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Image Acquisition Methods

Winter Term 2017

Image Acquisition Methods

Received a Computer Science Teaching Award (Summer Term 2014)


Lecturer: Dr. Pascal Peter

Winter Term 2017

Lecture (2h) with exercises (2h)
6 credit points

Lectures: Thursday 10-12 c.t., Building E1.3, Lecture Hall 003
First lecture: Thursday, Oct 19, 2017

Tutorials:
G1: Monday 8:30-10 s.t., Building E1.3, Seminar Room 016
G2: Monday 10-12 c.t., Building E1.3, Seminar Room 016
First tutorial: Monday, Oct 30, 2017



AnnouncementsDescriptionEntrance requirementsContents
ExamsLecture notes/AssignmentsReferences



04/04/2018 You can find your result of the second exam here.
General statistics about this exam can be downloaded here.

Each student who has participated in the second written exam has the opportunity to inspect his/her graded solutions in room 4.10 in Bldg. E1.7 on Friday, April 6, 2018 in the following timeslots, depending on your last (family) name:
A - K : 10:30 am - 11:00 am
L - Z : 11:00 am - 11:30 am

25/01/2018 Please check here if you are admitted to the exam.
27/10/2017 Registration is now closed. Groups can still be changed.
23/10/2017 Tutorial groups ran full temporarily and are now open again.
19/10/2017 Registration is now open.
24/08/2017 Website is online

Registration for this lecture was open until Thursday, Oct 26.
In addition to the individual registration, you also need to register for a tutorial group. If you have not done so already or want to change your group, you can do that here.
Keep in mind that in most courses of studies, you also have to register via the HISPOS system of the Saarland University


The course is designed as a supplement for image processing lectures, to be attended before, after or parallel to them. In order to choose the right image processing methods for a given image, it is important to know what the image data represents and what specific properties it possesses.

Therefore, in this lecture, participants learn:

  • what digital images are,
  • how they are acquired,
  • what they encode and what they mean,
  • which limitations are introduced by image acquisition.

A broad selection of different acquisition methods is featured in this lecture and should enable participants to deal with image data from many different fields.


Basic mathematics courses are recommended.
Basic knowledge in physics is helpful, but the lecture is designed to be self-sufficient in this regard.
The lecture will be given in English.


A broad variety of image acquisition methods is described, including imaging by virtually all sorts of electromagnetic waves, acoustic imaging, magnetic resonance imaging and more. While medical imaging methods play an important role, the overview is not limited to them.

Starting from physical foundations, description of each image acquisition method extends via aspects of technical realisation to mathematical modelling and representation of the data.


The first written exam will take place on Monday, February 5, 2018 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm in Building E2.2, Günter Hotz Lecture Theatre.
The second written exam will take place on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm in Building E2.2, Günter Hotz Lecture Theatre.
These are closed book exams. You can participate in both exams, and the better grades counts. Please note that the actual exam takes 90 minutes, the rest of the time is used to avoid interference with other exams.

Please remember that you have to register online for the exam in the HISPOS system of the Saarland University.

If you cannot attend the exam, contact Pascal Peter as early as possible. In case you have proof that you cannot take part for medical reasons or you have another exam on the same day, we can offer you an oral exam as a replacement. Note that we need written proof (e.g. a certificate from a physician/Krankenschein) for the exact date of the exam.

These are the rules during the exams:

  • No lecture materials are admitted during the exam.
  • Pocket calculators are not allowed.
  • Mobile phones, PDAs, laptops, smart watches, and other electronic devices have to be turned off.
  • Please keep your student ID card ready for an attendance check during the exam.
  • Do not write solutions with pencils or friction pens.
  • You are not allowed to take the exam sheets with you.
  • You must stay until the exam is completely over.

Lecture notes / Assignments

Participants can download course materials (lecture notes, assignments) here. For all assignments, example solutions will be provided. Additional organisational information, examples and explanations that may be relevant for your understanding and the exam are provided in the lectures and tutorials. It is solely your responsibility - not ours - to make sure that you receive this infomation.
The table below contains the planned topics for the lecture. The slides are available in two versions: the "script" version is printer friendly while the "slide" version retains the functionality to enlarge images and use slide navigation.

PART I: FOUNDATIONS

No. Title Date Script Slides
1 Introduction and Basic Concepts I 19/10 [download] [download]
2 Basic Concepts II 26/10 [download] [download]


PART II: IMAGING BY VISIBLE LIGHT

No. Title Date Script Slides
3 Imaging by Visible Light I: Electromagnetic Spectrum 02/11 [download] [download]
4 Imaging by Visible Light II: Optics, Sensorics, Photography 09/11 [download] [download]
5 Imaging by Visible Light III: Colour Spaces, Telescopes, Mirrors, Microscopy 16/11 [download] [download]
6 Imaging by Visible Light IV: Dual Photography, Triangulation, Holography 23/11 [download] [download]


PART III: IMAGING BY INVISIBLE ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION

No. Title Date Script Slides
7 X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Imaging in 2-D 30/11 [download] [download]
8 Radioastronomy, Radar, Terahertz Radiation, Microwave and Radio Wave Imaging 07/12 [download] [download]
9 Computerised X-Ray Tomography I: Transmission Tomography, Reconstruction, Scanners 14/12 [download] [download]
10 Computerised X-Ray Tomography II: Visualisation, Artefacts, Noise, Emission Tomography 21/12 [download] [download]
11 Magnetic Resonance Imaging I 04/01 [download] [download]
12 Magnetic Resonance Imaging II 11/01 [download] [download]


PART IV: IMAGING WITHOUT ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION

No. Title Date Script Slides
13 Electron Microscopy 18/01 [download] [download]
14 Acoustic Waves, Sonar, Ultrasound 25/01 [download] [download]


Assignments are published in the week before the tutorial takes place. It is not necessary to hand in the exercises and they will not be graded. All exercises are intended to be solved and discussed during the tutorial session. For formal exercises a written solution is also offered online.

No. Assignments Date Solutions
1 Tutorial 1: Quantisation and Sampling 30/10 Solution 1
2 Tutorial 2: Polarisation, Rotor
and Maxwell's Equations
06/11 Solution 2
3 Tutorial 3: Real vs. Virtual Images,
Snell's Law and Dispersion
13/11 Solution 3
4 Tutorial 4: Mirror Optics, Fresnel Equations, Brewster's Angle, Total Reflection 20/11 Solution 4
5 Tutorial 5: Colour Distances, Illumination Changes, Triangulation 27/11 Solution 5
6 Tutorial 6: Beer's Law, Contrast, Detector Noise 04/12 Solution 6
7 Tutorial 7: Time of Flight, Effective Half-Life
(Optional Hint Sheet)
11/12 Solution 7
8 Tutorial 8: Computer Tomography and Radon Transform
Optional Hint Sheet
18/12 Solution 8
9 Tutorial 9: Gaussian and Poisson Noise
(Optional Hint Sheet)
08/01 Solution 9
10 Tutorial 10: CT Scans and Sampling, Tensor Visualisation 15/01 Solution 10
12 Tutorial 11: Test Exam. 22/01 Solution

  • B. Jähne, H. Haußecker, P. Geißler, editors, Handbook of Computer Vision and its Applications. Volume 1: Sensors and Imaging. Academic Press, San Diego 1999.
  • S. Webb, The Physics of Medical Imaging. Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol 1988.
  • C. L. Epstein, Introduction to the Mathematics of Medical Imaging. Pearson, Upper Saddle River 2003.
  • R. Blahut, Theory of Remote Image Formation. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
  • A. C. Kak, M. Slaney, Principles of Computerized Tomographic Imaging. SIAM, Philadelphia 2001.
  • Articles from journals and conferences.

Further references will be given during the lecture.



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