Image Acquisition System Using Broad-Spectrum LED Illumination
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current image acquisition devices have limited frame-rate and color sensing patterns, hindering high-frequency frame acquisition necessary for reliable studies of live organisms and phenomena, and existing solutions require expensive lasers and specific illumination wavelength matching.
Innovation Solution
A system and method using a common color image sensor and broad-spectrum illumination sources, such as LEDs, that do not require wavelength matching with camera filters, allowing for increased temporal resolution and reduced motion artifacts in colored scenes, even with ambient or natural illumination.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If R/G/B lasers are used to provide three successive illuminations, then the frame rate of the camera is tripled, but the system becomes expensive and requires wavelength matching between laser and camera filters
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces expensive, complex laser systems with inexpensive LED illumination sources. The LEDs serve as temporary, replaceable illumination components that provide the necessary spectral sequences without requiring precise wavelength matching, thereby reducing system cost and complexity while maintaining the tripled frame rate capability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the illumination parameters by using broad-spectrum LED lights instead of monochromatic laser sources. This allows the illumination system to provide multiple spectral components simultaneously, eliminating the need for precise wavelength matching with camera filters and reducing system complexity while maintaining high frame rate operation
2Measurement precision
If R/G/B lasers are used for illumination, then temporal resolution is increased, but the object must be colourless (shades of gray)
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the illumination system universal by using broad-spectrum LED sources that can illuminate both colored and colorless objects effectively. The LEDs provide multiple spectral components that work with standard RGB camera sensors, enabling the system to handle diverse object types including colored scenes, thereby maintaining temporal resolution while increasing adaptability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces broad-spectrum LED illumination as an intermediary between the light source and the camera sensor. This intermediary provides a rich spectral content that can be selectively captured by the camera's color filters, enabling accurate color representation of colored objects while maintaining the high temporal resolution achieved through sequential illumination
3Productivity
If sequential illumination with single-frequency lasers is used, then frame rate increases, but motion artifacts increase in colored scenes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent achieves continuous useful action by using broad-spectrum LED illumination that provides multiple spectral components simultaneously during each illumination phase. This continuous spectral coverage during sequential illumination reduces gaps in color information capture, thereby reducing motion artifacts in colored scenes while maintaining the increased frame rate
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 triples the frame rate of existing cameras without modifying their functionality, reduces the need for expensive lasers, and enhances light dynamics, enabling faster and more accurate imaging of fast-moving samples with lower electronic noise.
Implementation Method 1
the proposed solution is enabled even in combination with an ambient light or a natural illumination illuminating the scene during the acquisition of the subspectral images
Implementation Method 2
each group of sensor elements providing a subspectral image of the scene by sensing a different spectral portion of the electromagnetic spectrum
Data Source
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Figure 3
Figure 4~7
AI summary
The invention concerns an image acquisition system (1) comprising an illumination device (2) and an image sensor (31) with a plurality of groups (311, 312, 313) of sensor elements (310) sensing a different spectral portion of the visible spectrum. The system comprises a controller (41) for acquiring a set of subspectral images (321, 322, 323) of a scene (9) being illuminated by a given sequence of illuminations, wherein at least one illumination of said sequence of illuminations is sensed by at least two groups of sensor elements of the image sensor. The system also comprises an unmixer (42) providing an output image at a first time by weighting each subspectral image of the set according to spectral reconstruction contributions derived from spectral contributions provided by the illuminations to each group of sensor elements, and by combining the weighted subspectral images.