Imaging

Near‐Infrared Imaging Spectrophotometry of the Gravitational Mirage Q2237+0305

by Geneviève Arboit

Quantitation of cellular dynamics in growing Arabidopsis roots with light sheet microscopy

by Giovanni Sena

Visionary_Thinking_Article.pdf

by Simon Tanner

New visualization techniques for cuneiform texts and sealings

by Hendrik Hameeuw

H. Hameeuw & G. Willems
in: Akkadica 132/2, 2011, 163-178

This contribution presents insights into the ongoing evolution of new visualization techniques relevant for the fields... more This contribution presents insights into the ongoing evolution of new visualization techniques relevant for the fields of archaeology and, particularly, Assyriology. We focus on systems and methods facilitating the reading of texts and sealings impressed on clay tablets. Making high resolution 3D models of archaeological objects seems an attractive and fulfilling solution, but in most cases the acquisition of these models is complex and their manipulation is demanding for both computer and  researcher. Research groups across the world are working on these issues. In the presented survey, special attention goes to the results developed by Ancient Near Eastern scholars and engineers of Leuven University - Belgium, who built a Portable Light Dome related to the PTM-technology, which supplies scholars with so-called 2D+ images of digitally recorded objects. These virtual artifacts allow a detailed dynamic study of a wide variety of archaeological finds. For the field of cuneiform studies, the outcome is revolutionizing the approach how in a combined way the tablet, the text or any other kind of impressions on its surface can be visualized all together. The new visualization techniques present themselves as excellent digital safeguards and have proven to be high quality aids when used during a study process as well as for consultation after publication.

Imaging the Dead Sea Transform with scattered seismic waves

by Nils Maercklin

N. Maercklin, C. Haberland, T. Ryberg, M. Weber, Y. Bartov, DESERT Group (2004). Geophysical Journal International, 158(1), 179-186, doi:10.1111/j.1365-246X.2004.02302.x

With controlled seismic sources and specifically designed receiver arrays, we image a subvertical boundary between two... more With controlled seismic sources and specifically designed receiver arrays, we image a subvertical boundary between two lithological blocks at the Arava Fault (AF) in the Middle East. The AF is the main strike-slip fault of the Dead Sea Transform (DST) in the segment between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea. Our imaging (migration) method is based on array beamforming and coherency analysis of P-to-P scattered seismic phases. We use a 1-D background velocity model and the direct P arrival as a reference phase. Careful resolution testing is necessary, because the target volume is irregularly sampled by rays. A spread function describing energy dispersion at localised point scatterers and synthetic calculations for large planar structures provides resolution estimates of the images. We resolve a 7 km long steeply dipping reflector offset roughly 1 km from the surface trace of the AF. The reflector can be imaged from about 1 km down to 4 km depth. Previous and ongoing studies in this region have shown a strong contrast across the fault: low seismic velocities and electrical resistivities west and high velocities and resistivities east of it. We therefore suggest that the imaged reflector marks the contrast between young sedimentary fill in the west and Precambrian rocks in the east. If correct, the boundary between the two blocks is offset about 1 km east of the current surface trace of the AF.

О преимуществах применения программы Helicon Focus в археологической трасологии

by Hugues Plisson

ГИРЯ Е. Ю. et PLISSON H. 2009. О преимуществах применения программы Helicon Focus в археологической трасологии, Helicon Soft.

A light viewfinder pipeline for consumer devices application

by Sebastiano Battiato

Take a Good Hard Look at Yourself: Autoscopia and the Networked Image.

by Adam Nash

Co-authored with Justin Clemens. Published in 'Column 7: New Imaging: Transdisciplinary strategies for art beyond the new media'. ISSN 1835- 3487. 2011.

In Art Power, the curator-critic Boris Groys writes: “the digital image, to be seen, should not be merely exhibited... more In Art Power, the curator-critic Boris Groys writes: “the digital image, to be seen, should not be merely exhibited but staged, performed. One can say that digitalisation turns the visual arts into a performing art”. In other words, contra Walter Benjamin1s prognosis that, in the age of mechanical reproducibility, the distinction between original and copy would be thoroughly reduced or transformed, we now witness the emergence of a new division even more radical than that of original and copy. This division, a consequence of our new post-convergent media, is that between data and its modulation. All digital data, detached from its original semantic source, is formless and placeless until modulated into a display register. Devoid of qualities, it can thereafter be modulated into any display register, contingent entirely on parameters decided by some kind of agent, whatever that agent may be. Under this description, early 2000s concepts of mediacy and hypermediacy become simply potential vectors of the usability of images, rather than defining characteristics of the digital universe. This presentation discusses Autoscopia, a collaborative online artwork commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery Canberra for an exhibition entitled Doppelganger in 2009. The work uses multiple image and text searches to produce composite “portraits”, that is, artificial identities that are thereafter recursively reincorporated into the search-results themselves. These portraits are therefore network performances, with undifferentiated data as their elements and resulting in a new kind of performative image.

Basic Modeling Approach To Optimize Elemental Imaging by Laser Ablation ICPMS

by Jure Triglav

Co-authored with Johannes T. van Elteren and Vid S. Šelih.

Published in 'Analytical Chemistry', 2010

The quality of element image maps generated by laser ablation (LA) ICPMS rastering depends on the measurement... more The quality of element image maps generated by laser ablation (LA) ICPMS rastering depends on the measurement conditions (laser fluence, repetition rate, beam diameter, scanning speed, flow rate, and acquisition time). Optimizing these conditions is often a matter of trial and error since the quality criteria for elemental imaging (sensitivity, spatial resolution, noise, and analysis time) are intricately linked. A simple mathematical model, and ensuing software, was developed to simulate the LA-ICPMS output upon virtual rastering of a digital image of a cross-section of a sample. Even though the LA-ICPMS map is not directly correlated with elemental imaging, element distributions are often related to visual features in the sample, allowing optimization of the LA-ICPMS settings for the desired quality criteria (samples without any visual features can not be optimized in this way). The virtual LA-ICPMS rastering software assumes that the ablation cell and tube interface act as a continuous stirred-tank reactor (i.e., exponential washout) and a plug flow reactor (i.e., zero dispersion), respectively, using an inert gas for transport of the aerosol particles. The software also incorporates a random noise generator which simulates the experimentally deduced signal-to-noise ratios as a function of the anticipated concentration and LA-ICPMS settings. The software was successfully validated and demonstrated by comparing the software output of selected patterns created in the emulsion of a black-and-white negative film with the experimental rastering output performed by measurement of 107Ag in the emulsion.

Internet experiments: methods, guidelines, metadata

by Ulf-Dietrich Reips

published 2009 in Human Vision and Electronic Imaging XIV 7240(1), 724008. (Invited paper by the SPIE-IS&T Science and Technology Electronic Imaging societies)

The Internet experiment is now a well-established and widely used method. The present paper describes guidelines for... more The Internet experiment is now a well-established and widely used method. The present paper describes guidelines for the proper conduct of Internet experiments, e.g. handling of dropout, unobtrusive naming of materials, and pre-testing. Several methods are presented that further increase the quality of Internet experiments and help to avoid frequent errors. These methods include the "seriousness check", "warm-up," "high hurdle," and "multiple site entry" techniques, control of multiple submissions, and control of motivational confounding. Finally, metadata from sites like WEXTOR (http://wextor.org) and the web experiment list (http://wexlist.net/) are reported that show the current state of Internet-based research in terms of the distribution of fields, topics, and research designs used.

Bilder sind komplexe Systeme und deren Interpretationen noch viel komplexer: Über die Verwandtschaft von Hermeneutik und Systemtheorie

by Hans H. Diebner

In: Inge Hinterwaldner und Markus Buschhaus (Eds.): The Picture's Image. Wissenschaftliche Visualisierung als Komposit. Fink-Verlag, München, 2006, pp. 282-299.

Die Bildinterpretation in der medizinischen Diagnostik nimmt eine interessante Sonderstellung ein, nicht nur weil sie... more Die Bildinterpretation in der medizinischen Diagnostik nimmt eine interessante Sonderstellung ein, nicht nur weil sie eine ausgeprägte existentielle Bedeutung hat – der Behandlungserfolg hängt von ihr ab –, sondern auch weil der Entscheidungsprozess in der Diagnostik üblicherweise mit einem Inferenzprinzip beschrieben wird, das subjektive Wahrscheinlichkeiten – Glaubwürdigkeitsgrade – für die Validität von Hypothesen benutzt, die die Medizin verstärkt zu einer hermeneutischen Disziplin machen. Das so genannte ‚Bayessche Rückschlussprinzip‘ (benannt nach Reverend Thomas Bayes (1702-1761)) kommt auf den ersten Blick sogar einer Formalisierung des hermeneutischen Zirkels sehr nahe, weil es im iterativen Einsatz eine voranschreitende Aktualisierung von a priori Erkenntnis zu a posteriori Erkenntnis beschreibt. Schon der Begriff der Anamnese, also des Ausbildens von solider Vorkenntnis durch Einbezug eines möglichst großen Kontextes des Patienten – ein Begriff der sich an Platons anamnesia, also der angeborenen Fähigkeit der
Seele sich aus einer Aporie heraus zu winden, anlehnt – erinnert an die Hermeneutizität dieser Disziplin.

Die Möglichkeit der neuen Medien die Bilder technisch zu analysieren und damit zu interpretieren, sowie der Einsatz automatisierten Wissensmanagements mit Hilfe von Datenbanken, führt zu einer – vermeintlichen – Objektivierung, die den Namen „evidenzbasierte Medizin“ bekommen hat. Neben den unbestreitbaren Errungenschaften dieser Entwicklung liegt hierbei eine Gefahr in der zunehmenden Veräußerung des Entscheidungsprozesses und damit Verantwortlichkeit, die eine Zuspitzung der Verdinglichungstendenz durch Technik, wie von Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) beschrieben, darstellt. Interessanterweise arbeiten an dieser ‚Objektivierung‘ zahlreiche Physiker und Informatiker, denen möglicherweise bisher eine ausreichende Reflexion ihres Objektivitätsglaubens fehlt.

Es wird der Versuch unternommen, zu zeigen, dass auch in der Produktion von Bildern in der Physik ein hermeneutisches Vorgehen zu beobachten ist und die Bildgestaltung einem Prozess unterliegt, der in der Physik selbst nicht diskutiert wird. Bei der Erforschung komplexer, oft nichtlinearer, chaotischer Systeme ist wegen der fehlenden mathematischen Analytizität die Naturwissenschaft auf numerische Behandlung einschließlich Visualisierung angewiesen. Selbst die Mathematik beginnt sich zaghaft gegenüber video proofs zu öffnen und sie zumindest als Hypothesengeneratoren gelten zu lassen. In der nichtlinearen Dynamik und Komplexitätsforschung widmet man sich seit einigen Jahrzehnten Problemen der Nichtberechenbarkeit und Selbstreferentialität. Stark avanciert durch Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998), rückte die Systemtheorie damit in die Nähe einer in der Fundamentalontologie und Hermeneutik wahrgenommenen und sogar ernsthaft diskutierten Grundlage. Umgekehrt erkennen zunehmend mehr Naturwissenschaftler die enorme Bedeutung der Heideggerschen Fundamentalontologie und Hermeneutik. Die Überlegungen führen zur Hypothese, dass Bilder in der Wissenschaft nicht nur – wie sehr häufig als zentraler Aspekt diskutiert – zur Kognitionsentlastung produziert werden, sondern dass durch sie eine Veräußerung der Entscheidung verhindert wird zu Lasten einer Intersubjektivität, aber zu Gunsten eines schöpferischen Moments.

A Stone in a Spaghetti Bowl: Metaphors of Brain and Self in Clinical Medicine

by Sky Gross

In: Sociological Reflections on the Neurosciences
Edited by Martyn Pickersgill and Ira Van Keulen (Editors)
2011 available for pre-order, soon in paperback

This chapter presents findings of ethnographic work in a neuro-oncology
clinic in Israel. It is claimed that... more This chapter presents findings of ethnographic work in a neuro-oncology
clinic in Israel. It is claimed that patients, close-ones and physicians
engage in creating metaphorical visions of the brain and brain tumours
that reaffirm Cartesian dualism. The ‘brain talk’ involved visible and
spatial terms and results in a particular kind of objectification of the
organ of the self. The overbearing presence of visual media (i.e., magnetic
resonance imaging, computed tomography, angiographic studies) further
gave rise to particular forms of interactions with patients and physicians
where the ‘imageable’ (i.e., the image on the screen) became the
‘imaginable’ (i.e., the metaphor). The images mostly referred to a domain
of mundane objects: a meatball in a dish of spaghetti, a topping of olives
over a pizza, the surface of the moon, a stone, an egg, an animal, a dark
cloud. Furthermore, conversations with family members showed that
formal facts and informed compassion were substituted by concrete
representations. For them, and especially for the patient, these
representations redefined an ungraspable situation, where a tumour – an object – can so easily affect the organ of their subjectivity, into something
comprehensible through the materialistic, often mechanistic actions of
most mundane objects. This, however, also created alienated objects
within the boundaries of their own embodied selves. Patients, on the one
hand, did not reject their own sense of ‘own-ness’, of having a lifeworld
(lebenswelt) as subjective agents, but on the other, did talk about their
own interiors as being an ‘other’: an object visible, observable and
imaginable from a third-person standpoint – a standpoint drawing its
authority from biomedical epistemology and practice.

A Stone in a Spaghetti Bowl: Metaphors of Brain and Self in Clinical Medicine

by Sky Gross

In: Sociological Reflections on the Neurosciences
Edited by Martyn Pickersgill and Ira Van Keulen (Editors)
2011 available for pre-order, soon in paperback

This chapter presents findings of ethnographic work in a neuro-oncology
clinic in Israel. It is claimed that... more This chapter presents findings of ethnographic work in a neuro-oncology
clinic in Israel. It is claimed that patients, close-ones and physicians
engage in creating metaphorical visions of the brain and brain tumours
that reaffirm Cartesian dualism. The ‘brain talk’ involved visible and
spatial terms and results in a particular kind of objectification of the
organ of the self. The overbearing presence of visual media (i.e., magnetic
resonance imaging, computed tomography, angiographic studies) further
gave rise to particular forms of interactions with patients and physicians
where the ‘imageable’ (i.e., the image on the screen) became the
‘imaginable’ (i.e., the metaphor). The images mostly referred to a domain
of mundane objects: a meatball in a dish of spaghetti, a topping of olives
over a pizza, the surface of the moon, a stone, an egg, an animal, a dark
cloud. Furthermore, conversations with family members showed that
formal facts and informed compassion were substituted by concrete
representations. For them, and especially for the patient, these
representations redefined an ungraspable situation, where a tumour – an object – can so easily affect the organ of their subjectivity, into something
comprehensible through the materialistic, often mechanistic actions of
most mundane objects. This, however, also created alienated objects
within the boundaries of their own embodied selves. Patients, on the one
hand, did not reject their own sense of ‘own-ness’, of having a lifeworld
(lebenswelt) as subjective agents, but on the other, did talk about their
own interiors as being an ‘other’: an object visible, observable and
imaginable from a third-person standpoint – a standpoint drawing its
authority from biomedical epistemology and practice.

Single-pixel imaging via compressive sampling

by Mark Davenport

Co-authored with M.F. Duarte, D. Takhar, J.N. Laska, T. Sun, K.F. Kelly, and R.G. Baraniuk. (IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, 25(2) pp. 83-91, March 2008.)

Humans are visual animals, and imaging sensors that extend our reach—cameras—have improved dramatically in recent... more Humans are visual animals, and imaging sensors that extend our reach—cameras—have improved dramatically in recent times thanks to the introduction of CCD and CMOS digital technology. Consumer digital cameras in the megapixel range are now ubiquitous thanks to the happy coincidence that the semiconductor material of choice for large-scale electronics integration (silicon) also happens to readily convert photons at visual wavelengths into electrons. On the contrary, imaging at wavelengths where silicon is blind is considerably more complicated, bulky, and expensive. Thus, for comparable resolution, a US$500 digital camera for the visible becomes a US$50,000 camera for the infrared.

In this article, we present a new approach to building simpler, smaller, and cheaper digital cameras that can operate efficiently across a much broader spectral range than conventional silicon-based cameras. Our approach fuses a new camera architecture based on a digital micromirror device with the new mathematical theory and algorithms of compressive sampling. CS combines sampling and compression into a single nonadaptive linear measurement process [1]–[4]. Rather than measuring pixel samples of the scene under view, we measure inner products between the scene and a set of test functions. Interestingly, random test functions play a key role, making each measurement a random sum of pixel values taken across the entire image. When the scene under view is compressible by an algorithm like JPEG or JPEG2000, the CS theory enables us to stably reconstruct an image of the scene from fewer measurements than the number of reconstructed pixels. In this manner we achieve sub-Nyquist image acquisition.

Our “single-pixel” CS camera architecture is basically an optical computer (comprising a DMD, two lenses, a single photon detector, and an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter) that computes random linear measurements of the scene under view. The image is then recovered or processed from the measurements by a digital computer. The camera design reduces the required size, complexity, and cost of the photon detector array down to a single unit, which enables the use of exotic detectors that would be impossible in a conventional digital camera. The random CS measurements also enable a tradeoff between space and time during image acquisition. Finally, since the camera compresses as it images, it has the capability to efficiently and scalably handle high-dimensional data sets from applications like video and hyperspectral imaging.

La pampa rioplatense: un espacio degradado en el imaginario hispano-criollo.

by Hugo Gaggiotti

US Patent 2005/0063749 A1

by Tony Harris

Extension to a print-imaging pipeline to allow ink reduction to be applied.

Extension to a print-imaging pipeline to allow ink reduction to be applied. Extension to a print-imaging pipeline to allow ink reduction to be applied.

Polynomial texture mapping and related imaging technologies for the recording, analysis and presentation of archaeological materials

by Hembo Pagi

Earl, Graeme, Beale, Gareth, Martinez, Kirk and Pagi, Hembo

Polynomial Texture Mapping (PTM; Malzbender et al 2001) uses multiple images to capture the reflectance properties of... more Polynomial Texture Mapping (PTM; Malzbender et al 2001) uses multiple images to capture the reflectance properties of a given surface. Multiple captures may be combined in order to produce interactive, relit records of the material recorded. In addition recent research enables the capture and rendition of interactive PTMs for detailed examination of surface details. Cultural heritage examples of the technology include work on Cuneiform tablets, numismatic archives and lithic artefacts.

This paper will describe the PTM data capture and processing technologies developed by the University of Southampton, with support from Hewlett Packard Labs Palo Alto. It will also identify the perceived archaeological potential of additional recording to supplement the standard PTM datasets, including the recording of the surface BRDF (bi-directional reflectance distribution function) and accurate extraction of surface normals. Such data offer considerable, under-exploited value in production of comparative conservation datasets. They also enable new forms of analysis, and the possibility for a step-change in the visual fidelity of reconstructions of archaeological surfaces.

Case studies will include ongoing work on the examination of Roman wall paintings, Roman stylus writing tablets, medieval wood, bronze artefacts from a maritime contexts, Neolithic architectural plaster, excavation contexts, brick stamps and sculpture. Each of these presents particular challenges and opportunities for recording, analysis and presentation.

The paper will conclude by identifying the synergies between PTM, related imaging technologies, photogrammetry and non-contact digitisation through recent case studies on African rock art and on excavated material from the Portus Project (www.portusproject.org). It will identify the ongoing challenges and proposed future developments.

Self-driven soft imaging in liquid by means of photothermal excitation

by Paolo Paoletti

P.Paoletti, M. Basso, V. Pini, B. Tiribilli, M. Vassalli, Journal of Applied Physics (in print)

The use of a laser to induce oscillations of an atomic force microscopy cantilever provides a way to excite the... more The use of a laser to induce oscillations of an atomic force microscopy cantilever provides a way to excite the dynamics of the system in a very controlled manner. This excitation scheme has been used to obtain reliable self sustained oscillations, in air and in liquid environment, and to implement an additional control loop leading to a soft, low interaction, working mode. The dynamics of the oscillating cantilever has been characterized, both theoretically and experimentally, and the effectiveness of
the approach has been verified on a test sample.

AFM Imaging via Nonlinear Control of Self-driven Cantilever Oscillations

by Paolo Paoletti

M.Basso, P.Paoletti, B.Tiribilli and M.Vassalli, IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology 10(3), 560-565 (2011)

The need for investigating the properties of new materials at nanoscale level continuously pushes the development of... more The need for investigating the properties of new materials at nanoscale level continuously pushes the development of higher resolution measurement instruments. In this context, a promising dynamic atomic force microscopy setup, where the cantilever gets excited by a nonlinear feedback loop, has been recently introduced. In the first part of the paper, the application of this working mode to imaging is experimentally investigated, showing
the effectiveness of this novel approach. Furthermore, the presence of a variable saturation in the nonlinear loop is exploited to design a specific algorithm that dynamically adapts the cantilever free oscillation amplitude to sudden variations of the sample profile. In imaging applications, this additional control action significantly reduces the tip–sample interaction force yet maintaining high image quality, thus resulting in a suitable setup for better preserving the state of soft and damageable samples such as biological specimens.

High-Speed Phase Recovery Using Chromatic Transport of Intensity Computation In Graphics Processing Units

by Laura Waller