Image Feature Extraction and Matching of Augmented Solar Images in Space Weather

Augmented solar images were used to research the adaptability of four representative image extraction and matching algorithms in space weather domain.These include the scale-invariant feature transform algorithm,speeded-up robust features algorithm,binary robust invariant scalable keypoints algorithm,and oriented fast and rotated brief algorithm.The performance of these algorithms was estimated in terms of matching accuracy,feature point richness,and running time.The experiment result showed that no algorithm achieved high accuracy while keeping low running time,and all algorithms are not suitable for image feature extraction and matching of augmented solar images.To solve this problem,an improved method was proposed by using two-frame matching to utilize the accuracy advantage of the scale-invariant feature transform algorithm and the speed advantage of the oriented fast and rotated brief algorithm.Furthermore,our method and the four representative algorithms were applied to augmented solar images.Our application experiments proved that our method achieved a similar high recognition rate to the scale-invariant feature transform algorithm which is significantly higher than other algorithms.Our method also obtained a similar low running time to the oriented fast and rotated brief algorithm,which is significantly lower than other algorithms.

Robustness Evaluation of Remote-Sensing Image Feature Detectors with TH Priori-Information Data Set

In this paper,we build a remote-sensing satellite imagery priori-information data set,and propose an approach to evaluate the robustness of remote-sensing image feature detectors.The building TH Priori-Information(TPI)data set with 2297 remote sensing images serves as a standardized high-resolution data set for studies related to remote-sensing image features.The TPI contains 1)raw and calibrated remote-sensing images with high spatial and temporal resolutions(up to 2 m and 7 days,respectively),and 2)a built-in 3-D target area model that supports view position,view angle,lighting,shadowing,and other transformations.Based on TPI,we further present a quantized approach,including the feature recurrence rate,the feature match score,and the weighted feature robustness score,to evaluate the robustness of remote-sensing image feature detectors.The quantized approach gives general and objective assessments of the robustness of feature detectors under complex remote-sensing circumstances.Three remote-sensing image feature detectors,including scale-invariant feature transform(SIFT),speeded up robust features(SURF),and priori information based robust features(PIRF),are evaluated using the proposed approach on the TPI data set.Experimental results show that the robustness of PIRF outperforms others by over 6.2%.

Developing global image feature analysis models to predict cancer risk and prognosis

In order to develop precision or personalized medicine,identifying new quantitative imaging markers and building machine learning models to predict cancer risk and prognosis has been attracting broad research interest recently.Most of these research approaches use the similar concepts of the conventional computer-aided detection schemes of medical images,which include steps in detecting and segmenting suspicious regions or tumors,followed by training machine learning models based on the fusion of multiple image features computed from the segmented regions or tumors.However,due to the heterogeneity and boundary fuzziness of the suspicious regions or tumors,segmenting subtle regions is often difficult and unreliable.Additionally,ignoring global and/or background parenchymal tissue characteristics may also be a limitation of the conventional approaches.In our recent studies,we investigated the feasibility of developing new computer-aided schemes implemented with the machine learning models that are trained by global image features to predict cancer risk and prognosis.We trained and tested several models using images obtained from full-field digital mammography,magnetic resonance imaging,and computed tomography of breast,lung,and ovarian cancers.Study results showed that many of these new models yielded higher performance than other approaches used in current clinical practice.Furthermore,the computed global image features also contain complementary information from the features computed from the segmented regions or tumors in predicting cancer prognosis.Therefore,the global image features can be used alone to develop new case-based prediction models or can be added to current tumor-based models to increase their discriminatory power.

Role of the texture features of images in the diagnosis of solitary pulmonary nodules in different sizes

Objective： To explore the role of the texture features of images in the diagnosis of solitary pulmonary nodules （SPNs） in different sizes. Materials and methods： A total of 379 patients with pathologically confirmed SPNs were enrolled in this study. They were divided into three groups based on the SPN sizes： ≤10, 11-20, and 〉20 mm. Their texture features were segmented and extracted. The differences in the image features between benign and malignant SPNs were compared. The SPNs in these three groups were determined and analyzed with the texture features of images. Results： These 379 SPNs were successfully segmented using the 2D Otsu threshold method and the self-adaptive threshold segmentation method. The texture features of these SPNs were obtained using the method of grey level co-occurrence matrix （GLCM）. Of these 379 patients, 120 had benign SPNs and 259 had malignant SPNs. The entropy, contrast, energy, homogeneity, and correlation were 3.5597±0.6470, 0.5384±0.2561, 0.1921±0.1256, 0.8281±0.0604, and 0.8748±0.0740 in the benign SPNs and 3.8007±0.6235, 0.6088±0.2961, 0.1673±0.1070, 0.7980±0.0555, and 0.8550±0.0869 in the malignant SPNs （all P〈0.05）. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the texture features of images were 83.3%, 90.0%, and 86.8%, respectively, for SPNs sized 〈10 mm, and were 86.6%, 88.2%, and 87.1%, respectively, for SPNs sized 11-20 mm and 94.7%, 91.8%, and 93.9%, respectively, for SPNs sized 〉20 mm. Conclusions： The entropy and contrast of malignant pulmonary nodules have been demonstrated to be higher in comparison to those of benign pulmonary nodules, while the energy, homogeneity correlation of malignant pulmonary nodules are lower than those of benign pulmonary nodules. The texture features of images can reflect the tissue features and have high sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy in differentiating SPNs. The sensitivity and accuracy increase for larger SPNs.

Image block feature vectors based on a singular-value information metric and color-texture description

In this work, image feature vectors are formed for blocks containing sufficient information, which are selected using a singular-value criterion. When the ratio between the first two SVs axe below a given threshold, the block is considered informative. A total of 12 features including statistics of brightness, color components and texture measures are used to form intermediate vectors. Principal component analysis is then performed to reduce the dimension to 6 to give the final feature vectors. Relevance of the constructed feature vectors is demonstrated by experiments in which k-means clustering is used to group the vectors hence the blocks. Blocks falling into the same group show similar visual appearances.

Image feature optimization based on nonlinear dimensionality reduction

Image feature optimization is an important means to deal with high-dimensional image data in image semantic understanding and its applications. We formulate image feature optimization as the establishment of a mapping between highand low-dimensional space via a five-tuple model. Nonlinear dimensionality reduction based on manifold learning provides a feasible way for solving such a problem. We propose a novel globular neighborhood based locally linear embedding (GNLLE) algorithm using neighborhood update and an incremental neighbor search scheme, which not only can handle sparse datasets but also has strong anti-noise capability and good topological stability. Given that the distance measure adopted in nonlinear dimensionality reduction is usually based on pairwise similarity calculation, we also present a globular neighborhood and path clustering based locally linear embedding (GNPCLLE) algorithm based on path-based clustering. Due to its full consideration of correlations between image data, GNPCLLE can eliminate the distortion of the overall topological structure within the dataset on the manifold. Experimental results on two image sets show the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithms.

Comparative study on the performance of textural image features for active contour segmentation

We present a computerized method for the semi-automatic detection of contours in ultrasound images. The novelty of our study is the introduction of a fast and efficient image function relating to parametric active contour models. This new function is a combination of the gray-level information and first-order statistical features, called standard deviation parameters. In a comprehensive study, the developed algorithm and the efficiency of segmentation were first tested for synthetic images. Tests were also performed on breast and liver ultrasound images. The proposed method was compared with the watershed approach to show its efficiency. The performance of the segmentation was estimated using the area error rate. Using the standard devia- tion textural feature and a 5x5 kernel, our curve evolution was able to produce results close to the minimal area error rate （namely 8.88% for breast images and 10.82% for liver images）. The image resolution was evaluated using the con- trast-to-gradient method. The experiments showed promising segmentation results.

New Fragile Watermarking Technique to Identify Inserted Video Objects Using H.264 and Color Features

The transmission of video content over a network raises various issues relating to copyright authenticity,ethics,legality,and privacy.The protection of copyrighted video content is a significant issue in the video industry,and it is essential to find effective solutions to prevent tampering and modification of digital video content during its transmission through digital media.However,there are stillmany unresolved challenges.This paper aims to address those challenges by proposing a new technique for detectingmoving objects in digital videos,which can help prove the credibility of video content by detecting any fake objects inserted by hackers.The proposed technique involves using two methods,the H.264 and the extraction color features methods,to embed and extract watermarks in video frames.The study tested the performance of the system against various attacks and found it to be robust.The evaluation was done using different metrics such as Peak-Signal-to-Noise Ratio(PSNR),Mean Squared Error(MSE),Structural Similarity Index Measure(SSIM),Bit Correction Ratio(BCR),and Normalized Correlation.The accuracy of identifying moving objects was high,ranging from 96.3%to 98.7%.The system was also able to embed a fragile watermark with a success rate of over 93.65%and had an average capacity of hiding of 78.67.The reconstructed video frames had high quality with a PSNR of at least 65.45 dB and SSIMof over 0.97,making them imperceptible to the human eye.The system also had an acceptable average time difference(T=1.227/s)compared with other state-of-the-art methods.

An Object-based Approach for Two-level Gully Feature Mapping Using High-resolution DEM and Imagery： A Case Study on Hilly Loess Plateau Region, China

Gully feature mapping is an indispensable prerequisite for the motioning and control of gully erosion which is a widespread natural hazard. The increasing availability of high-resolution Digital Elevation Model(DEM) and remote sensing imagery, combined with developed object-based methods enables automatic gully feature mapping. But still few studies have specifically focused on gully feature mapping on different scales. In this study, an object-based approach to two-level gully feature mapping, including gully-affected areas and bank gullies, was developed and tested on 1-m DEM and Worldview-3 imagery of a catchment in the Chinese Loess Plateau. The methodology includes a sequence of data preparation, image segmentation, metric calculation, and random forest based classification. The results of the two-level mapping were based on a random forest model after investigating the effects of feature selection and class-imbalance problem. Results show that the segmentation strategy adopted in this paper which considers the topographic information and optimal parameter combination can improve the segmentation results. The distribution of the gully-affected area is closely related to topographic information, however, the spectral features are more dominant for bank gully mapping. The highest overall accuracy of the gully-affected area mapping was 93.06% with four topographic features. The highest overall accuracy of bank gully mapping is 78.5% when all features are adopted. The proposed approach is a creditable option for hierarchical mapping of gully feature information, which is suitable for the application in hily Loess Plateau region.

Fast Fractal Image Encoding Based on Special Image Features

The fractal image encoding method has received much attention for its many advantages over other methods, such as high decoding quality at high compression ratios. However, because every range block must be compared to all domain blocks in the codebook to find the best-matched one during the coding procedure, baseline fractal coding （BFC） is quite time consuming. To speed up fractal coding, a new fast fractal encoding algorithm is proposed. This algorithm aims at reducing the size of the search window during the domain-range matching process to minimize the computational cost. A new theorem presented in this paper shows that a special feature of the image can be used to do this work. Based on this theorem, the most inappropriate domain blocks, whose features are not similar to that of the given range block, are excluded before matching. Thus, the best-matched block can be captured much more quickly than in the BFC approach. The experimental results show that the runtime of the proposed method is reduced greatly com- pared to the BFC method. At the same time, the new algorithm also achieves high reconstructed image quality. In addition, the method can be incorporated with other fast algorithms to achieve better performance Therefore, the proposed algorithm has a much better application potential than BFC.

Evolutionary Computation Based Optimization of Image Zernike Moments Shape Feature Vector

The image shape feature can be described by the image Zernike moments. In this paper, we points out the problem that the high dimension image Zernike moments shape feature vector can describe more detail of the original image but has too many elements making trouble for the next image analysis phases. Then the low dimension image Zernike moments shape feature vector should be improved and optimized to describe more detail of the original image. So the optimization algorithm based on evolutionary computation is designed and implemented in this paper to solve this problem. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the optimization algorithm.

A Method of Using Information Entropy of an Image as an Effective Feature for Com-puter-Aided Diagnostic Applications

Computer-aided detection and diagnosis (CAD) systems are increasingly being used as an aid by clinicians for detection and interpretation of diseases. In general, a CAD system employs a classifier to detect or distinguish between abnormal and normal tissues on images. In the phase of classification, a set of image features and/or texture features extracted from the images are commonly used. In this article, we investigated the characteristic of the output entropy of an image and demonstrated the usefulness of the output entropy acting as a texture feature in CAD systems. In order to validate the effectiveness and superiority of the output-entropy-based texture feature, two well-known texture features, i.e., mean and standard deviation were used for comparison. The database used in this study comprised 50 CT images obtained from 10 patients with pulmonary nodules, and 50 CT images obtained from 5 normal subjects. We used a support vector machine for classification. A leave-one-out method was employed for training and classification. Three combinations of texture features, i.e., mean and entropy, standard deviation and entropy, and standard deviation and mean were used as the inputs to the classifier. Three different regions of interest (ROI) sizes, i.e., 11 × 11, 9 × 9 and 7 × 7 pixels from the database were selected for computation of the feature values. Our experimental results show that the combination of entropy and standard deviation is significantly better than both the combination of mean and entropy and that of standard deviation and mean in the case of the ROI size of 11 × 11 pixels (p < 0.05). These results suggest that information entropy of an image can be used as an effective feature for CAD applications.

Clinical and multimodal imaging features of acute macular neuroretinopathy lesions following recent SARS-CoV-2 infection

AIM:To describe the clinical characteristics of eyes using multimodal imaging features with acute macular neuroretinopathy(AMN)lesions following severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2)infection.METHODS:Retrospective case series study.From December 18,2022 to February 14,2023,previously healthy cases within 1-week infection with SARS-CoV-2 and examined at Tianjin Eye Hospital to confirm the diagnosis of AMN were included in the study.Totally 5 males and 9 females[mean age:29.93±10.32(16-49)y]were presented for reduced vision,with or without blurred vision.All patients underwent best corrected visual acuity(BCVA),intraocular pressure,slit lamp microscopy,indirect fundoscopy.Simultaneously,multimodal imagings fundus photography(45°or 200°field of view)was performed in 7 cases(14 eyes).Near infrared(NIR)fundus photography was performed in 9 cases(18 eyes),optical coherence tomography(OCT)in 5 cases(10 eyes),optical coherence tomography angiography(OCTA)in 9 cases(18 eyes),and fundus fluorescence angiography(FFA)in 3 cases(6 eyes).Visual field was performed in 1 case(2 eyes).RESULTS:Multimodal imaging findings data from 14 patients with AMN were reviewed.All eyes demonstrated different extent hyperreflective lesions at the level of the inner nuclear layer and/or outer plexus layer on OCT or OCTA.Fundus photography(45°or 200°field of view)showed irregular hypo-reflective lesion around the fovea in 7 cases(14 eyes).OCTA demonstrated that the superficial retinal capillary plexus(SCP)vascular density,deep capillary plexus(DCP)vascular density and choriocapillaris(CC)vascular density was reduced in 9 case(18 eyes).Among the follow-up cases(2 cases),vascular density increased in 1 case with elevated BCVA;another case has vascular density decrease in one eye and basically unchanged in other eye.En face images of the ellipsoidal zone and interdigitation zone injury showed a low wedge-shaped reflection contour appearance.NIR image mainly show the absence of the outer retinal interdigitation zone in AMN.No abnormal fluorescence was observed in FFA.Corresponding partial defect of the visual field were visualized via perimeter in one case.CONCLUSION:The morbidity of SARS-CoV-2 infection with AMN is increased.Ophthalmologists should be aware of the possible,albeit rare,AMN after SARS-CoV-2 infection and focus on multimodal imaging features.OCT,OCTA,and infrared fundus phase are proved to be valuable tools for detection of AMN in patients with SARS-CoV-2.

Delineation of Mesoscale Features of Ocean on Satellite IR Image

An ICSED (Improved Cluster Shade Edge-Detection) algorithm and a series of post-processing technique are discussed for automatic delineation of mesoscale structure of the ocean on digital IR images. The popular derivative-based edge operators are shown to be too sensitive to edge fine-structure and to weak gradients. The new edge-detection algorithm is ICSED (Improved Cluster Shade Edge-detection) method and it is found to be an excel lent edge detector that exhibits the characteristic of fine-structure rejection while retaining edge sharpness. This char acteristic is highly desirable for analyzing oceanographic satellite images. A sorting technique for separating clouds or land well from ocean at both day and night is described in order to obtain high quality mesoscale features on the IR image This procedure is evaluated on an AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) image with Kuroshio. Results and analyses show that the mesoscale features can be well identified by using ICSED algorithm.

NEW CORNER DETECTION ALGORITHM BASED ON MULTI-FEATURE SYNTHESIS

Corner detection is a chief step in computer vision. A new corner detection algorithm in planar curves is proposed. Firstly, from the human perception, two key characteristics are given as an amendment of the traditional corner properties. Based on the two properties, the concept of the fuzzy set is introduced into a detection. Secondly, the extracted-formulae of three groups including the features of the corner subject degree are derived. Through synthesizing the features of three groups, the judgments of the corner detection, location, and optimization are obtained. Finally, by using the algorithm the detection results of several examples and feature curves for some interested parts, as well as the detection results for the test images history in references are given. Results show that the algorithm is easily realized after adopting the fuzzy set, and the detection effect is very ideal.

A froth velocity measurement method based on improved U-Net++semantic segmentation in flotation process

During flotation,the features of the froth image are highly correlated with the concentrate grade and the corresponding working conditions.The static features such as color and size of the bubbles and the dynamic features such as velocity have obvious differences between different working conditions.The extraction of these features is typically relied on the outcomes of image segmentation at the froth edge,making the segmentation of froth image the basis for studying its visual information.Meanwhile,the absence of scientifically reliable training data with label and the necessity to manually construct dataset and label make the study difficult in the mineral flotation.To solve this problem,this paper constructs a tungsten concentrate froth image dataset,and proposes a data augmentation network based on Conditional Generative Adversarial Nets(cGAN)and a U-Net++-based edge segmentation network.The performance of this algorithm is also evaluated and contrasted with other algorithms in this paper.On the results of semantic segmentation,a phase-correlationbased velocity extraction method is finally suggested.

Automated Counting of Rice Planthoppers in Paddy Fields Based on Image Processing

A quantitative survey of rice planthoppers in paddy fields is important to assess the population density and make forecasting decisions. Manual rice planthopper survey methods in paddy fields are time-consuming, fatiguing and tedious. This paper describes a handheld device for easily capturing planthopper images on rice stems and an automatic method for counting rice planthoppers based on image processing. The handheld device consists of a digital camera with WiFi, a smartphone and an extrendable pole. The surveyor can use the smartphone to control the camera, which is fixed on the front of the pole by WiFi, and to photograph planthoppers on rice stems. For the counting of planthoppers on rice stems, we adopt three layers of detection that involve the following：（a） the first layer of detection is an AdaBoost classifier based on Haar features;（b） the second layer of detection is a support vector machine（SVM） classifier based on histogram of oriented gradient（HOG） features;（c） the third layer of detection is the threshold judgment of the three features. We use this method to detect and count whiteback planthoppers（Sogatella furcifera） on rice plant images and achieve an 85.2% detection rate and a 9.6% false detection rate. The method is easy, rapid and accurate for the assessment of the population density of rice planthoppers in paddy fields.

Lung imaging characteristics in a patient infected with Elizabethkingia miricola following cerebral hemorrhage surgery: A case report

BACKGROUND Elizabethkingia miricola is a non-fermenting gram-negative bacterium,which was first isolated from the condensate of the Russian peace space station in 2003.Most studies on this bacterium have been carried out in the laboratory,and clinical case studies are rare.To date,a total of 6 clinical cases have been reported worldwide.CASE SUMMARY We present the first case of postoperative pulmonary infection in a patient with intracerebral hemorrhage due to Elizabethkingia miricola.The imaging character-istics of pulmonary infection were identified and the formulation and selection of the clinical treatment plan for this patient are discussed.CONCLUSION Elizabethkingia miricola infection is rare.When pulmonary infection occurs,computed tomography imaging may show diffuse distribution of a ground glass density shadow in both lungs,the air containing bronchial sign in local areas,thickening of bronchial vascular bundle,and pleural effusion.

Wheat FHB resistance assessment using hyperspectral feature band image fusion and deep learning

The breeding and selection of resistant varieties is an effective way to minimize wheat Fusarium head blight(FHB)hazards,so it is important to identify and evaluate resistant varieties.The traditional resistance phenotype identification is still largely dependent on time-consuming manual methods.In this paper,the method for evaluating FHB resistance in wheat ears was optimized based on the fusion feature wavelength images of the hyperspectral imaging system and the Faster R-CNN algorithm.The spectral data from 400-1000 nm were preprocessed by the multiple scattering correction(MSC)algorithm.Three feature wavelengths(553 nm,682 nm and 714 nm)were selected by analyzing the X-loading weights(XLW)according to the absolute value of the peaks and troughs in different principal component(PC)load coefficient curves.Then,the different fusion methods of the three feature wavelengths were explored with different weight coefficients.Faster R-CNN was trained on the fusion and RGB datasets with VGG16,AlexNet,ZFNet,and ResNet-50 networks separately.Then,the other detection models SSD,YOLOv5,YOLOv7,CenterNet,and RetinaNet were used to compare with the Faster R-CNN model.As a result,the Faster R-CNN with VGG16 was best with the mAP(mean Average Precision)ranged from 97.7%to 98.8%.The model showed the best performance for the Fusion Image-1 dataset.Moreover,the Faster R-CNN model with VGG16 achieved an average detection accuracy of 99.00%,which was 23.89%,1.21%,0.75%,0.62%,and 8.46%higher than SSD,YOLOv5,YOLOv7,CenterNet,and RetinaNet models.Therefore,it was demonstrated that the Faster R-CNN model based on the hyperspectral feature image fusion dataset proposed in this paper was feasible for rapid evaluation of wheat FHB resistance.This study provided an important detection method for ensuring wheat food security.

Jamming Recognition Based on Feature Fusion and Convolutional Neural Network

The complicated electromagnetic environment of the BeiDou satellites introduces vari-ous types of external jamming to communication links,in which recognition of jamming signals with uncertainties is essential.In this work,the jamming recognition framework proposed consists of fea-ture fusion and a convolutional neural network(CNN).Firstly,the recognition inputs are obtained by prepossessing procedure,in which the 1-D power spectrum and 2-D time-frequency image are ac-cessed through the Welch algorithm and short-time Fourier transform(STFT),respectively.Then,the 1D-CNN and residual neural network(ResNet)are introduced to extract the deep features of the two prepossessing inputs,respectively.Finally,the two deep features are concatenated for the following three fully connected layers and output the jamming signal classification results through the softmax layer.Results show the proposed method could reduce the impacts of potential feature loss,therefore improving the generalization ability on dealing with uncertainties.