Previous studies by VTG
We use a foundation cream to make ourself up. The distribution information that shows the amount of applied foundation creams is important for the beauty of a result when we apply foundation creams. However, there has never established the technique of image instrumentation of distribution of applied foundation creams. We collaborated with Kanebo Ltd. and developed the non-destructive, quantitative and new measuring technique that enable to measure the distribution of foundation creams. The above image shows “the quantitative measuring system for spatial distribution of foundation cream”. The designed optical filter emphasizes the difference of spectral characteristics between skin and foundation cream, is able to visualize a spatial distribution of applied foundation cream as an image. In the future, it is expected to apply this system for counseling, development of new cosmetic technique and development of pharmaceutical preparation.
[Collaborator]
- Kanebo cosmetics Ltd.
[Related Links]
- Ken Nishino， Mutsuko Nakamura，Masayuki Matsumoto，Osamu Tanno，and Shigeki Nakauchi，Optical filter for highlighting spectral features Part I: design and development of the filter for discrimination of human skin with and without an application of cosmetic foundation. Optics Express Vol. 19，Iss. 7，pp. 6020-6030 (2011) [External Link]
- Ken Nishino ，Mutsuko Nakamura，Masayuki Matsumoto，Osamu Tanno，and Shigeki Nakauchi，Optical filter highlighting spectral features Part II: quantitative measurements of cosmetic foundation and assessment of their spatial distributions under realistic facial conditions. Optics Express Vol. 19，Iss. 7，pp. 6031-6041 (2011) [External Link]
For more details look through this document [PDF file].
In the infrared light which can’t be seen with human’s eyes, loads of information is kept hidden. With expectation of useful information, we proceed several researches to extract potential information from the infrared light and our research on “Allergic Dermatitis Inspection Using Infrared Spectrum Imaging” is one example. Allergic dermatitis can be classified into several categories and even with dermatologist’s experience, diagnosis from skin swelling alone is still difficult. From our research result, we found that classification of urticaria(left, Type I) and contact dermatitis(right, Type IV) is possible with employment of infrared light spectrum imaging technique.
[Collaborator]
- Hamamatsu University School of Medicine [External Link]
Taste and quality of food are closely involved with its components. Not only the tastes like saltiness and sweetness, organoleptic feel also highly depends on amount and type of components in the food. Usual food component analysis using chemical methods is required knowledge and skill. Furthermore, the usual method consumes too much time for getting results and the food sample won’t be consumable anymore. In our study, we aim to develop a faster and nondestructive method using spectroscopic analysis. Here, we focus on light absorption characteristic of each component and use it to visualize the component in the food in order to evaluate its quality. The movie above shows the visualized fat content that is the most important in beef quality and oleic acid contained in especially soft, high quality meat using several optical filters images which are specially designed in their transmission property. The sample that contains lots of oleic acid is soft and presented in red, the sample that contains less oleic acid is presented in blue.
[industry-academia-government collaboration research]
- Hamamatsu Optronics Cluster
[Collaborator]
- Mie Prefecture Fisheries Research Institute [External Link]
- Sumitomo Electric Industries [External Link]
[Related Links]
- Ken-ichi Kobayashi， Yasunori Matsui，Yosuke Maebuchi，Toshihiro Toyota and Shigeki Nakauchi，“Near infrared spectroscopy and hyperspectral imaging for prediction and visualisation of fat and fatty acid content in intact raw beef cuts”，Journal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy，Volume 18，Issue 5，2010. [External Link]
- Ken-ichi Kobayashi, Masaaki Mori, Ken Nishino, Toshihiro Toyota and Shigeki Nakauchi，“Visualisation of fat and fatty acid distribution in beef using a set of filters based on near infrared spectroscopy”，Journal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy，Volume 20，Issue 5，2012. [External Link]
For more details look through this document [PDF file].
For example, if a plosive sound is presented twice at the same timing as a white light flashes once in a short period of time, it will be mistakenly perceived as flashing twice.
Such an illusion is called SIFI, and it is also one of the cross-modal phenomena in which visual and auditory information interact to change perception.
SIFI also has a feature called Postdiction, in which auditory stimuli affects the events that occurred before.
In this laboratory, we investigated the effect of Postdiction when using flashes with color information such as red and green, and perceived changes in SIFI.
In the human civilization, gemstones have been found to be highly valuable due to their rarity and beauty.
Among them, pearls are a special kind of gem that possesses a unique luster and color which is cultured inside shells.
Where does such beauty come from and what influences it?
Is illumination the major factor of such beauty.
In my research, I am conducting research to improve the appeal of pearls by adjusting the spectral distribution of the light source that illuminates them.
Shine Muscat is a yellow-green colored grape, has characteristics with low dehiscent rate and high sugar content. In recent years the number of cultivation has increased sharply, attracting worldwide attention. Although a color chart has been prepared for harvesting period judgment, there are problems that do not fit depending on cultivation method and harvest time. Therefore, in this research, we aimed to create a color chart suitable for each cultivation condition. After analyzing the relationship between sugar content and pericarp color in samples with three different cultivation conditions and checking the correlation, we can quantitatively show that color charts can be estimated with high precision by prototyping with two methods.
Various substances, such as food, animals and plants have the fluorescence. And it is known that the fluorescence characteristic is peculiar to substances. Therefore, distinction of substances and determine the quantity of them can be performed by observing the fluorescence. Excitation Emission Matrix(EEM) has two-dimensional matrices obtained by acquiring the spectrum information while changing the light irradiation (left figure). We estimated the viable bacteria counts on the surface of pork meat using the fluorescence information and we succeeded in visualization of the information (viable bacteria counts) which cannot be seen by people’s eyes (right figure).
[External Link]
It is well known that washing hands is an important process in order to prevent food poisoning transfer and infection. More than 20,000 people become food poisoned every year, and about 73% of deaths from food poisoning were basically caused by bacteria. In food processing plants and medical institutions, health supervision is crucially important by following very restricted guidance and regulations. However, food poisoning has not decreased in some circumstances despite applying these regulations. Although it is believed that identifying the cause is completely difficult, the aim of this study was to develop a robust method for visualizing contaminated distribution on human hands to evaluate their cleanliness from dirt and microorganisms using fluorescence imaging technique.
Illuminations using light emitting diode (LED) can change its lighting spectrum easily because of variety of LED’s emission spectrum within narrow band. A method for optimization of lighting spectrum has been designed. In general, there exist several problems, such as the need for spectrum imaging system to measure a
reflectance of targets, the differences between the simulation and real LEDs and the need for the time consuming process to design illuminations of LEDs. But, we developed a accurate and effective system for designing spectrum of functional illuminations automatically. As for the demonstration of the proposed system, two illuminant spectra with LED combination were designed (For changing the color and simulating color-difference). It takes less than 60 seconds to design the illuminant spectra.
In daily life, We might have experienced encountering the fact that we have to strain our eyes to distinguish slight color differences. In this laboratory, we have designed filters specialized for distinguishing color differences and conducted research as a practical tool for glasses, mirrors, and cameras. The image above is a lens / mirror actually designed that emphasizes makeup unevenness, and an image taken of a skin with a digital camera through the lens. When using the filter, you can see that the cross-shaped makeup-free part at the center of the skin is emphasized.
[Collaborator]
- Kanebo cosmetics Ltd. [External Link]
In our laboratory, we have doing research on discriminating state of substances by spectroscopic image measurement in the near infrared region. The figure above is an example of discriminating between ice and water on asphalt, focusing on the spectral differences of ice and water. We highly succeeded even on asphalt with little reflected light.
[Industry-Academia-Government Collaborative Research]
- Hamamatsu Optronics Cluster
[Collaborator]
- Hamamatsu Optronics Cluster “Near-Infrared Spectroscopic Image Measurement and Application Development”
- Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. [External Link]
Have you ever experienced clipped whites or crushed shadows when taking pictures with a digital camera? This phenomenon occurs because the dynamic range of the camera (width of reproducible brightness) is insufficient. In our laboratory we have done researching a method to reproduce the high dynamic range scene that can not be taken with a normal camera, and is close to what we normally see by simulating the visual function of human beings. In the case of shooting with a commercially available camera (left), the shaded area may be crushed or the camera’s AE (Auto Exposure) function may cause unnaturalness in the movie, but in our method (right) natural scene is reproduced.
[Industry-Academia-Government Collaborative Research]
- Hamamatsu Optronics Cluster
[共同研究]
- Hamamatsu Optronics Cluster “High Dynamic Range Image Visualization Algorithm”
- Yamaha Corporation [External Link]
- Kawahito & Kagawa & Yasutomi Lab., Shizuoka University [External Link]
Conventional dichromat (two color sense) simulation tool cannot accurately simulate narrow band light sources such as LEDs which are frequently used for signals and guide boards. In this laboratory, we proposed a simulation method considering such a problem. In the above example, the result of shooting and simulating blue and pink LEDs is shown. These two colors are difficult to distinguish for dichromat (type 1), but in the conventional method it was simulated to two distinctly different colors which was easy to distinguish. In the proposed method, the same color spreads uniformly and difficultly distinguishable color is reproduced.
Change from before face washing. Blue region shows where moisturizing ability is increased, red shows decreased
n the device which measures the moisture retention of the skin currently on the market,
1. Contact type: The state of the skin changes every single measurement, and chronological change can not be measured accurately
2. Point measurement: It is difficult to measure the distribution of moisturizing ability
has these problems. In our laboratory, we successfully measured the distribution of skin moisturizing ability and chronological change by spectral image measurement in the near-infrared region. Rising moisturizing ability immediately after facial cleansing means that the moisture content of the stratum corneum has increased, the subsequent decrease is caused by dry skin where the sebum is removed, and recovery after 30 minutes is due to sebum and the stratum corneum moisture content recovery.
[Collaborator]
- Kanebo cosmetics Ltd. [External Link]
Distinctive color schemes for us may be difficult to distinguish for color blind people. In this laboratory, we enabled to create semi-automatically color scheme such a color universal design by simulating the colors perceived by color blind people. We also give advice on the color scheme of hazard maps to Toyohashi City.
[Collaborator]
- TOYO INK CO., LTD. Universal Design Assistance Tool
- Toyohashi City Hall Hazard Maps of Toyohashi City
- Hamamatsu City Hall University Design Room, Planning Division [External Link]
There are various risks due to microorganisms. In recent years, interest in “food safety” is increasing more and more, especially in the field of food handling, rapid detection of adverse microorganisms is desired.
In this laboratory, we conducted research on a new rapid detection method using spectroscopic imaging technology targeting bacteria belonging to the genus Alicyclobacillus, which cause a beverage’s defeat. In conventional method, this fungus was dependent on visual observation, therefore it took several weeks for culturing, and highly expensive equipment such as fluorescence microscope and specialized knowledge were indispensable for quick examination.
With the newly developed method, we developed the system which is almost automatic, quick and inexpensive detection by combination of chemical processing, acquisition of spectral image using LED light source, incorporation of incubator (incubator), image processing, etc. In addition to application to various fungi by changing the each characteristics, application to research field is being considered.
[共同研究]
- SCIENCE CREATE CO., LTD. [External Link]
- Toyohashi City Hall Hazard Maps of Toyohashi City
- FIT corporation. [External Link]
- MORITA OPTICS CO., LTD. [External Link]
- Hiraishi Lab. Toyohashi University of Technology [External Link]
Ozone, the main component of photochemical smog, which has recently increased again, causes “visible damage” to the leaves of plants, therefore it decreases the value of agricultural crops, resulting in a declining economic loss. In order to solve this problem, this laboratory visualizes the influence of ozone on plants by using spectroscopic image measurement technology, so that at the visible damage site of plants, it was revealed that the reflection characteristics of the wavelength band (780 to 800 [nm]) which can not be seen by human eyes greatly changes previous to the wavelength band visible to human eyes (670 to 690 [nm]).
As a visualization example of food quality information, we have visualized the sugar content distribution of melon. In this study, it was also shown that the square melon cultivated by Atsumi Agricultural High School is as sweet as the round melon.
[Collaborator]
- SCIENCE CREATE CO., LTD. [External Link]
- MEXT; Ministry of Education、Culture、Sports、Science and Technology｜Promotion of regional R&D policy｜Urban Area Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration Promotion Project (Toyohashi Area Developed Type”)
Have you ever felt that the scenery we saw was different from the picture taken? For example, are there clipped whites or crushed shadows, narrow landscape, or coarse image? This is due to the difference between our sight and camera. Humans do not perceive the light entering the eye as they are, but perceive the outside world by appropriately acquiring and integrating scenes with a wide field of view while adapting their eyes. By mimicking these human visual functions, with integrating multiple photographed images, we have created an image with wide field of view and wide dynamic range that has never existed before, and an efficiently high detailed image based on the characteristics of the scene. In this way, we conducted research on WYSWYG (What You See is What You Get) technology that reproduces images that we perceive using existing cameras.
We can get various impressions such as charm, age, health condition from the face. In particular, “skin texture” is considered to contribute greatly to such impression judgment, and attempts have been made to clarify the relationship through the physical structure of the skin and optical measurement. However, since people estimate the texture of the skin from the features in the image, it is difficult to understand the essence of the physical measurement alone. Therefore, we aim to clarify the relationship between image feature quantity and skin texture / impression from the aspect of visual science research, and to apply such knowledge to skin texture and impression evaluation technology.