Aims

The aims of the course are to:

• Understand the basic functioning of an Atomic Force Microsope
• Develop models for a piezo-electric translation stage and design controllers to compensate for its natural resonance, while still providing a sufficiently fast and accurate response.
• Gain practical laboratory skills and an appreciation of what is involved in getting sensitive apparatus to deliver good quality data

Content

An Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) is a fairly new instrument in the area of Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) that is capable of imaging with extremely high resolution. It can resolve single DNA strands, measure nano-Newtons and determine friction coefficients of microscopic materials. In this project students will work with a custom-made AFM. There is a significant focus in this project on the modelling and control of a piezo-electric translation stage, which is used to take scans. Please note: a necessary and important part of the project is developing patience, manual dexterity and an ability to troubleshoot practical problems. A goal of this lab is to develop an appreciation of the issues that can arise in turning theory into a practical application - this is fundamental to engineering.

FORMAT

Students will work in teams of two, with each pair sharing an AFM.

ACTIVITIES

• Week 1: Familiarisation with the procedures of using the AFM. Compute and then measure the gain of the /optical lever/, which is the enabling technology of an AFM and which determines its resolution. Write first interim report.

• Week 2: Collect experimental data from the AFM for modelling. Hand measurement of the resonant frequencies. Develop spectral and parametric linear models in Matlab. Write second interim report.

• Weeks 3 and 4: Develop controllers in Matlab and implement on the AFM. Takes various scans. Investigate three post-processing techniques in Matlab that will improve the image quality. Write final report.

Aims

The aims of the course are to:

• To gain understanding of the main processes in an image compression system, and the typical trade-offs in designing such a system:
• An input filtering (or transformation) process, which compacts most of the energy of the image data into a relatively small number of filter output samples;
• A quantisation process, which represents these samples to some desired accuracy;
• ##A lossless entropy coding process, which codes the quantised samples into the minimum number of bits that still allows the samples to be recovered to their quantised accuracy in the decompressor.

Content

This project introduces you to some of the essential design tradeoffs which must be made during the design of image data compression systems. The main purpose of such systems is to compress as far as possible the size of data file required to store an image (typically a real-world scene) while still preserving the quality of the decompressed image at an acceptable level.

The project covers techniques which to some extent reflect the compression inherent in the JPEG, JPEG2000 and JPEG-XR standards. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is the image compression standard from 1992 still commonly used today. JPEG2000 and JPEG-XR are more modern versions which are gradually becoming more widespread. The images above are examples of the same data compressed to the same size but using three different schemes.

FORMAT

Students will work in pairs. Each student will write interim reports by the end of weeks 1 and 2 and a final report by the end of week 4.

ACTIVITIES

The project introduces you to each of these processes in turn and allows you to make a number of inter-related design decisions. New concepts are introduced as the project progresses, rather than by trying to introduce too much theoretical material at the beginning.

At the end of the project all groups will use their final design solutions to compress a small set of images to given file sizes, and the quality of the reconstucted images will be assessed both subjectively and objectively in a competition (complete with a prize!) to select the best design.

Aims

The aims of the course are to:

• To gain understanding of the main processes in an image compression system, and the typical trade-offs in designing such a system:
• An input filtering (or transformation) process, which compacts most of the energy of the image data into a relatively small number of filter output samples;
• A quantisation process, which represents these samples to some desired accuracy;
• ##A lossless entropy coding process, which codes the quantised samples into the minimum number of bits that still allows the samples to be recovered to their quantised accuracy in the decompressor.

Content

This project introduces you to some of the essential design tradeoffs which must be made during the design of image data compression systems. The main purpose of such systems is to compress as far as possible the size of data file required to store an image (typically a real-world scene) while still preserving the quality of the decompressed image at an acceptable level.

The project covers techniques which to some extent reflect the compression inherent in the JPEG, JPEG2000 and JPEG-XR standards. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is the image compression standard from 1992 still commonly used today. JPEG2000 and JPEG-XR are more modern versions which are gradually becoming more widespread. The images above are examples of the same data compressed to the same size but using three different schemes.

FORMAT

Students will work in pairs. Each student will write interim reports by the end of weeks 1 and 2 and a final report by the end of week 4.

ACTIVITIES

The project introduces you to each of these processes in turn and allows you to make a number of inter-related design decisions. New concepts are introduced as the project progresses, rather than by trying to introduce too much theoretical material at the beginning.

At the end of the project all groups will use their final design solutions to compress a small set of images to given file sizes, and the quality of the reconstucted images will be assessed both subjectively and objectively in a competition (complete with a prize!) to select the best design.

Aims

The aims of the course are to:

• To gain understanding of the main processes in an image compression system, and the typical trade-offs in designing such a system:
• An input filtering (or transformation) process, which compacts most of the energy of the image data into a relatively small number of filter output samples;
• A quantisation process, which represents these samples to some desired accuracy;
• ##A lossless entropy coding process, which codes the quantised samples into the minimum number of bits that still allows the samples to be recovered to their quantised accuracy in the decompressor.

Content

This project introduces you to some of the essential design tradeoffs which must be made during the design of image data compression systems. The main purpose of such systems is to compress as far as possible the size of data file required to store an image (typically a real-world scene) while still preserving the quality of the decompressed image at an acceptable level.

The project covers techniques which to some extent reflect the compression inherent in the JPEG, JPEG2000 and JPEG-XR standards. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is the image compression standard from 1992 still commonly used today. JPEG2000 and JPEG-XR are more modern versions which are gradually becoming more widespread. The images above are examples of the same data compressed to the same size but using three different schemes.

FORMAT

Students will work in pairs. Each student will write interim reports by the end of weeks 1 and 2 and a final report by the end of week 4.

ACTIVITIES

The project introduces you to each of these processes in turn and allows you to make a number of inter-related design decisions. New concepts are introduced as the project progresses, rather than by trying to introduce too much theoretical material at the beginning.

At the end of the project all groups will use their final design solutions to compress a small set of images to given file sizes, and the quality of the reconstucted images will be assessed both subjectively and objectively in a competition (complete with a prize!) to select the best design.

Aims

The aims of the course are to:

• To gain understanding of the main processes in an image compression system, and the typical trade-offs in designing such a system:
• An input filtering (or transformation) process, which compacts most of the energy of the image data into a relatively small number of filter output samples;
• A quantisation process, which represents these samples to some desired accuracy;
• ##A lossless entropy coding process, which codes the quantised samples into the minimum number of bits that still allows the samples to be recovered to their quantised accuracy in the decompressor.

Content

This project introduces you to some of the essential design tradeoffs which must be made during the design of image data compression systems. The main purpose of such systems is to compress as far as possible the size of data file required to store an image (typically a real-world scene) while still preserving the quality of the decompressed image at an acceptable level.

The project covers techniques which to some extent reflect the compression inherent in the JPEG, JPEG2000 and JPEG-XR standards. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is the image compression standard from 1992 still commonly used today. JPEG2000 and JPEG-XR are more modern versions which are gradually becoming more widespread. The images above are examples of the same data compressed to the same size but using three different schemes.

FORMAT

Students will work in pairs. Each student will write interim reports by the end of weeks 1 and 2 and a final report by the end of week 4.

ACTIVITIES

The project introduces you to each of these processes in turn and allows you to make a number of inter-related design decisions. New concepts are introduced as the project progresses, rather than by trying to introduce too much theoretical material at the beginning.

At the end of the project all groups will use their final design solutions to compress a small set of images to given file sizes, and the quality of the reconstucted images will be assessed both subjectively and objectively in a competition (complete with a prize!) to select the best design.