京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第20706号 / 工博第4403号 / 新制||工||1684(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院工学研究科材料化学専攻 / (主査)教授 三浦 清貴, 教授 田中 勝久, 教授 作花 哲夫 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DGAM

Polarized light has the ability to increase the specificity of the investigation of biomedical samples and is finding greater utilization in the fields of medical diagnostics, sensing, and measurement. In particular, this dissertation focuses on the application of polarized light to address a major obstacle in the development of an optical based polarimetric non-invasive glucose detector that has the potential to improve the quality of life and prolong the life expectancy of the millions of people afflicted with the disease diabetes mellitus. By achieving the mapping of the relative variations in rabbit corneal birefringence, it is hoped that the understanding of the results contained herein will facilitate the development of techniques to eliminate the effects of changing corneal birefringence on polarimetric glucose measurement through the aqueous humor of the eye. This dissertation also focuses on the application of polarized light to address a major downside of cardiovascular biomechanics research, which is the utilization of toxic chemicals to prepare samples for histological examination. To this end, a polarization microscopy image processing technique is applied to non-stained cardiovascular samples as a means to eliminate, for certain cardiac samples, the necessity for staining using toxic chemicals. The results from this work have the potential to encourage more investigators to join the field of cardiac biomechanics, which studies the remodeling processes responsible for cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarct (heart attacks) and congestive heart failure. Cardiovascular disease is epidemic, particularly amongst the population group older than 65 years, and the number of people affected by this disease is expected to increase appreciably as the baby boomer generation transitions into this older, high risk population group. A better understanding of the responsible mechanisms for cardiac tissue remodeling will facilitate the development of better prevention and treatment regimens by improving the early detection and diagnosis of this disease.

This work mainly focuses on signal processing issues related to continuous-wave, polarization-based direct imaging schemes. Here, we present a mathematical framework to analyze the performance of the Polarization Difference Imaging (PDI) and Polarization Modulation Imaging (PMI). We have considered three visualization parameters, namely, the polarization intensity (PI), Degree of Linear Polarization (DOLP) and polarization orientation (PO) for comparing these schemes. The first two parameters appear frequently in literature, possibly under different names. The last parameter, polarization orientation, has been introduced and elaborated in this thesis. We have also proposed some extensions/alternatives for the existing imaging and processing schemes and analyzed their advantages. Theoretically and through Monte-Carlo simulations, we have studied the performance of these schemes under white and coloured noise conditions, concluding that, in general, the PMI gives better estimates of all the parameters. Experimental results corroborate our theoretical arguments. PMI is shown to give asymptotically efficient estimates of these parameters, whereas PDI is shown to give biased estimates of the first two and is also shown to be incapable of estimating PO. Moreover, it is shown that PDI is a particular case of PMI. The property of PDI, that it can yield estimates at lower variances has been recognized as its major strength. We have also shown that the three visualization parameters can be fused to form a colour image, giving a holistic view of the scene. We report the advantages of analyzing chunks of data and bootstrapped data under various circumstances. Experiments were conducted to image objects through calibrated scattering media and natural media like mist, with successful results. Scattering media prepared with polystyrene microspheres of diameters 2.97m, 0.06m and 0.13m dispersed in water were used in our experiments. An intensified charge coupled device (CCD) camera was used to capture the images. Results showed that imaging could be performed beyond optical thickness of 40, for particles with 0.13m diameter. For larger particles, the depth to which we could image was much lesser. An experiment using an incoherent source yielded better results than with coherent sources, which we attribute to the speckle noise induced by coherent sources. We have suggested a harmonic based imaging scheme, which can perhaps be used when we have a mixture of scattering particles. We have also briefly touched upon the possible post processing that can be performed on the obtained results, and as an example, shown segmentation based on a PO imaging result.

Le cancer est une pathologie que l’on se doit de détecter le plus tôt possible si l’on veut accroître les chances de guérison. Ces travaux étudient l’apport de la signature polarimétrique à la caractérisation et l’identification des tissus cancéreux. Il s’agit d’extraire des images multidimensionnelles de polarisation des informations physiques qui caractérisent les constituants de l’objet bien au-delà de l’information visuelle des images d’intensité. Durant cette thèse, un imageur de Mueller, POLARIS, a pu être mis en place ainsi que les outils de traitement et de calibration adaptés. Une méthode de segmentation d’images de Mueller en condition d’éclairement non homogène a été proposée. Une première base d’images multi-spectrales polarimétriques de tissus sains et pathogènes chez la souris a été constituée. Une approche originale a enfin été proposée en se basant sur les forêts aléatoires pour extraire parmi un ensemble de paramètres physiques un jeu de paramètres permettant de différencier les zones saines des zones pathogènes aux différentes longueurs d’ondes de travail. Une comparaison est proposée avec la littérature et permet de valider l’approche. / Cancer is a pathology that must be detected as soon as possible in order to increase the chances of recovery. These studies investigate the contribution of polarimetric signature to the characterization and identification of cancerous tissues. It is a matter of extracting multidimensional polarization images of the physical information which characterize the constituents of the object well beyond the visual information of the intensity images. During this thesis, a Mueller imager, POLARIS, was set up, as well as the appropriate processing and calibration tools. A method of Mueller images segmentation in non-homogeneous illumination has been proposed. A first database of polarimetric multi-spectral images of healthy and pathogenic tissues in mice was constructed. An original approach was finally proposed based on random forests to extract from a set of physical parameters a set of parameters allowing to differentiate the healthy zones from the pathogenic zones at different working wavelengths. A comparison is proposed with the literature and validates the approach.

La polarisation de la lumière, phénomène physique parfaitement maîtrisé, a été introduit depuis une dizaine d'années seulement dans le domaine de l'imagerie. En effet, tout comme l'œil humain, les capteurs ne sont pas, par construction, sensible à la polarisation de la lumière. Cette propriété particulièrement intéressante ne peut être obtenue qu'en ajoutant des composants optiques aux caméras classiques. L'objectif de ce travail de thèse est de développer un système à la fois stéréoscopique et sensible à l'état de polarisation. En effet, de nombreux insectes dans la nature, comme les abeilles par exemple, ont la capacité à s'orienter dans l'espace et à extraire des informations pertinentes issues de la polarisation. Le prototype ainsi développé doit permettre de reconstruire en trois dimensions des points d'intérêt tout en associant à ces points un ensemble de paramètres relatifs à l'état de polarisation. Le système proposé ici est constitué de deux caméras équipés chacune de deux composants à cristaux liquides permettant d'obtenir deux images avec des orientations de polarisation différentes. Pour chaque acquisition, quatre images sont obtenues : deux pour chacune des caméras. Le verrou majeur soulevé ici est la possibilité de remonter à des informations de polarisation à partir de deux caméras différentes. Après une première étape de calibration géométrique et photométrique, la mise en correspondance des points d'intérêt est rendue délicate en raison des composants optiques placés devant les objectifs. Une étude approfondie des différentes méthodes de mise en correspondance a permis de sélectionner la méthode la moins sensible aux effets de polarisation. Une fois les points mis en correspondance, les paramètres de polarisation de chacun des points sont calculés à partir des quatre valeurs issues des quatre images acquises. Les résultats obtenus sur des scènes réelles montrent la faisabilité et l'intérêt d'un tel système pour des applications robotiques. / The polarization of light was introduced last ten years ago in the field of imaging system is a physical phenomenon that can be controlled for the purposes of the vision system. As that found in the human eyes, in general the imaging sensors are not under construction which is sensitive to the polarization of light. These properties can be measured by adding optical components on a conventional camera. The purpose of this thesis is to develop an imaging system that is sensitive both to the stereoscopic and to the state of polarization. As well as the visual system on a various of insects in nature such as bees, that are have capability to move in space by extracted relevant information from the polarization. The developed prototype should be possible to reconstruct threedimensional of points of interest with the issues associated with a set of parameters of the state of polarization. The proposed system consists of two cameras, each camera equipped with liquid crystal components to obtain two images with different directions of polarization. For each acquisition, four images are acquired: two for each camera. Raised by the key of main capability to return polarization information from two different cameras. After an initial calibration step; geometric and photometric, the mapping of points of interest process is made difficult because of the optical components placed in front of different lenses. A detailed study of different methods of mapping was used to select sensitivity to the polarization effects. Once points are mapped, the polarization parameters of each point are calculated from the four values from four images acquired. The results on real scenes show the feasibility and desirability of this imaging system for robotic applications.

L’imagerie de polarisation est une technique permettant de révéler des contrastes qui n’apparaissent pas dans les images d’intensité classiques. En d’autres termes, elle permet de transformer une différence de propriétés polarimétriques en différence de niveau de gris. Elle trouve des applications en décamouflage, télédétection, microscopie, etc. Les imageurs polarimétriques utilisent souvent des modulateurs de polarisation basés sur des matrices de cristaux liquides rapides et fiables. Cependant, les LCVR contrôlent l’état de polarisation de la lumière à seulement une longueur d’onde donnée, et si le système est utilisé à d’autres longueurs d’ondes, il a des performances réduites. Si la lumière qui illumine la scène à un spectre large, il est donc nécessaire d’insérer un filtre spectral de bande étroite dans la voie d’imagerie, ce qui a pour effet de réduire la quantité de lumière entrant dans le système et donc le rapport signal à bruit des images.Un moyen de résoudre ce problème est d’utiliser des modulateurs de polarisation achromatiques, mais cela induit un coût et une complexité accrus qui peuvent ne pas être nécessaires si l’objectif est d’améliorer la performance de détection de cible en augmentant le contraste entre l’objet d’intérêt et le fond. Dans cette thèse, j’étudie l’impact d’un élargissement du spectre d’illumination sur la performance de détection de cible par des systèmes d’imagerie polarimétriques utilisant des composants chromatiques. A travers des simulations, je montre tout d’abord qu’élargir le spectre d’illumination peut augmenter le contraste car l’augmentation du flux de lumière compense la perte de précision polarimétrique. De plus, en prenant en compte les caractéristiques polarimétriques chromatiques des composants, on peut accroître encore l’augmentation du contraste. Ces résultats sont ensuite validés à travers des expériences réelles d’imagerie polarimétrique active. Ils démontrent que la largeur du spectre d’éclairement peut être considérée comme un paramètre additionnel pour optimiser ces systèmes d’imagerie.Afin de mettre en pratique l’expertise acquise en imagerie polarimétrique active à un autre domaine, j’ai collaboré avec un partenaire industriel (Carl Zeiss, Germany) pour doter un microscope optique d’une capacité polarimétrique. L’imagerie d’un échantillon fin et transparent est un problème difficile. Par exemple, la coloration de l’échantillon peut ajouter des détails parasites et n’est pas applicable à l’imagerie du vivant. Une technique prometteuse est le contraste de phase différentiel (DPC) qui consiste à extraire le gradient de phase de l’objet à partir de deux images illuminées de manière asymétrique et acquises selon des angles complémentaires. La source de lumière est une matrice de LED programmables qui peut générer différents motifs d’illumination. Cependant, cette méthode d’imagerie prend du temps et les flashs intermittents émis par la source peuvent rendre l’observation inconfortable.J’ai donc proposé une solution alternative consistant à installer deux polariseurs avec des axes orthogonaux devant la source de lumière et une caméra sensible à la polarisation qui peut détecter simultanément des polarisations orthogonales. La lumière polarisée atteint la caméra sensible à la polarisation après avoir traversé l’échantillon transparent. Les composantes orthogonales sont extraites de l’image acquise par un procédé de débayerisation. A travers différentes expériences, je compare les performances de cette méthode innovante avec la méthode de DPC classique. Je montre qu’elles fournissent des qualités d’images similaires dans la plupart des cas alors que la nouvelle méthode permet de diviser le temps d’acquisition par deux, tout en supprimant les flashs intermittents. / Polarization imaging is a technique which reveals contrasts that do not appear in classical intensity images. It transforms the difference in polarimetric properties of a scene into difference in gray level of an image. This technique has found applications in decamouflaging, remote sensing, microscopy etc. Polarimetric imagers often use polarization modulation devices based on liquid crystal variable retarders (LCVR), which are fast and reliable. However, LCVR control the polarization state of light only at one given nominal wavelength, and performance loss might be observed if imaging is performed at other wavelengths, due to the wavelength dependence of the LCVR. If the light source that illuminates the scene has a broad spectrum, it is thus necessary to insert a narrowband spectral filter in the imaging path. However, spectral filtering significantly decreases the amount of light entering the system and thus the signal-to-noise ratio of polarimetric images.A way to circumvent this issue is to achromatize the polarization modulators. However, this comes at the price of higher complexity and cost, and this may not be needed if the objective is to improve target detection performance by increasing the target/background discriminability (or contrast). In the thesis, we present the investigation of the impact of broadening the spectrum of the light entering the system on the discriminability performance of active polarimetric systems. Through simulations, we show that broadening the bandwidth of the illumination can increase the contrast between two regions, as the increase of light flux compensates for the loss of polarimetric precision. Moreover, we show that taking into account the chromatic characteristics of the components of the imaging system, it is possible to further enhance the contrast. We validate these findings through experiments in active polarimetric imaging configuration, and demonstrate that the spectral bandwidth can be considered as an additional parameter to optimize polarimetric imaging set-ups.We collaborated with an industrial partner (Carl Zeiss, Germany) to implement polarization imaging in optical microscopy. Imaging thin and transparent specimen in microscopy is a challenging task. Staining the sample is a solution but it adds false/spurious details to the image, thus not suitable for live imaging. Recently, differential phase contrast (DPC) imaging by asymmetric illumination is proved to be a desirable choice. This works on the principle that the phase gradient of a transparent specimen can be extracted from two images, illuminated and recorded at complementary angles. Then, DPC is computed as normalized difference between two images. Here the light source is programmable LED array and different pattern of illumination can be generated. This imaging method consumes more time and intermittent flash of light from light source makes sample observation inconvenient for the observer.A practical solution we propose is to install two polarization foils with orthogonal polarization axes below the light source side by side and a polarization sensitive camera which can detect orthogonal eigen polarization states at a time in the existing setup. The polarization foils separate light waves from complementary angles since orthogonally polarized light waves do not interact with each other. The polarized light reaches polarization sensitive camera after passing through transparent sample. The pixels sensitive to horizontal and vertical polarization detect horizontal and vertical polarized light respectively. Then horizontal and vertical polarized light information are separated from the recorded image and reconstructed the missing information using debayering process. Through experiments, we show that polarization based DPC and standard DPC images have similar quality in most cases and the new technique reduces time consumption by half.

The polarization of light was introduced last ten years ago in the field of imaging system is a physical phenomenon that can be controlled for the purposes of the vision system. As that found in the human eyes, in general the imaging sensors are not under construction which is sensitive to the polarization of light. These properties can be measured by adding optical components on a conventional camera. The purpose of this thesis is to develop an imaging system that is sensitive both to the stereoscopic and to the state of polarization. As well as the visual system on a various of insects in nature such as bees, that are have capability to move in space by extracted relevant information from the polarization. The developed prototype should be possible to reconstruct threedimensional of points of interest with the issues associated with a set of parameters of the state of polarization. The proposed system consists of two cameras, each camera equipped with liquid crystal components to obtain two images with different directions of polarization. For each acquisition, four images are acquired: two for each camera. Raised by the key of main capability to return polarization information from two different cameras. After an initial calibration step; geometric and photometric, the mapping of points of interest process is made difficult because of the optical components placed in front of different lenses. A detailed study of different methods of mapping was used to select sensitivity to the polarization effects. Once points are mapped, the polarization parameters of each point are calculated from the four values from four images acquired. The results on real scenes show the feasibility and desirability of this imaging system for robotic applications.