JPH05281589A - Image processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable image processing with low noise by performing the arithmetic processing of an input image using reaction after catalytic action by light, and recording this image by the light in the dead zone of a photocatalyst performing oxidation-reduction reaction. CONSTITUTION:A first filter has the function of making excitation light source monochromatic. Excitation light is radiated to the filter on which an input image 2 is described. In this case, measurement is performed selecting wavelength so as to be known afterwards, so that the input image 2 is left as it is in the position even after developing. The reaction phase 3 containing reaction reagent is optically shut into a transparent container. The chemiluminescence of phosphorescence longer in wavelength than the excitation light is observed from the reaction phase 3. A second filter selects only the wavelength of phosphorescence. The function of recording the result of image processing into a computer or a picture element recording device is further added to form an image processing device The outlining, light-shade inversion, and the like of the input image can be thereby performed without electric signal processing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, a field relating to image information arithmetic processing (contour extraction, inversion) and a recording method, or optical computing by electro-optically coupling nonlinear photochemical reactions. It is used in the field.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, arithmetic processing such as contour extraction of an input image has been performed by processing electric signals. However,
It is said that there is a limit on the computer side that performs arithmetic processing of electric signals in the case of massively parallel processing such that the number of images increases. Therefore, it has been attempted to reduce the load on the electric signal processing system by entrusting parallel processing such as image calculation processing to an optical device having such a function.

To achieve this optically, for example,
There is a method of making a filter that differentiates an input image by calculating a Fourier transform plane by a lens system. Although this method has a high calculation speed, it is disadvantageous in the development of miniaturization and integration due to the geometrical limitation due to the focal length of the lens.

As a method for performing an operation such as contour extraction of an image, a hologram by differential interference or phase conjugation of a difference image is considered. However, the former method cannot be applied to an object that cannot have a phase difference, and the latter method requires that image information for obtaining the difference be prepared in advance or be newly combined in the middle of the optical system.

On the other hand, L. The method proposed by Kuhnert et al. Does not use anything other than a photochemical reaction and can perform arithmetic processing of an image by an extremely simple method. Photocatalytic Belozov Zhabotinski
i) Reaction is a kind of reaction-diffusion dynamical system, and the behavior of each volume element in the reaction solution is linked by a nonlinear term. Most reaction-diffusion systems have no steady state, and the interesting behavior of dynamical systems in time evolution is
well known. Such a method performs self-organizing or self-creating arithmetic processing, unlike a processing system that performs comparison with a so-called reference image or supervised learning as seen in the all-optical image processing described above. Can be said to have a feature. In the above method, self-organized image processing can be performed with time evolution, but since each state is structurally unstable and the reaction itself is optically unstable, this is perturbed in the photochemical reaction system. A massively parallel optical computer can be constructed by combining with the technology of recording time evolution without giving.

[0006]

However, according to the prior art, the contour extraction of the input image, the brightness inversion and the like are performed without using the processing of the electric signal, that is, the self-organized massively parallel optical computing and the image calculation. The time evolution of the process cannot be recorded. In addition, a so-called neural network cannot be used unless the calculation-recording device is used as one element to process electric signals. Furthermore, when these are attempted to be realized by a non-equilibrium open system reaction containing a photocatalyst, the dissipative structure realized by the non-equilibrium open system reaction is recorded without affecting or perturbing the reaction of the photocatalyst. Systematic image processing cannot be realized.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is possible to perform contouring of an input image, inversion of brightness and the like without using processing of an electric signal, and use this operation-recording device as one element, so-called neural. A device that does not use electrical signal processing for the network can be easily constructed, and the dissipative structure realized by the nonequilibrium open system reaction is recorded without affecting or perturbing the reaction of the photocatalyst. An object is to provide an image processing device that can realize processing.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a method of touching by light.
Reactions that are mediated and show a spatial / temporal pattern
Of images input using Rozov-Zabotinski reaction)
Performs redox reaction with the image processing unit that performs arithmetic processing
A recording unit that records this with the light of the area that the photocatalyst is not sensitive to
An image processing apparatus comprising: Starting
In the light, then the light-catalyzed Berozov Za
The main process of Bochinski reaction will be explained. BrO₃ ^- + Br^- + 2H⁺ = HBrO₂+ HOBr ... (1) HBrO₂+ Br^- + H⁺ = 2HOBr (2) BrO₃ ^- + HBrO₂+ H⁺ + 2Ru (II) = 2Ru (III) + 2HOBr + H₂O ... (3) 4Ru (III) + BrCH (COOH)₂+ 2H₂O = 4Ru (II) + HCOOH + 2CO₂+ 5H⁺ + Br^-  … (4) 2HBrO₂= HOBr + BrO₃ ^- + H⁺  … (5)

Here, the reaction process which does not appear explicitly is omitted. In the above formulas (1) to (5), Br ⁻ If the regeneration reaction of is added, the whole reaction is autocatalytic. Ru (I
When (II) is irradiated with visible light in the vicinity of 400 to 500 nm,
A +2 valence triplet excited state is established and Br ions are easily reduced. photon

Ru (III) + e ⁻ > ^* Ru (II) E _o = −0.84V (6) 6 ^{* Ru (II) +2 + BrO} 3 - + 6H ⁺ = 6Ru (III) ⁺³ + 3H ₂ O + Br ₋ (7) That is, the Berosov-Zabotinski reaction can be controlled by irradiation of light.

Further, since the Ru (bpy) ₃ ²⁺ absorption spectrum has an absorption maximum near 400 to 500 nm as shown in FIG. 1, it can be seen that it is sufficient to excite at a wavelength near this range to carry out a photocatalytic reaction. .. Fluorescent by light irradiation ^* R
Since the distribution of u (II) is created, Br ⁻ The concentration distribution of ions can be created. In the reactions of the above formulas (1) to (5), Br ⁻ It is known that the system is inhibited and attenuated according to the ion concentration, and also behaves oscillatory and grows. As a result, as shown in FIG. 2A, the initially uniform reaction layer was exposed to Br ⁻ by light irradiation. Can be distributed, which initiates the autocatalytic reaction and the time evolution of the reaction can be seen. Moreover, as seen in FIG. 2B, Br ⁻ There is a critical point of reaction inhibition and growth in the concentration, and the contour grows in the vicinity of the concentration corresponding to the absorbance distribution.

The reactions of the above formulas (1) to (7) are Prigogine-Nicoli as a self-order forming reaction including a photocatalytic reaction.
s, Noyes et al. That is, in a non-equilibrium system, there is an interesting correlation between the reaction rate and the temporal and spatial structure of the reaction system. Although it is true that the interactions that determine the values of the corresponding reaction and transport coefficients are derived from short-range forces (valence forces and van der Waals forces), the solution of the corresponding dynamical system is As a result, a long-range correlation can be seen as a dissipative structure. This is because in the photocatalytic reaction system, the system is moved away from the equilibrium state by the increase of the order parameter called the excitation light intensity, and a new energy minimum point or minimum orbit with a non-uniform space-time structure and a non-equilibrium state is found in the phase space. To draw (instability). With such a mechanism, the device "thinks" the answer, which is the above-mentioned "self-organizing device" mode. In the present invention, self-organized photochemical image processing is as follows.

FIG. 3 shows an example in which a negative image is developed by using the photocatalyst Berozov-Zabotinski reaction represented by the formulas (1) to (7). FIG. 3 shows a state in which a negative image of a model is placed on a Petri dish containing an acidic aqueous solution containing the reagent contained in the formulas (1) to (5), and a light source is illuminated from above to expose the model. When the change in the image after removal of the negative after the exposure was examined, it was confirmed that the distribution of the divalent ruthenium complex was orange and the trivalent ruthenium complex was blue. 1] LK
uhnert, et al., “Image Processing using light-
sensitive chenical waves "Nature, vol337 No19
(1989) p224-24). The image was taken under natural light through a blue filter. As a result, a positive image appears and a contour extraction image appears as time passes. Further, with the lapse of time, the contour line described above is nothing but the "self-organized generation" of the contour pattern, for example, from the input image due to the reaction with the waves, without any external operation. This can be used, for example, in a "feature database" that extracts new features from an input image.

However, in this example, the light for exposure is not converted into a monochromatic light, and light having the same wavelength as that of the excitation light source is used for recording an image. Therefore, in the case of such a recording method, the image is recorded while perturbing the photocatalytic reaction, and the result of the image processing is not always correct. That is, the photocatalytic reaction is always perturbed as long as the method of measuring the absorbance distribution is used to obtain the result of the image processing. Next, recording of an image using quenching of chemiluminescence will be described.

In equations (6) and (7) ^* Ru (II) has been used as a strongly reducing reagent, which is also in a charge transfer excited state. First, it can be regarded as a luminescent reagent that emits phosphorescence by taking a singlet excited state by photoexcitation and a triplet excited state by fast intersystem crossing (formula (8) below). Here, the reduction reaction of the formula (7) occurs to erase the light-emitting chemical species (elimination reaction). That is, ^* If you know the resolution of phosphorescence of Ru (II), BrO ₃ ^- It is possible to know the concentration distribution of. Therefore, in order to record the self-organized dissipative structure due to the photocatalytic Berozov-Zabotinski reaction without perturbing the photocatalytic reaction itself, chemiluminescence 2
It is understood that it is sufficient to measure the dimensional distribution. photon

Ru (III) + e ⁻ → ^* Ru (II) (luminous property) (8) 6 ^{* Ru (II) +2 + BrO} 3 - + 6H ⁺ = 6Ru (III) ⁺³ + 3H ₂ O + Br ⁻

(Quenching reaction) (9) In the present invention, input light which is excitation light of short wavelength for photocatalytic reaction and chemiluminescence of long wavelength for pattern recording are separated by an optical filter or the like. The result of image processing is obtained by selectively recording the density of the intermediate. Reduced by quenching reaction ^* The distribution of phosphorescence emission due to Ru (II) ⁺² is easily detected by a weak photodetector with low photosensitivity and low noise such as a two-dimensional photon counter. Alternatively, it is possible to reduce the size of the device by combining it with a solid-state image sensor having photosensitivity.

[0018]

EXAMPLE An example of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to (A) and (B). Here, FIG.
4A is a schematic cross-sectional view of a transmissive pixel processing device, FIG.
Shows a perspective view showing the developed state of FIG.

The first filter 1 may be a colored glass filter or an interference filter, and has the function of monochromaticizing the excitation light source. Excitation light is applied to the film on which the input image 2 is drawn. In this case, since wavelength selection is performed and measurement is performed as will be seen later, the input image 2 is left in the same position even after development. Alternatively, phosphorescence may be measured by continuously irradiating with excitation light and reacting in a “non-equilibrium” state.

The Berozov-Zabotinski (BZ) reaction phase 3 containing the reaction reagent is enclosed in an optically transparent container. From the reaction phase 3, phosphorescent chemiluminescence having a wavelength longer than that of the excitation light is observed. The second filter 4 selects only the wavelength of phosphorescence. However, it is known to emit orange phosphorescence by the Ru (bpy) ₃ ²⁺ reduction reaction. For example, Ru (bpy) ₃ ³⁺ + ^- In the manner of ^{_{OH = Ru (bpy) 3 2+}} + hν ( phosphorescence) the formula (7), which corresponds to the reverse reaction. Inferring from the concept of equilibrium, this reverse reaction is unlikely to occur.

Therefore, by adding the function of recording the result of image processing by the apparatus of FIG. 4 to the computer or the apparatus for recording pixels as shown in FIG. 6, the image processing apparatus according to the present invention can be realized. Can be configured. In FIG. 6, 11 is an image input unit of the image processing unit 12, 13 is a light receiving unit, and 14 is an image receiving unit.
Indicates a storage unit for storing images,

The image processing apparatus according to the present invention is shown in FIG.
However, the pixel processing device may be a reflective pixel processing device as shown in FIG. In this device, the second filter 4 is provided to remove "stray light due to reflection".

Further, the structure shown in FIG. 7 may be adopted. In other words, one berozov-zabotinski reaction phase is regarded as a neuro element that self-organizes to create a pattern from an input image, and more sophisticated image processing becomes possible by combining multiple such elements. As a method of realizing this, light emission of the same pattern as the pattern received by the image pickup tube is realized by using, for example, an LED, and this is input to another image processing unit. Multi-layer nonlinear conversion of an image can be realized in parallel by combining such devices in multiple layers. In FIG. 7, reference numeral 21 denotes an image sensor, 22
Is a surface emitting unit, 23 and 24 are A / D conversion units respectively provided between the image processing units 12a and 12b, and a surface emitting drive circuit.

[0024]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, a self-organizing massively parallel computer and a technique for recording the time evolution of image processing are provided by using a non-equilibrium open system reaction using a photocatalytic reaction. By substituting the intensity for the order parameter, the contour of the input image and the light / dark reversal can be performed without using the electric signal processing. Further, it is possible to easily configure a device that uses this arithmetic-recording device as one element to perform a so-called neural network without using processing of electric signals.
Further, the dissipative structure realized by the nonequilibrium open system reaction can be recorded without affecting or perturbing the reaction of the photocatalyst, and image processing with lower noise can be performed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a characteristic diagram of Ru (bpy) ₃ ⁺² absorption spectrum.

FIG. 2 is a characteristic diagram of fluorescent * Ru (II) distribution by light irradiation.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram in the case of developing a negative image using the photocatalyst Berozov-Zabotinski reaction.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a transmissive image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a reflective image processing apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram for recording an input image from the image processing apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of an image processing apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention, the apparatus including surface emitting means.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 4 ... Filter, 2 ... Input image, 3 ... BZ reaction phase, 5
... Image pickup tube, 11 ... Image input section, 12, 12a, 12b ... Image processing section, 13 ... Light receiving section, 14 ... Storage section, 21 ... Image pickup element, 22 ... Surface emitting section, 23 ... A / D conversion section, 24 ... Surface emitting drive circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An image processing unit for performing arithmetic processing of an input image using a reaction which is catalyzed by light and in which a spatial / temporal pattern appears, and a photocatalyst for performing a redox reaction using light in a region insensitive. An image processing apparatus comprising: a recording unit that records the image.