Extending the depth of field in microscopy: A review

This paper investigates multi-focus image fusion methods in the context of microscope. Limited depth of field is one of the major limitations in microscopy. Objects which are thicker than the depth of field cannot be captured completely within one sharp image. The solution is to capture multiple images at different focus and fuse them to derive a single sharp image. Spatial domain and transform domain (including frequency domain, multiscale analysis and wavelet transform) are considered. Most applications are limited in their performance by real-time constraints such as speed, resource utilization etc. Dedicated hardware based on FPGAs is one solution to overcome this limitation. A focus of this review is given towards exploring the hardware implementation and related issues of multi-focus image fusion for microscopic applications. The review concludes with a number of outstanding challenges, and potential directions for further research.

[1]  O. Rioul,et al.  Wavelets and signal processing , 1991, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine.

[2]  Bryan Usevitch,et al.  A tutorial on modern lossy wavelet image compression: foundations of JPEG 2000 , 2001, IEEE Signal Process. Mag..

[3]  Syed Muhammad Saqlain Shah,et al.  Block Level Multi-Focus Image Fusion Using Wavelet Transform , 2009, 2009 International Conference on Signal Acquisition and Processing.

[4]  Samuel Cheng,et al.  Extended Depth-of-Field Microscope Imaging: MPP Image Fusion VS. WAVEFRONT CODING , 2006, 2006 International Conference on Image Processing.

[5]  Michael Unser,et al.  Complex wavelets for extended depth‐of‐field: A new method for the fusion of multichannel microscopy images , 2004, Microscopy research and technique.

[6]  Edward H. Adelson,et al.  Merging Images Through Pattern Decomposition , 1985, Optics & Photonics.

[7]  Juliana G. Denipote,et al.  A Fourier Transform-based Approach to Fusion High Spatial Resolution Remote Sensing Images , 2008, 2008 Sixth Indian Conference on Computer Vision, Graphics & Image Processing.

[8]  Eva Acosta,et al.  Optimized restoration of wavefront coded images , 2014, Optics & Photonics - Optical Engineering + Applications.

[9]  Maria E. Angelopoulou,et al.  Implementation and Comparison of the 5/3 Lifting 2D Discrete Wavelet Transform Computation Schedules on FPGAs , 2008, J. Signal Process. Syst..

[10]  David Kearney,et al.  Image fusion for uninhabited airborne vehicles , 2002, 2002 IEEE International Conference on Field-Programmable Technology, 2002. (FPT). Proceedings..

[11]  Terrance L. Huntsberger,et al.  Wavelet-based sensor fusion , 1993, Other Conferences.

[12]  Wencheng Wang,et al.  A Multi-focus Image Fusion Method Based on Laplacian Pyramid , 2011, J. Comput..

[13]  Bhabatosh Chanda,et al.  Enhancing effective depth-of-field by image fusion using mathematical morphology , 2006, Image Vis. Comput..

[14]  Rick S. Blum,et al.  A categorization of multiscale-decomposition-based image fusion schemes with a performance study for a digital camera application , 1999, Proc. IEEE.

[15]  I. Daubechies,et al.  Factoring wavelet transforms into lifting steps , 1998 .

[16]  Jason Jianjun Gu,et al.  Multi-focus image fusion using PCNN , 2010, Pattern Recognit..

[17]  V. Sumalatha,et al.  FPGA implementation of satellite image fusion using wavelet substitution method , 2015, 2015 Science and Information Conference (SAI).

[18]  P. J. Burt,et al.  The Pyramid as a Structure for Efficient Computation , 1984 .

[19]  Donald G. Bailey,et al.  Design for Embedded Image Processing on FPGAs , 2011 .

[20]  Gemma Piella,et al.  A general framework for multiresolution image fusion: from pixels to regions , 2003, Inf. Fusion.

[21]  Edward H. Adelson,et al.  PYRAMID METHODS IN IMAGE PROCESSING. , 1984 .

[22]  Aleksandra Pizurica,et al.  Extending the Depth of Field in Microscopy Through Curvelet-Based Frequency-Adaptive Image Fusion , 2007, 2007 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing - ICASSP '07.

[23]  Cordelia Schmid,et al.  Evaluation of Interest Point Detectors , 2000, International Journal of Computer Vision.

[24]  Xiao Zhang,et al.  A Comparative Study of Wavelet-Based Image Fusion with a Novel Fusion Rule II , 2015, 2015 Fifth International Conference on Instrumentation and Measurement, Computer, Communication and Control (IMCCC).

[25]  Stéphane Mallat,et al.  A Theory for Multiresolution Signal Decomposition: The Wavelet Representation , 1989, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[26]  B. S. Manjunath,et al.  Multisensor Image Fusion Using the Wavelet Transform , 1995, CVGIP Graph. Model. Image Process..

[27]  Vassilis Tsagaris,et al.  An FPGA-Based Hardware Implementation of Configurable Pixel-Level Color Image Fusion , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[28]  Kun Wang,et al.  Technology for multi-focus image fusion based on wavelet transform , 2010, Third International Workshop on Advanced Computational Intelligence.

[29]  Jean-Didier Legat,et al.  Combined line-based architecture for the 5-3 and 9-7 wavelet transform of JPEG2000 , 2003, IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. Video Technol..

[30]  Samuel Cheng,et al.  Extended depth-of-field using adjacent plane deblurring and MPP wavelet fusion for microscope images , 2006, 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: Nano to Macro, 2006..

[31]  Yaonan Wang,et al.  Multifocus image fusion using artificial neural networks , 2002, Pattern Recognit. Lett..

[32]  Yong Yang,et al.  Multi-focus Image Fusion Using an Effective Discrete Wavelet Transform Based Algorithm , 2014 .

[33]  Jan Huisken,et al.  Multi-view image fusion improves resolution in three-dimensional microscopy. , 2007, Optics express.

[34]  Laurent Demanet,et al.  Fast Discrete Curvelet Transforms , 2006, Multiscale Model. Simul..

[35]  Donald G. Bailey,et al.  Design for Embedded Image Processing on FPGAs: Bailey/Design for Embedded Image Processing on FPGAs , 2011 .

[36]  Murat Kunt,et al.  Integer wavelet transform for embedded lossy to lossless image compression , 2001, IEEE Trans. Image Process..

[37]  Jan Flusser,et al.  Image registration methods: a survey , 2003, Image Vis. Comput..

[38]  Yun Zhang,et al.  Wavelet based image fusion techniques — An introduction, review and comparison , 2007 .

[39]  Vps Naidu.  Discrete Cosine Transform-based Image Fusion , 2010 .

[40]  Aboul Ella Hassanien,et al.  Remote Sensing Image Fusion Approach Based on Brovey and Wavelets Transforms , 2014, IBICA.

[41]  Shibin Xuan,et al.  A fractional Fourier transform based method of image fusion , 2013, 2013 6th International Congress on Image and Signal Processing (CISP).

[42]  W. Cathey,et al.  Extended depth of field through wave-front coding. , 1995, Applied optics.

[43]  Y. Asnath Victy Phamila,et al.  Discrete Cosine Transform based fusion of multi-focus images for visual sensor networks , 2014, Signal Process..