by these limitations, this thesis explores the development of an intuitive, compact and reliable navigation system for orthopaedic surgery. To this end, conventional marker-based tracking is replaced by a novel markerless tracking algorithm, and the 2D display is replaced by a 3D holographic Optical see-through (OST) Head-mounted display (HMD) precisely calibrated to a user's perspective. Our markerless tracking, facilitated by a commercial RGBD camera, is achieved through deep learning-based bone segmentation followed by real-time pose registration. For robust segmentation, a new network is designed and efficiently augmented by a synthetic dataset. Our segmentation network outperforms the state-of-the-art regarding occlusion-robustness, device-agnostic behaviour, and target generalisability. For reliable pose registration, a novel Bounded Iterative Closest Point (BICP) workflow is proposed. The improved markerless tracking can achieve a clinically acceptable error of 0.95 deg and 2.17 mm according to a phantom test. OST displays allow ubiquitous enrichment of perceived real world with contextually blended virtual aids through semi-transparent glasses. They have been recognised as a suitable visual tool for surgical assistance, since they do not hinder the surgeon's natural eyesight and require no attention shift or perspective conversion. The OST calibration is crucial to ensure locational-coherent surgical guidance. Current calibration methods are either human error-prone or hardly applicable to commercial devices. To this end, we propose an offline camera-based calibration method that is highly accurate yet easy to implement in commercial products, and an online alignment-based refinement that is user-centric and robust against user error. The proposed methods are proven to be superior to other similar State-of- the-art (SOTA)s regarding calibration convenience and display accuracy. Motivated by the ambition to develop the world's first markerless OST navigation system, we integrated the developed markerless tracking and calibration scheme into a complete navigation workflow designed for femur drilling tasks during knee replacement surgery. We verify the usability of our designed OST system with an experienced orthopaedic surgeon by a cadaver study. Our test validates the potential of the proposed markerless navigation system for surgical assistance, although further improvement is required for clinical acceptance.Open Acces