This includes integration of components and software for image acquisition and digitization, development of image processing algorithms for image enhancement, object identification and analysis, and automated decision-making. Applications cover the fields of industrial and medical imaging. 3-dimensional surface profilometry using paired video projectors and cameras, development and analysis of web inspection algorithms, development of hardened camera systems for imaging in harsh production environments, quantification, and grading of visual surface characteristics, video attenuation of machining marks to enhance the detection of defects in the substrate and the automatic monitoring of smoke stacks for excessive exhaust products. CMRI has been leading an effort for many years developing and analyzing algorithms for object recognition in images of highly cluttered environments. For example, CMRI worked with images from X-ray and computed tomography systems inspecting luggage.
Luggage usually contains a wide variety of object shapes, sizes and composition.
The resulting X-ray image is an amalgam of gray levels, with many objects partially obstructed, making an ideal test bed for complex object recognition algorithms. CMRI has developed several approaches to this type of application, some based on rotation-independent shape recognition, others using more sophisticated derivations of gray level and texture. CMRI recently transferred our knowledge and experience from our industrial and X-ray imaging applications into medical imaging. The most recent application was the use of filtering algorithms on video microscope images used to study the flow of blood cells in vitro. These are cluttered images with poor contrast.