Image Acquisitionand Proces

184 Image Acquisition Processing with LabVIEW
(The image acquisition VI is conÞgured to automatically save the acquired images
into the Mathematica “Images” folder.)
Once the image has been acquired, it is loaded into Mathematica for interactive
experimentation, as shown below. While this initially may look like a lot of typing
to do, it is important to note that this notebook can be saved in it entirety. All of
FIGURE 7.27 Mathematica notebook.
the processing steps can be duplicated exactly simply by specifying a new Þle name
and executing the notebook. As the notebook compiles a record of the entire session
as you proceed, you can easily trace the path leading to the desired result. Furthermore,
you can accurately evaluate and compare today’s results with results from
days, weeks, or even months past. All of the pertinent information is in the notebook,
thus eliminating the need to keep accurate notes elsewhere — and much of the
guesswork if others need to recreate your experiments (Figure 7.28).
It should be noted that the processing steps revealed in the Þgure take advantage
of the Mathematica Digital Image Processing toolkit. However, because this toolkit
is built entirely using native Mathematica functions, advanced users have the option
of developing their own sophisticated image processing tools to meet very speciÞc
requirements, or to avoid incurring the extra expense of the toolkit.
7.4.2 TAKING THE NEXT STEP
If you are involved in research, the interactive experimentation phase outlined above
may provide all the results you are seeking. In other situations, this initial phase
will provide useful information if you are planning to process several images in a
similar fashion. Perhaps you ultimately want to develop a stand-alone image processing
solution to automate the process for less sophisticated end users. At this
point, you can turn to the IMAQ tools and develop a standard LabVIEW-based
solution, or you can develop a hybrid Mathematica Link for LabVIEW application.