• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.203-209
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• 2013

Digital Radiography (DR) has improved a quality of resolution based on a wide dynamic range, high detective quantum efficiency (DQE), and modulation transfer function (MTF), compared with film/screen(F/s). Unlike expectation that a low level of radiation can be used in examination, high level of signal to noise ratio(SNR) due to over-exposure caused increase of exposed dose to patients. Also, the auto exposure control (AEC) using Kilovolage(kVp) in F/S can cause over-exposure. Hence, in this study, we proposed a proper method for using DR, in which effect of tubing Kilovolage on device's image, DR MTF measurement with changes of tubing current (mA), and the quantitative evaluation of skull phantom captured images' PSNR were evaluated. Changes of contrast with tubing Kilovolage can be improved by retouching, and MTF changes according to tubing current(1.41~1.39 lp/mm in 50% area, and 3.19~2.8 lp/mm in 10% area) does not influence on resolution of image. As a result, high tubing Kilovoltage, and tubing current will be suitable to use of DR.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics B
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• v.33B no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 1996

In this paper, as a new grey scale method for simple matrix LCDs, the grey scale method using the new code scheme was proposed. The experiment and the characteristic estimation for the new grey scale method were performed by the simulation of the 16 and 32 grey patterns and the calculation of the driving voltages. As a result of the experiment and the characteristic estimation, the 16 grey mode using the 3 bits code scheme, (7, 5, 3) has the maximum driving voltage which is reduced by 19% and 9.6% each compared with the values in the conventional grey modes discussed in this paper. And the extent of improvement in the driving voltage characteristics is increased much as the number of grey levels increases. On the other hand, as a result of the grey image estimation through the grey pattern simulation, the 3 bits 16 grey mode degrades the characteristics of the grey image more or less compared with the conventional grey method but the extent of this characteristic degradation is much reduced with the increase in the number of grey levels such as 32 grey scale, etc. Consequently the grey scale method using the new code scheme proposed in this paper is confirmed as a method that it minimized the degradation of grey characteristics and improves the driving voltage characteristics effectively.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.20-27
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• 2010

This paper describes a design of 5-stage pipelined de-blocking filter with power reduction scheme and proposes a efficient memory architecture and filter order for high performance H.264/AVC Decoder. Generally the de-blocking filter removes block boundary artifacts and enhances image quality. Nevertheless filter has a few disadvantage that it requires a number of memory access and iterated operations because of filter operation for 4 time to one edge. So this paper proposes a optimized filter ordering and efficient hardware architecture for the reduction of memory access and total filter cycles. In proposed filter parallel processing is available because of structured 5-stage pipeline consisted of memory read, threshold decider, pre-calculation, filter operation and write back. Also it can reduce power consumption because it uses a clock gating scheme which disable unnecessary clock switching. Besides total number of filtering cycle is decreased by new filter order. The proposed filter is designed with Verilog-HDL and functionally verified with the whole H.264/AVC decoder using the Modelsim 6.2g simulator. Input vectors are QCIF images generated by JM9.4 standard encoder software. As a result of experiment, it shows that the filter can make about 20% total filter cycles reduction and it requires small transposition buffer size.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.13-23
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• 2010

This study was performed to compare the quality of image processing between the newly developed prototype using light emitting diode(LED) and the conventional $DIFOTI^{TM}$ system(EOS Inc., USA). To estimate the optimal light emitting power for the improved images, primary enamel surfaces treated under Carbopol 907 de-mineralizing solution were taken daily during 20 days of experimental periods by both DIFOTI systems. The results of comparative analyses on the images obtained from both systems with polarized image as gold standard can be summarized as follows: 1. Trans-illumination indices of images taken from primary enamel surfaces were decreased with time in both systems. 2. The differences of intensity of luminance between sound and de-mineralized enamel surface in prototype DIFOTI system was shown to be relatively smaller than conventional $DIFOTI^{TM}$ system. 3. From the comparative analysis of images from both DIFOTI system with polarized images as gold standard, the difference between sound and de-mineralized enamel surface of intensity of luminance of $DIFOTI^{TM}$ system was more correlated to polarized images than prototype of DIFOTI system. With the optimal LED emitting power, the control of aperture of digital camera is considered as the another key factor to improve the DIFOTI images. For the best image quality and analysis, the development of the improved image processing software is required.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.15-28
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• 2024

This paper proposes a method to acquire image data inside tunnel structures and a method to structure the acquired image data. By improving the conditions by which image data are acquired inside the tunnel structure, high-quality image data can be obtained from area type tunnel scanning. To improve the data acquisition conditions, a longitudinal rail of the tunnel can be installed on the tunnel ceiling, and image data of the entire tunnel structure can be acquired by moving the installed rail. This study identified 0.5 mm cracked simulation lines under a distance condition of 20 m at resolutions of 3,840 × 2,160 and 720 × 480 pixels. In addition, the proposed image-data-structuring method could acquire image data in image tile units. Here, the image data of the tunnel can be structured by substituting the application factors (resolution of the acquired image and the tunnel size) into a relationship equation. In an experiment, the image data of a tunnel with a length of 1,000 m and a width of 20 m were obtained with a minimum overlap rate of 0.02% to 8.36% depending on resolution and precision, and the size of the local coordinate system was found to be (14 × 15) to (36 × 34) pixels.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.247-259
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• 2000

This paper introduces a new technique that reduces the search times and Improves the accuracy of motion estimation using high temporal and spatial correlation of motion vector. Instead of using the fixed first search Point of previously proposed search algorithms, the proposed method finds more accurate first search point as to compensating searching area using high temporal and spatial correlation of motion vector. Therefore, the main idea of proposed method is to find first search point to improve the performance of motion estimation and reduce the search times. The proposed method utilizes the direction of the same coordinate block of the previous frame compared with a block of the current frame to use temporal correlation and the direction of the adjacent blocks of the current frame to use spatial correlation. Based on these directions, we compute the first search point. We search the motion vector in the middle of computed first search point with two fixed search patterns. Using that idea, an efficient adaptive predicted direction search algorithm (APDSA) for block matching motion estimation is proposed. In the experimental results show that the PSNR values are improved up to the 3.6dB as depend on the Image sequences and advanced about 1.7dB on an average. The results of the comparison show that the performance of the proposed APDSA algorithm is better than those of other fast search algorithms whether the image sequence contains fast or slow motion, and is similar to the performance of the FS (Full Search) algorithm. Simulation results also show that the performance of the APDSA scheme gives better subjective picture quality than the other fast search algorithms and is closer to that of the FS algorithm.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.63-72
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• 2008

With recent advancement of the medical imaging systems and picture archiving and communication system (PACS), installation of digital radiography has been accelerated over past few years. Moreover, Computed Radiography (CR) which was well established for the foundation of digital x-ray imaging systems at low cost was widely used for clinical applications. This study analyzes imaging characteristics for two systems with different pixel sizes through the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), Noise Power Spectrum (NPS) and Detective Quantum Efficiency (DQE). In addition, influence of radiation dose to the imaging characteristics was also measured by quantitative assessment. A standard beam quality RQA5 based on an international electro-technical commission (IEC) standard was used to perform the x-ray imaging studies. For the results, the spatial resolution based on MTF at 10% for Agfa CR system with I.P size of $8{\times}10$ inches and $14{\times}17$ inches was measured as 3.9 cycles/mm and 2.8 cycles/mm, respectively. The spatial resolution based on MTF at 10% for Fuji CR system with I.P size of $8{\times}10$ inches and $14{\times}17$ inches was measured as 3.4 cycles/mm and 3.2 cycles/mm, respectively. There was difference in the spatial resolution for $14{\times}17$ inches, although radiation dose does not effect to the MTF. The NPS of the Agfa CR system shows similar results for different pixel size between $100{\mu}m$ for $8{\times}10$ inch I.P and $150{\mu}m$ for $14{\times}17$ inch I.P. For both systems, the results show better NPS for increased radiation dose due to increasing number of photons. DQE of the Agfa CR system for $8{\times}10$ inch I.P and $14{\times}17$ inch I.P resulted in 11% and 8.8% at 1.5 cycles/mm, respectively. Both systems show that the higher level of radiation dose would lead to the worse DQE efficiency. Measuring DQE for multiple factors of imaging characteristics plays very important role in determining efficiency of equipment and reducing radiation dose for the patients. In conclusion, the results of this study could be used as a baseline to optimize imaging systems and their imaging characteristics by measuring MTF, NPS, and DQE for different level of radiation dose.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.281-290
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• 2012

The difference of radiation dose of MDCT due to different protocols between hospitals was analyzed by CTDI, DLP, the number of Slice and the number of DLP/Slice in 30 cases of the head, the abdomen and the chest that have 10 cases each from MDCT examination of the department of diagnostic imaging of three general hospitals in Gyeongsangbuk-do. The difference of image quality, CTDI, DLP, radiation dose in the eye and radiation dose in thyroid was analyzed after both helical scan and normal scan for head CT were performed because a protocol of head CT is relatively simple and head CT is the most frequent case. Head CT was significantly higher in two-thirds of hospitals compared to A hospital that does not exceed a CTDI diagnostic reference level (IAEA 50mGy, Korea 60mGy) (p<0.001). DLP was higher in one-third of hospitals than a diagnostic reference level of IAEA 1,050mGy.cm and Korea 1,000mGy.cm and two-thirds exceeded the recommendation of Korea and those were significantly higher than A hospital that does not exceed a diagnostic reference level (p<0.001). Abdomen CT showed 119mGy that was higher than a diagnostic reference level of IAEA 25mGy and Korea 20mGy in one-third. DLP in all hospitals was higher that Korea recommendation of 700mGy.cm. Among target hospitals, C hospital showed high radiation dose in all tests because MPR and 3D were of great importance due to low pitch and high Tube Curren. To analyze the difference of radiation dose by scan methods, normal scan and helical scan for head CT of the same patient were performed. In the result, CTDI and DLP of helical CT were higher 63.4% and 93.7% than normal scan (p<0.05, p<0.01). However, normal scan of radiation dose in thyroid was higher 87.26% (p<0.01). Beam of helical CT looked like a bell in the deep part and the marginal part so thyroid was exposed with low radiation dose deviated from central beam. In addition, helical scan used Gantry angle perpendicularly and normal scan used it parallel to the orbitomeatal line. Therefore, radiation dose in thyroid decreased in helical scan. However, a protocol in this study showed higher radiation dose than diagnostic reference level of KFDA. To obey the recommendation of KFDA, low Tube Curren and high pitch were demanded. In this study, the difference of image quality between normal scan and helical scan was not significant. Therefore, a standardized protocol of normal scan was generally used and protective gear for thyroid was needed except a special case. We studied a part of CT cases in the local area. Therefore, the result could not represent the entire cases. However, we confirmed that patient's radiation dose in some cases exceeded the recommendation and the deviation between hospitals was observed. To improve this issue, doctors of diagnostic imaging or technologists of radiology should perform CT by the optimized protocol to decrease a level of CT radiation and also reveal radiation dose for the right to know of patients. However, they had little understanding of the situation. Therefore, the effort of relevant agencies with education program for CT radiation dose, release of radiation dose from CT examination and addition of radiation dose control and open CT contents into evaluation for hospital services and certification, and also the effort of health professionals with the best protocol to realize optimized CT examination.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.84-93
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• 2000

The conventional fractal decoding was implemented to IFS(iterated function system) for every range regions But a part of the range regions can be decoded without the iteration and there is a data dependence regions In order to decode $R{\times}R$ range blocks, It needs $2R{\times}2R$ domain blocks This decoding can be analyzed to the dependence graph The vertex of the graph represents the range blocks, and the vertex is classified into the vertex of the range and domain The edge indicates that the vertex is referred to the other vertices The in-degree and the out-degree are defined to the number of the edge that is entered and exited, respectively The proposed method is analyzed by a dependence graph to the fractal code, and the decoding order is recomposed by the information of the out-degree That is, If the out-degree of the vertex is zero, then this vertex can be used to the vertex with data dependence Thus, the proposed method can extend the data dependence regions by the recomposition of the decoding order As a result, the Iterated regions are minimized without loss of the image quality or PSNR(peak signal-to-noise ratio), Therefore, it can be a fast decoding by the reducing to the computational complexity for IFS in the fractal Image decoding.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.53 no.11
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• pp.73-81
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• 2016

In general, infrared images have less sharpness and image details than visible images. So, the prior image upscaling methods are not effective in the infrared images. In order to solve this problem, this paper proposes an algorithm which initially up-scales an input infrared (IR) image by using adaptive dynamic range encoding (ADRC)-based super-resolution (SR) method, and then fuses the result with the corresponding visible images. The proposed algorithm consists of a up-scaling phase and a fusion phase. First, an input IR image is up-scaled by the proposed ADRC-based SR algorithm. In the dictionary learning stage of this up-scaling phase, so-called 'pre-emphasis' processing is applied to training-purpose high-resolution images, hence better sharpness is achieved. In the following fusion phase, high-frequency information is extracted from the visible image corresponding to the IR image, and it is adaptively weighted according to the complexity of the IR image. Finally, a up-scaled IR image is obtained by adding the processed high-frequency information to the up-scaled IR image. The experimental results show than the proposed algorithm provides better results than the state-of-the-art SR, i.e., anchored neighborhood regression (A+) algorithm. For example, in terms of just noticeable blur (JNB), the proposed algorithm shows higher value by 0.2184 than the A+. Also, the proposed algorithm outperforms the previous works even in terms of subjective visual quality.