Patent Publication Number: US-11640674-B2

Title: Information processing device, information processing method, and storage medium storing information processing program

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application is based on and claims priority under 35 USC 119 from Japanese Patent Application No. 2020-119514 filed on Jul. 10, 2020, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Technical Field 
     The present disclosure relates to an information processing device, an information processing method, and a storage medium storing an information processing program. 
     Related Art 
     Heretofore, microscope examination processes for crystal grain sizes in steel have been known. For example, a process disclosed in JIS G0551:2013 “Steels—Micrographic determination of the apparent grain size” of Japan Industrial Standards measures the size of crystal grains at a polished surface of a test piece treated by appropriate processing, according to the kind of steel and other information, with a microscope. 
     When a formation image of a material obtained by a microscope as disclosed in the Reference mentioned above is used for detecting the sizes of structures forming the material shown in the image, large amounts of time and labor are required. Therefore, this conventional technology may not obtain a size distribution of the structures forming a material efficiently. 
     SUMMARY 
     In consideration of the circumstances described above, the present disclosure provides an information processing device, an information processing method, and a storage medium storing an information processing program that may efficiently obtain a size distribution of structures forming a material from a formation image of the material. 
     An information processing device according to a first aspect includes: an acquisition section that acquires a material formation image representing a formation of a material, the material formation image being obtained by imaging the material; and a distribution generation section that generates a Fourier transform result representing a power spectrum by applying a Fourier transform to the material formation image obtained by the acquisition section and, on the basis of the Fourier transform result of the material formation image, employs an expectation-maximization algorithm to generate a size distribution of structures forming the material. 
     The information processing device acquires the material formation image representing the formation of the material that is obtained by imaging the material. Then, by applying a Fourier transform to the material formation image, the information processing device generates a Fourier transform result representing a power spectrum. On the basis of the Fourier transform result of the material formation image, the information processing device employs the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm to generate a size distribution of the structures forming the material. Thus, a size distribution of structures forming the material may be efficiently obtained from the formation image of the material. 
     An information processing device according to a second aspect further includes an image generation section that, on the basis of the material formation image acquired by the acquisition section, generates contrast images comprising a plurality of material formation images with different level of contrasts, wherein the distribution generation section generates a Fourier transform result for each of the plurality of contrast images generated by the image generation section and, on the basis of the respective Fourier transform results of the plural contrast images, employs the expectation-maximization algorithm to generate the size distribution of the structures forming the material. 
     In an information processing method according to a third aspect, a computer executes processing including: acquiring a material formation image representing a formation of a material, the material formation image being obtained by imaging the material; generating a Fourier transform result representing a power spectrum by applying a Fourier transform to the acquired material formation image; and, on the basis of the Fourier transform result of the material formation image, employing an expectation-maximization algorithm to generate a size distribution of structures forming the material. 
     A storage medium storing an information processing program according to a fourth aspect stores an information processing program that causes a computer to execute processing including: acquiring a material formation image representing a formation of a material, the material formation image being obtained by imaging the material; generating a Fourier transform result representing a power spectrum by applying a Fourier transform to the acquired material formation image; and, on the basis of the Fourier transform result of the material formation image, employing an expectation-maximization algorithm to generate a size distribution of structures forming the material. 
     According to the present disclosure as described above, an effect is provided in that a size distribution of structures forming a material may be obtained from a formation image of the material efficiently. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    is a schematic block diagram of an information processing device according to a first exemplary embodiment. 
         FIG.  2    is a diagram describing schematics of the first exemplary embodiment. 
         FIG.  3    is a diagram describing schematics of the first exemplary embodiment. 
         FIG.  4    is a diagram describing estimation of a size distribution on the basis of a Fourier transform result. 
         FIG.  5    is a diagram describing estimation of a size distribution by an EM algorithm. 
         FIG.  6    is a diagram describing estimation of a size distribution by the EM algorithm. 
         FIG.  7    is a diagram describing estimation of a size distribution by the EM algorithm. 
         FIG.  8    is a diagram showing a structural example of a computer of an information processing device according to the exemplary embodiment. 
         FIG.  9    is a flowchart showing an example of processing that is carried out at the information processing device according to the first exemplary embodiment. 
         FIG.  10    is a schematic block diagram of an information processing device according to a second exemplary embodiment. 
         FIG.  11    is a flowchart showing an example of processing that is carried out at the information processing device according to the second exemplary embodiment. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS 
     First Exemplary Embodiment 
     Below, an information processing device according to a first exemplary embodiment is described using the drawings. 
       FIG.  1    is a block diagram showing an example of functional structures of an information processing device  10  according to the first exemplary embodiment. Functionally, as shown in  FIG.  1   , the information processing device  10  is provided with an acquisition section  100 , an image generation section  102  and a distribution generation section  104 . 
     The acquisition section  100  acquires a material formation image, which is an image that is captured when a material is observed using a microscope. The material formation image is an image depicting formations of the material, and is a grayscale image. 
     On the basis of the material formation image acquired by the acquisition section  100 , the image generation section  102  generates contrast images, which are plural material formation images with different levels of contrasts. 
       FIG.  2    and  FIG.  3    are diagrams for describing schematics of the information processing device  10  according to the first exemplary embodiment. As shown in  FIG.  2   , from a material formation image of a material M that is obtained by a microscope, the information processing device  10  according to the first exemplary embodiment generates contrast images I m,A , I m,B  and I m,C  that are shaded in accordance with different levels of contrasts. Structures of different sizes appear in each of the plural contrast images I m,A , I m,B  and I m,C . The material is formed of plural structures. For example, the structures are grains, needles, fibers, holes or the like forming the material. 
     Hence, the information processing device  10  according to the first exemplary embodiment estimates sizes of the structures appearing in each of the plural contrast images I m,A , I m,B  and I m,C  and generates size distributions S A , S B  and S C  as illustrated in  FIG.  2   . The size distribution S A  is generated from the contrast image I m,A , the size distribution S B  is generated from the contrast image I m,B , and the size distribution S C  is generated from the contrast image I m,C . These size distributions may be calculated both for sizes in a horizontal direction and for sizes in a vertical direction of the structures appearing in the contrast images. 
       FIG.  3    is diagrams for describing schematics of the information processing device  10  according to the first exemplary embodiment in more detail. As shown in  FIG.  3   , when a pixel value distribution of a certain material formation image (the topmost image in  FIG.  3   ) is divided up into different levels of contrasts, the plural contrast images I m,A , I m,B  and I m,C  as illustrated in  FIG.  3    are generated. The contrast image I m,A  is a contrast image corresponding to region A in the pixel value distribution, the contrast image I m,B  is a contrast image corresponding to region B in the pixel value distribution, and the contrast image I m,C  is a contrast image corresponding to region C in the pixel value distribution. The information processing device  10  generates size distributions H A , H B  and H C  corresponding to, respectively, the plural contrast images I m,A , I m,B  and I m,C . In the size distributions H A , H B  and H C , the peaks M A1 , M A2 , M B1 , M B2 , M C1  and M C2 , are peaks of the size distributions, which may be computed by previously known techniques. 
     For each of the plural contrast images generated by the image generation section  102 , the distribution generation section  104  estimates sizes of the structures forming the material that appear in that contrast image. On the basis of the estimated sizes of the structures, the distribution generation section  104  generates a size distribution of structures forming the material. 
     Specifically, by applying a Fourier transform to each of the plural contrast images generated by the image generation section  102 , the distribution generation section  104  obtains a Fourier transform result representing a power spectrum. Then, on the basis of the Fourier transform result corresponding to each of the plural contrast images, the distribution generation section  104  employs a previously known expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm to generate the size distribution of the structures forming the material. 
       FIG.  4    is diagrams for describing a Fourier transform result of a contrast image and estimation of a size distribution. As shown in  FIG.  4   , the distribution generation section  104  applies a previously known Fourier transform to one contrast image Im obtained from the material formation image, and obtains a two-dimensional Fourier transform result P 1 . 
     The horizontal and vertical axes of the two-dimensional Fourier transform result P 1  represent frequencies. Pixel values in the two-dimensional Fourier transform result P 1  represent intensities of the frequencies. A graph P 2  shown in  FIG.  4    is a distribution of pixel values in a cross section of the two-dimensional Fourier transform result P 1  shown in  FIG.  4   . The vertical axis of the graph P 2  represents the pixel values corresponding to the intensities of the frequencies, and the horizontal axis represents the frequencies. The points labeled “raw” in the graph P 2  represent the actual distribution of pixel values, and the plot labeled “fitted” is a curve fitted by a previously known technique to the distribution of pixel values. 
     A size distribution P 3  is generated from the graph P 2 . In the size distribution P 3  shown in  FIG.  4   , “r_dist” represents the size distribution of the structures. 
     More specifically, the distribution generation section  104  uses a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2019-085277 to generate the size distribution of the structures forming the material on the basis of the Fourier transform result of the contrast image. 
     This is described in specific terms below. 
       FIG.  5    is a diagram schematically showing an estimation method of a size distribution of structures appearing in a contrast image. As shown in  FIG.  5   , a size of structures appearing in the contrast image is selected as a size s n  corresponding to a selection probability π n . If a probability that the size s n  corresponds to a frequency f i  is P(f i |s n ), the probability P(f i |s n ) is expressed by I(s,f) in the following expression. 
     
       
         
           
             
               
                 
                   
                     
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     In Bayesian statistics, P(f i |s n ) may be regarded as a posterior probability for which s n  is the prior condition. Given this assumption, a probability P(f i ) of a frequency f i  appearing may be calculated as the sum of the probabilities P(f i |s n ) for all the structures. 
       FIG.  6    is a diagram for describing the probability P(f i ) of the frequency f i  appearing. As shown in  FIG.  6   , the probability P(f i ) of the frequency f i  appearing is a sum of probabilities P(f i |s m ), of sizes s m  corresponding to the frequency f i , weighted by selection probabilities π m  thereof. The probability P(f i ) is expressed by the following expression. 
     
       
         
           
             
               
                 
                   
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       FIG.  7    is a diagram for describing a method of finding selection probabilities from a frequency distribution. As shown in  FIG.  7   , a probability of a structure that corresponds to a frequency f i  in the Fourier transform result corresponding to a size s n  is denoted P(s n |f i ). Employing the previously known Bayes&#39; theorem, this probability P(s n |f i ) is expressed by the following expression. 
     
       
         
           
             
               
                 
                   
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     The symbol P(s n ) in the above expression (3) corresponds to the selection probability π n  The probability P(f i ) of the frequency f i  appearing is calculated by the above expression (2). Therefore, the probability P(s n |f i ) that a structure corresponding to a frequency f i  has a size s n  is represented by the following expression, in which expression (2) is substituted into the denominator at the right side of expression (3) and P(s n ) in the numerator at the right side of expression (3) is replaced with the selection probability π n . The symbol z in  in the following expression (4) corresponds to the probability P(s n |f i ) in expression (3). 
     
       
         
           
             
               
                 
                   
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     The selection probability π n  is expressed by the following expression. In the following expression (5), c i  and c j  are predetermined constants. 
     
       
         
           
             
               
                 
                   
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     In an E step of the EM algorithm, the distribution generation section  104  calculates expected values of z in  in expression (4). In an M step of the EM algorithm, the distribution generation section  104  calculates the selection probabilities π n  in expression (5). 
     The distribution generation section  104  repeats the E step and M step of the EM algorithm until a predetermined convergence condition is satisfied. When the repeated computations converge, the distribution generation section  104  generates selection probabilities π n  of sizes s n  to serve as the size distribution of structures appearing in the contrast image. The selection probabilities π n  correspond with probabilities P(s n ) that represent degrees to which plural sizes s n  (n=1 to N) are present. Therefore, the selection probabilities π n  correspond to the size distribution of the plural sizes s n  (n=1 to N). 
     A display section (not shown in the drawings) outputs a size distribution generated by the distribution generation section  104  as a result. A user of the information processing device  10  views the result of the size distribution displayed at the display section (not shown in the drawings). 
     The information processing device  10  may be realized by, for example, a computer  50  shown in  FIG.  8   . The computer  50  that realizes the information processing device  10  is provided with a CPU  51 , a memory  52  that serves as a temporary storage area, and a memory section  53  that is nonvolatile. The computer is further provided with an input/output interface  54  that is connected to input/output devices and the like (not shown in the drawings) and with a read/write section  55  that controls reading and writing of data at a recording medium  59 . The computer is also provided with a network interface  56  that is connected to a network such as the Internet or the like. The CPU  51 , memory  52 , memory section  53 , input/output interface  54 , read/write section  55  and network interface  56  are connected to one another via a bus  57 . 
     The memory section  53  may be realized by a hard disk drive (HDD), solid state drive (SSD), flash memory or the like. A program causing the computer to function is stored at the memory section  53  that serves as a storage medium. The CPU  51  reads the program from the memory section  53  and loads the program into the memory  52 , and successively executes processes included in the program. 
     Now, operation of the information processing device  10  according to the first exemplary embodiment is described. 
     When a material formation image is inputted into the information processing device  10 , the information processing device  10  executes the information processing routine illustrated in  FIG.  9   . 
     In step S 100  the acquisition section  100  acquires the inputted material formation image. 
     In step S 102 , on the basis of the material formation image acquired by the acquisition section  100 , the image generation section  102  generates plural contrast images in which the material formation image is shaded in accordance with different levels of contrasts. 
     In step S 104 , by applying a Fourier transform to each of the plural contrast images generated by the image generation section  102 , the distribution generation section  104  obtains Fourier transform results representing power spectra. 
     In step S 106 , on the basis of the respective Fourier transform results corresponding to the plural contrast images, the distribution generation section  104  employs the previously known EM algorithm to generate a size distribution of structures forming the material. 
     In step S 108 , the distribution generation section  104  outputs the size distribution obtained in step S 106  as a result. 
     As described above, the information processing device  10  according to the first exemplary embodiment acquires a material formation image obtained by imaging a material. On the basis of the material formation image, the information processing device  10  generates contrast images which are plural material formation images with different levels of contrasts. Then, for each of the plural contrast images, the information processing device  10  estimates sizes of structures forming the material that appear in the contrast image and, on the basis of the estimated sizes of the structures, generates a size distribution of the structures forming the material. Thus, a size distribution of structures forming the material may be efficiently obtained from the formation image of the material. Because the contrast images are generated from the material formation image, size distributions of structures that appear only in the contrast images may be obtained. 
     Second Exemplary Embodiment 
     Now, a second exemplary embodiment is described. Portions of an image processing device according to the second exemplary embodiment that are the same as in the first exemplary embodiment are assigned the same reference symbols and are not described here. The information processing device according to the second exemplary embodiment does not generate plural contrast images corresponding to a material formation image but, from a grayscale material formation image, generates a size distribution of structures appearing in that image. 
       FIG.  10    is a block diagram showing an example of functional structures of an information processing device  210  according to the second exemplary embodiment. Functionally, as shown in  FIG.  10   , the information processing device  210  includes the acquisition section  100  and a distribution generation section  204 . 
     A size distribution of structures appearing in a grayscale material formation image may be generated from the grayscale image without plural contrast images with different levels of contrasts being generated. Accordingly, the information processing device  210  according to the second exemplary embodiment does not generate plural contrast images corresponding to the material formation image but generates a size distribution of structures appearing in the grayscale material contrast image from that image. 
     By applying a Fourier transform to the material formation image acquired by the acquisition section  100 , the distribution generation section  204  generates a Fourier transform result representing a power spectrum. Then, similarly to the first exemplary embodiment, on the basis of the Fourier transform result of the material formation image, the distribution generation section  204  employs the EM algorithm to generate a size distribution of structures forming the material. 
     Now, operation of the information processing device  210  according to the second exemplary embodiment is described. 
     When a material formation image is inputted into the information processing device  210 , the information processing device  210  executes the information processing routine illustrated in  FIG.  11   . 
     In step S 100 , the acquisition section  100  acquires the inputted material formation image. 
     In step S 204 , by applying a Fourier transform to the material formation image acquired in step S 100 , the distribution generation section  204  obtains a Fourier transform result representing a power spectrum. 
     In step S 206 , similarly to the first exemplary embodiment, on the basis of the Fourier transform result obtained in step S 204 , the distribution generation section  204  employs the previously known EM algorithm to generate a size distribution of structures forming the material. 
     In step S 108 , the distribution generation section  204  outputs the size distribution obtained in step S 206  as a result. 
     Other structures and operations of the information processing device according to the second exemplary embodiment are the same as in the first exemplary embodiment, so are not described here. 
     As described above, the information processing device according to the second exemplary embodiment generates a Fourier transform result representing a power spectrum by applying a Fourier transform to a material formation image and, on the basis of the Fourier transform result, employs the EM algorithm to generate a size distribution of structures forming the material. Thus, a size distribution of structures forming the material may be efficiently obtained from the formation image of the material. Furthermore, the size distribution of structures appearing in the grayscale material formation image may be generated from that image without plural contrast images with different levels of contrasts being generated. 
     The processing that is executed by the devices according to the exemplary embodiments described above is described as being software processing that is implemented by a program being executed, but the processing may be implemented in hardware. Alternatively, the processing may combine both software and hardware. Further, the program memorized in the memory section may be memorized in any of various memory media and distributed. 
     The present disclosure is not limited by the above recitations. In addition to the above recitations, it will be clear that numerous modifications may be embodied within a technical scope not departing from the gist of the disclosure. 
     For example, in the exemplary embodiments described above, grains, needles, fibers, holes or the like forming a material are mentioned as examples of structures forming the material, but different structures are also possible. 
     All publications, patent applications, and technical standards mentioned in this specification are herein incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication, patent application, or technical standard was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference.