Image Processing using LabVIEW

By, Sandip Nair sandipnair06@yahoomail.com sandipnair.hpage.com

What is image?
An image is two dimensional function, f(x,y), where x and y are spatial coordinates, and the amplitude, f at any pair of coordinates (x,y) is called the intensity or grey level of the image at that point. I = [f{x,y}] where x = row index, y = column index f{x,y} is the pixel value at (x,y) location in image for binary image f(x, y) = 0/1 where 0 = black, 1 = white for gray scale image f(x, y) = 0 to 255 for 8 bit image where 0 = black, 255 = white colored images are multi plane image

Image representation

Note: - Image representation is not same as the conventional coordinate system representation because an image is considered as a matrix and the matrix starts from the left top corner of the table as shown above

Digital image representation

Colored image representation

Colored image is defined by equation I = [s={x, y, n}] where n is the plane counter Colored image can be of the following types: RGB = Red Green Blue HSL = Hue Saturation Luminance

Colored image representation

Image processing using Labview

Image processing in Labview is done in IMAQ vision toolkit and IMAQ vision builder Imaq vision uses additional window for image instead of the front panel Front panel does not offer any control or indicator for image

Labview basic image vi definition

Image create: - allocates a memory location for an image Image dispose: - de-allocates the memory of an image before the program stops Image windDraw: - used for displaying image in image window

Image acquisition from webcam

go to in block diagram vision and motion>vision express>vision acquisition vi select the integrated webcam from the list of drivers shown as shown in the next slide and follow the steps after following the steps a vi gets created in the block diagram

Image processing
It is the manipulation done in an image when the output is an image The following images gives an example of image processing

Image analysis
It is the manipulation done in an image when the output is not an image It is the extraction of meaningful information from an image Example: - Face recognition, bar code reading, object detection etc

Machine vision
Machine vision is termed for image processing and image analysis Image processing and analysis done for high level application which come close to human vision capabilities of recognition

IMAQ vision assistant environment

IMAQ vision assistant environment

Image processing and analysis is done in the same window The environment is divided into 3 sections: 1) Acquire images 2) Browse images 3) Process images

IMAQ vision assistant environment

1) Acquire images: Used to acquire images from the imaging device connected with the system. Can acquire single image or continuous images

IMAQ vision assistant environment

2) Browse images: Used to display a collection of images in memory in either full size or thumbnail

IMAQ vision assistant environment

3) Process image: Used to process the selected image. Process function can be accessed from the left column or from the top down menu of the window. During manual processing a script is generated which can be stored and can be used to process other images automatically. The script can be converted to equivalent vi from Tools>create labview vi. Thus vision assistant is useful to generate labview code without labview programming knowledge.

IMAQ vision assistant environment

Image acquisition
CCD cameras occupy the biggest area in the camera market The sensor will have the same matrix similar to the image matrix sensor data has to be collected -> data transferred over cable or other media serially -> rearranged to display it on the monitor

Charged coupled device (CCD) camera

CCDs consists of a number of photodiodes one for each pixel Each photo detector is connected with mos capacitor Every time the photo detector acquires a brightness value, it is stored in the capacitor The values are shifted from one cell to another till it reaches the output

Principle functionality of CCD

Mos capacitor stores the charge Q generated by the corresponding detector for a certain time The charge Q depends on the photo detector current IPH IPH = S e where IPH = photo detector current S = light sensitivity e = light radiation power

CCD transfer mechanism