Embedded structured light cameras have been widely applied in various fields. However, due to constraints such as insufficient computing resources, it remains difficult to achieve high-speed structured light point cloud computation. To address this issue, this study proposes a memory-driven computational framework for accelerating point cloud computation. Specifically, the point cloud computation process is precomputed as much as possible and stored in memory in the form of parameters, thereby significantly reducing the computational load during actual point cloud computation. The framework is instantiated in two forms: a low-memory method that minimizes memory footprint at the expense of point cloud stability, and a high-memory method that preserves the nonlinear phase-distance relation via an extensive lookup table. Experimental evaluations demonstrate that the proposed methods achieve comparable accuracy to the conventional method while delivering substantial speedups, and data-format optimizations further reduce required bandwidth. This framework offers a generalizable paradigm for optimizing structured light pipelines, paving the way for enhanced real-time 3D sensing in embedded applications.
{"title":"Accelerating Point Cloud Computation via Memory in Embedded Structured Light Cameras.","authors":"Yanan Zhang, Shikang Meng, Shijie Wang, Yaheng Ren","doi":"10.3390/jimaging12020091","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jimaging12020091","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Embedded structured light cameras have been widely applied in various fields. However, due to constraints such as insufficient computing resources, it remains difficult to achieve high-speed structured light point cloud computation. To address this issue, this study proposes a memory-driven computational framework for accelerating point cloud computation. Specifically, the point cloud computation process is precomputed as much as possible and stored in memory in the form of parameters, thereby significantly reducing the computational load during actual point cloud computation. The framework is instantiated in two forms: a low-memory method that minimizes memory footprint at the expense of point cloud stability, and a high-memory method that preserves the nonlinear phase-distance relation via an extensive lookup table. Experimental evaluations demonstrate that the proposed methods achieve comparable accuracy to the conventional method while delivering substantial speedups, and data-format optimizations further reduce required bandwidth. This framework offers a generalizable paradigm for optimizing structured light pipelines, paving the way for enhanced real-time 3D sensing in embedded applications.</p>","PeriodicalId":37035,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Imaging","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12941603/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147291260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Currently, standardized classification methods of surrounding rock are relatively insufficient. The classification of surrounding rock mainly relies on the subjective judgment of technicians, leading to diverse evaluation results. This study focuses on the feature extraction and classification methods of surrounding rock images in a certain tunnel of the Central Yunnan Water Diversion Project by using image processing analysis and transfer learning. Rich surrounding rock images and the water conservancy tunnel data are collected, and then the surrounding rock is classified relatively accurately according to the code and expert guidance. By introducing the fractal theory, the complexity and irregularity of the spatial distribution of weak layers and joints on the surrounding rock surface are revealed effectively. Based on the analysis of changes in fractal dimension characteristic values, a classification method for surrounding rock based on the fractal theory is proposed. Combined with the quantified parameters of surrounding rock images and the strength data collected by rebound meters, a method for correcting the surrounding rock strength based on image analysis is proposed, which can effectively solve the error caused by the uneven distribution of rock masses in the traditional rebound meter strength values. After correction, more accurate strength characteristics can be obtained, which is conducive to the standardized classification of the surrounding rock. After studying the recognition of tunnel surrounding rock images with transfer learning, a model is constructed to achieve rapid classification of tunnel surrounding rock. This research provides support for the standardized classification of tunnel surrounding rock.
{"title":"Classification of the Surrounding Rock Based on Image Processing Analysis and Transfer Learning.","authors":"Yanyun Fan, Jiaqi Zhu, Hua Luo, Yaxi Shen, Shuanglong Wang, Xiaoning Liu, Dong Li, Chuhan Deng","doi":"10.3390/jimaging12020089","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jimaging12020089","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Currently, standardized classification methods of surrounding rock are relatively insufficient. The classification of surrounding rock mainly relies on the subjective judgment of technicians, leading to diverse evaluation results. This study focuses on the feature extraction and classification methods of surrounding rock images in a certain tunnel of the Central Yunnan Water Diversion Project by using image processing analysis and transfer learning. Rich surrounding rock images and the water conservancy tunnel data are collected, and then the surrounding rock is classified relatively accurately according to the code and expert guidance. By introducing the fractal theory, the complexity and irregularity of the spatial distribution of weak layers and joints on the surrounding rock surface are revealed effectively. Based on the analysis of changes in fractal dimension characteristic values, a classification method for surrounding rock based on the fractal theory is proposed. Combined with the quantified parameters of surrounding rock images and the strength data collected by rebound meters, a method for correcting the surrounding rock strength based on image analysis is proposed, which can effectively solve the error caused by the uneven distribution of rock masses in the traditional rebound meter strength values. After correction, more accurate strength characteristics can be obtained, which is conducive to the standardized classification of the surrounding rock. After studying the recognition of tunnel surrounding rock images with transfer learning, a model is constructed to achieve rapid classification of tunnel surrounding rock. This research provides support for the standardized classification of tunnel surrounding rock.</p>","PeriodicalId":37035,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Imaging","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12941806/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147291244","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bacterial wound infection poses a major challenge in trauma care and can lead to severe complications such as sepsis and organ failure. Therefore, rapid and accurate identification of the pathogen, along with targeted intervention, is of vital importance for improving treatment outcomes and reducing risks. However, current detection methods are still constrained by procedural complexity and long processing times. In this study, a hyperspectral imaging (HSI) acquisition system for bacterial analysis and a multi-scale dual-domain feature fusion transformer (MDF2Former) were developed for classifying wound bacteria. MDF2Former integrates three modules: a multi-scale feature enhancement and fusion module that generates tokens with multi-scale discriminative representations, a spatial-spectral dual-branch attention module that strengthens joint feature modeling, and a frequency and spatial-spectral domain encoding module that captures global and local interactions among tokens through a hierarchical stacking structure, thereby enabling more efficient feature learning. Extensive experiments on our self-constructed HSI dataset of typical wound bacteria demonstrate that MDF2Former achieved outstanding performance across five metrics: Accuracy (91.94%), Precision (92.26%), Recall (91.94%), F1-score (92.01%), and Kappa coefficient (90.73%), surpassing all comparative models. These results have verified the effectiveness of combining HSI with deep learning for bacterial identification, and have highlighted its potential in assisting in the identification of bacterial species and making personalized treatment decisions for wound infections.
{"title":"MDF2Former: Multi-Scale Dual-Domain Feature Fusion Transformer for Hyperspectral Image Classification of Bacteria in Murine Wounds.","authors":"Decheng Wu, Wendan Liu, Rui Li, Xudong Fu, Lin Tao, Yinli Tian, Anqiang Zhang, Zhen Wang, Hao Tang","doi":"10.3390/jimaging12020090","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jimaging12020090","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Bacterial wound infection poses a major challenge in trauma care and can lead to severe complications such as sepsis and organ failure. Therefore, rapid and accurate identification of the pathogen, along with targeted intervention, is of vital importance for improving treatment outcomes and reducing risks. However, current detection methods are still constrained by procedural complexity and long processing times. In this study, a hyperspectral imaging (HSI) acquisition system for bacterial analysis and a multi-scale dual-domain feature fusion transformer (MDF2Former) were developed for classifying wound bacteria. MDF2Former integrates three modules: a multi-scale feature enhancement and fusion module that generates tokens with multi-scale discriminative representations, a spatial-spectral dual-branch attention module that strengthens joint feature modeling, and a frequency and spatial-spectral domain encoding module that captures global and local interactions among tokens through a hierarchical stacking structure, thereby enabling more efficient feature learning. Extensive experiments on our self-constructed HSI dataset of typical wound bacteria demonstrate that MDF2Former achieved outstanding performance across five metrics: Accuracy (91.94%), Precision (92.26%), Recall (91.94%), F1-score (92.01%), and Kappa coefficient (90.73%), surpassing all comparative models. These results have verified the effectiveness of combining HSI with deep learning for bacterial identification, and have highlighted its potential in assisting in the identification of bacterial species and making personalized treatment decisions for wound infections.</p>","PeriodicalId":37035,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Imaging","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12942589/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147291277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) frequently affects the joints of the hands, with joint space narrowing (JSN) representing an important early marker of structural damage. The semi-quantitative Sharp/van der Heijde (SvdH) scoring system is widely used in clinical practice but is inherently subjective and susceptible to observer variability. Moreover, the complex anatomy of the wrist and substantial overlap of carpal bones pose challenges for automated quantitative assessment of wrist JSN on routine radiographs. This study aimed to introduce a novel quantitative assessment perspective and to clinically validate an automated, compactness-related quantification framework for evaluating wrist JSN in RA. This study initially enrolled 51 patients with RA. After excluding one case with severe carpal fusion that precluded anatomical differentiation, 50 patients (44 females and 6 males) were included in the final analysis. The cohort had a mean age of 61 years (range: 21-82), a median symptom duration of 9 years (IQR: 1-32), and a median follow-up interval for bilateral hand radiographs of 1.06 years (IQR: 0.82-1.30). To quantify global wrist JSN, 10 compactness-related metrics were computed based on the spatial distribution of bone centroids extracted from carpal segmentation masks. These metrics were validated against the wrist JSN subscore of the SvdH score (SvdH-JSN_wrist) and the total Sharp score (TSS) as gold standards. Several distance-based metrics among the compactness-related metrics showed significant negative correlations with the wrist joint space narrowing subscore of the Sharp/van der Heijde score (SvdH-JSN_wrist). Specifically, mean-pairwise-distance (MPD), root-mean-square-radius (RMSR), and median-radius (R50) showed moderate to strong correlations (r = -0.52 to -0.63, all p≤0.0001) that were consistent at BL and FU. Correlations with TSS were weaker overall, with only R50 and its normalized form showing stable negative correlations (r = -0.40 to -0.43, p < 0.01). Longitudinal analyses showed limited correlations between metric changes and clinical score changes. The proposed automated compactness quantification framework enables objective and reliable assessment of wrist JSN on standard radiographs and complements conventional scoring systems by supporting automated and standardized evaluation of RA-related wrist structural changes.
类风湿性关节炎(RA)经常影响手部关节,关节间隙狭窄(JSN)是结构损伤的重要早期标志。半定量Sharp/van der Heijde (SvdH)评分系统广泛应用于临床实践,但其固有的主观性和易受观察者可变性的影响。此外,腕部复杂的解剖结构和腕骨的大量重叠为常规x线片腕部JSN的自动定量评估带来了挑战。本研究旨在引入一种新的定量评估视角,并在临床验证一种用于评估RA腕部JSN的自动化、紧凑性相关量化框架。这项研究最初招募了51名RA患者。在排除1例严重腕骨融合妨碍解剖分化后,50例患者(女性44例,男性6例)被纳入最终分析。该队列的平均年龄为61岁(范围:21-82岁),症状持续时间中位数为9年(IQR: 1-32),双侧手部x线片随访时间中位数为1.06年(IQR: 0.82-1.30)。为了量化全局腕部JSN,基于从腕关节分割掩模中提取的骨质心的空间分布,计算10个紧致度相关指标。这些指标根据SvdH评分(SvdH- jsn_wrist)的手腕JSN子评分和总夏普评分(TSS)作为金标准进行验证。在紧致度相关指标中,几个基于距离的指标与Sharp/van der Heijde评分(SvdH-JSN_wrist)的腕关节间隙缩小亚评分呈显著负相关。具体而言,平均两两距离(MPD)、均方根半径(RMSR)和中位半径(R50)显示出中等至强的相关性(r = -0.52至-0.63,均p≤0.0001),与BL和FU一致。与TSS的相关性总体较弱,只有R50与其归一化形式呈稳定的负相关(r = -0.40 ~ -0.43, p < 0.01)。纵向分析显示度量变化与临床评分变化之间的相关性有限。提出的自动化紧凑度量化框架能够客观可靠地评估标准x线片腕部JSN,并通过支持ra相关腕部结构变化的自动化和标准化评估,补充了传统评分系统。
{"title":"Automated Compactness Quantitative Metrics for Wrist Bone on Conventional Radiography in Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Clinical Evaluation Study.","authors":"Jiajing Zhou, Junmu Peng, Haolin Wang, Hiroshi Kataoka, Masaya Mukai, Tunlada Wiriyanukhroh, Tamotsu Kamishima","doi":"10.3390/jimaging12020087","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jimaging12020087","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) frequently affects the joints of the hands, with joint space narrowing (JSN) representing an important early marker of structural damage. The semi-quantitative Sharp/van der Heijde (SvdH) scoring system is widely used in clinical practice but is inherently subjective and susceptible to observer variability. Moreover, the complex anatomy of the wrist and substantial overlap of carpal bones pose challenges for automated quantitative assessment of wrist JSN on routine radiographs. This study aimed to introduce a novel quantitative assessment perspective and to clinically validate an automated, compactness-related quantification framework for evaluating wrist JSN in RA. This study initially enrolled 51 patients with RA. After excluding one case with severe carpal fusion that precluded anatomical differentiation, 50 patients (44 females and 6 males) were included in the final analysis. The cohort had a mean age of 61 years (range: 21-82), a median symptom duration of 9 years (IQR: 1-32), and a median follow-up interval for bilateral hand radiographs of 1.06 years (IQR: 0.82-1.30). To quantify global wrist JSN, 10 compactness-related metrics were computed based on the spatial distribution of bone centroids extracted from carpal segmentation masks. These metrics were validated against the wrist JSN subscore of the SvdH score (SvdH-JSN_wrist) and the total Sharp score (TSS) as gold standards. Several distance-based metrics among the compactness-related metrics showed significant negative correlations with the wrist joint space narrowing subscore of the Sharp/van der Heijde score (SvdH-JSN_wrist). Specifically, mean-pairwise-distance (MPD), root-mean-square-radius (RMSR), and median-radius (R50) showed moderate to strong correlations (r = -0.52 to -0.63, all p≤0.0001) that were consistent at BL and FU. Correlations with TSS were weaker overall, with only R50 and its normalized form showing stable negative correlations (r = -0.40 to -0.43, <i>p</i> < 0.01). Longitudinal analyses showed limited correlations between metric changes and clinical score changes. The proposed automated compactness quantification framework enables objective and reliable assessment of wrist JSN on standard radiographs and complements conventional scoring systems by supporting automated and standardized evaluation of RA-related wrist structural changes.</p>","PeriodicalId":37035,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Imaging","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12941718/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147291279","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-18DOI: 10.3390/jimaging12020088
Aaron Gálvez-Salido, Francisca Robles, Rodrigo J Gonçalves, Roberto de la Herrán, Carmelo Ruiz Rejón, Rafael Navajas-Pérez
Automated biological counting is essential for scaling wildlife monitoring and biodiversity assessments, as manual processing currently limits analytical effort and scalability. This review evaluates the integration of deep learning and computer vision across diverse acquisition platforms, including camera traps, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and remote sensing. Methodological paradigms ranging from Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and one-stage detectors like You Only Look Once (YOLO) to recent transformer-based architectures and hybrid models are examined. The literature shows that these methods consistently achieve high accuracy-often exceeding 95%-across various taxa, including insect pests, aquatic organisms, terrestrial vegetation, and forest ecosystems. However, persistent challenges such as object occlusion, cryptic species differentiation, and the scarcity of high-quality, labeled datasets continue to hinder fully automated workflows. We conclude that while automated counting has fundamentally increased data throughput, future advancements must focus on enhancing model generalization through self-supervised learning and improved data augmentation techniques. These developments are critical for transitioning from experimental models to robust, operational tools for global ecological monitoring and conservation efforts.
自动生物计数对于扩大野生动物监测和生物多样性评估至关重要,因为人工处理目前限制了分析工作和可扩展性。这篇综述评估了深度学习和计算机视觉在不同采集平台上的集成,包括相机陷阱、无人机(uav)和遥感。从卷积神经网络(cnn)和一级检测器(如You Only Look Once (YOLO))到最近基于变压器的架构和混合模型的方法范例进行了研究。文献表明,这些方法在包括害虫、水生生物、陆地植被和森林生态系统在内的各种分类群中始终保持着很高的准确性,通常超过95%。然而,诸如物体遮挡、隐物种分化以及高质量标记数据集的稀缺性等持续存在的挑战继续阻碍完全自动化的工作流程。我们的结论是,虽然自动计数从根本上提高了数据吞吐量,但未来的进步必须集中在通过自监督学习和改进的数据增强技术来增强模型泛化。这些发展对于从实验模型转变为全球生态监测和保护工作的强大、可操作工具至关重要。
{"title":"Analysis of Biological Images and Quantitative Monitoring Using Deep Learning and Computer Vision.","authors":"Aaron Gálvez-Salido, Francisca Robles, Rodrigo J Gonçalves, Roberto de la Herrán, Carmelo Ruiz Rejón, Rafael Navajas-Pérez","doi":"10.3390/jimaging12020088","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jimaging12020088","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Automated biological counting is essential for scaling wildlife monitoring and biodiversity assessments, as manual processing currently limits analytical effort and scalability. This review evaluates the integration of deep learning and computer vision across diverse acquisition platforms, including camera traps, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and remote sensing. Methodological paradigms ranging from Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and one-stage detectors like You Only Look Once (YOLO) to recent transformer-based architectures and hybrid models are examined. The literature shows that these methods consistently achieve high accuracy-often exceeding 95%-across various taxa, including insect pests, aquatic organisms, terrestrial vegetation, and forest ecosystems. However, persistent challenges such as object occlusion, cryptic species differentiation, and the scarcity of high-quality, labeled datasets continue to hinder fully automated workflows. We conclude that while automated counting has fundamentally increased data throughput, future advancements must focus on enhancing model generalization through self-supervised learning and improved data augmentation techniques. These developments are critical for transitioning from experimental models to robust, operational tools for global ecological monitoring and conservation efforts.</p>","PeriodicalId":37035,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Imaging","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12941886/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147291315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-18DOI: 10.3390/jimaging12020086
Igor Majnarić, Marija Jelkić, Marko Morić, Krunoslav Hajdek
The new European Regulation (EU) 2025/40 includes provisions on modern packaging and packaging waste. It defines the use of image QR codes on packaging (items 71 and 161) and in personal documents, making line barcodes a thing of the past. The definition of a QR code is precisely specified in ISO/IEC 18004:2024. However, their implementation in printing systems is not specified and remains an important factor for their future application. Digital foil printing is a completely new hybrid printing process for applying information to highly precise applications such as QR codes, security printing, and packaging printing. The technique is characterized by a combination of two printing techniques: drop-on-demand UV inkjet followed by thermal transfer of black foil. Using a matte-coated printing substrate (Garda Matt, 300 g/m2), Konica Minolta KM1024 LHE Inkjet head settings, and a transfer temperature of 100 °C, the size of the square printing elements in QR codes plays a decisive role in the quality of the decoded information. The aim of this work is to investigate the possibility of realizing the basic elements of the QR code image (the profile of square elements and the success of realizing a precisely defined surface) with a variation in the thickness of the UV varnish coating (7, 14 and 21 µm), realized using the MGI JETvarnish 3DS digital machine. The most commonly used rectangular elements with a surface area of 0.01 cm2 were tested: 0.06 cm2, 0.25 cm2, 1 cm2, 4 cm2, and 16 cm2. The results showed that the imprint quality is uneven for the smallest elements (square elements with base lengths of 0.1 cm and 0.25 cm). The effect is especially visible with a minimum UV varnish application of 7 μm (1 drop). By increasing the amount of UV varnish and the application thickness to 14 μm (2 drops) and 21 μm (3 drops), respectively, a significantly more stable, even reproduction of the achromatic image is achieved. The highest technical precision was achieved with a UV varnish thickness of 21 μm.
{"title":"Print Quality Assessment of QR Code Elements Achieved by the Digital Thermal Transfer Process.","authors":"Igor Majnarić, Marija Jelkić, Marko Morić, Krunoslav Hajdek","doi":"10.3390/jimaging12020086","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jimaging12020086","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The new European Regulation (EU) 2025/40 includes provisions on modern packaging and packaging waste. It defines the use of image QR codes on packaging (items 71 and 161) and in personal documents, making line barcodes a thing of the past. The definition of a QR code is precisely specified in ISO/IEC 18004:2024. However, their implementation in printing systems is not specified and remains an important factor for their future application. Digital foil printing is a completely new hybrid printing process for applying information to highly precise applications such as QR codes, security printing, and packaging printing. The technique is characterized by a combination of two printing techniques: drop-on-demand UV inkjet followed by thermal transfer of black foil. Using a matte-coated printing substrate (Garda Matt, 300 g/m<sup>2</sup>), Konica Minolta KM1024 LHE Inkjet head settings, and a transfer temperature of 100 °C, the size of the square printing elements in QR codes plays a decisive role in the quality of the decoded information. The aim of this work is to investigate the possibility of realizing the basic elements of the QR code image (the profile of square elements and the success of realizing a precisely defined surface) with a variation in the thickness of the UV varnish coating (7, 14 and 21 µm), realized using the MGI JETvarnish 3DS digital machine. The most commonly used rectangular elements with a surface area of 0.01 cm<sup>2</sup> were tested: 0.06 cm<sup>2</sup>, 0.25 cm<sup>2</sup>, 1 cm<sup>2</sup>, 4 cm<sup>2</sup>, and 16 cm<sup>2</sup>. The results showed that the imprint quality is uneven for the smallest elements (square elements with base lengths of 0.1 cm and 0.25 cm). The effect is especially visible with a minimum UV varnish application of 7 μm (1 drop). By increasing the amount of UV varnish and the application thickness to 14 μm (2 drops) and 21 μm (3 drops), respectively, a significantly more stable, even reproduction of the achromatic image is achieved. The highest technical precision was achieved with a UV varnish thickness of 21 μm.</p>","PeriodicalId":37035,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Imaging","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12942380/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147291113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Accurate and robust visual localization under changing environments remains a fundamental challenge in autonomous driving and mobile robotics. Traditional handcrafted features often degrade under long-term illumination and viewpoint variations, while recent CNN-based methods, although more robust, typically rely on coarse semantic cues and remain vulnerable to dynamic objects. In this paper, we propose a fine-grained semantics-guided feature extraction framework that adaptively selects stable keypoints while suppressing dynamic disturbances. A fine-grained semantic refinement module subdivides coarse semantic categories into stability-homogeneous sub-classes, and a dual-attention mechanism enhances local repeatability and semantic consistency. By integrating physical priors with self-supervised clustering, the proposed framework learns discriminative and reliable feature representations. Extensive experiments on the Aachen and RobotCar-Seasons benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves state-of-the-art accuracy and robustness while maintaining real-time efficiency, effectively bridging coarse semantic guidance with fine-grained stability estimation. Quantitatively, our method achieves strong localization performance on Aachen (up to 88.1% at night under the (0.2°,0.25 m) threshold) and on RobotCar-Seasons (up to 57.2%/28.4% under the same threshold for day/night), demonstrating improved robustness to seasonal and illumination changes.
{"title":"SREF: Semantics-Refined Feature Extraction for Long-Term Visual Localization.","authors":"Danfeng Wu, Kaifeng Zhu, Heng Shi, Fenfen Zhou, Minchi Kuang","doi":"10.3390/jimaging12020085","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jimaging12020085","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Accurate and robust visual localization under changing environments remains a fundamental challenge in autonomous driving and mobile robotics. Traditional handcrafted features often degrade under long-term illumination and viewpoint variations, while recent CNN-based methods, although more robust, typically rely on coarse semantic cues and remain vulnerable to dynamic objects. In this paper, we propose a fine-grained semantics-guided feature extraction framework that adaptively selects stable keypoints while suppressing dynamic disturbances. A fine-grained semantic refinement module subdivides coarse semantic categories into stability-homogeneous sub-classes, and a dual-attention mechanism enhances local repeatability and semantic consistency. By integrating physical priors with self-supervised clustering, the proposed framework learns discriminative and reliable feature representations. Extensive experiments on the Aachen and RobotCar-Seasons benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves state-of-the-art accuracy and robustness while maintaining real-time efficiency, effectively bridging coarse semantic guidance with fine-grained stability estimation. Quantitatively, our method achieves strong localization performance on Aachen (up to 88.1% at night under the (0.2°,0.25 m) threshold) and on RobotCar-Seasons (up to 57.2%/28.4% under the same threshold for day/night), demonstrating improved robustness to seasonal and illumination changes.</p>","PeriodicalId":37035,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Imaging","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12941875/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147291309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-16DOI: 10.3390/jimaging12020084
Daewoon Kim, I-Gil Kim
Accurate six-degree-of-freedom (6-DoF) visual localization is a fundamental component for modern mapping and navigation. While recent data-centric approaches have leveraged Novel View Synthesis (NVS) to augment training datasets, these methods typically rely on uniform grid-based sampling of virtual cameras. Such naive placement often yields redundant or weakly informative views, failing to effectively bridge the gap between sparse, unordered captures and dense scene geometry. To address these challenges, we present LEGS (Visual Localization Enhanced by 3D Gaussian Splatting), a trajectory-agnostic synthetic-view augmentation framework. LEGS constructs a joint set of 6-DoF camera pose proposals by integrating a coarse 3D lattice with the Structure-from-Motion (SfM) camera graph, followed by a visibility-aware, coverage-driven selection strategy. By utilizing 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS), our framework enables high-throughput, scene-specific synthesis within practical computational budgets. Experiments on standard benchmarks and an in-house dataset demonstrate that LEGS consistently improves pose accuracy and robustness, particularly in scenarios characterized by sparse sampling and co-located viewpoints.
{"title":"LEGS: Visual Localization Enhanced by 3D Gaussian Splatting.","authors":"Daewoon Kim, I-Gil Kim","doi":"10.3390/jimaging12020084","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jimaging12020084","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Accurate six-degree-of-freedom (6-DoF) visual localization is a fundamental component for modern mapping and navigation. While recent data-centric approaches have leveraged Novel View Synthesis (NVS) to augment training datasets, these methods typically rely on uniform grid-based sampling of virtual cameras. Such naive placement often yields redundant or weakly informative views, failing to effectively bridge the gap between sparse, unordered captures and dense scene geometry. To address these challenges, we present LEGS (Visual <b>L</b>ocalization <b>E</b>nhanced by 3D <b>G</b>aussian <b>S</b>platting), a trajectory-agnostic synthetic-view augmentation framework. LEGS constructs a joint set of 6-DoF camera pose proposals by integrating a coarse 3D lattice with the Structure-from-Motion (SfM) camera graph, followed by a visibility-aware, coverage-driven selection strategy. By utilizing 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS), our framework enables high-throughput, scene-specific synthesis within practical computational budgets. Experiments on standard benchmarks and an in-house dataset demonstrate that LEGS consistently improves pose accuracy and robustness, particularly in scenarios characterized by sparse sampling and co-located viewpoints.</p>","PeriodicalId":37035,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Imaging","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12941419/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147291254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-15DOI: 10.3390/jimaging12020082
Yi Dang, Wenjing Li, Zhao Liu, Junqiang Lei
Liver fibrosis (LF) represents a crucial intermediate stage in the pathological progression from chronic liver disease to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Early and accurate diagnosis is of vital importance for the intervention treatment of diseases and the improvement of prognosis. Traditional liver biopsy, long regarded as the diagnostic gold standard, remains associated with several notable limitations such as invasiveness, sampling errors and inter-observer variability. Lately, as artificial intelligence (AI) technology progresses swiftly, radiomics and deep learning (DL) have risen to prominence as non-invasive diagnostic instruments, showing significant potential in the LF diagnostic evaluation. This review summarizes the latest advancements in radiomics and DL for LF diagnosis, staging, prognosis prediction and etiological differentiation. It also analyzes the application value of multimodal imaging modalities, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) and ultrasound in this field. Despite ongoing challenges in model generalization and standardization, improved model interpretability, technological integration and multimodal fusion, the continuous advancement of radiomics and DL technologies holds promise for AI-driven imaging analysis strategies. These approaches aim to integrate multiple clinical monitoring methods, overcome obstacles in the early LF diagnosis and treatment and provide new perspectives for precision medicine of this disease.
{"title":"Research Progress on the Application of Radiomics and Deep Learning in Liver Fibrosis.","authors":"Yi Dang, Wenjing Li, Zhao Liu, Junqiang Lei","doi":"10.3390/jimaging12020082","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jimaging12020082","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Liver fibrosis (LF) represents a crucial intermediate stage in the pathological progression from chronic liver disease to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Early and accurate diagnosis is of vital importance for the intervention treatment of diseases and the improvement of prognosis. Traditional liver biopsy, long regarded as the diagnostic gold standard, remains associated with several notable limitations such as invasiveness, sampling errors and inter-observer variability. Lately, as artificial intelligence (AI) technology progresses swiftly, radiomics and deep learning (DL) have risen to prominence as non-invasive diagnostic instruments, showing significant potential in the LF diagnostic evaluation. This review summarizes the latest advancements in radiomics and DL for LF diagnosis, staging, prognosis prediction and etiological differentiation. It also analyzes the application value of multimodal imaging modalities, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) and ultrasound in this field. Despite ongoing challenges in model generalization and standardization, improved model interpretability, technological integration and multimodal fusion, the continuous advancement of radiomics and DL technologies holds promise for AI-driven imaging analysis strategies. These approaches aim to integrate multiple clinical monitoring methods, overcome obstacles in the early LF diagnosis and treatment and provide new perspectives for precision medicine of this disease.</p>","PeriodicalId":37035,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Imaging","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12941878/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147291306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-15DOI: 10.3390/jimaging12020083
Hongjia Xing, Feng Yang
Road defect detection is essential for traffic safety and infrastructure maintenance. Excising automated methods based on 2D image analysis lack spatial context and cannot provide accurate 3D localization required for maintenance planning. We propose a novel framework for road defect mapping from monocular video sequences by integrating differentiable Bird's-Eye-View (BEV) mesh representation, semantic filtering, and multi-frame temporal fusion. Our differentiable mesh-based BEV representation enables efficient scene reconstruction from sparse observations through MLP-based optimization. The semantic filtering strategy leverages road surface segmentation to eliminate off-road false positives, reducing detection errors by 33.7%. Multi-frame fusion with ray-casting projection and exponential moving average update accumulates defect observations across frames while maintaining 3D geometric consistency. Experimental results demonstrate that our framework produces geometrically consistent BEV defect maps with superior accuracy compared to single-frame 2D methods, effectively handling occlusions, motion blur, and varying illumination conditions.
{"title":"3D Road Defect Mapping via Differentiable Neural Rendering and Multi-Frame Semantic Fusion in Bird's-Eye-View Space.","authors":"Hongjia Xing, Feng Yang","doi":"10.3390/jimaging12020083","DOIUrl":"10.3390/jimaging12020083","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Road defect detection is essential for traffic safety and infrastructure maintenance. Excising automated methods based on 2D image analysis lack spatial context and cannot provide accurate 3D localization required for maintenance planning. We propose a novel framework for road defect mapping from monocular video sequences by integrating differentiable Bird's-Eye-View (BEV) mesh representation, semantic filtering, and multi-frame temporal fusion. Our differentiable mesh-based BEV representation enables efficient scene reconstruction from sparse observations through MLP-based optimization. The semantic filtering strategy leverages road surface segmentation to eliminate off-road false positives, reducing detection errors by 33.7%. Multi-frame fusion with ray-casting projection and exponential moving average update accumulates defect observations across frames while maintaining 3D geometric consistency. Experimental results demonstrate that our framework produces geometrically consistent BEV defect maps with superior accuracy compared to single-frame 2D methods, effectively handling occlusions, motion blur, and varying illumination conditions.</p>","PeriodicalId":37035,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Imaging","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12941438/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147291255","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}