Digital Image Artifact Suppression via Multi-Illumination Geometry
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing image capture techniques struggle to effectively reduce image artifacts such as reflections and shading, which lead to information loss and impaired image quality, particularly due to limitations in optics and inflexible illumination settings.
Innovation Solution
A method involving the capture of multiple images of a sample object with varying illumination geometries and detector positions, followed by pixel-by-pixel comparison and combination to generate a result image that minimizes artifacts, allowing for flexible illumination directions and reduced interference without the need for complex optics or prior information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If higher-quality optics with antireflection coatings are used to reduce reflections, then image quality is improved, but cost and device complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces optical mechanical solutions (antireflection coatings, complex lens designs) with a digital postprocessing method. Multiple images are captured with different illumination directions and combined algorithmically to eliminate reflections and shading, substituting physical optical complexity with computational processing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent captures multiple copies of the same image under different illumination conditions (different directions and angles). These multiple image copies are then processed together to eliminate artifacts, using redundancy rather than complex single-image optics.
2Reliability
If confocal recording techniques with point scanners are used to reduce artifacts, then image quality is improved, but recording time increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses periodic illumination from multiple directions, capturing a series of images with systematically varied illumination angles. This periodic variation in illumination allows parallel capture of multiple views, avoiding the sequential point-by-point scanning of confocal methods.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary capture of multiple images with different illumination directions before final processing. By pre-capturing all necessary image data in parallel rather than scanning sequentially, the method eliminates the time-consuming confocal scanning process.
3Device complexity
If digital postprocessing is used to reduce reflections, then device complexity is reduced, but shading may be intensified
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes multiple parameters simultaneously: illumination direction, illumination angle, and detector position. By varying these parameters across multiple images and combining them, the method reduces both reflections and shading effects, preventing the intensification problem that occurs with simpler single-parameter approaches.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds the dimension of multiple illumination directions and detector positions to the imaging process. Instead of processing a single image, the method captures and combines images from multiple spatial dimensions, allowing simultaneous reduction of reflections and shading through geometric diversity.
4Adaptability or versatility
If adjacent illumination directions are used for different illuminations, then flexibility is improved, but implementation difficulty increases when illumination direction is unknown
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-calibration by capturing images at multiple known illumination directions and using these to automatically determine the illumination geometry. The method does not require external knowledge or manual measurement of illumination directions, as the system derives this information from the captured image set itself.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach effectively suppresses reflections and shading, enhancing image resolution and contrast by leveraging digital postprocessing to combine images in a way that reduces interference, thereby improving image quality without the costs and complexity associated with high-quality optics.
Implementation Method 1
illumination by an illumination module
Implementation Method 2
detector elements of a detector
Implementation Method 3
a high reflectivity of the sample object to be imaged in specific directions can also result in an image reflection arising
Data Source
AI summary
Images are captured with a sample object in various arrangements relative to lighting and a detector. The images are then combined image point by image point on the basis of a comparison of image point values of image points of said images. This achieves a reduction in interference, i.e. reflections and/or shadows can be reduced.