4,570 research outputs found
Wavelet-based denoising for 3D OCT images
Optical coherence tomography produces high resolution medical images based on spatial and temporal coherence of the optical waves backscattered from the scanned tissue. However, the same coherence introduces speckle noise as well; this degrades the quality of acquired images.
In this paper we propose a technique for noise reduction of 3D OCT images, where the 3D volume is considered as a sequence of 2D images, i.e., 2D slices in depth-lateral projection plane. In the proposed method we first perform recursive temporal filtering through the estimated motion trajectory between the 2D slices using noise-robust motion estimation/compensation scheme previously proposed for video denoising. The temporal filtering scheme reduces the noise level and adapts the motion compensation on it. Subsequently, we apply a spatial filter for speckle reduction in order to remove the remainder of noise in the 2D slices. In this scheme the spatial (2D) speckle-nature of noise in OCT is modeled and used for spatially adaptive denoising. Both the temporal and the spatial filter are wavelet-based techniques, where for the temporal filter two resolution scales are used and for the spatial one four resolution scales.
The evaluation of the proposed denoising approach is done on demodulated 3D OCT images on different sources and of different resolution. For optimizing the parameters for best denoising performance fantom OCT images were used. The denoising performance of the proposed method was measured in terms of SNR, edge sharpness preservation and contrast-to-noise ratio. A comparison was made to the state-of-the-art methods for noise reduction in 2D OCT images, where the proposed approach showed to be advantageous in terms of both objective and subjective quality measures
Four-dimensional dynamic flow measurement by holographic particle image velocimetry
The ultimate goal of holographic particle image velocimetry (HPIV) is to provide space- and time-resolved measurement of complex flows. Recent new understanding of holographic imaging of small particles, pertaining to intrinsic aberration and noise in particular, has enabled us to elucidate fundamental issues in HPIV and implement a new HPIV system. This system is based on our previously reported off-axis HPIV setup, but the design is optimized by incorporating our new insights of holographic particle imaging characteristics. Furthermore, the new system benefits from advanced data processing algorithms and distributed parallel computing technology. Because of its robustness and efficiency, for the first time to our knowledge, the goal of both temporally and spatially resolved flow measurements becomes tangible. We demonstrate its temporal measurement capability by a series of phase-locked dynamic measurements of instantaneous three-dimensional, three-component velocity fields in a highly three-dimensional vortical flow--the flow past a tab
Review of high-contrast imaging systems for current and future ground- and space-based telescopes I. Coronagraph design methods and optical performance metrics
The Optimal Optical Coronagraph (OOC) Workshop at the Lorentz Center in
September 2017 in Leiden, the Netherlands gathered a diverse group of 25
researchers working on exoplanet instrumentation to stimulate the emergence and
sharing of new ideas. In this first installment of a series of three papers
summarizing the outcomes of the OOC workshop, we present an overview of design
methods and optical performance metrics developed for coronagraph instruments.
The design and optimization of coronagraphs for future telescopes has
progressed rapidly over the past several years in the context of space mission
studies for Exo-C, WFIRST, HabEx, and LUVOIR as well as ground-based
telescopes. Design tools have been developed at several institutions to
optimize a variety of coronagraph mask types. We aim to give a broad overview
of the approaches used, examples of their utility, and provide the optimization
tools to the community. Though it is clear that the basic function of
coronagraphs is to suppress starlight while maintaining light from off-axis
sources, our community lacks a general set of standard performance metrics that
apply to both detecting and characterizing exoplanets. The attendees of the OOC
workshop agreed that it would benefit our community to clearly define
quantities for comparing the performance of coronagraph designs and systems.
Therefore, we also present a set of metrics that may be applied to theoretical
designs, testbeds, and deployed instruments. We show how these quantities may
be used to easily relate the basic properties of the optical instrument to the
detection significance of the given point source in the presence of realistic
noise.Comment: To appear in Proceedings of the SPIE, vol. 1069
Fourier ptychographic reconstruction using Poisson maximum likelihood and truncated Wirtinger gradient
Fourier ptychographic microscopy (FPM) is a novel computational coherent
imaging technique for high space-bandwidth product imaging. Mathematically,
Fourier ptychographic (FP) reconstruction can be implemented as a phase
retrieval optimization process, in which we only obtain low resolution
intensity images corresponding to the sub-bands of the sample's high resolution
(HR) spatial spectrum, and aim to retrieve the complex HR spectrum. In real
setups, the measurements always suffer from various degenerations such as
Gaussian noise, Poisson noise, speckle noise and pupil location error, which
would largely degrade the reconstruction. To efficiently address these
degenerations, we propose a novel FP reconstruction method under a gradient
descent optimization framework in this paper. The technique utilizes Poisson
maximum likelihood for better signal modeling, and truncated Wirtinger gradient
for error removal. Results on both simulated data and real data captured using
our laser FPM setup show that the proposed method outperforms other
state-of-the-art algorithms. Also, we have released our source code for
non-commercial use
Fundamental limitations of high contrast imaging set by small sample statistics
In this paper, we review the impact of small sample statistics on detection
thresholds and corresponding confidence levels (CLs) in high contrast imaging
at small angles. When looking close to the star, the number of resolution
elements decreases rapidly towards small angles. This reduction of the number
of degrees of freedom dramatically affects CLs and false alarm probabilities.
Naively using the same ideal hypothesis and methods as for larger separations,
which are well understood and commonly assume Gaussian noise, can yield up to
one order of magnitude error in contrast estimations at fixed CL. The
statistical penalty exponentially increases towards very small inner working
angles. Even at 5-10 resolution elements from the star, false alarm
probabilities can be significantly higher than expected. Here we present a
rigorous statistical analysis which ensures robustness of the CL, but also
imposes a substantial limitation on corresponding achievable detection limits
(thus contrast) at small angles. This unavoidable fundamental statistical
effect has a significant impact on current coronagraphic and future high
contrast imagers. Finally, the paper concludes with practical recommendations
to account for small number statistics when computing the sensitivity to
companions at small angles and when exploiting the results of direct imaging
planet surveys.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, accepted to Ap
First On-Sky High Contrast Imaging with an Apodizing Phase Plate
We present the first astronomical observations obtained with an Apodizing
Phase Plate (APP). The plate is designed to suppress the stellar diffraction
pattern by 5 magnitudes from 2-9 lambda/D over a 180 degree region. Stellar
images were obtained in the M' band (4.85 microns) at the MMTO 6.5m telescope,
with adaptive wavefront correction made with a deformable secondary mirror
designed for low thermal background observations. The measured PSF shows a halo
intensity of 0.1% of the stellar peak at 2 lambda/D (0.36 arcsec), tapering off
as r^{-5/3} out to radius 9 lambda/D. Such a profile is consistent with
residual errors predicted for servo lag in the AO system.
We project a 5 sigma contrast limit, set by residual atmospheric
fluctuations, of 10.2 magnitudes at 0.36 arcsec separation for a one hour
exposure. This can be realised if static and quasi-static aberrations are
removed by differential imaging, and is close to the sensitivity level set by
thermal background photon noise for target stars with M'>3. The advantage of
using the phase plate is the removal of speckle noise caused by the residuals
in the diffraction pattern that remain after PSF subtraction. The APP gives
higher sensitivity over the range 2-5 lambda/D compared to direct imaging
techniques.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, ApJ accepte
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