• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.107-116
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• 2010

Smear is a phenomenon that occurs when an extremely strong light source appears in the imaging system with CCD sensor. It occurs due to the signal charge transfer of CCD and appears as bright lines of noise emanating vertically (or horizontally) from the light source. For still images, smear can be reduced by using a mechanical shutter or special drive methods, but these techniques cannot be applied to image sequences. In this paper, we propose a smear removal method that can be applied to imaging systems for not only still images but also image sequences. The proposed method uses the optical black region(OBR) which is a group of pixels located in the boundary of CCD imaging sensors. Although the OBR is not exposed to light, it contains smear information caused by the charge transport. First, noise and the smear signal in the OBR is separated, and noise is removed to correctly estimate smear effect. Then, corrected OBR signal is uniformly subtracted to eliminate smear effect. Also, if saturation is occurred, the current pixel is substituted by weighted summation of neighboring pixels to improve the visual degradation. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the conventional methods.

• Proceedings of the Acoustical Society of Korea Conference
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• 1984.12a
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• pp.96-99
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• 1984

In this study, the underwater acoustic images were obtained by ultrasonicwave. The experiment was performed in the anechoic watertank, using a passive sonar array for one and two sound source respectively by X-Y scanning technique. The receiving array was consist of 8 disc type transducers with 1.5cm diameter at 25KHz resonance frequency. The scanned data were processed by the FORTRAN IV algorithm for the reconstruction of image, and the image had some noise due to the surface reflected waves. As the result, it was found that the acoustic imaging by electrical deflection and dynamic focusing technique is applicable to SONAR with the suppression of surface reflected wave.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.197-204
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• 2017

Background: X-ray imaging detectors for the nondestructive cargo container inspection using MeV-energy X-rays should accurately portray the internal structure of the irradiated container. Internal and external factors can cause noise, affecting image quality, and scattered radiation is the greatest source of noise. To obtain a high-performance transmission image, the influence of scattered radiation must be minimized, and this can be accomplished through several methods. The scatter rejection method using an anti-scatter grid is the preferred method to reduce the impact of scattered radiation. In this paper, we present an evaluation the characteristics of the signal and noise according to physical and material changes in the anti-scatter grid of the imaging detector used in cargo container scanners. Materials and Methods: We evaluated the characteristics of the signal and noise according to changes in the grid ratio and the material of the anti-scatter grid in an X-ray image detector using MCNP6. The grid was composed of iron, lead, or tungsten, and the grid ratio was set to 2.5, 12.5, 25, or 37.5. X-ray spectrum sources for simulation were generated by 6- and 9-MeV electron impacts on the tungsten target using MCNP6. The object in the simulation was designed using metallic material of various thicknesses inside the steel container. Using the results of the computational simulation, we calculated the change in the scatter-to-primary ratio and the signal-to-noise ratio improvement factor according to the grid ratio and the grid material, respectively. Results and Discussion: Changing the grid ratios of the anti-scatter grid and the grid material decreased the scatter linearly, affecting the signal-to-noise ratio. Conclusion: The grid ratio and material of the anti-scatter grid affected the response characteristics of a container scanner using high-energy X-rays, but to a minimal extent; thus, it may not be practically effective to incorporate anti-scatter grids into container scanners.

• Korean Journal of Digital Imaging in Medicine
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.23-31
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• 2008

Computed radiography(CR) has been widely used in the field of diagnostic radiography since digital X-ray image was introduced. The imaging performance of CR system was studied by analyzing the digital image data of the CR images which are the outcomes of the whole imaging system composed of image plate(IP), laser digitizer, analoge-digital convertor, and a given image processing unit. In this study, we used a conventional CR system made by Agfa. From the flat field image of 150$\times$150 image pixels, signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) was calculated. SNR of the CR image increases in proportion to logarithm value of the X-ray exposure irradiated on the IP. SNR is less than about 6 at the exposure below 0.2mR and is more than 10 at the exposure above 0.54mR. In our study, most of images obtained by the smaller exposures less than 2.0mR can not be readable. In general, the minimum value of the SNR ranges from 3 to 5. We obtained modulation transfer function(MTF) by analyzing the bar pattern image which was made under conditions as follows: X-ray tube potential was 55kVp, the IP exposure was 0.54 mR, and the distance between X-ray source to IP was 2m, where bar pattern was located on the IP. MTF is 23% at 2.5lp/mm spatial frequency. Provided that the MTF of noise equivalent modulation is 10%, the CR system has the limiting spatial resolution of 3.2lp/mm. If the image sharpness is evaluated by the spatial frequency where MTF is 50%. the corresponding spatial frequency is 0.5$\sim$0.75lp/mm. MTFA(Modulation Transfer Function Area) is 1.0lp/mm. Compared with the Fuji CR whose MTFA is 1.1lp/mm, Agfa CR in this study shows almost same MTFA performance.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.145-152
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• 2010

Inveon PET is a recently developed preclinical PET system for small animal. This study was conducted to measure the performance of Inveon PET as recommended by the NEMA NU 4-2008. We measured the spatial resolution, the sensitivity, the scatter fraction and the NECR using a F-18 source. A 3.432 ns coincidence window was used. A $1\;mm^3$ sized F-18 point source was used for the measurement of spatial resolution within an energy window of 350~625 keV. PET acquisition was performed to obtain the spatial resolution from the center to the 5 cm offset toward the edge of the transverse FOV. Sensitivity, scatter fraction, and NECR were measured within an energy window of 350~750 keV. For measuring the sensitivity, a F-18 line source (length: 12.7 cm) was used with concentric 5 aluminum tubes. For the acquisition of the scatter fraction and the NECR, two NEMA scatter phantoms (rat: 50 mm in diameter, 150 mm in length; mouse: 25 mm in diameter, 70 mm in length) were used and the data for 14 half-lives (25.6 hr) was obtained using the F-18 line source (rat: 316 MBq, mouse: 206 MBq). The spatial resolution of the F-18 point source was 1.53, 1.50 and 2.33 mm in the radial, tangential and axial directions, respectively. The volumetric resolution was $5.43\;mm^3$ in the center. The absolute sensitivity was 6.61%. The peak NECR was 486 kcps @121 MBq (rat phantom), and 1056 kcps @128 MBq (mouse phantom). The values of the scatter fraction were 20.59% and 7.93% in the rat and mouse phantoms, respectively. The performances of the Inveon animal PET scanner were measured in this study. This scanner will be useful for animal imaging.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2012.10a
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• pp.715-722
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• 2012

A structural health monitoring (SHM) technique for locating impact position in a composite plate is presented in this paper. The technique employs a single sensor and spatial focusing properties of time reversal (TR) and inverse filtering (IF). We first examine the focusing effect of back-propagated signal at the impact position and its surroundings through simulation. Impact experiments are then carried out and the localization images are found using the TR and IF signal processing, respectively. Both techniques provide accurate impact location results. Compared to existing techniques for locating impact or acoustic emission source, the proposed methods have the benefits of using a single sensor and not requiring knowledge of material properties and geometry of structures. Furthermore, it does not depend on a particular mode of dispersive Lamb waves that is frequently used in the SHM of plate-like structures.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.220-231
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• 2021

The use of digital copies of film-based analog images and the introduction of digital radiographic imaging systems using image plates gradually replace the non-destructive radiationirradiation method of Cultural Heritage. The quality of images obtained from this technique is affected by conditions such as tube voltage, tube current, and exposure time, type of image acquisition medium, distance of the artifacts from the image acquisition medium, and thickness of artifacts. In this study, we evaluated the grayscale image obtained using GE's Computed Radiograhpy (CR) imaging system, the transmission characteristics of the X-ray source for each tree type (pine, chestnut, sawtooth oak, ginkgo) used in wooden Cultural Heritage, and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast. The GE's CR imaging were analyzed using the Duplex wire image quality indicator, line-pair gauges.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.269-275
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• 2004

Different biological tissues have different values of electrical resistivity. In EIT (electrical impedance tomography), we try to provide cross-sectional images of a resistivity distribution inside an electrically conducting subject such as the human body mainly for functional imaging. However, it is well known that the image reconstruction problem in EIT is ill-posed and the quality of a reconstructed image highly depends on the measurement error. This requires us to develop a high-performance EIT system. In this paper, we describe the development of a 16-channel digital EIT system including a single constant current source, 16 voltmeters, main controller, and PC. The system was designed and implemented using the FPGA-based digital technology. The current source injects 50KHz sinusoidal current with the THD (total harmonic distortion) of 0.0029% and amplitude stability of 0.022%. The single current source and switching circuit reduce the measurement error associated with imperfect matching of multiple current sources at the expense of a reduced data acquisition time. The digital voltmeter measuring the induced boundary voltage consists of a differential amplifier, ADC, and FPGA (field programmable gate array). The digital phase-sensitive demodulation technique was implemented in the voltmeter to maximize the SNR (signal-to-noise ratio). Experimental results of 16-channel digital voltmeters showed the SNR of 90dB. We used the developed EIT system to reconstruct resistivity images of a saline phantom containing banana objects. Based on the results, we suggest future improvements for a 64-channel muff-frequency EIT system for three-dimensional dynamic imaging of bio-impedance distributions inside the human body.

• Korean Journal of Digital Imaging in Medicine
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 2007

Our objective was to evaluate the CT attenuation coefficient and noise of spatial domain filtering as an alternative to additional image reconstruction using different kernels in abdominal CT. Derived from thin collimated source images was generated using abdomen B10 (very smooth), B20 (smooth), B30 (medium smooth), B40 (medium), B50 (medium sharp), B60 (sharp), B70 (very sharp) and B80 (ultra sharp) kernels. Quantitative CT coefficient and noise measurements provided comparable HU (hounsfield) units in this respect. CT attenuation coefficient (mean HU) values in the abdominal were 60.4$\sim$62.2 HU and noise (7.6$\sim$63.8 HU) in the liver parenchyma. In the stomach a mean (CT attenuation coefficient) of -2.2$\sim$0.8 HU and noise (10.1$\sim$82.4 HU) was measured. Image reconstructed with a convolution kernel led to an increase in noise, whereas the results for CT attenuation coefficient were comparable. Image medications of image sharpness and noise eliminate the need for reconstruction using different kernels in the future. CT images increase the diagnostic accuracy may be controlled by adjusting CT various kernels, which should be adjusted to take into account the kernels of the CT undergoing the examination.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.30-37
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• 2006

Injecting currents into an electrically conducting subject, we may measure the induced magnetic flux density distributions using an MRI scanner. The measured data are utilized to reconstruct cross-sectional images of internal conductivity and current density distributions in Magnetic Resonance Electrical Impedance Tomography (MREIT). Injection currents are usually provided in a form of mono-polar or bi-polar pulses synchronized with an MR pulse sequence. Given an MRI scanner performing the MR phase imaging to extract the induced magnetic flux density data, the current source becomes one of the key parts determining the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the measured data. Since this SNR is crucial in determining the quality of reconstructed MREIT images, special care must be given in the design and implementation of the current source. This paper describes a current source design for MREIT with features including interleaved current injection, arbitrary current waveform, electrode switching to discharge any stored charge from previous current injections, optical isolation from an MR spectrometer and PC, precise current injection timing control synchronized with any MR pulse sequence, and versatile PC control program. The performance of the current source was verified using a 3T MRI scanner and saline phantoms.