• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.83-89
• /
• 2010

Purpose: The Wide Beam Reconstruction (WBR) algorithms that UltraSPECT, Ltd. (U.S) has provides solutions which improved image resolution by eliminating the effect of the line spread function by collimator and suppression of the noise. It controls the resolution and noise level automatically and yields unsurpassed image quality. The aim of this study is WBR of whole body bone scan in usefulness of clinical application. Materials and Methods: The standard line source and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) reconstructed spatial resolution measurements were performed on an INFINA (GE, Milwaukee, WI) gamma camera, equipped with low energy high resolution (LEHR) collimators. The total counts of line source measurements with 200 kcps and 300 kcps. The SPECT phantoms analyzed spatial resolution by the changing matrix size. Also a clinical evaluation study was performed with forty three patients, referred for bone scans. First group altered scan speed with 20 and 30 cm/min and dosage of 740 MBq (20 mCi) of $^{99m}Tc$-HDP administered but second group altered dosage of $^{99m}Tc$-HDP with 740 and 1,110 MBq (20 mCi and 30 mCi) in same scan speed. The acquired data was reconstructed using the typical clinical protocol in use and the WBR protocol. The patient's information was removed and a blind reading was done on each reconstruction method. For each reading, a questionnaire was completed in which the reader was asked to evaluate, on a scale of 1-5 point. Results: The result of planar WBR data improved resolution more than 10%. The Full-Width at Half-Maximum (FWHM) of WBR data improved about 16% (Standard: 8.45, WBR: 7.09). SPECT WBR data improved resolution more than about 50% and evaluate FWHM of WBR data (Standard: 3.52, WBR: 1.65). A clinical evaluation study, there was no statistically significant difference between the two method, which includes improvement of the bone to soft tissue ratio and the image resolution (first group p=0.07, second group p=0.458). Conclusion: The WBR method allows to shorten the acquisition time of bone scans while simultaneously providing improved image quality and to reduce the dosage of radiopharmaceuticals reducing radiation dose. Therefore, the WBR method can be applied to a wide range of clinical applications to provide clinical values as well as image quality.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.371-379
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the change in the X-ray condition on the entrance surface dose (ESD) and dose area product (DAP) in the cine imaging of coronary angiography (CAG), and to analyze the usefulness of the condition change on the dose relation and image quality by measuring and analyzing the Signal to Noise Radio (SNR) and Contrast to Nois Ratio (CNR) of the angiographic images taken by the Image J program. Data were collected from 33 patients (24 males and 9 females) who underwent CAG at this hospital from November 2017 to March 2018. In terms of imaging condition and data acquisition, the ESD and DAP of group A with a high tube current of 397.2 mA and group B with a low tube current of 370.7 mA were retrospectively obtained for comparison and analysis. For the SNR and CNR measurement and analysis via Image J, the result values were derived by substituting the obtained data into the formula. The correlations among ESD and DAP according to the change in the imaging condition, SNR, and CNR were analyzed by using the SPSS statistical analysis software. The relationships of groups A and B, having a difference in the imaging condition, mA, with ESD ($A:483.5{\pm}60.1$; $B: 464.4{\pm}39.9$) and DAP ($A:84.3{\pm}10.7$; $B:81.5{\pm}7$) were not statistically significant (p>0.05). In the relationships with SNR and CNR based on Image J, the SNR ($5.451{\pm}0.529$) and CNR ($0.411{\pm}0.0432$) of the images obtained via the left coronary artery (LCA) imaging of group B showed differences of $0.475{\pm}0.096$ and $-0.048{\pm}0.0$, respectively, from the SNR ($4.976{\pm}0.433$) and CNR ($0.459{\pm}0.0431$) of the LCA of group A. However, the differences were not statistically significant (p<0.05). In the SNR and CNR obtained via the right coronary artery (RCA) imaging, the SNR ($4.731{\pm}0.773$) and CNR ($0.354{\pm}0.083$) of group A showed increased values of $1.491{\pm}0.405$ and $0.188{\pm}0.005$, respectively, from the SNR ($3.24{\pm}0.368$) and CNR ($0.166{\pm}0.033$) of group B. Among these, CNR was statistically significant (p<0.05). In the correlation analysis, statistically significant results were shown in SNR (LCA) and CNR (LCA); SNR (RCA) and CNR (RCA); ESD and DAP; ESD and sec; DAP and CNR (RCA); and DAP and sec (p<0.05). As a result of the analyses on the image quality evaluation and usefulness of the dose change, the SNR and CNR were increased in the RCA images of the CAG obtained by increasing the mA. Based on the result that CNR showed a statistically significant difference, it is believed that the contrast in the image quality can be further improved by increasing the mA in RCA imaging.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
• /
• v.50 no.8
• /
• pp.253-263
• /
• 2013

Frequency Scanning Interferometry(FSI) system, one of the most promising optical surface measurement techniques, generally results in superior optical performance comparing with other 3-dimensional measuring methods as its hardware structure is fixed in operation and only the light frequency is scanned in a specific spectral band without vertical scanning of the target surface or the objective lens. FSI system collects a set of images of interference fringe by changing the frequency of light source. After that, it transforms intensity data of acquired image into frequency information, and calculates the height profile of target objects with the help of frequency analysis based on Fast Fourier Transform(FFT). However, it still suffers from optical noise on target surfaces and relatively long processing time due to the number of images acquired in frequency scanning phase. 1) a Polarization-based Frequency Scanning Interferometry(PFSI) is proposed for optical noise robustness. It consists of tunable laser for light source, ${\lambda}/4$ plate in front of reference mirror, ${\lambda}/4$ plate in front of target object, polarizing beam splitter, polarizer in front of image sensor, polarizer in front of the fiber coupled light source, ${\lambda}/2$ plate between PBS and polarizer of the light source. Using the proposed system, we can solve the problem of fringe image with low contrast by using polarization technique. Also, we can control light distribution of object beam and reference beam. 2) the signal processing acceleration method is proposed for PFSI, based on parallel processing architecture, which consists of parallel processing hardware and software such as Graphic Processing Unit(GPU) and Compute Unified Device Architecture(CUDA). As a result, the processing time reaches into tact time level of real-time processing. Finally, the proposed system is evaluated in terms of accuracy and processing speed through a series of experiment and the obtained results show the effectiveness of the proposed system and method.

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

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
• /
• v.29 no.5C
• /
• pp.664-672
• /
• 2004

Widespread popularity of wireless data communication devices, coupled with the availability of higher bandwidths, has led to an increased user demand for content-rich media such as images and videos. Since such content often tends to be private, sensitive, or paid for, there exists a requirement for securing such communication. However, solutions that rely only on traditional compute-intensive security mechanisms are unsuitable for resource-constrained wireless and embedded devices. In this paper, we propose a selective partial image encryption scheme for image data hiding , which enables highly efficient secure communication of image data to and from resource constrained wireless devices. The encryption scheme is invoked during the image compression process, with the encryption being performed between the quantizer and the entropy coder stages. Three data selection schemes are proposed： subband selection, data bit selection and random selection. We show that these schemes make secure communication of images feasible for constrained embed-ded devices. In addition we demonstrate how these schemes can be dynamically configured to trade-off the amount of ded devices. In addition we demonstrate how these schemes can be dynamically configured to trade-off the amount of data hiding achieved with the computation requirements imposed on the wireless devices. Experiments conducted on over 500 test images reveal that, by using our techniques, the fraction of data to be encrypted with our scheme varies between 0.0244％ and 0.39％ of the original image size. The peak signal to noise ratios (PSNR) of the encrypted image were observed to vary between about 9.5㏈ to 7.5㏈. In addition, visual test indicate that our schemes are capable of providing a high degree of data hiding with much lower computational costs.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
• /
• v.23 no.8
• /
• pp.759-769
• /
• 2013

Electronic equipment has been applied to virtually every area associated with commercial, industrial, and military applications. Specifically, electronics have been incorporated into avionics components installed in aircraft. This equipment is exposed to dynamic loads such as vibration, shock, and acceleration. Especially, avionics components installed in a helicopter are subjected to simultaneous sine and random base excitations. These are denoted as sine on random vibrations according to MIL-STD-810F, Method 514.5. In the past, isolators have been applied to avionics components to reduce vibration and shock. However, an isolator applied to an avionics component installed in a helicopter can amplify the vibration magnitude, and damage the chassis, circuit card assembly, and the isolator itself via resonance at low-frequency sinusoidal vibrations. The objective of this study is to investigate the dynamic characteristics of an avionics component installed in a helicopter and the structural dynamic modification of its tray plate without an isolator using both a finite element analysis and experiments. The structure is optimized by dynamic loads that are selected by comparing the vibration, shock, and acceleration loads using vibration and shock response spectra. A finite element model(FEM) was constructed using a simplified geometry and valid element types that reflect the dynamic characteristics. The FEM was verified by an experimental modal analysis. Design parameters were extracted and selected to modify the structural dynamics using topology optimization, and design of experiments(DOE). A prototype of a modified model was constructed and its feasibility was evaluated using an FEM and a performance test.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.13-18
• /
• 2008

Purpose: The image processing method due to the algorism which is various portion nuclear medical image decision is important it makes holds. The purpose of this study is it applies hereupon new image processing method SIEMENS (made by Pixon co.) Onco. flash processing reconstruction and the comparison which use the image control technique of existing the clinical usefulness it analyzes with it evaluates. Materials & Methods: 1. Whole body bone scan-scan speed 20 cm/min, 30 cm/min & 40 cm/min blinding test 2. Bone static spot scan-regional view 200 kcts, 400 kcts for chest, pelvis, foot blinding test 3. 4 quadrant-bar phantom-20000 kcts visual evaluation 4. LSF-FWHM resolution comparison ananysis. Results: 1. Raw data (20 cm/min) & processing data (30 cm/min)-similar level image quality 2. Low count static image-image quality clearly improved at visual evaluation result. 3. Visual evaluation by quadrant bar phantom-rising image quality level 4. Resolution comparison evaluation (FWHM)-same difference from resolution comparison evaluation Conclusion: The study which applies a new method Onco. flash processing reconstruction, it will be able to confirm the image quality improvement which until high level is clearer the case which applies the method of existing better than. The new reconstruction improves the resolution & reduces the noise. This enhances the diagnostic capabilities of such imagery for radiologists and physicians and allows a reduction in radiation dosage for the same image quality. Like this fact, rising of equipment availability & shortening the patient waiting move & from viewpoint of the active defense against radiation currently becomes feed with the fact that it will be the useful result propriety which is sufficient in clinical NM.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.82-88
• /
• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of study was to evaluate radiation dose for pediatric patients by changing tube voltage (kVp) and tube current (mA) at minimum conditions. By evaluating radiation dose, we want to provide dose reduction for pediatric patients and maintain good quality of SPECT/CT images. Materials and Methods: Discovery NM/CT 670 Scanne was used as SPECT/CT. Tube voltages are 80 and 100 kvP. Tube currents are 10, 15, 20, 25 mA. Using PMMA (Polymethyl methacrylate) Phantom, radiation dose which were calculated at center and peripheral dose and SNRD (Signal to Noise Ratio Dose) were evaluated. Using the CT performance phantom, spatial resolution was evaluated as the MTF (Modulation Transfer Function) graph. Jaszczak phantom was used for SPECT image evaluation by CNR (Contrast to Noise to Ratio). Results: Radiation dose using the PMMA phantom was higher peripheral dose than center dose about 7%. SNRD were 7.8, 8.2, 8.3, 8.8, 8.8, 9.9, 9.8, 9.6 for 80 kVp 10, 15, 20, 25 mA, 100 kVp 10, 15, 20, 25 mA. We can distinguish 35, 45, 70, 71, 52, 58, 90, 110 linepair for 80 kVp 10, 15, 20, 25 mA, 100 kVp 10, 15, 20, 25 mA at resolution with MTF. CNR of SPECT images using CT attenuation map were 57.8, 57.7, 57.1, 56.7, 56.6, 56.7, 56.7, 56.7% for 80 kVp 10, 15, 20, 25 mA, 100 kVp 10, 15, 20, 25 mA. Conclusion: In this study, radiation dose for pediatric patients showed decreased low dose condition. And SNRD value was similar in all condition. Resolution showed higher value at 100kVp than 80kVp. for CNR, there was no significant difference. we should take additional study to prove better quality and dose reduction.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.126-133
• /
• 2003

High-resolution shallow marine seismic surveys have been carried out for the resources exploration, engineering applications and Quaternary mapping. To improve the resolution of subsurface structure image, multichannel digital technique has been applied. The quality of the image depends on the vertical and horizontal resolution and signal to noise (S/N) ratio which are associated with the data acquisition parameters such as sample interval, common midpoint (CMP) interval and CMP fold. To understand the effect of the acquisition parameters, a test survey was carried out off Yeosu and the acquired data were analyzed. A 30 $in^3$ small air gun was used as a seismic source and 8 channel streamer cable with a 5 m group interval was used as a receiver. The data were digitally recorded with a shot interval of 2 s and sample interval of 0.1 ms. The acquired data were resampled with various sample intervals, CMP intervals and CMP folds. The resampled data were processed, plotted as seismic sections and compared each other. The analysis results show that thin bed structure with ${\~}1m$ thickness and ${\~}6^{\circ}$ slope can be imaged with good resolution and continuity and low noise using the acquisition parameters with a sample interval shorter than 0.2 ms, CMP interval shorter than 2.5 m and CMP fold more than 4. Because seismic resolution is associated with the acquisition parameters, the quality of the subsurface structure can be imaged successfully using suitable and optimum acquisition parameters.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.16 no.6
• /
• pp.4335-4347
• /
• 2015

The objective of this study was to investigate $PM_{10}$ and $CO_2$ concentrations in the classrooms of 286 elementary schools in Suwon, Ansan, and Hwaseong in the province of Gyeonggi between August 2008 and December 2012. By gaining an understanding of the environmental factors that influence these concentrations, this study also aimed to establish a management plan for indoor air quality in schools, which substantially affects the health of elementary students. When the schools were classified by region, no statistically significant difference in $PM_{10}$ concentration was observed. However, $PM_{10}$ concentration was relatively high in industrial areas and low in rural areas. No difference in $CO_2$ concentration was observed among the surveyed cities. Analysis of annual $PM_{10}$ concentration showed that the highest values for Suwon and Hwaseong occurred in 2008 and 2009, respectively (p<0.01). In the case of Ansan, the highest concentration occurred during 2009, but the difference was not significant compared to the other years. Analysis of the annual $CO_2$ concentration of each city shows no significant difference among the cities (p-value=0.366,0.730,0.210). According to a time series analysis of $PM_{10}$ and $CO_2$ by season, from autumn 2008 to winter 2012, $PM_{10}$ concentration was high during 2009, then it gradually decreased until 2012, and started to increase again. While no difference in annual $CO_2$ concentration was observed, the concentration had a tendency to be higher in spring and winter than in summer. By analyzing the relationship between $PM_{10}$ and $CO_2$ and the environmental factors (years of construction, average students of classroom, temperature, and humidity), it showed a significant negative correlation was found between $CO_2$ and the environmental temperature and humidity, at -0.329 and -0.188, respectively (p<0.01).