A study of the use of CMOS vision systems for continuous, real-time 2D frequency domain measurements using digital phase sensitive techniques

本提案旨在确定使用CMOS成像技术对物体进行频域测量的可行性和局限性。CMOS相机和成像设备通常可用，用于捕获和显示广泛的工业和消费应用中的静态和时间图像。同样的技术也适用于在频域对物体和材料进行测量。虽然这些设备的主要用途是机器视觉和摄影，但它们也可能用作一系列工业和医学成像应用中的传感器，在这些应用中，频率测量可以产生比在时域获得的数据更多的信息。典型的例子包括飞行时间测量、三维轮廓测量、激光剖面和荧光标记和生物材料的分析。后一种方法在许多进行化学物质测试的实验室中使用。这通常需要使用昂贵的冷却高速CCD相机来捕获时域信息。许多科学家和工程师已经证明，在频域中提取这些信息通常更容易、更可靠、更便宜。PI参与了最近的欧盟研究项目，这些项目开发了使用单一光学传感器的这种技术的仪器。该项目旨在将这项工作扩展到二维传感器阵列，使该技术能够用于对被测物体进行成像，而不是提供单源测量。该项目将证明，利用现有的成像技术与最新的数字信号处理设备相结合，可以构建一个可以连续实时地执行这些二维频率测量的仪器。它还将确定当前设备的局限性，以及如何改进系统的整体性能，使其适用于广泛的测量应用。这项可行性研究将作为进一步研究改进连续、实时频率成像系统架构的基础。

This proposal aims to determine the feasibility and limitations of using CMOS imaging technology to perform frequency domain measurements on objects. CMOS cameras and imaging devices are commonly available and are used for capturing and displaying static and temporal images in a wide range of industrial and consumer applications. The same technolgy is also suitable for performing measurements on objects and materials in the frequency domain. Although the primary use of such devices are in machine vision and photography it is possible that they could be used as sensors in a range of industrial and medical imaging applications where frequency measurments can yield more information than data obtained in the temporal domain. Typical examples include time-of flight measurments, 3D contour measurements, laser profiling and flourescent tagging and assaying of biological materials. The latter example is used in many laboratories where testing of chemical species is being performed. This often requires the use of expensive cooled high-speed CCD cameras to capture the information in the time domain.It has been demonstrated by many scientists and engineers that it is often easier, more reliable and cheaper to extract such information in the frequency domain. The PI has been involved in recent EU research projects that have developed instruments using such techniques with a single optical sensor. This project aims to extend this work to a 2D array of sensors, enabling the technique to be used for imaging the object under test rather than providing a single-source measurement.The project will demonstrate that it is possible using existing imaging technology combined with the latest digital signal processing devices to build an instrument that can perform these 2D frequency measurments continuously and in real-time.It will also determine the limitations of the current devices and how the overall performance of the system could be improved to make it suitable for a wide range of measurement applications. This feasibility study will then be used as the basis for further research into improved architectures for continuous, real-time frequency based imaging systems.