NR. 2-2011

Special: Architector Vision Suite

Architector Vision Suite is a program for multispectral image capturing, manipulation and retrieval. Its focus on multispectral camera technology sets it apart from other image analysis software. All of Quest Innovations's cameras are supported, but Architector VS can also be used with image files from other cameras. One mayor problem of multispectral imaging is to find software that supports images with color formats other than greyscale or RGB24. Architector Vision Suite is designed from the start for multispectral imaging and can handle images of any number of channels and of any size.

Architector Vision Suite features an app-based extension model, so that additional functionality can be added by loading an app. Specific problems are often solved quickly in a special-purpose app while retaining all the functionality of the standard application and/or any other extension app. There is no restriction in the number of apps that can be used.

Support for multiple monitors is available natively in Architector Vision Suite: any image display element can be detached from its current location and move to another monitor and/or displayed full screen.

3D visualization

Architector Vision Suite provides multiple tools to visualize all channels of a multispectral image. One method is the side-by-side view. This shows all channels as grayscale images from left to right on the screen. The user is free to select other methods such as an intensity chart, which shows the pixel data of a row and a column or a histogram. Pixel values for each channel are plotted separately in different colors.

A 3d view of a RGB color image: the solid (left) and line grid views (right).

Operator viewer

The Operator Viewer is an example of an app extension that allows users to apply image algorithms to their images. All open images are shown in the image strip at the bottom of the app.

The 3 channels of an RGB channel in a side-by-side layout with channel coloring. Also shown are the Histogram Chart and the Intensity Chart displaying the pixel values on a row and column.

Playback and recording

By default, Architector Vision Suite can visualize four channels at once: 3 channels are mapped to red, green and blue, the fourth channel is the visualized as the intensity of a color overlay. All channel assignments are fully customizable so the user has complete freedom over the visualization of the images.

Using overlay to visualize four multispectral channels: with overlay enabled (left half) and disabled (right half). 

Architector Vision Suite supports the common image formats, such as Windows Bitmaps, JPEG, PNG and TIFF. But for multispectral images a dedicated format (QIFS) is available, which allows storing of image of any pixel type and an arbitrary number of channels. It can supports image sequences of such images.

Besides the default recording mode that saves all images from the camera, there are a few settings that provide more control:

• limiting the number of frames that are saved
• skipping frames 
• setting a timeout between frames