Quantitative photogrammetric analysis of digital underwater videoimagery

This paper presents a photogrammetric model for digital underwater video imagery, which has been mostly applied to qualitative analysis in the marine environment. With this model, quantitative analysis of underwater images is possible, e.g., to locate positions, calculate sizes, and measure shapes of objects from image features. The underwater photogrammetric model is based on a three-dimensional optical ray tracing technique which rigorously models imaging systems with multilens configurations and multiple refractions. The calibration procedure with two independent phases has been proven to be efficient in simplifying the computation and improving the calibration accuracy. With the current imaging system configuration and photogrammetric model, an accuracy of 0.8 cm in lateral directions and 1.2 cm along the depth direction for objects located about 2-3 m from the camera system in the object space is attainable. A PC-based digital underwater photogrammetric prototype system has been developed to implement the underwater photogrammetric model     

Radiative transfer modeling and analysis of spatially variant and coherent illumination for undersea object detection

Increasing the optical range of target detection and recognition continues to be an area of great interest in the ocean environment. Light attenuation limits radiative and information transfer for image formation in water. In this paper, the authors briefly review current methods of imaging and then describe a variation of the spatial interferometric technique that relies upon projected spatial gratings with subsequent detection against a coherent return signal for the purpose of noise reduction and image enhancement. A model is developed that simulates the projected structured illumination through turbid water to a target and its return to a detector. The model shows an unstructured backscatter superimposed upon a structured return signal. The model has been extended to predict what a camera would actually see, so that various noise-reduction schemes can be modeled. Finally, some water-tank tests are presented, validating original hypothesis and model predictions. The method is advantageous in not requiring temporal synchronization between reference and signal beams and may use a continuous illumination source. Spatial coherency of the beam allows for the detection of the direct return, while scattered light appears as a noncoherent noise term.     

光滑表面内孤立波光学遥感图像的实验研究

基于光学遥感图像的内孤立波参数反演是一项重要的工作。本文在实验室条件下提出一种新方法用于模拟光滑表面情况下内孤立波的光学遥感成像。基于二维内波水槽、LED平板面光源和CCD相机搭建仿真光学遥感系统探测内孤立波。水平表面的光学遥感图像和垂向内孤立波传播图像被同时探测,旨在探讨在光滑表面下,光学遥感与内孤立波的响应。结果表明,内孤立波传播经过时,CCD1相机获得暗纹,暗纹的特性随光源入射角的变化而变化。光学遥感特征参数和垂向波要素相对应。实验还显示光学遥感图像的暗纹宽度与内孤立波的半波宽度在不同内孤立波振幅下呈现正相关关系。该系统有着现象清晰,重复性高的优点,为定量研究光学遥感成像机理提供科学依据。     

A new optical instrument for the study of bubbles at high voidfractions within breaking waves

An optical imaging system (BubbleCam) has been tested for the quantification of bubble distributions at high void fractions formed beneath breaking waves. The instrument consists of a CCD video camera, stroboscopic light source, and optics allowing adjustable magnification, a fixed imaging volume, and the resolution of bubbles 3 pixels in radius and larger (equivalent to a minimum bubble radius of about 200 μm in the test configuration). BubbleCam has been deployed in a shore-based configuration (data and power supplied via shore-connected cables) as well as an autonomous device in the open sea with its own power supply and data storage. The resulting images are processed using a variant of the Hough transform which allows computer-automated counting and measurement of the bubbles within the video frames. In addition, images can be qualitatively examined to provide insights into bubble plume evolution and creation mechanisms     

Determination of wind roughness characteristics based on an underwater image of the sea surface

The opportunities of diagnosing wind roughness with the help of underwater vision systems have been investigated. The model of the rough sea surface image observed from under water under conditions of natural illumination has been developed. It has been shown that the statistical processing of the image of a solar path which is formed as a result of light refraction at randomly irregular air-water interface allows one to define not only the slope variance and the curvature variance of the surface, but also the coefficient of spatial correlation of slopes. The algorithms for defining of characteristics of wind roughness on the basis of images of underwater solar path and the results of their testing using the data of numerical and natural experiments are given. It was found that waves of very small amplitude images with high contrast near borders of the Snell’s circle (the underwater image of the sky).     

Experiments on vision guided docking of an autonomous underwater vehicle using one camera

This paper introduces an underwater docking procedure for the test-bed autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) platform called ISiMI using one charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. The AUV is optically guided by lights mounted around the entrance of a docking station and a vision system consisting of a CCD camera and a frame grabber in the AUV. This paper presents an image processing procedure to identify the dock by discriminating between light images, and proposes a final approach algorithm based on the vision guidance. A signal processing technique to remove noise on the defused grabbed light images is introduced, and a two-stage final approach for stable docking at the terminal instant is suggested. A vision-guidance controller was designed with conventional PID controllers for the vertical plane and the horizontal plane. Experiments were conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the vision-guided docking system of the AUV.     

A New Video and Digital Camera System for Studies of the Dynamics of Microtopographic Features on Tidal Flats

A newly developed video and camera system for tidal flat microtopographic studies is presented. It consists of a SONY handy cam placed in an underwater housing mounted on a frame about 70?cm above the sediment surface. A rectangular surface area of 30?×40?cm is imaged by the camera. The camera records video sequences and/or digital images at predetermined time lapses. The total number of images is about 540, and a similar number of 10-second long video sequences can be recorded. The camera is programmed with a PC before deployment, and the total deployment time depends on the time lapse between recordings. The camera is connected to an external power supply (12?volt), and a halogen projector pointing towards the sediment surface ensures that the system is operable on a 24-hours scale. The system has been tested in the Danish Wadden Sea. It has proved to be a very useful tool in studies of topographic effects of erosion and deposition sequences, and for studies of benthic organisms-sediment interactions. The test site was further equipped with sensors for water and seabed measurements, which proved to be indispensable regarding the interpretation of recorded image time-series.     

A New Video and Digital Camera System for Studies of the Dynamics of Microtopographic Features on Tidal Flats

A newly developed video and camera system for tidal flat microtopographic studies is presented. It consists of a SONY handy cam placed in an underwater housing mounted on a frame about 70 cm above the sediment surface. A rectangular surface area of 30 ×40 cm is imaged by the camera. The camera records video sequences and/or digital images at predetermined time lapses. The total number of images is about 540, and a similar number of 10-second long video sequences can be recorded. The camera is programmed with a PC before deployment, and the total deployment time depends on the time lapse between recordings. The camera is connected to an external power supply (12 volt), and a halogen projector pointing towards the sediment surface ensures that the system is operable on a 24-hours scale. The system has been tested in the Danish Wadden Sea. It has proved to be a very useful tool in studies of topographic effects of erosion and deposition sequences, and for studies of benthic organisms-sediment interactions. The test site was further equipped with sensors for water and seabed measurements, which proved to be indispensable regarding the interpretation of recorded image time-series.     

Correcting underwater images distorted by surface waves

An experiment on the correction of underwater images distorted by waves at the air-water interface was conducted using a laboratory modeling installation intended for experimental examination of light and image transfer across a water surface covered with waves. A digital color camera was used for the simultaneous formation of the image of the underwater test object through the disturbed surface and of the superimposed glitter pattern. Both images are spectrally separated. Processing the glitter pattern makes it possible to obtain the values of the surface slopes at a limited number of points and to use these slopes for retrieval of image fragments. The total corrected image is formed by integration of about 300 partially corrected fragments. This image is close to that obtained through a wave-free water surface.     

A lidar method for determining internal wave characteristics

An analytical model of lidar imaging of pycnoclinic internal waves (IWs) is developed. The IW image is shown to represent a superposition of two images: reflective and shadow. The former reflects perturbations in the profile of the light backscattering coefficient in the IW field, and the latter reflects perturbations in the optical thickness of the water layer, in which the IW disturbed the horizontal uniformity of optical characteristics. Algorithms for reconstructing the IW field from these images are proposed. It is shown that the shadow image, unlike the reflective one, is insensitive to fine details of the profiles of hydrooptical characteristics and can be used for determining IW parameters on the basis of very rough data on optical properties of water. The possibility of determining the mode composition as well as the lengths and amplitudes of IW modes is demonstrated by using the Barents Sea as an example and invoking actual and simultaneously measured profiles of the water density and light attenuation coefficient.     

Video cathodoluminescence microscopy of diagenetic cements and its applications

Diagenetic studies of sedimentary rocks using cold cathodoluminescence (CL) microscopy have been severely limited because of the very low intensity of visible luminescent emissions, which required long photographic exposure times, and because of the difficulty in obtaining quantitative data from CL observations. The solution to this problem is to fit the microscope with a high-sensitivity digital colour video camera linked to a computer with image enhancement and image analysis software. The new technique described in this paper:

• produces digital CL images of consistent high quality, both quickly and cheaply;

• controls the capture and editing of CL images, to reveal detailed textural information even from minerals exhibiting low level luminescence such as quartz;

• acquires quantitative information on pore systems and the abundance of cement zones from CL images.

Examples are presented to demonstrate the high quality of images produced in this way and the range of uses to which the new technique can be applied. The ability to image exactly the same field of view in both plane polarised light and CL is a particular advantage. Image analysis techniques have been developed to give a statistical characterisation of both pore systems and cement phases that infill them. The abundance of contrasting cement zones seen in CL can be measured and the abundance of cement phases can be mapped across a reservoir. The history of porosity occlusion can be reconstructed quantitatively and integrated with burial history and hydrocarbon migration. Porosity can be measured accurately and, since the technique obtains data on pore geometry as well as abundance, the pore system can be characterised by pore size distributions and pseudo-capillary pressure curves. This also opens the possibility of estimating permeability from thin sections.     

一种联合单波束测深的侧扫声呐海底线提取方法

论述了侧扫声呐的成像原理,针对目前常用侧扫声呐系统数据采集的相关特性,结合实际工程应用,提出了一种联合单波束测深的侧扫声呐海底线提取新方法,以便在数据后处理时进行快速准确地斜距改正。利用实测数据验证了该方法的有效性,并与成熟商用软件的提取结果和阈值法提取结果进行对比分析,结果表明该方法具有一定的可行性和优势。     

SCOPIX: A new X-ray imaging system for core analysis

SCOPIX is a new digital X-ray imaging system for core analysis that uses an X-ray source coupled to a high-energy brightness amplifier and a CCD camera. SCOPIX’s numerical files are images in 256 gray levels equal in value to X-ray densities. Possible data processing approaches include: core logging using grayscale profiles to define the characteristics of sedimentary sequences and image processing to define and quantify lithologic facies and the geometry of physical and biological structures. Applications are: recognition of facies and sedimentary processes, study of sedimentary rhythms and geological cycles, and study of biological and geochemical processes.     

Image projection and composition with a front-scan sonar system: methods and experimental results

This paper describes a complete set of methods for arranging acoustic images of the sea floor by projecting and interpolating data gathered with a novel front-scan sonar system, developed in the context of the EC-COSMOS project. Traditional sonar imaging systems for sea-floor analysis generate acoustic images during the motion of a ship; on the contrary, the front-scan sonar system not only provides information unreachable by traditional devices (blind region), but also does not need the ship motion to compose a whole image of the sea floor. Two different projection methods have been devised: a simpler analytical solution and a more precise ray-tracing approach. The development of an analytical solution is possible under the classical assumptions about a flat sea floor and a constant sound velocity profile; when these hypotheses are not realistic or a more precise image is required, a numerical solution obtained by a ray-tracing approach can be applied, which is based on some ad hoc solutions worked out for the front-scan sonar system. To move from the projection results to an image defined over a dense matrix of pixels, an interpolation stage is needed. To this end, an algorithm based on the generation of virtual-beam signals (only where necessary) has been tested and compared with more-traditional techniques. The potentials of the proposed projection and interpolation methods have been evaluated and some comparisons have been made, using real data gathered with the COSMOS sonar prototype during trials at sea.     

Wave direction measured by four different systems

During a March 1977 experiment, four systems were used to provide wave-direction information offshore of Mission Beach, CA: a synthetic aperature radar (SAR) carried aboard a NASA CV990 aircraft, a coastal imaging radar, a pressure-gauge array offshore, and aerial photography aboard two aircraft. The coastal radar, aerial photographs, and SAR provided wave images. From the coastal radar images and the aerial photographs, the direction and length of the principal wavetrains were measured by a manual analysis. The SAR images were also processed using an FFT to give two-dimensional wave spectra. The array at the Naval Ocean Systems Center (NOSC) tower was used to provide directional wave spectra. Scatter diagrams are presented, which intercompare the measurements from these four systems. In addition, radar image spectral information is compared with the array spectra. The intercomparison of the data from these four systems shows good agreement among the imaging systems. Between the imaging systems and the pressure array there is agreement for the most prominent wavetrains and disagreement for several cases where multiple wavetrains from different directions but with similar periods are present.     

Design and testing of an underwater microscope and image processingsystem for the study of zooplankton distribution

A method that can monitor the density of zooplankton at an adequate spatio-temporal resolution is desired in oceanic ecosystem research. To address this need, we have developed a submersible microscope equipped with a noninterlace CCD camera. The target plankton for this microscope includes Copepoda, Ploima, and Ciliata, which are dominant species in the coastal waters around Japan. In addition, the requirements of systems for underwater imaging of zooplankton are discussed. The key issues investigated for their possible influence on system performance are lens selection, camera selection, and method of illumination. Higher order local autocorrelational (HLAC) masks are used to extract features from images. Combining these features with multivariate analysis, which is a two-step feature extraction method, results in a powerful tool for extracting general information from images. In our procedures, a set of these features provides a 33-dimensional vector. To identify and count zooplankton, canonical correlation analysis and discrimination analysis are performed. This allows zooplankton to be counted and classified into taxonomic units. Another canonical correlation analysis was made for the sizing of the plankton. Proof of the principle experiment is obtained with images of both preserved and living Copepoda     

Borehole image-based evaluation of coral reef porosity distribution characteristics

In this study, we used digital borehole image camera to obtain images of porosity distribution in coral reefs in South China Sea, and developed an effective evaluation system for such distributions. First, the original images are preprocessed, allowing the pore regions to be automatically detected. The depth and sectional functions are established to measure five parameters: pore count, pore radius, radius concentration rate, total pore area ratio, and fractal dimension count. These are used to calculate the characteristic values of porosity distributions, and their fuzzy relationships are used to build the evaluation model, determine the Hamming distances between distributions, and establish the relationships between the characteristics and coral rock classifications. Test results from applying the method on a deep borehole image segment show the results to be consistent with other methods, and the following conclusions can be reached: (1) the porosity evaluation model is a viable way to analyze porosity distribution characteristics; (2) the resulting classification method is viable; and (3) porosity distribution analysis on coral reefs has important implications.     

一种基于MATLAB的声呐条带图像自动拼接算法

准确地实现侧扫声呐条带的拼接对于了解海底地形、提高对海床地物反映的准确度起着重要的作用,而相邻条带的配准是声呐条带拼接的重要前提.MATLAB以其强大的矩阵运算功能及具有丰富的图像处理函数等特点,在图像处理方面占据明显的优势.文中利用MATLAB的IPT工具箱实现了基于互信息方法的声呐条带图像的自动快速配准,通过实验验证了该配准方法的有效性.并用小波变换方法对配准好的条带图像进行融合,实现声呐条带图像的有效拼接和镶嵌.     

合成孔径雷达探测浅海障碍物技术实例探析

阐述了合成孔径雷达(SAR)探测水下障碍物的发展历程,研究了SAR的成像机理,分析了水下障碍物的SAR成像数学物理模型,并依据该模型设计了水下障碍物的通用仿真计算流程。依据浅海SAR影像资料,针对典型的浅海水下障碍物SAR成像进行模拟仿真,并将仿真的结果与真实的影像进行比较分析,证实该仿真模型具有良好的模拟仿真效果,为浅海水下障碍物的探测提供了科学的依据。     

SCOPIX: A new X-ray imaging system for core analysis

 SCOPIX is a new digital X-ray imaging system for core analysis that uses an X-ray source coupled to a high-energy brightness amplifier and a CCD camera. SCOPIX’s numerical files are images in 256 gray levels equal in value to X-ray densities. Possible data processing approaches include: core logging using grayscale profiles to define the characteristics of sedimentary sequences and image processing to define and quantify lithologic facies and the geometry of physical and biological structures. Applications are: recognition of facies and sedimentary processes, study of sedimentary rhythms and geological cycles, and study of biological and geochemical processes. Received: 31 March 1998 / Revision received: 25 June 1998