• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권7호
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• pp.2567-2571
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• 2023

Scintillator materials are widely used in the medical and industrial fields for imaging systems using gamma cameras. In this study, image evaluation is performed by modeling a gamma camera system based on a lutetium-yttrium oxyorthosilicate (LYSO) scintillation detector using a pinhole collimator that can improve the spatial resolution. A LYSO detector-based gamma camera system is modeled using a Monte Carlo simulation tool. The geometric concept of the pinhole collimator is designed using various magnification factors, and the spatial resolution is measured using the acquired source image. To evaluate the resolution, the full width at half maximum (FWHM) and natural image quality assessment (NIQE), a no-reference-based parameter, are used. We confirm that the FWHM and NIQE values decrease simultaneously when the diameter of the pinhole collimator increases. Additionally, we confirm that the spatial resolution improves as the magnification factor increases under the same pinhole diameter condition. Particularly, a 0.57 mm FWHM value is obtained using the modeled gamma camera system with a LYSO scintillation detector. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that a pinhole collimator with a LYSO scintillation detector is a promising gamma camera imaging system.

• 대한방사선기술학회지:방사선기술과학
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• 제46권1호
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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.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• 제47권3호
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• pp.199-207
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• 2017

Purpose: Evaluation of alveolar bone is important in the diagnosis of dental diseases. The periodontal ligament space is difficult to clearly depict in cone-beam computed tomography images because the reconstruction filter conditions during image processing cause image blurring, resulting in decreased spatial resolution. We examined different reconstruction filters to assess their ability to improve spatial resolution and allow for a clearer visualization of the periodontal ligament space. Materials and Methods: Cone-beam computed tomography projections of 2 skull phantoms were reconstructed using 6 reconstruction conditions and then compared using the Thurstone paired comparison method. Physical evaluations, including the modulation transfer function and the Wiener spectrum, as well as an assessment of space visibility, were undertaken using experimental phantoms. Results: Image reconstruction using a modified Shepp-Logan filter resulted in better sensory, physical, and quantitative evaluations. The reconstruction conditions substantially improved the spatial resolution and visualization of the periodontal ligament space. The difference in sensitivity was obtained by altering the reconstruction filter. Conclusion: Modifying the characteristics of a reconstruction filter can generate significant improvement in assessments of the periodontal ligament space. A high-frequency enhancement filter improves the visualization of thin structures and will be useful when accurate assessment of the periodontal ligament space is necessary.

• 디지털정책학회지
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• 제2권3호
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• pp.1-7
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• 2023

본 논문은 단일 영상을 이용하여 초해상도 방법을 수행하기 위해 질감-공간 영역을 분리한 뒤 세부정보를 중심으로 특징을 분류하는 방법을 제안한다. CNN(Convolutional Neural Network) 기반의 초해상도는 세부정보를 개선하기 위한 특징 추정 과정에서의 복잡한 절차와 중복된 특징 정보의 생성으로 인해 초해상도에서 가장 중요한 기준인 품질 저하가 발생할 수 있다. 제안하는 방법은 절차적 복잡성을 줄이고 중복 특징 정보의 생성을 최소화하여 초해상도 결과의 품질을 개선하기 위해 입력 영상을 질감과 공간의 두 채널로 분리하였다. 질감 채널에서는 세부정보 복원을 위해 다중스케일로 변환한 영상에 단계별 skip-connection을 적용한 잔차 블록 구조를 적용하여 특징 정제 과정을 수행함으로써 특징 추출을 개선하였고, 공간 채널에서는 평활화된 형태의 특징을 활용하여 잡음을 제거하고 구조적 특징을 유지하도록 하였다. 제안하는 방법을 이용해 실험한 결과 기존 초해상도 방법대비 PSNR 및 SSIM 성능 평가에서 향상된 결과를 보여 품질이 개선됨을 확인할 수 있었다.

• ETRI Journal
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• 제33권4호
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• pp.497-505
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• 2011

Image fusion is a technical method to integrate the spatial details of the high-resolution panchromatic (HRP) image and the spectral information of low-resolution multispectral (LRM) images to produce high-resolution multispectral images. The most important point in image fusion is enhancing the spatial details of the HRP image and simultaneously maintaining the spectral information of the LRM images. This implies that the physical characteristics of a satellite sensor should be considered in the fusion process. Also, to fuse massive satellite images, the fusion method should have low computation costs. In this paper, we propose a fast and efficient satellite image fusion method. The proposed method uses the spectral response functions of a satellite sensor; thus, it rationally reflects the physical characteristics of the satellite sensor to the fused image. As a result, the proposed method provides high-quality fused images in terms of spectral and spatial evaluations. The experimental results of IKONOS images indicate that the proposed method outperforms the intensity-hue-saturation and wavelet-based methods.

• 대기
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• 제20권4호
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• pp.495-503
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• 2010

Satellite data have an intrinsic problem due to a number of various physical parameters, which can have a similar effect on measured radiance. Most evaluations of satellite performance have relied on comparisons with limited spatial and temporal resolution of ground-based measurements such as soundings and in-situ measurements. In order to overcome this problem, a new way of satellite data evaluation is suggested with statistical tools such as empirical orthogonal function(EOF), and singular value decomposition(SVD). The EOF analyses with OMI and OMI HCHO over northeast Asia show that the spatial pattern show high correlation with population density. This suggests that human activity is a major source of as well as HCHO over this region. However, this analysis is contradictory to the previous finding with GOME HCHO that biogenic activity is the main driving mechanism(Fu et al., 2007). To verify the source of HCHO over this region, we performed the EOF analyses with vegetation and HCHO distribution. The results showed no coherence in the spatial and temporal pattern between two factors. Rather, the additional SVD analysis between $NO_2$ and HCHO shows consistency in spatial and temporal coherence. This outcome suggests that the anthropogenic emission is the main source of HCHO over the region. We speculate that the previous study appears to be due to low temporal and spatial resolution of GOME measurements or uncertainty in model input data.

• 대한원격탐사학회지
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• 제26권3호
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• pp.347-359
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• 2010

Ortho-photos provide valuable spatial and spectral information for various Geographic Information System (GIS) and mapping applications. The absence of relief displacement and the uniform scale in ortho-photos enable interested users to measure distances, compute areas, derive geographic locations, and quantify changes. Differential rectification has traditionally been used for ortho-photo generation. However, differential rectification produces serious problems (in the form of ghost images) when dealing with large scale imagery over urban areas. To avoid these artifacts, true ortho-photo generation techniques have been devised to remove ghost images through visibility analysis and occlusion detection. So far, the Z-buffer method has been one of the most popular methods for true ortho-photo generation. However, it is quite sensitive to the relationship between the cell size of the Digital Surface Model (DSM) and the Ground Sampling Distance (GSD) of the imaging sensor. Another critical issue of true ortho-photo generation using high resolution satellite imagery is the scan line search. In other words, the perspective center corresponding to each ground point should be identified since we are dealing with a line camera. This paper introduces alternative methodology for true ortho-photo generation that circumvents the drawbacks of the Z-buffer technique and the existing scan line search methods. The experiments using real data are carried out while comparing the performance of the proposed and the existing methods through qualitative and quantitative evaluations and computational efficiency. The experimental analysis proved that the proposed method provided the best success ratio of the occlusion detection and had reasonable processing time compared to all other true ortho-photo generation methods tested in this paper.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• 제14권10호
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• pp.4060-4079
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• 2020

Blur is an important type of image distortion. How to evaluate the quality of blurred image accurately and efficiently is a research hotspot in the field of image processing in recent years. Inspired by the multi-scale perceptual characteristics of the human visual system (HVS), this paper presents a no-reference image blur/sharpness assessment method based on multi-scale local features in the spatial domain. First, considering various content has different sensitivity to blur distortion, the image is divided into smooth, edge, and texture regions in blocks. Then, the Gaussian scale space of the image is constructed, and the categorized contrast features between the original image and the Gaussian scale space images are calculated to express the blur degree of different image contents. To simulate the impact of viewing distance on blur distortion, the distribution characteristics of local maximum gradient of multi-resolution images were also calculated in the spatial domain. Finally, the image blur assessment model is obtained by fusing all features and learning the mapping from features to quality scores by support vector regression (SVR). Performance of the proposed method is evaluated on four synthetically blurred databases and one real blurred database. The experimental results demonstrate that our method can produce quality scores more consistent with subjective evaluations than other methods, especially for real burred images.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권12호
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• pp.4591-4596
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• 2023

Single-photon emission computed tomography SPECT image reconstruction methods have a significant influence on image quality, with filtered back projection (FBP) and ordered subset expectation maximization (OSEM) being the most commonly used methods. In this study, we proposed newly-designed adaptive non-blind deconvolution with a structural similarity (SSIM) index that can take advantage of the FBP and OSEM image reconstruction methods. After acquiring brain SPECT images, the proposed image was obtained using an algorithm that applied the SSIM metric, defined by predicting the distribution and amount of blurring. As a result of the contrast to noise ratio (CNR) and coefficient of variation evaluation (COV), the resulting image of the proposed algorithm showed a similar trend in spatial resolution to that of FBP, while obtaining values similar to those of OSEM. In addition, we confirmed that the CNR and COV values of the proposed algorithm improved by approximately 1.69 and 1.59 times, respectively, compared with those of the algorithm involving an inappropriate deblurring process. To summarize, we proposed a new type of algorithm that combines the advantages of SPECT image reconstruction techniques and is expected to be applicable in various fields.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• 제49권2호
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• pp.139-151
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• 2019

Purpose: This study was performed to investigate the effect of exposure parameters on image quality obtained using a cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scanner and the relationship between physical factors and clinical image quality depending on the diagnostic task. Materials and Methods: CBCT images of a SedentexCT IQ phantom and a real skull phantom were obtained under different combinations of tube voltage and tube current (Alphard 3030 CBCT scanner, 78-90 kVp and 2-8 mA). The images obtained using a SedentexCT IQ phantom were analyzed technically, and the physical factors of image noise, contrast resolution, spatial resolution, and metal artifacts were measured. The images obtained using a real skull phantom were evaluated for each diagnostic task by 6 oral and maxillofacial radiologists, and each setting was classified as acceptable or unacceptable based on those evaluations. A statistical analysis of the relationships of exposure parameters and physical factors with observer scores was conducted. Results: For periapical diagnosis and implant planning, the tube current of the acceptable images was significantly higher than that of the unacceptable images. Image noise, the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), the line pair chart on the Z axis, and modulation transfer function (MTF) values showed statistically significant differences between the acceptable and unacceptable image groups. The cut-off values obtained using receiver operating characteristic curves for CNR and MTF 10 were useful for determining acceptability. Conclusion: Tube current had a major influence on clinical image quality. CNR and MTF 10 were useful physical factors that showed significantly associations with clinical image quality.