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照相机和成像设备通常是可用的，并且用于在广泛的工业和消费应用中捕获和显示静态和时间图像。同样的技术也适用于在频域中对物体和材料进行测量。虽然这种设备的主要用途是机器视觉和摄影，但它们可以用作一系列工业和医学成像应用中的传感器，其中频率测量可以产生比时域中获得的数据更多的信息。典型的例子包括飞行时间测量、3D轮廓测量、激光轮廓和荧光标记以及生物材料的分析。后一个例子被用于许多实验室，其中正在进行化学物种的测试。这通常需要使用昂贵的冷却高速CCD相机来捕获时域中的信息，许多科学家和工程师已经证明，在频域中提取这种信息通常更容易、更可靠和更便宜。PI参与了最近的欧盟研究项目，这些项目开发了使用此类技术和单个光学传感器的仪器。该项目旨在将这项工作扩展到2D传感器阵列，该项目将证明，利用现有的成像技术结合最新的数字信号处理设备，可以构建一种能够连续和真实的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以使其适合于广泛的测量应用。该可行性研究将作为进一步研究的基础，以改进连续，实时基于频率的成像系统的架构。

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.