Visual toolkit automates image analysis
Visual toolkit automates image analysis
Logical Vision (Burnaby, B.C., Canada) and Ariel (Cranbury, NJ) have teamed up to make Logical Vision`s WiT visual programming toolkit available on Ariel`s TMS320C80-based Griffin PCI bus imaging- processing board.
WiT is an integrated visual-data-flow development environment that simplifies the development of image-processing software. Using WiT`s block-diagram editor, applications can be built by selecting and connecting functional blocks from WiT libraries. Advanced programmers can use WiT`s Visual Basic support to add a production user interface. C programmers can optimize existing C80-resident library functions or develop new ones using WiT`s C-language programming environment to speed image analysis. With WiT`s block-diagram editor, systems developers can automate image analysis.
In the example shown above, wood fiber orientation is analyzed. After acquiring the image, WiT uses a Sobel edge detector and thresholds and skeletonizes (or "thins") the image to convert image edges to a width of one pixel. Resulting edges are processed to create lines. WiT measures the orientation of the lines and separates out the lines that diverge more than 20 from correct alignment. Finally, fibers are labeled. In the lower right image, correctly aligned fibers are outlined in blue. Fibers that exceed alignment are outlined in red.
Griffin acts as an image-processing server and accelerator for applications developed using WiT. Residing on the PC host under Windows 95 or Windows NT, the WiT development environment supports WiT client applications and user interfaces that also reside on the host. WiT client applications can also reside on remote hosts, invoking Griffin imaging services via a LAN.
Griffin is a PCI-bus plug-in board based on TI`s TMS320C80 digital signal process and features a 32-bit master/slave PCI bus interface, a 24-bit RGB graphics interface with a 4-Mbyte video RAM frame buffer, and up to 8 Mbytes DRAM. The board also provides a stackable mezzanine interface that provides access to a family of I/O cards including a 32-bit digital camera interface.