• IEIE Transactions on Smart Processing and Computing
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.17-26
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• 2012

This paper presents an image processing-based validation method for unrecognizable numbers in severely distorted license plate images which have been degraded by various factors including low-resolution, low light-level, geometric distortion, and periodic noise. Existing vehicle license plate recognition (LPR) methods assume that most of the image degradation factors have been removed before performing the recognition of printed numbers and letters. If this is not the case, conventional LPR becomes impossible. The proposed method adopts a novel approach where a set of reference number images are intentionally degraded using the same factors estimated from the input image. After a series of image processing steps, including geometric transformation, super-resolution, and filtering, a comparison using cross-correlation between the intentionally degraded reference and the input images can provide a successful identification of the visually unrecognizable numbers. The proposed method makes it possible to validate numbers in a license plate image taken under low light-level conditions. In the experiment, using an extended set of test images that are unrecognizable to human vision, the proposed method provides a successful recognition rate of over 95%, whereas most existing LPR methods fail due to the severe distortion.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.398-404
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• 1989

Optical pattern recognition system using real-time hologram mechanism in a photorefractive $BaTiO_2$ single crystal is analyzed and experimented. Edge enhancement technique is introduced for enhancing pattern discrimination capability, and patterns can be recognized within 8 sec with 5.5mW low incident light intensity.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.116-124
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• 2009

Recently the CPU performance of modem chipsets or multimedia processors of mobile phone is as high as notebook PC. That is why mobile phone has been emerged as a leading ICON on the convergence of consumer electronics. The various applications of mobile phone such as DMB, digital camera, video telephony and internet full browsing are servicing to consumers. To meet all the demands the image quality has been increasingly important. Mobile phone is a portable device which is widely using in both the indoor and outside environments, so it is needed to be overcome to deteriorate image quality depending on environmental light source. Furthermore touch window is popular on the mobile display panel and it makes contrast loss because of low transmittance of ITO film. This paper presents the image enhancement algorithm to be embedded on image enhancement SoC. In contrast enhancement, we propose Clipped histogram stretching method to make it adaptive with the input images, while S-shape curve and gain/offset method for the static application And CIELCh color space is used to sunlight readability enhancement by controlling the lightness and chroma components which is depended on the sensing value of light sensor. Finally the performance of proposed algorithm is evaluated by using histogram, RGB pixel distribution, entropy and dynamic range of resultant images. We expect that the proposed algorithm is suitable for image enhancement of embedded SoC system which is applicable for the small-sized mobile display.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.195-207
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• 2006

The recently published and new results on design and fabrication of magnetophotonic crystals of different dimensionality are surveyed. Coupling of polarized light to 3D photonic crystals based on synthetic opals was studied in the case of low dielectric contrast. Transmissivity of opals was demonstrated to strongly depend on the propagation direction of light and its polarization. It was shown that in a vicinity of the frequency of a single Bragg resonance in a 3D photonic crystal the incident linearly polarized light excites inside the crystal the TE- and TM-eigen modes which passing through the crystal is influenced by Brags diffraction of electromagnetic field from different (hkl) sets of crystallographic planes. We also measured the faraday effect of opals immersed in a magneto-optically active liquid. It was shown that the behavior of the faraday rotation spectrum of the system of the opal sample and magneto-optically active liquid directly interrelates with transmittance anisotropy of the opal sample. The photonic band structure, transmittance and Faraday rotation of the light in three-dimensional magnetophotonic crystals of simple cubic and face centered cubic lattices formed from magneto-optically active spheres where studied by the layer Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker method. We found that a photonic band structure is most significantly altered by the magneto-optical activity of spheres for the high-symmetry directions where the degeneracies between TE and TM polarized modes for the corresponding non-magnetic photonic crystals exist. The significant enhancement of the Faraday rotation appears for these directions in the proximity of the band edges, because of the slowing down of the light. New approaches for one-dimensional magnetophotonic crystals fabrication optimized for the magneto-optical Faraday effect enhancement are proposed and realized. One-dimensional magnetophotonic crystals utilizing the second and the third photonic band gaps optimized for the Faraday effect enhancement have been successfully fabricated. Additionally, magnetophotonic crystals consist of a stack of ferrimagnetic Bi-substituted yttrium-iron garnet layers alternated with dielectric silicon oxide layers of the same optical thickness. High refractive index difference provides the strong spatial localization of the electromagnetic field with the wavelength corresponding to the long-wavelength edge of the photonic band gap.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.1-6
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• 2016

In this paper, we propose an image enhancement method for vehicle recorder by dividing the images into sub-images and finding local histograms of the sub-images. The proposed method includes the following steps. Firstly, the input image is divided into ($N{\times}M$) pieces. And the sub-images are used to make groups using the adjacent piece-images (eg. piece-imagei,j, piece-imagei,j+1, piece-imagei+1,j and piece-imagei+1,j+1). Secondly, the contrast enhancement processes are executed using the local histogram of the sub-images. Finally, overall image is reconstructed by using a transfer function that reflects the characteristics of the sub-image. The proposed method might achieve more enhanced images for vehicle recorder by suppressing excessive image contrast.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.1462-1467
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• 2018

A number of algorithms for improving the image quality of low light images have been studied using a single image or multiple exposure images. The low light image is low in contrast and has a large amount of noise, which limits the identification of information of the subject. This paper proposes the hardware design of algorithms that improve the quality of low light image using 2 multiple exposure images taken with a dual camera. The proposed hardware structure is designed in real time processing in a way that does not use frame memory and line memory using transfer function. The proposed hardware design has been designed using Verilog and validated in Modelsim. Finally, when the proposed algorithm is implemented on FPGA using xc7z045-2ffg900 as the target board, the maximum operating frequency is 167.617MHz. When the image size is 1920x1080, the total clock cycle time is 2,076,601 and can be processed in real time at 80.7fps.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.1037-1043
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• 2006

We report the enhancement of hole injection using ozone-treated Ag nanodots dispersed on indium tin oxide anode in $Ir(ppy)_3-doped$ phosphorescent OLED. Phosphorescent OLED fabricated on Ag nanodots dispersed ITO anode showed a lower turn on voltage and higher luminescence than those of OLEDS prepared commercial ITO anode. Synchrotron x-ray scattering examination results showed that the Ag nanodots dispersed on ITO anode is amorphous structure due to low deposition temperature. It was thought that decrease of the energy barrier height as Ag nanodots changed to $AgO_x$ nanodots by surface treatment using ozone for 10 min led to enhancement of hole injection in phosphorescent OLED. Futhermore, efficient hole injection can be explained by increase of contact region between anode material and organic material through introduction of $Ag_2O$ nanodots.

• Journal of Ceramic Processing Research
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.222-230
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• 2019

Microwave hydrothermal-assisted sol-gel method was employed to synthesize the Fe doped TiO2 photocatalyst. The morphological analysis suggests anatase phase nanoparticles of ~20 nm with an SBET area of 283.99 ㎡/g. The doping of Fe ions in TiO2 created oxygen vacancies and Ti3+ species as revealed through the XPS analysis. The reduction of the band gap (3.1 to 2.8 eV) is occurred by doping effect. The as-prepared photocatalyst was applied for removal of NOx under solar light irradiation. The doping of Fe in TiO2 facilitates 75 % of NOx oxidation efficiency which is more than two-fold enhancement than the TiO2 photocatalyst. The possible reason of enhancement is associated with high surface area, oxygen vacancy, and reduction of the band gap. Also, the low production of toxic intermediates, NO2 gas, is further confirmed by Combustion Ion Chromatography. The mechanism related NOx oxidation by the doped photocatalyst is explained in this study.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.65-73
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• 2011

In this paper, we present a novel digital multifocusing approach using adaptive region-based histogram equalization for the multiple color-filter aperture (MCA) system with insufficient amount of incoming light. From the image acquired by the MCA system, we can estimate the depth information of objects at different distances by measuring the amount of misalignment among the RGB color planes. The estimated depth information is used to obtain multifocused images together with the process of the region-of-interests (ROIs) classification, registration, and fusion. However, the MCA system results in the low-exposure problem because of the limited size of the apertures. For overcoming this problem, we propose adaptive region-based histogram equalization. Based on the experimental results, the proposed algorithm is proved to be able to obtain in-focused images under the low light level environment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.221-221
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• 2012

Small-molecule organic photovoltaic cells have recently attracted growing attention due to their potential for the low-cost fabrication of flexible and lightweight solar modules. The PVP/Ag nanoparticles were synthesized by the reaction of poly vinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and silver nitrate at $150^{\circ}C$. In the reaction, the size of the nanoparticles was controlled by relative mole fractions between PVP and Ag. The PVP/Ag nanoparticles with various sizes were then spin coated on the patterned ITO glass prior to the deposition of the PEDOT:PSS hole transport layer. The scattering of the incident light caused by these incorporated nanoparticles resulted in an increase in the path length of the light through the active layer and hence the enhancement of the light absorption. This scattering effect increased as the size of the nanoparticles increased, but it was offset by the decrease in total transmittance caused by the non-transparent nanoparticles. As a result, the maximum power conversion efficiency, 0.96% which was the value enhanced by 14% compared to the cell without incorporation of nanoparticles, was obtained when the mole fraction of PVP:Ag was 24:1 and the size of the nanoparticles was 20~40 nm.