Abstract
The quantitative characterization of defects in images is commonly performed using the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). However, there is a strong debate about this measure. First, because there is no single accepted definition of SNR. Second, because the SNR measurements are highly affected by the regions used to estimate the power of the signal and noise in the image. This work provides an overview of some of the most commonly used SNR measures. Images with different sources of noise, and defects with different contrasts, are used to evaluate and compare the ability of these measures to quantitatively characterize defects. The measures are also evaluated when the images are transformed using common image processing operations, including filtering and gamma correction. This work also proposes a methodology to define the regions used to estimate the power of the signal and noise in the images. Two alternative procedures are proposed weather prior information is available about the inspected specimen or not. The proposed methodology is applied on real data from infrared testing, where the considered SNR measures are evaluated.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hellier, C.: Handbook of Nondestructive Evaluation. McGraw-Hill, New York (2001)
Haykin, S.: Communication Systems, 4th edn. Wiley, New York (2001)
van Walree, P.: On the definition of receiver output snr and the probability of bit error. In: OCEANS-Bergen, 2013 MTS/IEEE, pp. 1–9. IEEE (2013)
ASTM E2007: Standard Guide for Computed Radiography (2010)
ASTM E2737: Standard Practice for Digital Detector Array Performance Evaluation and Long-Term Stability (2010)
Smith, S.W., et al.: The Scientist and Engineer’s Guide to Digital Signal Processing. California Technical Pub, San Diego (1997)
Ibarra-Castanedo, C., Piau, J.M., Guilbert, S., Avdelidis, N.P., Genest, M., Bendada, A., Maldague, X.P.: Comparative study of active thermography techniques for the nondestructive evaluation of honeycomb structures. Res. Nondestruct. Eval. 20(1), 1–31 (2009)
den Dekker, A.J., Poot, D.H., Bos, R., Sijbers, J.: Likelihood-based hypothesis tests for brain activation detection from mri data disturbed by colored noise: a simulation study. IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging 28(2), 287–296 (2009)
Florez-Ospina, J.F., Benitez-Restrepo, H.: Toward automatic evaluation of defect detectability in infrared images of composites and honeycomb structures. Infrared Phys. Technol. 71, 99–112 (2015)
Tang, Q., Bu, C., Liu, Y., Qi, L., Yu, Z.: A new signal processing algorithm of pulsed infrared thermography. Infrared Phys. Technol. 68, 173–178 (2015)
Vincent, T., Risser, L., Ciuciu, P.: Spatially adaptive mixture modeling for analysis of fmri time series. IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging 29(4), 1059–1074 (2010)
Usamentiaga, R., Venegas, P., Guerediaga, J., Vega, L., López, I.: A quantitative comparison of stimulation and post-processing thermographic inspection methods applied to aeronautical carbon fibre reinforced polymer. Quant. InfraRed Thermogr. J. 10(1), 55–73 (2013)
Madruga, F.J., Ibarra-Castanedo, C., Conde, O.M., López-Higuera, J.M., Maldague, X.: Infrared thermography processing based on higher-order statistics. NDT & E Int. 43(8), 661–666 (2010)
Balageas, D.L.: Defense and illustration of time-resolved thermography for nde. In: Thermosense XXXIII, pp. 22–33. SPIE (2011)
Shepard, S., Rubadeux, B., Ahmed, T.: Automated thermographic defect recognition and measurement. In: AIP Conference Proceedings, vol. 497, pp. 373–378. AIP (1999)
Hidalgo-Gato García, R., Andrés Álvarez, J.R., López Higuera, J.M., Madruga Saavedra, F.J., et al.: Quantification by signal to noise ratio of active infrared thermography data processing techniques. Opt. Photonics J. (2013)
Usamentiaga, R., Venegas, P., Guerediaga, J., Vega, L., Molleda, J., Bulnes, F.G.: Infrared thermography for temperature measurement and non-destructive testing. Sensors 14(7), 12305–12348 (2014)
Susa, M., Maldague, X., Boras, I.: Improved method for absolute thermal contrast evaluation using source distribution image (sdi). Infrared Phys. Technol. 53(3), 197–203 (2010)
Welvaert, M., Rosseel, Y.: On the definition of signal-to-noise ratio and contrast-to-noise ratio for fmri data. PloS ONE 8(11), e77,089 (2013)
EN 13068-1: Non-destructive testing—radioscopic testing—Part 1: Quantitative measurement of imaging properties (1999)
IEEE Std 181-2011 (Revision of IEEE Std 181-2003): IEEE Standard for Transitions, Pulses, and Related Waveforms (2011)
Song, X., Pogue, B.W., Jiang, S., Doyley, M.M., Dehghani, H., Tosteson, T.D., Paulsen, K.D.: Automated region detection based on the contrast-to-noise ratio in near-infrared tomography. Appl. Opt. 43(5), 1053–1062 (2004)
Jiang, H., Lu, N., Yao, L.: A high-fidelity haze removal method based on hot for visible remote sensing images. Remote Sens. 8(10), 844 (2016)
Rajic, N.: Principal component thermography for flaw contrast enhancement and flaw depth characterisation in composite structures. Compos. Struct. 58(4), 521–528 (2002)
Shepard, S.M., Lhota, J.R., Rubadeux, B.A., Wang, D., Ahmed, T.: Reconstruction and enhancement of active thermographic image sequences. Opt. Eng. 42(5), 1337–1342 (2003)
Balageas, D.L.: Defense and illustration of time-resolved pulsed thermography for nde. Quant. InfraRed Thermogr. J. 9(1), 3–32 (2012)
Maldague, X.P.: Nondestructive testing handbook. 3. Infrared and thermal testing. American Society for Nondestructive Testing (2001)
Huang, S.C., Cheng, F.C., Chiu, Y.S.: Efficient contrast enhancement using adaptive gamma correction with weighting distribution. IEEE Trans. Image Process. 22(3), 1032–1041 (2013)
Usamentiaga, R., Garcia, D., Ibarra-Castanedo, C., Maldague, X.: Highly accurate geometric calibration for infrared cameras using inexpensive calibration targets. Measurement 112, 105–116 (2017)
Usamentiaga, R., Garcia, D., Ibarra-Castanedo, C., Maldague, X.: Metric measurements on a plane with an infrared camera. In: AITA Conference Proceedings, vol. 1, pp. 1–4. AITA (2017)
Usamentiaga, R.: Easy rectification for infrared images. Infrared Phys. Technol. 76, 328–337 (2016)
Harris, C., Stephens, M.: A combined corner and edge detector. In: Alvey Vision Conference, vol. 50, pp. 10–5244. Manchester, UK (1988)
Usamentiaga, R., Garcia, D.F.: Enhanced temperature monitoring system for sinter in a rotatory cooler. IEEE Trans. Industry Appl. 53(2), 1589–1597 (2017)
Dougherty, E.R., Lotufo, R.A.: Hands-on Morphological Image Processing, vol. 59. SPIE Press (2003)
Usamentiaga, R., Venegas, P., Guerediaga, J., Vega, L., López, I.: Automatic detection of impact damage in carbon fiber composites using active thermography. Infrared Phys. Technol. 58, 36–46 (2013)
Sethian, J.A., et al.: Level set methods and fast marching methods. J. Comput. Inf. Technol. 11(1), 1–2 (2003)
Acknowledgements
This research work has been partially funded by the Spanish National Program for Mobility of Professors and Researchers at an International Level, Reference PRX17/00031.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Usamentiaga, R., Ibarra-Castanedo, C. & Maldague, X. More than Fifty Shades of Grey: Quantitative Characterization of Defects and Interpretation Using SNR and CNR. J Nondestruct Eval 37, 25 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10921-018-0479-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10921-018-0479-z