The rapid growth of high-power light-emitting diode (LED) technologies has gained momentum in developing accurate
tools and methods to measure performances of such products. For instance, it is widely recognized that confirming the
photobiological safety is extremely important since the light of the high-power products may be shone directly into
people's eyes. For many years, the international standard organizations, such as CIE, and researchers have been
developing guidelines and/or improving methods for measuring the LED radiation patterns, respectively. However, the
difficulties in LED measurements have been still highlighted by discrepancies in the experimental results among
different laboratories. In this paper, we first propose a mathematical formulation for the existing approaches, such as
those using two- and three-dimensional goniometers. Then, generalization of the measurement methods is presented to
improve the system measurement accuracy, through making a connection between a predicted accuracy and the
parameters of the optical setups (such as aperture size and working distance). To verify the effectiveness of our approach,
the experiments are conducted to evaluate and compare the performances of the proposed approach. The measurement
results indicate that our approach is consistent from theory to practice.
Confocal imaging is primarily based on the use of apertures in the detection path to provide the acquired three-dimensional images with satisfactory contrast and resolution. For many years, it has become an important mode of imaging in microscopy. In biotechnology and related industries, this technique has powerful abilities of biomedical inspection and material detection with high spatial resolution, and furthermore it can combine with fluorescence microscopy to get more useful information. The objective of this paper is first to present a generalized theoretical framework for confocal imaging systems, and then efficiently to design and implement such systems with satisfactory imaging resolutions. In our approach, a theoretical review for confocal imaging is given to investigate this technique from theory to practice. Also, computer simulations are performed to analyze the imaging performance with varying optomechanical conditions. For instance, the effects of stray light on the microscopic systems are examined using the simulations. In this paper, a modified optomechanical structure for the imaging process is proposed to reduce the undesired effects. From the simulation results, it appears that the modified structure highly improves the system signal-to-noise ratio. Furthermore, the imaging resolution is improved through the investigation on the tolerance of fabrication and assembly of the optical components. In the experiments, it is found that the imaging resolution of the proposed system is less sensitive than that of common microscopes, to the position deviations arising from installations of the optical components, such as those from the pinhole and the objective lens.
Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have been recognized as a generation of new light sources because they possess the
properties of energy-saving, environmental protection, long lifetime, and those lacking in conventional lighting. To
satisfy the requirements for different applications (e.g., for large-scale displays), determining the spatial radiances of
LEDs is important to identifying their viewing angle and utilizing their lighting efficiency. The objective of this paper is
to build up a real-time spatial radiance measurement system for LEDs, on the basis of digital signal processing (DSP)
techniques. In this paper, the system analysis is given to show the feasibility of this work. Two primary subsystems are
devised to perform the real-time measurements. First, in the optoelectronic sensing and signal processing subsystem, a
wide-bandwidth photodiode sensing circuit is employed to acquire optical signals at a high speed, and an automatic gain
control (AGC) circuit is designed to increase the measurement range. To support high-speed data processing, a
DSP-based platform is developed in the subsystem. Second, a light-source rotation scheme is used in the optomechanical
subsystem. For performance evaluations, we adopt a standard calibrating light source to test and verify our system.
Experimental results indicate that the proposed system gives satisfactory results.
For years, the technology of TFT-LCDs (thin-film-transistor liquid crystal displays) has grown very rapidly,
especially in the market share and technical development of FPD industries. To effectively promote the industry's
capacity for the mass production and quality control, it is urgent to design and develop LC cell optical parameter
measurement systems. The goal of this paper is to develop a multiple-functional and cost-effective measurement
system to lower the manufacturing cost for the industry. The optical parameters includes the pretilt angle, liquid
crystal (LC) cell gap (or phase retardation), and twist angle, which highly influence the display quality. In this paper,
we first study the past approaches and analyze their measurement performance. Then, a simple and cost-effective
method is proposed to achieve the multiple functions. That is, in addition to the precise measurement of the three
important optical parameters, the proposed system can measure the voltage-transmittance (V-T) curve. In our
approach, the theoretical study, simulation, and experiment are performed to show the feasibility of the system
implementation. Finally, the proposed system is developed to automatically measure the LC cell parameters.
Experimental results indicate that the proposed measurement system gives a satisfactory result.
With the rapid growth of optoelectronics technologies, photodiodes (PDs) has been widely used in optical measurement
systems, color measurement and analysis systems, etc. To meet most of the measurement requirements, the
determination of PD spectral responses is very important. The goal of this paper is to develop a high-accuracy and
cost-effective spectral response measurement system for PDs. In this paper, the proposed system contains a grating-based spectral filtering module, an amplifier module, and a digital-signal-processing (DSP) based platform. In the spectral filtering module, a single-grating monochromator based on a Czerny-Turner configuration is first analyzed and simulated, and then the experiments are conducted to check if the measurement accuracy is satisfactory. In the measurement system, optoelectronic signals from the PD under test are acquired from the amplifier module and the DSP-based platform is developed to communicate and manipulate the measured data. Through comparison with the measurement data from a commercially available system, it is found that our approach gives quite satisfactory results.
In imaging systems, color plays an essential role in conveying and recording visual information from the real world. To
faithfully represent colors acquired from digital cameras, a spectral responsivity measurement system is proposed for
those devices in this paper. For estimating spectral responsivities of digital color cameras, a filter-based optical system is
designed with proper filter selections. Since the spectral filters primarily prescribe the optical characteristics of the
system, the filter consideration is important to the optical design of the system with the presence of noise. A theoretical
basis is presented to confirm that sophisticated filter selections can make this system as insensitive to noise as possible.
Also, we propose a filter selection method based on the orthogonal-triangular (QR) decomposition with column pivoting
(QRCP). To investigate the noise effects, we assess the estimation errors between the actual and estimated spectral
responsivities, with the different signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) levels of an eight-bit/channel camera. To demonstrate the
effectiveness of this approach, the experimental results from the filter-based optical system with the spectral filters
selected from the QRCP-based method is much less sensitive to noise than those with other filters from different
selections. It is found that the measurement accuracy is fairly satisfactory.
For many years, the widening use of digital imaging products, e.g., digital cameras, has given rise to much attention in
the market of consumer electronics. However, it is important to measure and enhance the imaging performance of the
digital ones, compared to that of conventional cameras (with photographic films). For example, the effect of diffraction
arising from the miniaturization of the optical modules tends to decrease the image resolution. As a figure of merit,
modulation transfer function (MTF) has been broadly employed to estimate the image quality. Therefore, the objective of
this paper is to design and implement an accurate and cost-effective MTF measurement system for the digital camera.
Once the MTF of the sensor array is provided, that of the optical module can be then obtained. In this approach, a spatial
light modulator (SLM) is employed to modulate the spatial frequency of light emitted from the light-source. The
modulated light going through the camera under test is consecutively detected by the sensors. The corresponding images
formed from the camera are acquired by a computer and then, they are processed by an algorithm for computing the
MTF. Finally, through the investigation on the measurement accuracy from various methods, such as from bar-target and
spread-function methods, it appears that our approach gives quite satisfactory results.
It is well known that white light interferometry (WLI) is important to nano-scale 3-D profile measurement technology.
To archive cost-effective and accurate measurements, the researches for WLI are widely spreading. Our objective is to
build up a 3-D micro-structure profile measurement system based on WLI, for micro-mechatronic, micro-optical, and
semi-conductor devices. This paper briefly reviews related WLI theory and then the principle of spectral coherence is
employed to improve the system design. Specifically, proper spectral filters can be used to extend the coherence length
of the light source to the order of several ten micrometers. That is, the coherence length of the filtered light source is
longer than that of the original source. In this paper, Michelson interference experiments are conducted with filtered and
unfiltered white light sources, to show the feasibility of the concept of spectral coherence. The Michelson interferometer
is adopted due to its convenience of optical installation and its acceptable tolerance to noise. The experiment results
indicate that our approach is feasible and thus it can improve the WLI measurement performance.
With the increasing demand on miniaturization of optical modules, it is important to measure their image quality for consumer electronic devices, such as video cameras, mobile phones, etc. This is because the effect of diffraction arises from the miniaturized optical modules and as a result, it degrades the resolution of the imaging processes. Modulation transfer function (MTF) has been widely recognized as a useful and important tool for assessing the image quality. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to develop a MTF measurement system for the optical modules, on the basis of digital signal processing.
In our approach, a spatial light modulator (SLM) is employed to spatially modulate the light, which is emitted from a white-light LED, with the bar patterns of variable frequencies, the modulated light then goes through the module under test, and it is eventually detected by a charge-couple-device (CCD). Obviously, the mapping from the collection of the modulated light to the output images is treated as a computation kernel of the MTF measurement. The corresponding images formed by the optical module are acquired by a digital signal processor (DSP) based system and they are processed by an algorithm for computing the MTF, which is implemented in the system. Finally, it is found that our experiments give quite satisfactory results.
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) or thin-film transistor (TFT) LCDs have been regarded as a promising technology in flat panel displays (FPDs). To meet the demands of the mass production and quality control, the development of automatic electro-optical characteristics measurement systems for LCDs is very important. To achieve this, we propose a generalized spectroscopic ellipsometry (GSE) based technique to measure the characteristics of LCDs. Our approach involves two primary steps. First, we review a theoretical basis for generalized spectroscopic ellipsometries for the LCD measurement. Those are mainly categorized into two classes of ellipsometries: the transmission variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry (VASE) and the spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) using a photoelastic modulator (PEM), called PEM SE. Second, on the basis of the VASE and PEM SE, we present a GSE-based system to measure the electro-optical characteristics for twisted nematic liquid crystals (TNLCs) and super twisted nematic liquid crystals (STNLCs). In this paper, the simulation results indicate the feasibility of this technique. Finally, the automatic GSE-based system is presented for measuring the LCD electro-optical characteristics.
White light interferometry (WLI) has played an important role in nano- and micro-scale profile measurement technology. To meet the demand of high-accuracy, high-repeatability, and cost-effective measurement, the research activities on WLI and its applications are rapidly in progress. WLI is based on the superposition of waves with different but very close wavelengths to produce beat phenomena (or to generate detectable envelopes in the interferogram) and then to identify the locations of the zero-order interference fringes (or those of the maximum intensities of interference fringes without the optical path difference). The locations reflect the information of three dimensional (3D) surface profiles from the consecutively acquired images in a WLI system. The objective of this paper is to develop a high-accuracy and cost-effective WLI measurement system, especially for the surfaces of micro-mechatronic devices, micro-optical components, semiconductor devices, etc. In our approach, the feasibility of the use of spectral coherence properties to meet the system design requirement is first investigated. Specifically, proper spectral filters are employed to enhance the coherence length of the light source (i.e., that of the filtered light source) to an order of ten micrometers. Then, a Young's double-slit interference experiment with filtered and unfiltered white light sources is conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of this technique. Also, we adopt a Michelson interferometric configuration as the optical module of the proposed WLI system, for the sake of its simplicity. Experimental results indicate that several inexpensive spectral filters, a lower-grade charge-couple-device (CCD) image sensor, and a PZT (piezoelectric transducer) with a lower movement resolution are merely needed to develop the WLI system, instead of the use of higher-grade optical and optomechanical components. It turns out that the proposed system with high-accuracy measurement performance is more cost-effective than others.
The confocal imaging has become one of the most widely applied microscopic techniques in various fields, such as biotechnology, automation engineering, optical engineering, solid-state physics, metallurgy, integrated circuit inspection, etc. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) is primarily based on the use of apertures in the detection path to provide the acquired three-dimensional images with satisfactory contrast and resolution. The major objective of this paper is to analyze the imaging performance of the confocal microscopes with varying opto-mechanical conditions. In this paper, the working principles of the one- and two-dimensional scanning mechanisms in the microscopic systems are first reviewed and verified by opto-mechanical simulations. Then, for the imaging performance, the tolerance to the fabrication and assembly of the optical components in conventional confocal microscopes is also investigated by simulations. The simulation results indicate the importance of eliminating the effects of stray light in the microscopic systems.
For estimating spectral responsivities of digital video cameras, a filter-based optical system is designed with sophisticated filter selections, in this paper. The filter consideration in the presence of noise is central to the optical systems design, since the spectral filters primarily prescribe the structure of the perturbed system. A theoretical basis is presented to confirm that sophisticated filter selections can make this system as insensitive to noise as possible. Also, we propose a filter selection method based on the orthogonal-triangular (QR) decomposition with column pivoting (QRCP). To investigate the noise effects, we assess the estimation errors between the actual and estimated spectral responsivities, with the different signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) levels of an eight-bit/channel camera. Simulation results indicate that the proposed method yields satisfactory estimation accuracy. That is, the filter-based optical system with the spectral filters selected from the QRCP-based method is much less sensitive to noise than those with other filters from different selections.
The determination of spectral responsivities plays a significant role in analyzing and predicting the performance of digital imaging systems for remote sensing. For example, given the spectral response functions, we can readily obtain the colorimetric data from a camera corresponding to the remote illuminated objects. In this paper, we develop a filter-based optical system to estimate these functions. The design objective of this system is to effectively select a limited amount of spectral (or broadband) filters to characterize the spectral features of color imaging processes, which are contaminated with noise, so that the spectral response functions can be estimated with satisfactory accuracy. In our approach, a theoretical study is first presented to pave the way for this work, and then we propose a filter selection method based on the technique of orthogonal-triangular (QR) decomposition with column pivoting, called QRCP method. This method involves QR computations and a column permutation process, which determines a permutation matrix to conduct the subset (or filter) selection. Experimental results reveal that the proposed technique is truly consistent with the theoretical study on filter selections. As expected, the optical system with the filters selected from the QRCP method is much less sensitive to noise than those with other spectral filters from different selections. It turns out that our approach is an effective way to implement the optical system for estimating spectral responsivities of digital imaging systems.
For many years, fiber-optics communication has become an essential part of the development of our modern society. For example, its significance comes from the increasing demands on real-time image transmission, multimedia communication, distance learning, video-conferencing, video telephone, and cable TV, etc. This paper is to develop an automatic transmittance measurement system for a DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) filter. In this system, a grating-based monochromators is devised to generate a collection of monochromatic light with various wavelengths, instead of using an expensive tunable laser. From this approach, the cost of the proposed system will be much lower than that of those having the same functions, by one order. In addition, we simulate the spectral filtering to investigate the resolving power of the system. It appears that our simulations give quite satisfactory results.
KEYWORDS: Cameras, Systems modeling, Visual process modeling, Imaging systems, RGB color model, Optical filters, Process modeling, Mathematical modeling, Color imaging, Imaging devices
KEYWORDS: CCD cameras, Calibration, CRTs, Light emitting diodes, RGB color model, Color and brightness control algorithms, Detection and tracking algorithms, Light sources, Image processing, Modulation
Reproducing colors with rich saturation, from illuminating objects, is usually recognized as an essential issue for CCD camera imaging. In this paper, we propose a colorimetric calibration scheme regarding self-luminous images for CCD cameras. And, an efficient algorithm to generate highly saturated color stimuli is devised for investigating the CCD camera performance of image reproduction. In this scheme, a set of color samples containing highly saturated colors is generated, from an advanced CRT, as color stimuli for colorimetric characterization. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this algorithm, a realization of color samples, uniformly distributed in CIE LAB, are presented for illustration.
The spectral sensitivity of a CCD camera is a prominent electro-optical characteristic for color image formation. In this paper, spectral estimation of color CCD cameras generally involves the assessment of overall spectral sensitivities, which are composed of those of optics, filters, and CCD sensors. To this end, we develop an automatic testing/measurement system with an optical platform. And, the spectral characterization of a CCD camera imaging process is presented in the approach of vector representation for the estimation problem. This technique examines the modulated incident colored lights, which are regarded as a set of color stimuli candidates, to be the effective color stimuli, such that they can be successfully applied to generic estimation algorithms. To show the feasibility of this work, a realization of a basic set of color stimuli candidates is generated in the numerical and graphical forms. In our approach the use of a spectrophotometer is needed only for the system calibration. It would be pleasing that this technique will practically simplify the complexity of the spectral estimation problem of CCD cameras.
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