HOW MATHS CAN SAVE

YOUR LIFE

AND SEE THE WORLD IN A DIFFERENT WAY

Chris Budd
 SOME COMMON VIEWS OF MATHEMATICS

• MATHS IS HARD
• MATHS IS BORING
• MATHS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH REAL LIFE
• ALL MATHEMATICIANS ARE MAD!

BUT I CAN SHOW YOU THAT MATHS IS IMPORTANT IN

CRIME DETECTION MEDICINE FINDING LANDMINES

AND EVEN DISNEYLAND !!!!!!!!!

 MATHS AND CRIME

A short mathematical story

• Burglar robs a bank

• Escapes in getaway car
• Pursued by police

• GOOD NEWS Police take a photo

• BAD NEWS Photo is blurred
Original

Blurred
 SOLUTION

Take the photo to a mathematician

g(x)
Original Blurring
h(x) = f(x)*g(x)
f(x)

• Maths gives a formula for blurring convolution

• By inverting the formula we can get rid of the blur
Processed image : Image Processing
 MATHS AND PICTURES

PICTURES AND IMAGES ARE ALL AROUND US

• TV
• DVD
• COMPUTER GRAPHICS
• SPECIAL EFFECTS

IMAGES ARE STORED AS NUMBERS

USING THESE NUMBERS WE CAN PROCESS

THE PICTURES BY USING MATHEMATICS
 SOME APPLICATIONS

PRODUCING THE PICTURES IN THE FIRST PLACE

TRANSMITTING THE PICTURES WITHOUT MISTAKES

Error Correcting Codes

Galois
 SOME MORE APPLICATIONS

DEBLURRING ORIGINALS

FINDING THINGS HIDDEN IN AN IMAGE

Edges Brains Landmines
 MATHS AND MEDICINE

Modern medicine has been transformed by methods of seeing

Inside you without cutting you open!

• Ultra sound: sound waves

• MRI: magnetism
• CAT scans: X rays

ALL USE MATHS TO WORK!!

 WHAT IS A CAT SCAN??

CAT = Computerised axial tomography

Based on X-Rays discovered by Roengten

X-Rays cast a shadow

GOOD for looking at bones
BAD for looking at soft tissue
 USING MODERN MATHS WE CAN DO A LOT BETTER

Modern CAT
scanner

CAT scanners work by casting many shadows with X-rays and

using maths to assemble these into a picture
 Object

Detector

X-Ray X
source

Intensity of X-ray at detector depends on width of object

Intensity

X
We can find the thickness … can we find the shape?
MOVE SOURCE AND DETECTOR AROUND

GET SHADOWS OF THE OBJECT FROM MANY

ANGLES AND MEASURE X-RAY INTENSITY
Source

X-Ray Detector

Object

ρ : Distance from the object centre

θ : Angle of the X-Ray

Measure attenuation of X-Ray R(ρ, θ)

 Object

R(ρ, θ)
Attenuation ρ

θ
 Object

Edge Edge

Attenuation R(ρ, θ)

Edge Edge
 REMARKABLE FACT

If we can measure R(ρ, θ) accurately we can calculate

The density f(x,y) of the object at any point

• Mathematical formula discovered by Radon (1917)

• Took 60 years before computers and machines were
developed to use his formula
• Machine inventor Cormack got a Nobel prize

• Radon got nothing!

• Process is called Back Projection
 Radon’s formula

Radon transform

Back Projection

Many other applications

X-raying Mummies
Monitoring Furnaces
Remote Sensing
 USING THE RADON TRANSFORM TO
FIND ANTI-PERSONEL LAND MINES

Land mines are hidden in foliage and triggered by trip wires

Trip wires are well hidden – can they be quickly and safely detected
Find the trip wires in this picture
 Digital picture of foliage is taken by camera on a long pole
Image intensity f(x,y)

Trip wires are like X-Rays

f(x,y) R(ρ,θ)

•
Radon
•
transform •
y ρ
•

x θ

Points of high intensity in R correspond to trip wires

Isolate points and transform back to find the wires

Mathematics finds the land mines!

Used by the Canadian Peace

keeping forces