Radiation Measurements, Vol. 25, Nos 1--4, pp. 769-770, 1995
Pergamon
Copyright © 1995 Elsevier Science Lid Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 1350-4487/95 $9.50 + .00 1350-4487(95)00247-2
AN A U T O M A T I C I M A G E ANALYSIS S Y S T E M FOR DIELECTRIC TRACK DETECTORS
V. A. PONOMARENKO,* V. I. MATVIENKO,* G. G. GABDULLIN* and J. MOLNARt *Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, 141980 Dnbna, Moscow Region, Russia; and iInstitute of Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-4001 Debrecen, Hungary
AIISTRACT The automatic image analysis system for scanning Solid State Nuclear Track Detectors is designed. Control of the entire system as well as data analysis is accomplished with the IBM PC AT/386 computer equipped with FrameGrabber.
KEYWORDS Solid State Nuclear Track Detector; measurement of track parameters.
DESCRIFIION OF TIlE AUTOMATIC SYSTEM The automatic evaluation of solid state nuclear detectors basically means the solution of the following tasks: counting of tracks, measurement of track features (x-y coordinates, ~ack axes, area), record and evaluation of measured track date. Our system is desisned for solving this tasks. It consists of two main parts: 1. Optical-mechanical part - microdensitometer MD-IO0 with step motors and TVvidicon camera. 2. Image analyzer, including computer IBM PC AT/386 equipped with FrameGrabber X7 and control block for the step motors driving. FrameGrabber X7 provides eonvertion of the optical image to digital form and image high speed input from TV-vidicon camera into computer's memory. There are two modes of image input: FAST1 - resolution 320 x 283 pixeh each with 64 grey levels, input lime - 20 ms;
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resolution 640 x 566 pixels each with 64 grey levels, input time - 80 ms. The user can set the videosignal gain (256 values) and the "olack" level ( 2 5 6 values) by program. FAST2 -
The control programs developed for the system provide the microdensitometer stage motion, the focusing, measuring and counting of the etched nuclear tracks. Before the control program begins, the user inputs, via keybord, the program initial start conditions: optical magnification, required parameters of tracks, and value of detector area to be scanned and measured. According to relised algorithm the counting of circular tracks is based on the track's outlines separation (W.K.Pratt, 1982). This process reminds of the behavior of a beetle going round the obstacle. When the beatle meets a track, he creeps on it and moves along the track border until he returns to the starting point. Thus, the beetle forms the track outline as a broken line. The outline points are used for c,¢nnpufing the fu~m factors, diameters, areas of the tracks.
REFERENCRS PrattW.K. (1982) DigitalImAge Processing.Mir, Moscow.