Digital coded exposure formation of frames from event-based imagery

Event-driven neuromorphic imagers have a number of attractive properties including low-power consumption, high dynamic range, the ability to detect fast events, low memory consumption and low band-width requirements. One of the biggest challenges with using event-driven imagery is that the field of event data processing is still embryonic. In contrast, decades worth of effort have been invested in the analysis of frame-based imagery. Hybrid approaches for applying established frame-based analysis techniques to event-driven imagery have been studied since event-driven imagers came into existence. However, the process for forming frames from event-driven imagery has not been studied in detail. This work presents a principled digital coded exposure approach for forming frames from event-driven imagery that is inspired by the physics exploited in a conventional camera featuring a shutter. The technique described in this work provides a fundamental tool for understanding the temporal information content that contributes to the formation of a frame from event-driven imagery data. Event-driven imagery allows for the application of arbitrary virtual digital shutter functions to form the final frame on a pixel-by-pixel basis. The proposed approach allows for the careful control of the spatio-temporal information that is captured in the frame. Furthermore, unlike a conventional physical camera, event-driven imagery can be formed into any variety of possible frames in post-processing after the data is captured. Furthermore, unlike a conventional physical camera, coded-exposure virtual shutter functions can assume arbitrary values including positive, negative, real, and complex values. The coded exposure approach also enables the ability to perform applications of industrial interest such as digital stroboscopy without any additional hardware. The ability to form frames from event-driven imagery in a principled manner opens up new possibilities in the ability to use conventional frame-based image processing techniques on event-driven imagery.

A Method of Range Walk Error Correction in SiPM LiDAR with Photon Threshold Detection

A silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) LiDAR with photon threshold detection can achieve high dynamic performance. However, the number fluctuations of echo signal photons lead to the range walk error (RWE) in SiPM LIDARs. This paper derives the RWE model of SiPM LiDAR by using the LiDAR equation and statistical property of SiPM’s response. Based on the LiDAR system parameters and the echo signal intensity, which is obtained through the SiPM’s photon-number-resolving capability, the RWE is calculated through the proposed model. After that, we carry out experiments to verify its effectiveness. The result shows that the method reduces the RWE in TOF measurements using photon threshold detection from 36.57 cm to the mean deviation of 1.95 cm, with the number of detected photons fluctuating from 1.3 to 46.5.

Численное моделирование поведения карбидов при высокоэнергетическом воздействии

The results of research on modeling thermodynamic parameters of shock-wave loading of carbides with different stoichiometric ratios are presented. The carbides are considered as a mixture of carbon with the corresponding component. The calculations of pressure, compression and temperature values under shock-wave loading for solid and porous carbides in the range of pressure values above 3 GPa are performed. The model calculations are compared with the known experimental results on the shock-wave loading of carbides with different porosity values. The possibility of modeling the behavior according to the proposed method for carbides for which there are no experimental data at high dynamic loads is shown.

Simultaneous High Dynamic Range Algorithm, Testing, and Instrument Simulation

Within an imaging instrument’s field of view, there may be many observational targets of interest. Similarly, within a spectrograph’s bandpass, there may be many emission lines of interest. The brightness of these targets and lines can be orders of magnitude different, which poses a challenge to instrument and mission design. A single exposure can saturate the bright emission and/or have a low signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) for faint emission. Traditional high dynamic range (HDR) techniques solve this problem by either combining multiple sequential exposures of varied duration or splitting the light to different sensors. These methods, however, can result in the loss of science capability, reduced observational efficiency, or increased complexity and cost. The simultaneous HDR method described in this paper avoids these issues by utilizing a special type of detector whose rows can be read independently to define zones that are then composited, resulting in areas with short or long exposure measured simultaneously. We demonstrate this technique for the Sun, which is bright on disk and faint off disk. We emulated these conditions in the lab to validate the method. We built an instrument simulator to demonstrate the method for a realistic solar imager and input. We then calculated S/Ns, finding a value of 45 for a faint coronal mass ejection and 200 for a bright one, both at 3.5  ⊙ N —meeting or far exceeding the international standard for digital photography that defines an S/N of 10 as acceptable and 40 as excellent. Future missions should consider this type of hardware and technique in their trade studies for instrument design.

Calibration of Siberian Radioheliograph antenna gains using redundancy

The paper describes application of standard gain calibration using redundancy for a 48-antenna prototype of Siberian Radioheliograph. Traditionally, for calibration, the visibilities were measured only between adjacent antennas since they have the highest signal-to-noise ratio and are sufficient for phase calibration. We have shown that this limited set of visibilities did not allow using the antenna array redundancy potential and obtaining images with a high dynamic range on a permanent basis. Images without amplitude calibration contain many artifacts and require special care when analyzed. The inclusion of visibility measurement between antennas with a double step made it possible to significantly increase the accuracy of solving the system of equations for amplitudes. Images constructed using both phase and amplitude calibrations do not have visible artifacts and are more reliable.

Calibration of Siberian Radioheliograph antenna gains using redundancy

The paper describes application of standard gain calibration using redundancy for a 48-antenna prototype of Siberian Radioheliograph. Traditionally, for calibration, the visibilities were measured only between adjacent antennas since they have the highest signal-to-noise ratio and are sufficient for phase calibration. We have shown that this limited set of visibilities did not allow using the antenna array redundancy potential and obtaining images with a high dynamic range on a permanent basis. Images without amplitude calibration contain many artifacts and require special care when analyzed. The inclusion of visibility measurement between antennas with a double step made it possible to significantly increase the accuracy of solving the system of equations for amplitudes. Images constructed using both phase and amplitude calibrations do not have visible artifacts and are more reliable.