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Subsections

Introduction

The VisionX system provides computer tools and programs for the analysis and visualization of image data. It is suitable for a wide range of image analysis applications and is designed to address the processing needs of multidimensional image sets that arise both from temporal image sequences and from image modalities that involve 3D data collection.

VisionX has been used in a wide range of research applications including: multispectral image analysis, 3D object recognition, multiframe image analysis, target tracking, neural networks, biological cell analysis and 3D biomedical image analysis.

Important features of the VisionX system include: the ability to handle multidimensional image sets, the wide range of available processing functions and a flexible tagged data format that facilities the automatic recording of the history of the file. VisionX performs image analysis and related visualization functions; as such it has capabilities for processing video image sequences and rendering animations. However, it does not attempt to duplicate or replace other types of image processing applications such as video editors or computer graphics animation that are well supported by other mature systems.

The VisionX system has benefited from over 20 years of development. The original system was developed in the UNIX environment and exhibits the standard features of a UNIX package. A VisionX interactive data manager (VXM) has been developed to provide a more familiar environment for Windows users. However, these primary environments are interchangeable. VXM may be used on UNIX platforms and the UNIX like environment may be used on Windows DOS command terminals and with the more UNIXlike packages that are available for Windows.

VisionX and Windows

VisionX V4.0 is available for Windows 95 and Windows NT platforms. Program development is done with Microsoft Visual C++ version 5.0. The older VisionX V3 commands discussed below are currently not available for Microsoft Windows. VisionX takes advantage of a number of free software packages for utility operations: gnuplot for graph plotting, and a www browser for documentation. The tcl/tk8.0 package is used for several visual interfaces and command scripts.

VisionX and UNIX

VisionX was originally developed on UNIX and has been compiled on many different UNIX platforms. Command documentation is available in the UNIX man style format. A number of commands in the old VisionX V3 system have not yet been ported to V4. These commands are available for UNIX systems but they use the old v3 file format; in general, these commands can be used with V4 files but not all the V4 file facilities, such as automatic history logging, are supported.

VisionX takes advantage of a number of free software packages for utility operations: gnuplot for graph plotting, a www browser for documentation, and the pbmplus or netpbm package for image format conversion. The tcl/tk8.0 package is used for several visual interfaces. In general program development may be done using either the local C compiler or with the gnu C compiler.


next up previous
Next: The VisionX Data Manager Up: VisionX V4 Users Guide Previous: VisionX V4 Users Guide
A. P. Reeves, © Copyright 1999
3/20/2000