I have developed "tennis elbow" from lugging this book around the past four weeks, but it is worth the pain, the effort, and the aspirin. It is also worth the (relatively speaking) bargain price. Including appendixes, this book contains 894 pages of text. The entire panorama of the neural sciences is surveyed and examined, and it is comprehensive in its scope, from genomes to social behaviors. The editors explicitly state that the book is designed as "an introductory text for students of biology, behavior, and medicine," but it is hard to imagine any audience, interested in any fragment of neuroscience at any level of sophistication, that would not enjoy this book. The editors have done a masterful job of weaving together the biologic, the behavioral, and the clinical sciences into a single tapestry in which everyone from the molecular biologist to the practicing psychiatrist can find and appreciate his or

Principles of Neural Science

A general framework for multiresolution image fusion: from pixels to regions

We have built an 80-mega pixels (10240 ×8192) mosaic CCD camera, called Suprime-Cam, for the wide-field prime focus of the 8.2m Subaru telescope. Suprime-Cam covers a field of view 34 � ×27 � , a unique facility among the 8-10m class telescopes, with a resolution of 0. �� 202 per pixel. The focal plane consists of ten high-resistivity 2k ×4k CCDs developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory, which are cooled by a large Stirling-cycle cooler. The CCD readout electronics was designed to be scalable, which allows the multiple read-out of tens of CCDs. It takes 50 seconds to readout entire arrays. We designed a filter-exchange mechanism of the jukebox type that can hold up to ten large filters (205 ×170 ×15mm 3 ). The wide-field corrector is basically a three-lens Wynne-type, but has a new type of atmospheric dispersion corrector. The corrector provides a flat focal plane and an un-vignetted field of view of 30 � in diameter. The achieved co-planarity of the focal array mosaic is smaller than 30 µm peak-to-peak, which realizes mostly the seeing limited image over the entire field. The median seeing in the Ic-band, measured over one year and ah alf, is 0. 61. The PSF anisotropy in Suprime-Cam images, estimated by stellar ellipticities, is about 2% under this median seeing condition. At the time of commissioning, Suprime-Cam had the largest survey speed, which is defined as the field of view multiplied by the primary mirror area of the telescope, among those cameras built for

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Subaru Prime Focus Camera — Suprime-Cam

Guest editorial: Image fusion: Advances in the state of the art

Inspired by nanoscience and nanoengineering, numerous nanostructured materials developed by multidisciplinary approaches exhibit excellent photoelectronic properties ranging from ultraviolet to terahertz frequencies. As a new class of building block, nanoscale elements in terms of quantum dots, nanowires, and nanolayers can be used for fabricating photodetectors with high performance. Moreover, in conjunction with traditional photodetectors, they exhibit appealing performance for practical applications including high density of integration, high sensitivity, fast response, and multifunction. Therefore, with the perspective of photodetectors constructed by diverse low-dimensional nanostructured materials, recent advances in nanoscale photodetectors are discussed here; meanwhile, challenges and promising future directions in this research field are proposed.

Nanostructured Photodetectors: From Ultraviolet to Terahertz.

An imaging system is provided for imaging a scene to produce a sequence of image frames of the scene at a frame rate, R, of at least about 25 image frames per second. The system includes an optical input port (14), a charge-coupled imaging device (16a), an analog signal processor (24), and an analog-to-digital processor (A/D) (26). The A/D (26) digitizes the amplified pixel signal to produce a digital image signal formatted as a sequence of image frames each of a plurality of digital pixel values and having a dynamic range of digital pixel values represented by a number of digital bits, B, where B is greater than 8. A digital image processor (28) is provided for processing digital pixel values in the sequence of image frames to produce an output image frame sequence at the frame rate, R, representative of the imaged scene, with a latency of no more than about 1/R and a dynamic range of image frame pixel values represented by a number of digital bits, D, where D is less than B. The output image frame sequence is characterized by noise-limited resolution of at least a minimum number, NM, of line pairs per millimeter, referred to the charge-coupled imaging device pixel array, in an imaged scene as a function of illuminance of the input light impinging the charge-coupled imaging device pixels.

Low-light-level imaging and image processing

Color night vision: opponent processing in the fusion of visible and IR imagery

We introduce an apparatus and methodology to support realtime color imaging for night operations. Registered imagery obtained in the visible through near IR band is combined with thermal IR imagery using principles of biological color vision. The visible imagery is obtained using a Gen III image intensifier tube optically coupled to a conventional CCD, while the thermal IR imagery is obtained using an uncooled thermal imaging array, the two fields of view being matched and imaged through a dichroic beam splitter. Remarkably realistic color renderings of night scenes are obtained, and examples are given in the paper. We also describe a compact integrated version of our system in the form of a color night vision device, in which the intensifier tube is replaced by a high resolution low-light sensitive CCD. Example CCD imagery obtained under starlight conditions is also shown. The system described here has the potential to support safe and efficient night flight, ground, sea and search & rescue operations, as well as night surveillance.

Color night vision: fusion of intensified visible and thermal IR imagery

A CCD imaging system is provided, including a short focal length lens for accepting light from the scene to be imaged and a charge storage medium having a charge storage substrate that is curved in a selected nonplanar focal surface profile and located a selected distance from the lens with the focal surface facing the lens, the focal surface profile and the lens-to-substrate distance selected such that the light accepted by the lens is in focus at the position of the substrate. There is provided a support substrate on which the nonplanar charge storage substrate is supported to maintain the selected surface profile of the charge storage substrate. An array of pixels defined in the charge storage substrate by pixel interconnections is supported on the front side of the substrate, such that exposure of the substrate to light from the scene through the lens produces charge packets in the pixels, with the pixel interconnection providing selective electronic temporal control of transfer of charge packets from one pixel to another in the substrate. The invention provides a technique for suppressing dark current charge packet generation in the substrate pixels. An output circuit converts the charge packets in the pixels to an electrical pixel signal of output pixel values based on the light from the scene. A plurality of pixel values together form an image frame, the output pixel values being produced at a rate corresponding to the image frame rate, R.

Large field of view CCD imaging system

A novel electronic shutter has been integrated into the structure of a back-illuminated frame-transfer charge-coupled device (CCD) to permit short optical exposure times and to reduce the smear that occurs during the transfer of an image from the CCD detection area. The shutter consists of an n/sup +/ shutter drain placed in the vertical channel stop regions and stepped p-type buried layers formed by a high-energy implantation (1.0-1.5 MeV) located between the CCD n-type buried channel the and p substrate. These structures create electric fields that direct the photoelectrons to either the CCD detection region or the n/sup +/ shutter drain. The ratio of photons detected with the shutter open to photons detected with the shutter closed has been measured to be greater than 75000 for wavelengths below 540 nm. The corresponding shutter rise and fall times are less than 55 ns. >

Eugene D. Savoye

Papers

Low-light-level imaging and image processing

Color night vision: opponent processing in the fusion of visible and IR imagery

Color night vision: fusion of intensified visible and thermal IR imagery

Large field of view CCD imaging system

An integrated electronic shutter for back-illuminated charge-coupled devices