We continue our previous program1 where we introduced a set of quantum-based design rules directed at quantum engineers who design single-photon quantum communications and quantum imaging devices. Here, we report on experimental progress using SPAD (single photon avalanche diode) arrays of our design and fabricated in CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) technology. Emerging high-resolution imaging techniques based on SPAD arrays have proven useful in a variety of disciplines including bio-fluorescence microscopy and 3D vision systems. They have also been particularly successful for intra-chip optical communications implemented entirely in CMOS technology. More importantly for our purposes, a very low dark count allows SPADs to detect rare photon events with a high dynamic range and high signal-to-noise ratio. Our CMOS SPADs support multi-channel detection of photon arrivals with picosecond accuracy, several million times per second, due to a very short detection cycle. The tiny chip area means they are suitable for highly miniaturized quantum imaging devices and that is how we employ them in this paper. Our quantum path integral analysis of the Young-Afshar-Wheeler interferometer showed that Bohr's complementarity principle was not violated due the previously overlooked effect of photon bifurcation within the lens--a phenomenon consistent with our quantum design rules--which accounts for the loss of which-path information in the presence of interference. In this paper, we report on our progress toward the construction of quantitative design rules as well as some proposed tests for quantum imaging devices using entangled photon sources with our SPAD imager.
We propose a novel and fast way to perform 2D-3D registration between available intra-operative 2D images with pre-operative 3D images in order to provide better image-guidance. The current work is a feature based registration algorithm that allows the similarity to be evaluated in a very efficient and faster manner than that of intensity based approaches. The current approach is focused on solving the problem for neuro-interventional applications and therefore we use blood vessels, and specifically their centerlines as the features for registration. The blood vessels are segmented from the 3D datasets and their centerline is extracted using a sequential topological thinning algorithm. Segmentation of the 3D datasets is straightforward because of the injection of contrast agents. For the 2D image, segmentation of the blood vessel is performed by subtracting the image with no contrast (native) from the one with a contrast injection (fill). Following this we compute a modified version of the 2D distance transform. The modified distance transform is computed such that distance is zero on the centerline and increases as we move away from the centerline. This allows us a smooth metric that is minimal at the centerline and large as we move away from the vessel. This is a one time computation, and need not be reevaluated during the iterations. Also we simply sum over all the points rather than evaluating distances over all point pairs as would be done for similar Iterative Closest Point (ICP) based approaches. We estimate the three rotational and three translational parameters by minimizing this cost over all points in the 3D centerline. The speed improvement allows us to perform the registration in under a second on current workstations and therefore provides interactive registration for the interventionalist.
In recent years it has become apparent that the performance of detection sensors for land mines and UXO may be seriously hampered by the magnetic behavior of soils. In tropical soils it is common to find large concentrations of iron oxide minerals, which are the predominant cause for soil magnetism. However, a wide range of factors such as parent material, environmental conditions, soil age, and drainage conditions control soil development. In order to predict whether magnetic-type iron oxide minerals are present it is important to understand the controlling factors of soil development. In this paper we present a conceptual model for predicting magnetic soil characteristics as a function of geological and environmental information. Our model is based on field observations and laboratory measurements of soils from Hawaii, Ghana, and Panama. The conceptual model will lead to the development of pedotransfer functions that quantitatively predict the occurrence and nature of magnetism in soils.
A common syndrome in much of the current quantum optics and quantum computing literature is the casual switching between classical concepts (e.g., geometric rays, electromagnetic waves) and quantum concepts (e.g., state vectors, projection operators). Such ambiguous language can confuse designers not well versed in the deeper subtleties of quantum mechanics, or worse, it can lead to a flawed analysis of new designs for quantum devices. To validate that a quantum device can be constructed with the expected characteristics and that its quantum effects are correctly interpreted, a set of unambiguous design rules would be useful. In this paper we enumerate such a set of easily applied quantum rules in the hope that they might facilitate clearer communication between researchers and system developers in the field. In part, we are motivated by recently reported interferometer results that have not only led to flawed claims about disproving fundamental quantum principles, but have elicited equally flawed counter aruments from supposedly knowledgeable respondents. After one hundred years of testing Einstein's photon, it is alarming that such widespread confusion still persists. Our proposed quantum design rules are presented in a practical diagrammatic style, demonstrating their effectiveness by analyzing several interferometers that have appeared in the recent literature. Application to other quantum devices e.g., quantum ghost imaging, are also discussed. We stress that these rules are entirely quantum in prescription, being particularly appropriate for single-photon devices. Classical optics concepts e.g., refractive index, are not required since they are subsumed by our quantum rules.
Recently, we have realised a polarisation independent optical racetrack resonator whose resonant dips for TE and TM align to better than 1pm. The devices had a Free Spectral Range (FSR) of only several hundred picometres. This in large part was to the relatively large bend radius (~ 400μm) designed and fabricated with initial focus on producing low bend loss devices. Modelling of the bend loss of the same dimension devices shows that the bend radius can be reduced significantly (down to ~25μm) to produce race track ring resonator with an FSR that is approximately 400% larger than that of those previously fabricated, whilst retaining polarisation independence. This paper will focus on the proposed enhancement of these devices as well as the impetus for their investigation.
The dilute-nitride GaInNAs shows great promise in becoming the next choice for long-wavelength (0.9 to 1.6 μm) photodetector applications due to the ability for it to be grown lattice-matched on GaAs substrates. GaAs-based devices have several advantages over InP-based devices, such as substrate cost, convenience of processing, and optoelectronic band parameters. This paper will present results from the first high-quality thick GaInNAs films grown by solid state molecular beam epitaxy with a nitrogen plasma source and the first high efficiency photodetectors which have been fabricated from those materials. GaInNAs films up to 2 microns thick have been grown coherently on GaAs substrates. These films exhibit reasonable photoluminescence intensities at peak wavelengths of 1.22 to 1.13 μm before and after a rapid thermal anneal at a series of temperatures. PIN photodiodes with these thick GaInNAs films in the intrinsic regions show responsivity (better than 0.5 A/W at 1.064 μm), dark current (200 nA at -2 V), and signal-to-noise ratio (greater than 105) approaching those of commercially available InGaAs/InP devices. Furthermore, it will be shown that these devices show significantly lower dark current and higher signal-to-noise ratio than similar metamorphic InGaAs/GaAs structures.
A research paradigm is a dynamical system of scientific works, including their perceived values by peer scientists, and governed by intrinsic intellectual values and associated citation endurance and decay. Identifying an emerging research paradigm and monitoring changes in an existing paradigm have been a challenging task due to the scale and complexity involved. In this article, we describe an exploratory data analysis method for identifying a research paradigm based on clustering scientific articles by their citation half life and betweenness centrality as well as citation frequencies. The Expectation Maximization algorithm is used to cluster articles based on these attributes. It is hypothesized that the resultant clusters correspond to dynamic groupings of articles manifested by a research paradigm. The method is tested with three example datasets: Social Network Analysis (1992-2004), Mass Extinction (1981-2004), and Terrorism (19892004). All these subject domains have known emergent paradigms identified independently. The resultant clusters are interpreted and assessed with reference to clusters identified by co-citation links. The consistency and discrepancy between the EM clusters and the link-based co-citation clusters are also discussed.
In this paper we present a statistical model-based approach to three-dimensional (3D) analysis of gated SPECT perfusion studies. By means of a 3D Active Shape Model (3D-ASM) segmentation algorithm, delineations of the endo- and epicardial borders of the left ventricle are obtained, in all temporal phases and image slices of the study. Prior knowledge was captured from a training set of cardiac MRI and SPECT studies, from which geometrical (shape) and grey-level (appearance) statistical models were built. From the fitted shape, a truly 3D representation of the left ventricle, a series of global and regional functional parameters can be assessed. A myocardial center surface representation is built on top of which scalar maps of perfusion, thickness or motion can be depicted. Preliminary results were quite encouraging, suggesting that statistical model-based segmentation may serve as a robust technique for routine use.
This work is part of an effort to develop smart composite materials that monitor their own health using embedded micro-sensors and local network communication nodes. Here we address the issue of data management through the development of localized processing algorithms. We demonstrate that the two-dimensional Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is a useful algorithm due to its hierarchical structure and ability to determine the relative magnitudes of different spatial wavelengths in a material. We investigate different algorithms for implementing the distributed FFT and compare them in terms of computational requirements within a low-power, low-bandwidth network of microprocessors.
Electrical operation of III-Nitride light emitting diodes (LEDs) with photonic crystal structures is demonstrated. Employing photonic crystal structures in III-Nitride LEDs is a method to increase light extraction efficiency and directionality. The photonic crystal is a triangular lattice formed by dry etching into the III-Nitride LED. A range of lattice constants is considered (a ~ 270 - 340nm). The III-Nitride LED layers include a tunnel junction providing good lateral current spreading without a semi-absorbing metal current spreader as is typically done in conventional III-Nitride LEDs. These photonic crystal III-Nitride LED structures are unique because they allow for carrier recombination and light generation proximal to the photonic crystal (light extraction area) yet displaced from the absorbing metal contact. The photonic crystal Bragg scatters what would have otherwise been guided modes out of the LED, increasing the extraction efficiency. The far-field light radiation patterns are heavily modified compared to the typical III-Nitride LED’s Lambertian output. The photonic crystal affects the light propagation out of the LED surface, and the radiation pattern changes with lattice size. LEDs with photonic crystals are compared to similar III-Nitride LEDs without the photonic crystal in terms of extraction, directionality, and emission spectra.
Remotely sensed images of the Earth's surface provide information about the spatial distribution of evapotranspiration. Since the spatial resolution of evapotranspiration predictions depends on the sensor type; scaling transfer between images of different scales needs to be investigated. The objectives of this study are first to validate the consistency of SEBAL algorithms for satellite images of different scales and second to investigate the effect of up and down-scaling procedures between evapotranspiration maps derived from LandSat 7 and MODIS images. The results of this study demonstrate: (1) good agreement of SEBAL evapotranspiration estimates between LandSat 7 and MODIS images; (2) up and down-scaled evapotranspiration maps over the Middle Rio Grande Basin are very similar to evapotranspiration maps directly derived from LandSat 7 and MODIS images.
This paper describes the design of a grid-enabled version of Montage.. an astronomical image mosaic service, suitable for large scale processing of the sky. All the re-projection jobs can be added to a pool of tasks and performed by as many processors as are available, exploiting the parallelization. inherent in the Montage architecture. We show how we can describe the Montage application in terms of an abstract workflow so that a planning tool such as Pegasus can derive an executable workflow that can be run in the Grid environment. The execution of the workflow is performed by the workflow manager DAGMan and the associated Condor-G. The grid processing will support tiling of images to a manageable size when the input images can no longer be held in memory. Montage will ultimately run operationally on the Teragrid. We describe science applications of Montage, including its application to science product generation by Spitzer Legacy Program teams and large-scale, all-sky image processing projects.
We develop a 3D thermography imaging standardization technique to allow quantitative data analysis. Medical Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging is very sensitive and reliable mean of graphically mapping and display skin surface temperature. It allows doctors to visualise in colour and quantify temperature changes in skin surface. The spectrum of colours indicates both hot and cold responses which may co-exist if the pain associate with an inflammatory focus excites an increase in sympathetic activity. However, due to thermograph provides only qualitative diagnosis information, it has not gained acceptance in the medical and veterinary communities as a necessary or effective tool in inflammation and tumor detection. Here, our technique is based on the combination of visual 3D imaging technique and thermal imaging technique, which maps the 2D thermography images on to 3D anatomical model. Then we rectify the 3D thermogram into a view independent thermogram and conform it a standard shape template. The combination of these imaging facilities allows the generation of combined 3D and thermal data from which thermal signatures can be quantified.
This paper evaluates the operation of self-correcting active pixel sensors presented in [6] using Signal-to-Noise Ratio. The evaluation is based on a simplified Active Pixel Sensing (APS) model. We show that in the absence of stuck faults (i.e., no errors) the performance of the system suffers from considerable degradation especially at low illumination (i.e., typical indoor scenes). We use the same model to quantify the number of defective pixels under which self correction is beneficial.
The paper describes design and practical realization of software for laboratory purposes to control FPGA-based photonic and electronic equipment. There is presented a universal solution for all relevant devices with FPGA chips and gigabit optical links. The paper describes architecture of the software layers and program solutions of hardware communication based on Internal Interface (II) technology. Such a solution was used for superconducting Cavity Controller and Simulator (SIMCON) for the TESLA experiment in DESY (Hamburg). A number of practical examples of the software solutions for the SIMCON system were given in this paper.
The work presents a structural and functional model of a distributed low level radio frequency (LLRF) control system for the TESLA-XFEL accelerator. The design of a system basing on the FPGA chips and multi-gigabit optical network was debated. The system design approach was fully parametric. The major emphasis is put on the methods of the functional and hardware concentration to use fully both: a very big transmission capacity of the optical fiber telemetric channels and very big processing power of the latest series of the, DSP enhanced and optical I/O equipped, FPGA chips. The subject of the work is the design of a universal, laboratory module of the LLRF sub-system. Initial parameters of the system model under the design are presented.
A large number of 3D cameras suffer from so-called holes in the data, i.e. the measurement lattice is affected by invalid measurements and the range image has undefined values. Conventional image filters used for removing the holes perform not well in presence of holes with large varying hole sizes. The novel hole-filling method presented in this paper operates on reliability attributed range images featuring unwanted holes with wide varying sizes. The method operates according to a multi resolution scheme where the image resolution is decreased at the same time as the range reliability is successively increased until sufficient confidence is reached. It builds on three main components. First, the described process performs a weighted local neighbourhood filter where the contribution of each pixel stands for its reliability. Second, the filtering combines filters with different kernel sizes and implements therefore the multi resolution schema. Third, the processing requires a complete travel from high resolution down to the resolution of satisfactory confidence and back again to the highest resolution. The algorithm for the described method was implemented in a efficient way and was widely applied in the hole-filling of range images from a depth from focus process where reliability is obtainable non-linearly from the local sharpness measurement. The method is valid in a very general way for all range imagers providing reliability information. It seems therefore well suited to depth cameras like time-of-flight, stereo and other similar rangers.
Life cycle monitoring of civil infrastructure such as bridges and buildings is critical to the long-term operational cost and safety of aging structures. The widespread use of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems is limited due to unavailability of specialized data acquisition equipment, high cost of generic equipment, and absence of fully automatic decision support systems.The goals of the presented project include: first, design of a Wireless Intelligent Sensor and Actuator Network (WISAN) and creation of an inexpensive set of instrumentation for the tasks of structural health monitoring; second, development of a SHM method, which is suitable for autonomous structural health monitoring.The design of the wireless sensor network is aimed at applications of structural health monitoring, addressing the issues of achieving a low cost per sensor, higher reliability, sources of energy for the network nodes, energy-efficient distribution of the computational load, security and coexistence in the ISM radio bands. The practical applicability of the sensor network is increased through utilization of computational intelligence and support of signal generation capabilities.The automated SHM method is based on the method of modal strain energy, though other SHM methods will be supported as well. The automation tasks include automation of the modal identification through ambient vibrations, classification of the acquired mode shapes, and automatic evaluation of the structural health.
The cavity control system for the TESLA TeV–Energy Superconducting Linear Accelerator project is initially introduced. The elementary analysis of the cavity resonator on RF (radio frequency) level and low level frequency with signal and power considerations is presented. For the field vector detection the digital signal processing is proposed. The electromechanical model concerning Lorentz force detuning is applied for analyzing the basic features of the system performance. For multiple cavities driven by one klystron the field vector sum control is considered. Simulink model implementation is developed to explore the feedback and feed-forward system operation and some experimental results for signals and power considerations are presented.
The probability hypothesis density (PHD) filter is a practical alternative to the optimal Bayesian multi-target filter based on finite set statistics. It propagates only the first order moment instead of the full multi-target posterior. Recently, a sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) implementation of PHD filter has been used in multi-target filtering with promising results. In this paper, we will compare the performance of the PHD filter with that of the multiple hypothesis tracking (MHT) that has been widely used in multi-target filtering over the past decades. The Wasserstein distance is used as a measure of the multi-target miss distance in these comparisons. Furthermore, since the PHD filter does not produce target tracks, for comparison purposes, we investigated ways of integrating the data-association functionality into the PHD filter. This has lead us to devise methods for integrating the PHD filter and the MHT filter for target tracking which exploits the advantage of both approaches.
