arXiv subjects

Hanqing Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Hanqing Zhang.

22 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

UmUTracker: A versatile MATLAB program for automated particle tracking of 2D light microscopy or 3D digital holography data

We present a versatile and fast MATLAB program (UmUTracker) that automatically detects and tracks particles by analyzing video sequences acquired by either light microscopy or digital in-line holographic microscopy. Our program detects the 2D lateral positions of particles with an algorithm based on the isosceles triangle transform, and reconstructs their 3D axial positions by a fast implementation of the Rayleigh-Sommerfeld model using a radial intensity profile. To validate the accuracy and performance of our program, we first track the 2D position of polystyrene particles using bright field and digital holographic microscopy. Second, we determine the 3D particle position by analyzing synthetic and experimentally acquired holograms. Finally, to highlight the full program features, we profile the microfluidic flow in a 100 micrometer high flow chamber. This result agrees with computational fluid dynamic simulations. On a regular desktop computer UmUTracker can detect, analyze, and track multiple particles at 5 frames per second for a template size of 201 x 201 in a 1024 x 1024 image. To enhance usability and to make it easy to implement new functions we used object-oriented programming. UmUTracker is suitable for studies related to: particle dynamics, cell localization, colloids and microfluidic flow measurement.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2017

A step-by-step guide to reduce spatial coherence of laser light using a rotating ground glass diffuser

Wide field-of-view imaging of fast processes in a microscope requires high light intensities motivating the use of lasers as light sources. However, due to their long spatial coherence length lasers are inappropriate for such applications as they produce coherent noise and parasitic reflections, such as speckle, degrading image quality. Therefore, we provide a step-by-step guide for constructing a speckle-free and high contrast laser illumination setup using a rotating ground glass diffuser driven by a stepper motor. The setup is easy to build, cheap and allows a significant light throughput of 48 %, which is 40 % higher in comparison to a single lens collector commonly used in reported setups. This is achieved by using only one objective to collect the scattered light from the ground glass diffuser. We validate the stability and performance of our setup in terms of image quality, motor-induced vibrations and light throughput. To highlight the latter, we record Brownian motion of micro-particles using a 100x oil immersion objective and a high-speed camera operating at 2 000 Hz with a laser output power of only 22 mW. Moreover, by reducing the objective magnification to 50x sampling rates up to 10 000 Hz are realized. To help readers with basic or advanced optics knowledge realizing this setup we provide; a full component list, 3D-printing CAD files, setup protocol, and the code for running the stepper motor.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2016

A robust particle detection algorithm based on symmetry

Particle tracking is common in many biophysical, ecological, and micro-fluidic applications. Reliable tracking information is heavily dependent on of the system under study and algorithms that correctly determines particle position between images. However, in a real environmental context with the presence of noise including particular or dissolved matter in water, and low and fluctuating light conditions, many algorithms fail to obtain reliable information. We propose a new algorithm, the Circular Symmetry algorithm (C-Sym), for detecting the position of a circular particle with high accuracy and precision in noisy conditions. The algorithm takes advantage of the spatial symmetry of the particle allowing for subpixel accuracy. We compare the proposed algorithm with four different methods using both synthetic and experimental datasets. The results show that C-Sym is the most accurate and precise algorithm when tracking micro-particles in all tested conditions and it has the potential for use in applications including tracking biota in their environment.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2015

Circle detection using isosceles triangles sampling

Detection of circular objects in digital images is an important problem in several vision applications. Circle detection using randomized sampling has been developed in recent years to reduce the computational intensity. Randomized sampling, however, is sensitive to noise that can lead to reduced accuracy and false-positive candidates. This paper presents a new circle detection method based upon randomized isosceles triangles sampling to improve the robustness of randomized circle detection in noisy conditions. It is shown that the geometrical property of isosceles triangles provide a robust criterion to find relevant edge pixels and thereby efficiently provide an estimation of the circle center and radii. The estimated results given by the isosceles triangles sampling from each connected component of edge map were analyzed using a simple clustering approach for efficiency. To further improve on the accuracy we applied a two-step refinement process using chords and linear error compensation with gradient information of the edge pixels. Extensive experiments using both synthetic and real images were presented and results were compared to leading state-of-the-art algorithms and showed that the proposed algorithm: are efficient in finding circles with a low number of iterations; has high rejection rate of false-positive circle candidates; and has high robustness against noise, making it adaptive and useful in many vision applications.

cs.CV↗