Update: February 2008

Image Processing and Analysis

Image processing and analysis systems are very important tools for data reduction, especially in projects of flow mechanics or environmental control. Visualization of interesting technical or environmental processes, either as still images or as real time image sequences, either as real world representation or as mathematical simulation, can help understanding the complex behaviour of our world. One very important example is the analysis of complex technical flows by seeding with small visible particles. These particles and therefore the flow can be tracked by using image analysis techniques. A very powerful image analysis system including hardware and software has been developed at F.I.B.U.S., incorporating more than 1000 functions for every field of interest, starting from simple image enhancement and extending to frequency domain filtering, pattern recognition, object and texture classification, geometrical and statistical measurement, graphical presentation and display. Special software extension modules for stereometrics, interferometrics, sequence processing, real time 3D-reconstruction, bar code recognition, OCR/OCV, and other special measurement techniques have been developed and are being used in research and industrial projects.

picCOLOR for Windows and Linux
The powerful picCOLOR image analysis program is now available for the various WINDOWS (TM) operating systems and x86 compatible processors for 32Bit and 64Bit. It is recommended to use WINDOWS NT, WINDOWS 2000, XP, Vista, or any WINDOWS Server version and at least a Pentium (TM) processor with 400 MHz speed or a compatible processor. The 'windows' version is available in the version V4.0. picCOLOR V4.0 is the direct successor of the original successful picCOLOR V3.3 program that was optimized for Texas Instruments Graphics Processors, running a special imaging operating system.

Additionally, a library version of the picCOLOR program has been ported to the LINUX operating system. All non-interactive picCOLOR functions can be called directly from the user program. This is especially useful for industrial applications where a GUI is not required. Selected functionality is also available as static library or DLL under Windows upon request.

Different frame grabbers are already supported by the Windows version of the program and others can be adapted on request. For Linux frame grabber support please contact the development team.
- CORECO F64P
- CORECO VIPER Series
- DALSA/CORECO X64CL Series
- DALSA/CORECO Xcelera Series (incl. 64bit driver)
- Euresys Grablink Value/Expert/ExpertII
- National Instruments NI1429 and 1430 Frame Grabber (incl. 64bit driver)
- Silicon Software MicroEnable (rudimentary only)
- IDS Falcon/Eagle
- 1394 FireWire
- Mesa 3D camera USB
- TWAIN

Planned is the implementation of:
- Gigabit Ethernet Interface
- BitFlow Karbon Frame Grabber
- Matrox MIL Frame Grabber driver library

picCOLOR V4.0 is a modular program system designed for scientific and industrial image processing and image analysis. With more than 1000 functions even the basic version can solve many complex image analysis problems. A build-in script-interpreter helps to analyse repeated processes from simple image enhancements to complex pattern recognitions. Using additional modules, the program can be adapted to very specific projects. The new version of the program has the typical WINDOWS (TM) Multi-Document user interface with some changes and enhancements supporting the requirements of image analysis. All image processing functions operate in permanent, editable, and user-defined regions of interest (ROI). Flexible intermediate image buffering allows very quick testing of function combinations. Depending on the system memory and processor power, long realtime sequences or 3D-images can be recorded and processed. The flexible and simple DDE- or TCP/IP-interface can be used to transfer result data to other programs or even to completely remotely control the picCOLOR program operation. picCOLOR is available as multi-threaded program for considerable speed-up on double/quad/octal processor systems. Additional hardware like timer/counter or I/O cards (Keithley, Decision-Computer) are supported. The Decision-Computer Digital-I/O card is available in versions with up to 6 counters with 16 bit precision and up to 192 digital I/O lines.

Details of the picCOLOR Image Processing System

The following link shows a short list of imaging functions available in the picCOLOR program:

List of picCOLOR imaging functions (not complete, see picCOLOR news letter...)

New imaging functions and additional extension modules are developed and implemented almost on daily basis, depending on our own research projects and on requests from other users. Get the "FIBUS News Letters" including the latest developments and implementations on the

FIBUS News Letters download page

The following extension modules are available for picCOLOR:

3D-image processing
Sequence analysis and animation
2D/3D-position tracking in real time
Particle image velocimetry (PIV) and particle tracking (PTV) (also as Library/DLL)
Stereo measurement and stereo display
True Color Extensions
Interferometry for 3-dimensional surface analysis
Fringe Correlation Method (FCM) for fast moving 3D-surface deflection measurement
Laser lightsheet triangulation for 3D-surface measurement
Real time analysis (preliminary only)
Optical character recognition and verification (OCR / OCV) (preliminary only)
Bar code detection
User module for implementing special functions
Extended gray level processing (16 Bit) (preliminary only)

Download a demo version of the new picCOLOR program or complete manuals:

Links to manufacturers of supported frame grabber hardware and of interesting cameras:

Frame grabber and camera manufacturers

Some studies on imaging hardware/software development performed at FIBUS that might be interesting for users: