Resolution is one of the important indicators that must be evaluated for low-light-level (LLL) image intensifiers. The traditional techniques for evaluating this parameter include visual observation and objective testing. The visual evaluation method has the disadvantages of strong uncertainty and low accuracy, whereas the existing objective testing techniques mainly suffer from poor robustness. To address the above problems, an automatic evaluation method for this parameter based on frequency spectrum analysis of a two-dimensional (2D) matrix of stripe pattern is proposed. First, a 2D matrix of stripe image with stripe pattern position displacement as X coordinate and stripe clarity change as Y coordinate is established and converted into the frequency domain. Then, the critical value of stripe clarity is determined by combining the brightness variation curve of the spectrum feature points of the precisely located stripe images in the matrix with the extremely discernible stripe image. Finally, this value is applied to the spectrum feature point brightness change curve of the matrix established from the stripe unit image to obtain the image tube resolution. To substantiate the performance of this method, four state-of-the-art techniques are compared, and several LLL image intensifiers are put into the experiment. The results indicate that the proposed method has the most consistent results with the visual evaluation method and manifests the shortest testing time. The applicability verification experiment results demonstrate that the repeatability of this method is satisfactory, and the probability of fluctuation not exceeding one stripe unit is not greater than 20%.
Integrated structural defects are one of the most common defects in the microchannel plate fabrication and physicochemical treatment stage of low-light-level (LLL) image intensifiers. Its appearance seriously affects the imaging quality. The traditional evaluation method of such defects is solely based on visual observation, and its main disadvantages are strong subjectivity and large uncertainty. To address the above problems, two objective evaluation methods of integrated structural defects of an LLL image intensifier are introduced. The first is based on local image patch extreme, and the second is based on frequency fast Fourier transform. The basic idea of the first method is to scan the effective area (EA) of the target image globally and then extract the target defect by adopting a series of local image patch extremes adjacent in the Y-axis. Experimental results reveal that this method shows excellent performance in detecting and positioning accuracy while the time cost is satisfactory. The general steps of the second method are to scan the EA globally, and then perform a fast Fourier transform on the obtained image patch; through bandpass filtering in the frequency domain and inverse Fourier transforming the convoluted image, structures or objects projecting the similar characteristics of integrated structural defects are detected. This method not only maintains good detection integrity but also ensures high detection accuracy. Through experiments on several defective image intensifiers and compared with traditional relevant technologies, we conclude that the proposed methods can realize the high-precision objective detection of integrated structural defects of LLL image intensifiers and can be used as effective alternatives to the traditional evaluation method of such defects.
Resolution is an important index for evaluating the performance of a low-light-level image intensifier. The traditional method of image tube resolution measurement is to observe the resolution target on the image intensifier through a microscope and give a subjective judgment. The disadvantage is that the difference in the visual acuity between testers will lead to variability in measurement results. In addition, the process of focusing the resolution image is very time-consuming and eye-consuming. To solve these problems, an objective evaluation system of image tube resolution based on fast Fourier transform (FFT) that provides an efficient and feasible objective evaluation scheme for the estimation of image tube resolution is proposed. In this system, the resolution target is first focused on the cathode surface of the image tube through an optical system, and then the image is taken by a high-resolution camera. The region of interest of the collected image shows that the gray-scale sequence along the direction of the stripe change reflects the frequency of the stripe. When the gray-scale sequence is transformed to the frequency domain using FFT, the clarity and resolution of the stripe will be correlated with some quantities in the frequency domain. We extract the clarity-resolution values from the frequency domain of all stripe elements and use the generated clarity threshold combined with the linear fitting strategy to achieve the resolution value. The experimental results show that, in terms of accuracy, the test results of the system are consistent with the subjective evaluation results. For the tubes with resolutions between 61.37 and 66.49 lp / mm, the accuracy of our system is higher than that of human judgment. For repeatability, the measurement results of the system are in good agreement with the subjective evaluation results of the tubes with resolutions between 50 and 62 lp / mm. Therefore, our system can be regarded as a reasonable alternative to the subjective evaluation method, which will greatly reduce the variability caused by different testers.
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