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The EPC Image Processing Utility (IPU) is a Windows
95/98/NT image processing utility designed and developed by Chesapeake
Technology, Inc. for EPC Laboratories, Inc. The IPU application
allows EPC thermal recorder users to load, manipulate and print
almost any standard graphics imagery file to the EPC A/D Dongle,
EPC GSP-1086, EPC 9205 and the EPC 98xx thermal graphic recorders.
The IPU also imports several industry standard sonar and seismic
data formats for instant view and playback on the EPC printers listed
above.
The IPU contains a complete set of image processing
functions that will allow customization and enhancements to loaded
image files. Following is a brief description of the image processing
functions supported by IPU.
| Function |
Description |
| Flip |
Flips
image top to bottom |
| Reverse |
Flips
image left to right |
| Rotate |
Rotates
image 90, 180, 270 degrees or user specified angle |
| Shear |
Shears
the image by user specified angle. (Moves the corners of a bitmap
in the fashion of a parallelogram) |
| Resize |
Resizes
the image to user defined size with option for preserving the
aspect ratio of the image. |
| Resample |
Resizes
the image, using interpolation and averaging to produce a higher-quality
image than is achieved resizing function above. |
| Effects |
Posterize,
Mosaic, Average, Median, Sharpen, Noise, Emboss and Underlay. |
| Gradiant
Filter |
Detects
edges using a gradient directional filter. All pixels not on
the detected edges are changed to black. Choose the appropriate
value for the direction of the effect. |
| Laplacian
Filter |
Applies
Laplacian line detection. There are three omnidirectional filters
and three bi-directional filters. All pixels not on the detected
lines are changed to black. |
| Sobel
Filter |
Applies
Sobel edge detection. All pixels not on the detected edges are
changed to black. (The usage is the same as Prewitt, but the
algorithm is different.) Choose the appropriate value for horizontal
or vertical detection. |
| Prewitt
Filter |
Applies
Prewitt edge detection. All pixels not on the detected edges
are changed to black. (The usage is the same as Sobel, but the
algorithm is different.) Choose the appropriate value for horizontal
or vertical detection. |
| Shift
and Difference |
Applies
shift-and-difference edge detection. All pixels not on the detected
edges are changed to black. Choose the appropriate value for
diagonal, horizontal, or vertical detection. |
| Line
Segment Filter |
Applies
line segment line detection. You can use this filter to find
line discontinuities in an image. All pixels not on the detected
line segments are changed to black. Choose the appropriate value
for horizontal, vertical, left-to-right diagonal, or right-to-left
diagonal detection. |
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The EPC Image Processing Utility (IPU) contains
a several image-processing functions that provide artistic effects
to an image.
| Function |
Description |
| Posterize |
Imposes a poster
effect on a bitmap by quantizing the bitmap's colors to a specified
number of color levels per plane. For example, two levels means
two of red, two of green, and two of blue. |
| Mosaic |
Imposes a mosaic
effect on a bitmap by dividing the bitmap into tiles of a specified
size and changing the color of all pixels in each tile to the
average color of pixels within the tile. |
| Oilify |
Applies an oil-painting
effect to the bitmap |
| Emboss |
Applies an emboss
effect to a bitmap, letting you specify the depth and direction
of the effect |
| Noise |
Adds random pixels
to a bitmap, letting you specify the percentage of coverage
and the color plane. |
| Median |
Changes the color
of each pixel in a bitmap to the median color of pixels in its
neighborhood. This is similar to the average function, but it
is used for noise reduction, rather than a blur effect. |
| Sharpen |
Increases or decreases
the sharpness of the image in the specified image. |
| Underlay |
Combines two images
so that one appears to be an underlying texture for the other.
This is most effective when the underlying image is a filtered
one, such as an embossed image |
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The EPC Image Processing Utility (IPU) contains
a complete set of gray scale functions for adjusting the contrast
and color resolution of image files.
| Function |
Description |
| Invert |
Inverts the colors
in the image, making it like a photographic negative. |
| Brightness |
Changes the intensity
(brightness) of the image in an image. |
| Contrast |
Increases or decreases
the contrast of the image in an image. |
| Histogram Equalize |
Linearizes the number
of pixels per gray level in a bitmap. This can be used to bring
out the detail in dark areas of an image. |
| Histogram Contrast |
Increases or decreases
the contrast of the image in a bitmap, using a histogram to
determine the median brightness. |
| Stretch Intensity |
Increases the contrast
in an image by centering, maximizing, and proportioning the
range of intensity values. |
| Gamma Correct |
Adjusts the intensity
of colors in a bitmap by changing the gamma constant that is
used to map the intensity values. |
| Intensity Detect |
Filters the specified
bitmap to detect colors in a specified intensity range. |
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 The
IPU allows users to import the imagery from several industry standard
sonar and seismic data files. The following table lists the file
formats currently supported by the IPU.
The SEG-Y import process is controlled by the
Import Options dialog. Here you can specify the starting and ending
ping number, downsampling factor (1-10), the polarity of the signal
to import and display gain.
| Swap Byte Order |
Some SEG-Y files
are recorded without the prescribed byte ordering. Select this
check box if you know that the file you are importing does not
have the correct byte order. Normally this check box should
be off. |
| Signal Polarity |
The Signal Polarity
buttons let you import the portion of the signal you are interested
in. For example, selecting negative polarity will only import
the portion of the signal with voltages less than zero while
converting positive values to 0. |
| Start Importing
at Ping… |
This ping will be
the first one imported into the imagery file. |
| Stop Importing At
Ping… |
This will be the
last ping imported into the imagery file. |
| Downsample |
The downsample slider
allows you to perform compression and signal enhancement on
files with many samples per ping. The IPU looks at each sample
in the downsampled window and selects the maximum value to assign
to the pixel value. For example, if a file has 64000 samples
per ping and you select a value of 10 for downsampling, pixel
0 will contain the maximum value for samples 1 through 10, pixel
1 will contain the maximum value of pixels 11-20 etc. The total
image size will also be reduced by a factor of 10. |
| Bit Shift |
The bit shift control
allows you to increase the displayed signal of files with low
amplitude signals. Since the 16-bit values must be scaled to
an 8-bit print device the raw signal often appears faint. The
bit shift control applies a multiplier as a power of 2. For
example, a bit shift of 0 leaves the signal intact, a bit shift
of 1 multiplies the signal by 2, a bit shift of 2 multiplies
the signal by 4, a bit shift of 3 multiplies the signal by 8
etc. |
| Image Statistics |
The Image Statistics
displays the resultant image size based on the start/stop parameters
as well as the downsample parameters. |
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| Geophysical Import
Format |
Company |
Status |
Description |
Limitations |
| Standard SEG-Y |
Generic |
Available Now |
This is the standard
SEG-Y format described in "Digital Tape Standards"
ISBN 0-931830-15-X, pp 22-30 entitled Recommended standards
for digital tape formats, K.M. Barry, D.A. Cavers, and C.W.
Kneale |
Only16-bit fixed
integer format |
| DataSonics SEG-Y |
DataSonics |
Available Now |
This is the standard
SEG-Y format customized by DataSonics for use with their sub-bottom
profiling system. No documentation available. Information gathered
from conversation with Dr. Changle Fong of DataSonics and from
trial and error testing with their sample data file. |
Only16-bit fixed
integer format |
| ODEC SEG-Y |
Ocean Data Electronics
Corporation |
Available Now |
This is the standard
SEG-Y format customized by ODEC for use with their sub-bottom
profiling systems. The format extends the standard SEG-Y format
by adding a 320 byte trailer to the end of each trace header
and sample array. |
Only16-bit fixed
integer format |
| Triton-Elics SEG-Y |
Triton-Elics International |
Available Now |
Triton-Elics 16-bit
fixed SEG-Y loads correctly using the generic SEG-Y import functions.
No customization was required. |
Only16-bit fixed
integer format |
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| Sonar Import
Format |
Company |
Status |
Description |
Limitations |
| Q-Mips |
Triton-Elics International |
Available Now |
This is the original
recording format employed by Triton's Q-Mips data acquisition
systems. Documentation available at http://www.tritonelics.com |
None |
| XTF |
Triton-Elics International |
Available Now |
This is the current
recording format employed by Triton-Elics' Isis data acquisition
systems. Documentation available at http://www.tritonelics.com |
Only sonar imagery
imported |
| MST |
Marine Sonics Limited |
Available Soon |
This is the Marine
Sonics Limited Sonar PC format. The format is specified in their
user manual. |
|
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The IPU will allow exporting any imagery it has
loaded to any of the supported image file formats. This means that
you can load an image as one type and save it in a different color
resolution and a different file format. Suppose you imported a 16-bit
sonar image file and wanted to save it in a very compact format.
You might choose the 4, 8 or 16-bit JPG, TIF or BMP format to save
your gray scale imagery.
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Some of the EPC recorders require special setups
to work correctly with the IPU. This section describes the recommended
setup procedure for the EPC recorders and devices that work with
the IPU.
Set the data size to 8-bits. Set the printer width
to 2048.
No special requirements.
There is very little to do in terms of configuring
the 9802 for digital printing. As soon as data is detected on parallel
port the right panel is locked out and all the controls are inactive
except "CONTRAST". The operator should also make sure
That the "CHANNEL" control is not in the "TEST"
position.
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No special requirements.
If the IPU does not support the file format you
are interested in, please contact Chesapeake Technology, Inc.
If you have multiple copies of the IPU running
on at least 2 different Windows 95/98 or NT PCs, you can take advantage
of the remote printing capabilities of the IPU. The IPU will allow
you to print to a remote recorder on the network provided that you
have access to the directory that the remote copy of the IPU is
monitoring. When the IPU prints an image, it first "spools"
this image data to a temporary file in the "SPOOL" directory.
The IPU constantly monitors the "SPOOL" directory and
watches for new files. When the IPU detects a new file in the "SPOOL"
directory, it starts the printing engine for that particular file.
When the Network Print option is used you must locate the "SPOOL"
directory on the remote machine that you want to print from. The
local copy of the IPU will then spool its print file to the "SPOOL"
directory of the remote IPU causing the remote IPU to invoke the
printing engine for your file.
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By default, the IPU installer will place the IPU
application and the spool directory in the following path:
 C:\Program
Files\Chesapeake Technology\EPCImage Processing Utility GEO\Spool
The Network Print dialog will allow you to locate
this directory on any remote machine that has its resources shared.
Once you have located the remote IPU, this location will be stored
for you and remembered the next time you want to print to this remote
location. Note that the copy of the IPU must be running on the remote
computer in order for the remote printing function to work.
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