• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1760-1768
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• 2022

When gamma-camera sensor modules, which are key components of radiation imagers, are derived from the coupling between scintillators and photosensors, the light collection efficiency is an important factor in determining the effectiveness with which the instrument can identify nuclides via their derived gamma-ray spectra. If the pixel area of the scintillator is larger than the pixel area of the photosensor, light loss and cross-talk between pixels of the photosensor can result in information loss, thereby degrading the precision of the energy estimate and the accuracy of the position-of-interaction determination derived from each active pixel in a coded-aperture based gamma camera. Here we present two methods to overcome the information loss associated with the loss of photons created by scintillation pixels that are coupled to an associated silicon photomultiplier pixel. Specifically, we detail the use of either: (1) light guides, or (2) scintillation pixel areas that match the area of the SiPM pixel. Compared with scintillator/SiPM couplings that have slightly mismatched intercept areas, the experimental results show that both methods substantially improve both the energy and spatial resolution by increasing light collection efficiency, but in terms of the image sensitivity and image quality, only slight improvements are accrued.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.29-33
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• 2011

Background and Purpose: Uniformity is the one of the important quality control features with respect to gamma cameras. To maintain adequate uniformity, we must acquire suitable flood table (=flood map) data because the flood table effects energy, and the type or dose of input radiation. Therefore, in this study we evaluated the difference in uniformity when uniformity does not match between the type of input radiation and the flood table data or collimator type. Subjects and Methods: For input radiation, we prepared 370 MBq of $^{57}Co$, $^{99m}Tc$, and $^{201}Tl$. Using SKYLight (Philips) and Infinia gamma cameras (GE), we acquired nine uniformity data that were corrected by technetium, cobalt flood table and did not corrected image for the three sources. Additionally, we acquired two uniformity images with a collimator that were corrected by intrinsic and extrinsic flood tables. Using this data, we evaluated and compared the uniformity values. Results: In the case of the SKYLight gamma camera, the uniformities of the images that matched between the input radiation and flood table with respect to $^{99m}Tc$ and $^{57}Co$ were better than the unmatched uniformity (3.96% vs. 5.69% ; 4.9% vs. 5.91%). However, because there was no thallium flood table, the uniformities of images at Tl were significantly incorrect (7.49%, 7.03%). The uniformities of the Infinia gamma camera had the same pattern as the SKYLight gamma camera (3.7% vs. 4.5%). Moreover, the uniformity of the $^{99m}Tc$ image acquired with a collimator and corrected by an extrinsic flood table was better than the intrinsic flood table (3.96% vs. 6.28%). Conclusion: Correcting an image by a suitable flood table can help achieve better uniformity for a gamma camera. Therefore, we have to acquire images with suitable uniformity correction, and update the flood table periodically. Whenever we acquire a nuclear medicine image, we always have to check the appropriate flood table according to the acquired condition.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.183-187
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• 2003

Collimator for $M{\ddot{o}}ssbauer$ source was manufactured for compton scattering experiment. Exposure dose rate was calculated and measured using GM counter for radiation evaluation. These results were well agreed to each other and used for collimator design. SUS303 was used for collimator material because exposure dose rate at 10 cm is about 2 mR/h. The radiation emited from the 35 mm, 65 mm hole was measured using gamma camera which have 4' diameter. 2-D radiation image was acquired and analyzed. The radiation size at Gamma Camera was 8.0 mm and 5.8 mm respectively.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.252-259
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• 2022

Artificial intelligence is used in fusion with image processing techniques using cameras. Image processing technology is a technology that processes objects in an image received from a camera in real time, and is used in various fields such as security monitoring and medical image analysis. If such image processing reduces the accuracy of recognition, providing incorrect information to medical image analysis, security monitoring, etc. may cause serious problems. Therefore, this paper uses a mixture of YOLOv4-tiny model and image processing algorithm and uses the COCO dataset for learning. The image processing algorithm performs five image processing methods such as normalization, Gaussian distribution, Otsu algorithm, equalization, and gradient operation. For RGB images, three image processing methods are performed: equalization, Gaussian blur, and gamma correction proceed. Among the nine algorithms applied in this paper, the Equalization and Gaussian Blur model showed the highest object detection accuracy of 96%, and the gamma correction (RGB environment) model showed the highest object detection rate of 89% outdoors (daytime). The image binarization model showed the highest object detection rate at 89% outdoors (night).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.10
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• pp.2250-2261
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• 2020

Accurate localization of radioactive materials is crucial in homeland security and radiological emergencies. Coded-aperture gamma camera is an interesting solution for such applications and can be developed into portable real-time imaging devices. However, traditional reconstruction methods cannot effectively deal with signal-independent noise, thereby hindering low-noise real-time imaging. In this study, a novel reconstruction method with excellent noise-suppression capability based on a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) is proposed. A coded-aperture gamma camera based on pixel detector and coded-aperture mask was constructed, and the process of radioactive source imaging was simulated. Results showed that the MLP method performs better in noise suppression than the traditional correlation analysis method. When the Co-57 source with an activity of 1 MBq was at 289 different positions within the field of view which correspond to 289 different pixels in the reconstructed image, the average contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) obtained by the MLP method was 21.82, whereas that obtained by the correlation analysis method was 5.85. The variance in CNR of the MLP method is larger than that of correlation analysis, which means the MLP method has some instability in certain conditions.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.107-114
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• 2009

A Compton camera, which is based on Compton kinematics, is a very promising gamma-ray imaging device in that it could overcome the limitations of the conventional gamma-ray imaging devices. In the present study, the image quality of a rotating Compton camera was evaluated by using 4-D Monte Carlo simulation technique and the applicability to nuclear industrial applications was examined. It was found that Compton images were significantly improved when the Compton camera rotates around a gamma-ray source. It was also found that the 3-D imaging capability of a Compton camera could enable us to accurately determine the 3-D location of radioactive contamination in a concrete wall for decommissioning purpose of nuclear facilities. The 4-D Monte Carlo simulation technique, which was applied to the Compton camera fields for the first time, could be also used to model the time-dependent geometry for various applications.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.65-73
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• 2008

The characterization process for the accurate color reproduction in mobile phone with camera and LCD is popular. The camera and LCD characterization, gamut mapping process is necessary to map the camera's input color stimulus, CIEXYZ value, into the LCD's output color stimulus. Each characterization is the process estimating the relation between input and output signals. In case of LCD, because of output device, the output color stimulus for the arbitrary input signal can be measured by spectro-radiometer However, in the camera, as the input device, the characterization is an inaccurate and needs the manual works in the process obtaining the output signal because the input signal can not be generated. Moreover, after gamut mapping process, the noise is increased because the optimized gamma tone curve of camera for the noise is distorted by the characterization. Thus, this paper proposed the system of obtaining the output signal of camera and the method of gamma correction for the noise. The camera's output signal is obtained by RGB values of patches from captured the color chart image. However, besides the illumination, the error for the location of the chart in the viewfinder is generated when many camera modules are captured the chart. The method of correcting the position to correct the error from manual works. The position of camera is estimated by captured image. This process and moving of camera is accomplished repeatedly, and the optimized position can be obtained. Moreover, the lightness curve of camera output is corrected partly to reduce the noise from the characterization process.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.10
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• pp.3700-3708
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• 2023

The stochastic origin ensembles method with resolution recovery (SOE-RR) has been proposed to reconstruct proton-induced prompt gammas (PGs), and the reconstructed PG image was used for range verification. However, due to low detection efficiency, the number of valid events is low. Such a low-count condition can degrade the accuracy of the SOE-RR method for proton range verification. In this study, we proposed two strategies to improve the reconstruction of the SOE-RR algorithm for low-count PG imaging. We also studied the number of iterations and repetitions required to achieve reliable range verification. We simulated a proton beam (10⁸ protons) irradiated on a water phantom and used a two-layer Compton camera to detect 4.44-MeV PGs. Our simulated results show that combining the SOE-RR algorithm with restricted volume (SOE-RR-RV) can reduce the error of the estimation of the Bragg peak position from 5.0 mm to 2.5 mm. We also found that the SOE-RR-RV algorithm initialized using a back-projection image could improve the convergence rate while maintaining accurate range verification. Finally, we observed that the improved SOE-RR algorithm set for 60,000 iterations and 25 repetitions could provide reliable PG images. Based on the proposed reconstruction strategies, the SOE-RR algorithm has the potential to achieve a positioning error of 2.5 mm for low-count PG imaging.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.197-203
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• 2015

Nuclear power plant has increased continuously for power production in all over the world and the interest about nuclear accident and the dismantling of aging nuclear power plant has been a growing. The leaked radioactive source that is generated by radiation accidents must detect and remove to minimized the damage as soon as possible. Gamma-ray detection system that have been developed until now cannot provide the precise position of radioactive sources because they detect and imaging the position of radiation sources in just two dimensions. In this paper, stereo gamma ray detection system has developed and the algorithm for calculation of the distance has implemented to be able to measure the distribution of the leakage gamma ray source for the system. Stereo camera calibration for distance detection was conducted with the correction pattern and LED light and we carried out performance test of the system for the LED light source and a gamma ray source. In both experiments the results of the performance test, it was confirmed to have a 5% error. The results of this paper is used as a material for the development of gamma-ray imaging device.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2016.05a
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• pp.780-781
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• 2016

The stereo radiation detection system detects gamma ray source and measures the two dimensional distribution image based on the detection result. Then the system is implemented to measure the distance to the radiation source from the system in 3D space using stereo vision algorithm. In this paper, we reduced the time for a gamma-ray scan space detection through image processing algorithms. In addition, it combines radiation and visible light images. Then we conducted a study for improving the distribution of gamma-ray detection efficiency through the stereo calibration using a 3D visualization. As a result, we obtain an improved detection time by more than 30% and have acquired a visible image with a 3D monitor.