Course Title: Image Acquisition and Processing

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Image Acquisition and Processing

Credit Points: 12.00

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
PHYS2112	City Campus	Undergraduate	135H Applied Sciences	Face-to-Face	Sem 1 2006, Sem 1 2007

Course Coordinator: Johan du Plessis

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 2144

Course Coordinator Email: johan.duplessis@rmit.edu.au

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

This course forms the final part of a suite of three data acquisition and processing courses. Its prerequisite is PHYS1081 Introduction to Graphical Programming for Data Acquisition and Control and it stands alongside PHYS1082 Interface Technology and System Control.

Course Description

Experimental scientists have to acquire, process and interpret data. Often the data may be obtained or represented as an image. It is the aim of this course to provide the student with knowledge regarding the nature of the acquired digital image and various skills in processing the image in order to glean maximum information from the data as efficiently as possible.
This course builds on the general concepts found in previous courses. The emphasis in the present course is on the one hand on the nature of the digital image, its internal representation and the nonspatial information it provides (colour distribution etc). Alternatively, automatic pattern recognition and dimensional measurements require spatial techniques that involve image processing (such as smoothing) as well as edge detection and pattern matching.
The general nature of the IMAQ Vision package and its integration with the LabView software allows a variety of laboratory projects and all concepts will be reaffirmed in appropriate laboratory-based projects.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

At the end of the course, the student should be able to:
• analyse a particular image acquisition situation and choose and implement the correct imaging system.
• design a graphical user interface or virtual instrument (VI) using LabView to address the image acquisition card to measure the output from the (video) camera,
• process acquired image to obtain n image suitable for the next analysis step using appropriate available mathematical routines
• display both the raw and processed images in the user interface
• use the processed image to analyse the process under investigation for common image analysis tasks such as Dimensional Measurements, Colour inspection, Pattern Matching etc
• incorporate the measurements results in the master VI to control the process if applicable
• provide appropriate manual and automatic settings to control the process
• provide adequate and useful documentation regarding the VI
• report their work in a clear and precise way through formal reports and oral presentations;
• analyse and discuss their own and peer work in a seminar environment in order to promote critical thinking.

Overview of Learning Activities

Students will gain experience in this course by means of:
• attending lectures
• taking part in self-paced lectures
• undertaking problems and exercises in the laboratory;
• active participation in group project work;
• participation in seminar discussion.

Overview of Learning Resources

The Distributed Learning system (DLS) may be used to supply lecture notes and laboratory manuals. Prescribed texts and references will be available through the RMIT Bookshop or Library. Students will also use laboratory equipment and computer software within the School during project and assignment work.

Overview of Assessment

There will be progressive assessments throughout the semester, comprising laboratory project assessment and group project presentations, as well as a final examination. The assessment will address all the capabilities listed above.