• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.11-15
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• 1998

The texture change of non-linear optical molecules at the air/water interface was investigated as a function of surface pressure with Brewster angle microscopy. The texture change resulted from the aggregation of dye molecules is important to understand the film uniformity and grain formation process. The 4-Octadecylhydroxy-4'-nitrostilbene (OHNS) generated the small spots of size around 1$\mu$m. The spots exhibit high contrast with other film area and do not show angle dependent reflectivity change. It is interesting to observe that the size of the domain stays the same as the film pressure increases. At high surface pressure, the contrast ratio of domains becomes high, which means dense packing of OHNS. And, the size of domain grows. In the middle of domain, highly contrasted domains are formed. The first and the second order transitions of OHNS observed from surface pressure-area isotherm result from the two types of grains. The N,N-Dihexadecylcyanoaniline (DHCA) formed highly contrasted gains over entire region, and the grains are the double layers. The difference in Langmuir film of OHNS and DHCA at the air/water interface is consistent with the small tilt angle from the surface normal for OHNS and the large tilt angle for DHCA in the Langmuir-Blodgett films.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.55-58
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• 2013

A ranula is a bluish, transparent, and thin-walled swelling in the floor of the mouth. They originate from the extravasation and subsequent accumulation of saliva from the sublingual gland. Ranulas are usually limited to the sublingual space but they sometimes extend to the submandibular space and parapharyngeal space, which is defined as a plunging ranula. A 21-year-old woman presented with a complaint of a large swelling in the left submandibular region. On contrast-enhanced CT images, it dissected across the midline, and extended to the parapharyngeal space posteriorly and to the submandibular space inferiorly. Several septa and a fluid-fluid level within the lesion were also demonstrated. We diagnosed this lesion as a ranula rather than cystic hygroma due to the location of its center and its sublingual tail sign. As plunging ranula and cystic hygroma are managed with different surgical approaches, it is important to differentiate them radiologically.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.2749-2763
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• 2021

The desirable result of infrared (IR) and visible (VIS) image fusion should have textural details from VIS images and salient targets from IR images. However, detail information in the dark regions of VIS image has low contrast and blurry edges, resulting in performance degradation in image fusion. To resolve the troubles of fuzzy details in dark regions of VIS image fusion, we have proposed a method of reflectance estimation for IR and VIS image fusion. In order to maintain and enhance details in these dark regions, dark region approximation (DRA) is proposed to optimize the Retinex model. With the improved Retinex model based on DRA, quasi-Newton method is adopted to estimate the reflectance of a VIS image. The final fusion outcome is obtained by fusing the DRA-based reflectance of VIS image with IR image. Our method could simultaneously retain the low visibility details in VIS images and the high contrast targets in IR images. Experiment statistic shows that compared to some advanced approaches, the proposed method has superiority on detail preservation and visual quality.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.4443-4462
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• 2020

This paper proposes a new framework of reversible data hiding scheme for absolute moment truncation coding (AMBTC) compressed images. AMBTC-based RDH can be applied to optical remote sensing (ORS) image transmission, which achieves target region preservation and image compression simultaneously. Existing methods can be concluded as two types. In type I schemes, stego codes mimic the original AMBTC format where no file bloat occurs, yet the carried secret data is limited. Type II schemes utilize predication errors to recode quantity levels of AMBTC codes which achieves significant increase in embedding capacity. However, such recoding causes bloat inside stego format, which is not appropriate in mentioned ORS transmission. The proposed method is a novel type I RDH method which prevents bloat inside AMBTC stego codes with significant improvement in embedding capacity. The AMBTC compressed trios are grouped into two categories according to a given threshold. In smooth trio, the modified low quantity level is constructed by concatenating Huffman codes and secret bits. The reversible contrast mapping (RCM) is performed to complex trios for data embedment. Experiments show that the proposed scheme provides highest payload compared with existing type I methods. Meanwhile, no expansion inside stego codes is caused.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.52-59
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• 2009

In general, methods based on histogram or a correction of gamma curve are usually utilized to enhance the contrast of captured image in the dark scene. These methods are efficient to enhance the contrast globally, however, they locally induced the low quality of image. Recently, to resolve the problem, the multi-scaled refiner algorithm improving the contrast with locally averaged lightness is proposed. However, estimating the locally averaged lightness, if there is the object with a high saturated color, the color distortion might be induced by the color of object. Thus, in this paper, the dominant chromaticity of image is estimated to correct the locally averaged lightness in multi-scaled retinex algorithm. Because the average chromaticity of image includes the chromaticity of illumination, the dominant chromaticity is estimated with dividing the average chromaticity of image by the estimated chromaticity of illumination from highlight region. In addition, to improve the lower chroma by multi-scaled retinex algorithm generally, the chroma was compensated preserving the hue in the CIELAB color space.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartB
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• v.15B no.4
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• pp.259-268
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• 2008

In an effort to increase the data capacity of one-dimensional symbology, 2D barcodes have been proposed a decade ago. In this paper, we present an effective 2D barcode detection algorithm from gray-level images, especially for the handheld 2D barcode recognition system. To locate the symbol inside the image, a criteria based on the block contrast is adopted, and a gray-scale projection with sub-pixel operation is utilized to segment the symbol precisely from the region of interest(ROI). Finally, the segmented ROI is normalized using the inverse perspective transformation for the following decoding processes. We also introduce the post-processing steps for decoding the QR-code. The proposed method ensures high performances under various lighting/printing conditions and strong perspective deformations. Experiments shows that our method is very robust and efficient in detecting the code area for the various types of 2D barcodes in real time.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics S
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• v.35S no.11
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• pp.152-165
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• 1998

The contour coding usually occupies the biggest part in the encoded bitstream, which causes the bottleneck problem of a region-based coding scheme. In this paper, new adaptive contour coding technique is proposed for the segmentation-based image coding. By adaptive contour coding considering contrast of neighbor regions in the proposed method, the overall bitrate can be significantly reduced without loss of the subjective image quality. After segmentation using watershed algorithm to the image, the contour segments are classified according to the contrast of the adjacent regions. Then, the contour segments between classified low contrast regions are highly compressed using morphological low pass filtering. The needed bits for encoding the contour information is reduced without loss of subjective image quality in the experiment.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.148-153
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• 2017

Purpose: To identify the differences between injected cement volumes during vertebroplasty procedures according to the enhancement pattern of pre-procedure magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings. Materials and Methods: Thirty-two patients who underwent 52 vertebroplasty procedures as well as pre-procedure contrast-enhanced spine MRI in the authors' institution were reviewed retrospectively. The 52 procedures were divided into two groups according to different enhancement patterns shown by pre-procedure MR imaging [E(+) and E(-)]. The volumes of the enhancing/non-enhancing portions of the fractured vertebral body shown by pre-procedural MR imaging were calculated and compared to the volumes of the injected cement during the vertebroplasty procedures. Results: The 52 injections included 28 (56%) in Group E(+) and 24 (44%) in Group E(-). The actual volume ratio of the injected cement to the volume of the non-enhanced or enhanced region calculated based on the contrast-enhanced MRI was $0.22{\pm}0.11(cc/cm^3)$ in the E(+) group and $0.93{\pm}0.62(cc/cm^3)$ in the E(-) group. The average amount of injected cement was significantly different between Group E(+) and Group E(-) (P < 0.001). In addition, the ratio of the injected cement amount to the volume of the enhanced or non-enhanced portion based on the contrast-enhanced MRI in Group E(-) was significantly higher than that of Group E(+) (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Different enhancement patterns shown by pre-procedure MRI can predictors of the injected cement volume during vertebroplasty procedures for osteoporotic fractures.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.748-760
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• 2012

In case brightness distribution is concentrated in a region, it is difficult to classify the image features. To solve this problem, we apply global histogram equalization and local histogram equalization to images. In case of global histogram equalization, it can be too bright or dark because it doesn't consider the density of brightness distribution. Thus, it is difficult to enhance the local contrast in the images. In case of local histogram equalization, it can produce unexpected blocks in the images. In order to enhance the contrast in the images, this paper proposes a local histogram equalization based on the Gaussian Mixture Models(GMMs) in regions of histogram. Mean and variance parameters in each regions is updated EM-algorithm repeatedly and then ranges of equalization on each regions. The experimental results performed with image of various contrasts show that the proposed algorithm is better than the global histogram equalization.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.1634-1641
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• 2000

Objective : The cerebrospinal fluid(CSF) pulsates within the craniospinal axis in response to rhythmic cerebral blood volume variation during the cardiac cycle. The aim of this study is to characterize the normal and abnormal CSF flow and its waveforms in the cervical spinal subarachnoid space. Methods : The magnetic resonance(MR) images were obtained with 1.5 T(GE Signa, GE Medical Systems, Milwaukee, USA) unit using the 2 dimensional cine PC(phase contrast) sequence with cardiac gating and gradient recalled echo imaging. This pulse sequence yielded 16 quantitative flow-encoded images per cardiac cycle. Sagittal and axial images of the cervical spinal CSF space were obtained, and target sites were analyzed for characteristic CSF flow (TR=50ms, TE=12.5-15ms). The region of interest(ROI) was 1mm 3 in volume. Twenty six persons were included in this study : 10 healthy volunteers and 16 patients with cervical myelopathy. The post-operative cine MR study were also done in five patients. Results : The normal CSF pulsation dynamics in the cervical spine showed discrete systolic and diastolic components. The CSF flow revealed a sine wave pattern, in which the systolic phase was shorter than the diastolic phase(ratio=2 : 3). The patient group revealed decreased amplitudes of the CSF flow and irregularly distored flow waves. The systolic phase was elongated in the ROI above the stenotic level, whereas the diastolic phase was lengthened below the level. In the postoperative images, the abnormal pattern and amplitude were found to be corrected. Conclusion : From these results, the authors believe that the CSF flow study provides valuable informations regarding the extent of cervical stenosis and may be useful for the surgical planning and post-operative evaluation.