• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.211-219
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• 2014

Closed cracks are difficult to detect using conventional ultrasonic testing because most incident ultrasound passes completely through these cracks. Nonlinear ultrasound inspection using sub-harmonic frequencies a promising method for detecting closed cracks. To implement this method, a sub-harmonic phased array (PA) is proposed to visualize the length of closed cracks in solids. A sub-harmonic PA generally consists of a single transmitter and an array receiver, which detects sub-harmonic waves generated from closed cracks. The PA images are obtained using the total focusing method (TFM), which (with a transmitter and receiving array) employs a full matrix in the observation region to achieve fine image resolution. In particular, the receiving signals are measured using a laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) to collect PA images for both fundamental and sub-harmonic frequencies. Oblique incidence, which is used to boost sub-harmonic generation, inevitably produces various surface waves that contaminate the signals measured in the receiving transducer. Surface wave interference often degrades PA images severely, and it becomes difficult to read the closed crack's position from the images. Various methods to prevent or eliminate this interference are possible. In particular, enhancing images with signal processing could be a highly cost-effective method. Because periodic patterns distributed in a PA image are the most frequent interference induced by surface waves, spatial frequency filtering is applicable for removing these waves. Experiments clearly demonstrate that the spatial frequency filter improves PA images.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.81-89
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to develop data base and interface for sofa consumers and sofa designers. The human sensibility ergonomics method was used to find the consumer needs and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method was used to extract the designing characteristics required for sofa production. About 200 words and 100 images were gathered from sofa and furniture related catalogs and internet sites to find the best emotional words and images that can express the various sofa aspect. Among the collected words and images, 34 emotional words were selected for sensibility experiment according to the opinions of experts, relations of closeness and frequency of use, and 50 images were selected for the experiment by the diversity. Selected words and images were used for the semantic differential method with 94 subjects, and sensibility characteristics of sofas were defined through various statistical analysis methods including basic statistical analysis, factor analysis and multi-dimensional scale. In reflecting design characteristics of sofas, design factors of sofas were divided into backrest, seat, armrest, neck support and leg, and relative importance of each factor for design was determined with analytic hierarchy process (AHP) by utilizing the experts' opinions. Based on the results above, relationship analysis between emotional evaluation results and design factors was performed. Also, as various sofa images are presented diagrammatically through multidimensional scaling method, it can be used as an important tool for the development of sofa design. This study will contribute improving the product quality of sofas as it enables applying consumer needs into the sofa design.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.111-119
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• 2018

Purpose: This study was conducted to evaluate the accuracy of linear measurements of 3-dimensional (3D) images generated by cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) and facial scanning systems, and to assess the effect of scanning parameters, such as CBCT exposure settings, on image quality. Materials and Methods: CBCT and facial scanning images of an anthropomorphic phantom showing 13 soft-tissue anatomical landmarks were used in the study. The distances between the anatomical landmarks on the phantom were measured to obtain a reference for evaluating the accuracy of the 3D facial soft-tissue images. The distances between the 3D image landmarks were measured using a 3D distance measurement tool. The effect of scanning parameters on CBCT image quality was evaluated by visually comparing images acquired under different exposure conditions, but at a constant threshold. Results: Comparison of the repeated direct phantom and image-based measurements revealed good reproducibility. There were no significant differences between the direct phantom and image-based measurements of the CBCT surface volume-rendered images. Five of the 15 measurements of the 3D facial scans were found to be significantly different from their corresponding direct phantom measurements(P<.05). The quality of the CBCT surface volume-rendered images acquired at a constant threshold varied across different exposure conditions. Conclusion: These results proved that existing 3D imaging techniques were satisfactorily accurate for clinical applications, and that optimizing the variables that affected image quality, such as the exposure parameters, was critical for image acquisition.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2023

To have highly reliable diagnostic performance of it, this study comparatively analyzed spatial resolution of SPECT images and interrelationship depending on the changes of system uniformity of ga㎜a camera through phantom analysis. This study chose 6 kinds of results from quality control (uniformity) of triple head SPECT scanner operated in an university hospital in Seoul for six months. Then, study measured spatial resolutions (FWHM) of the images restructured by injecting radiopharmaceuticals to Jaszczak phantom, and doing SPECT scanning under the same conditions as clinical ones using the analytical program (image J). Quality controls performed by the experimental institution showed that differential uniformity of UFOV ranged from 2.76% to 7.61% (4.46±2.07), and integral uniformity of UFOV ranged from 1.98% to 5.42% (3.01±1.43). Meanwhile, Quantitative analysis evaluations of phantom images depending on the changes of uniformity of SPECT scanner detector showed that as the uniformity values of UFOV and CFOV decreased, FWHM values of phantom images decreased from 8.5 ㎜ to 5.8 ㎜. That is, it was quantitatively identified that the higher uniformity of detector is, the better spatial resolution of images gets (P<0.05). It is very important to perform continuous and consistent quality control of the nuclear medicinal system, and users should be clearly conscious of it.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.468-476
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• 2002

The confidence of information from image processing depends on the original image quality. Enhancing the confidence by an algorithm has an essential limitation. Especially, road images are exposed to lots of noisy sources, which makes image processing difficult. We, in this paper, propose a FNN (fuzzy-neural network) capable oi deciding the quality of a road image prior to extracting lane-related information. According to the decision by the FNN, road images are classified into good or bad to extract lane-related information. A CDF (cumulative distribution function), a function of edge histogram, is utilized to construct input parameters of the FNN, it is based on the fact that the shape of the CDF and the image quality has large correlation. Input pattern vector to the FNN consists of ten parameters in which nine parameters are from the CDF and the other one is from intensity distribution of raw image. Correlation analysis shows that each parameter represents the image quality well. According to the experimental results, the proposed FNN system was quite successful. We carried out simulations with real images taken by various lighting and weather conditions and achieved about 99% successful decision-making.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.77-81
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• 2002

The purpose of this study is to examine quantitatively the relationship between visual image quality and degradation In spatial resolution for a gamma camera by the increase in distance from collimator. The relationship between the portion(p) of images identified the difference of image quality and the difference(${\Delta}FWHM$) in FWHM between paired images was showed in a sigmoid curve. Using Dendy's method, minimum level to be correctly identified the difference of Image duality on three out of four occasion(p=0.75) was corresponded to 0.4 mm in ${\Delta}FWHM$. Using fuzzy theory, the level to be identified the difference of image quality was examined under various conditions. The truth-value of fuzzy sets-degraded or slightly degraded and not-degraded in image quality between palled Images-was gained the peak at 0.5 mm of ${\Delta}FWHM$. It was founded that changes of $0.4{\sim}0.5\;mm$ in FWHM-corresponding about 2 cm distance from collimator could be sufficiently identified in the difference of image quality.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2001.06d
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• pp.9-12
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• 2001

Point pattern matching schemes for finger print recognition do not guarantee robust matching performance for finger print images of poor quality. We present a finger print recognition scheme, where transformation parameter of matched ridge pairs are estimated by Hough transform and the matching hypothesis is verified by a new measure of the matching degree using selective directional information. Proposed method may exhibit extremely low FAR(False Accept Ratio) while maintaining low reject ratio even for the images of poor quality because of the robustness to the variation of minutia points.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.47-58
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• 2016

The cabin service quality expected by customers during the air travel can be the top priority to choose an airline. Customers' perception about cabin service quality evaluation are important for developing differentiated cabin service strategies of airlines, so this study aims to analyze the effect of the cabin service quality on airline image and customer loyalty. For achieving this purpose, literature study and empirical study on cabin service, customer loyalty and airline image were performed together. As a results of research, a high level of the cabin service quality provided by airlines significantly influenced positive images of airlines and customer loyalty. And customers' positive image towards airlines practically had a substantial influence on the improvement of customer loyalty. These study results would help in creating positive images of airlines and securing customer loyalty by developing differentiated and improved cabin service quality strategies of each airline in the limitless competition of the aviation service industry.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.911-921
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• 2004

Accurate minutiae extraction from input fingerprint images is one of the critical modules in robust automatic fingerprint identification system. However, the performance of a minutiae extraction is heavily dependent on the quality of the input fingerprint images. If the preprocessing is performed according to the fingerprint image characteristics in the image enhancement step, the system performance will be more robust. In this paper, we propose a knowledge-based preprocessing method, which extracts S features (the mean and variance of gray values, block directional difference, orientation change level, and ridge-valley thickness ratio) from the fingerprint images and analyzes image quality with Ward's clustering algorithm, and enhances the images with respect to oily/neutral/dry characteristics. Experimental results using NIST DB 4 and Inha University DB show that clustering algorithm distinguishes the image Quality characteristics well. In addition, the performance of the proposed method is assessed using quality index and block directional difference. The results indicate that the proposed method improves both the quality index and block directional difference.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.301-306
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• 2021

The use of tin filters as a way to reduce the medical radiation in computed tomography (CT). However, due to the changed X-ray spectrum with the use of tin filters, disease diagnosis could be affected because it appears as images of different impressions from previous images. Therefore, this study evaluates the changes in images when using tin filter and high pitch in chest low-dose CT. In this study, images were acquired in groups of three for comparison. Group 1 did not apply to tin filter, and used the existing pitch 0.8. Group 2 used a tin filter, pitch 0.8, Group 3 used a tin filter, and pitch 2.5. To compare the image quality, the natural image quality evaluator (NIQE) and the blind/referenceless image quality evaluator (BRISQUE) were used among the blind quality evaluation factors depended on a no-reference basis. As a result, the NIQE values were low in the order of Group 1, Group 3, and Group 2. BRISQUE values were low in the order of Group 3, Group 2 and Group 1. This study confirms the superiority of images of tin filter and high pitch techniques in chest low-dose CT, which is considered to be a fundamental study for acquiring accurate images of patients with difficult breathing control.