myb100@csc.anu.oz (09/04/90)
In <28045@swrinde.nde.swri.edu>, kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu (Kent D. Polk) writes: > U3364521@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au (Lou Cavallo) writes: [sorry - lost one here] >>JP> Well, there are _no_ ccd digitizing/ image-manipulation programs >>JP> for the Amiga readily available. Mount Palomar uses an A2000 and >> + >>JP> ... I had hoped that the programmers interested in image-processing >>JP> on the Amiga would have written a viable program by now. >> > The problem is not one of time, it is one of capability. Technical > Image processing hardware and software do exist for the Mac & the > PC. It doesn't exist for the Amiga. I know. I need it very badly. > > One thing I am looking into is using the X11-based image processing > package from Laurence Livermore which is freely-distributable from what > I understand (not sure though). Anyway, I am trying to get enough > money to run it on a Sun via X11 until I get a chance to try and port > it to someone's 24bit 30FPS Framegrabber/framebuffer running native on > the Amiga. > > This is the only option I have seen for technical image processing > using the Amiga. Any comments? > As they say on TV 'Have I got a product for *you* !' :-) (well, not for *you* Kent, but for some others..:-) Here at Mt Stromlo Observatory several astronomers use Amigas (our own, not officially supported ones (except one)) for image displays and some processing ***as a front-end for mainframes*** (Stress that last bit) The mainframe provides the grunt, the Amiga provides the ellegance :-) One of our PostDocs here (Dr Ken Mighell) wrote a very clever terminal program (called PAWS- Personal Astronomical Workstation) that uses a three screen display VT100/Tek4010/Image-display that runs on the Amiga. This emulator can be programmed from the mainframe, via a library (running on VAX/VMS and Suns Unix at this stage) to display images, plot spectra, etc. You write your own special-purpose program to send images -over the serial line-. PAWS compresses the image and sends it over the line to the Amiga, which decompresses it and displays it. I use it at 9600 baud over a terminal server and it's quite a respectable rate ! (You can even use it over a modem!) All it needs is a spiffy user-interface.....Enter yours truly :-) I've written a program called PAWSDisp which uses the PAWS interface to display images, plot cross-sections, plot histograms, has PostScript output, pan/zoom/scale/flip/invert and a bunch of other neat features. It's written as a subroutine, all you have to do is write a header that reads in your data format into a 2D array, call my subroutine, and awaaay you go ! It uses a 32colour screen (with a choice of 3 different colour tables) for the image display, which is plenty to produce some very nice images :-) ! For the astronomers out there, I have headers for Figaro, Gasp, Iraf and DiskFits. If someone has a header for PBM/FBM images you can use it to look at images as you process them in PBMPlus/FBMplus, etc. Note that this is a mainframe program. The Amiga provides the display, and is in this case a smart terminal. To try to run stuff like this directly on the Amiga or any other small computer would be difficult. Most astronomical images are 16bit (or so) and the smallest ones are (~512)^2 pixels in size. Given enough patience and memory space (or 5bit images), sure, you could it. If you want something snappy...you need speed and lot's o'memory (or VM). I think the 3000 might be quite adequate for this, but.... Also note: PAWSDisp is mainly a display/information program, not a processor of images. However, this would be trivial to add in. The hooks are there to add just about anything you want to it. Anyway: PAWS is shareware from Ken Mighell and is available now. PAWSDisp is just undergoing it's last debugging run (in-house beta-testing! We're using it to reduce data, which is I think the best test of all) and should be ready RSN (say, a fortnight, two at the most). I might put up a demo-version (with a *very* nice galaxy image) for ftp before then. I'd be interested to know who could use something like this - send me mail at the address in my .sig. Let me know how you'd use it and what features you would use, or if you have any questions about PAWS/PAWSDisp. When the program is ready it'll be announced in all the relevant newsgoups. Cheers ! > Kent Polk: Southwest Research Institute (512) 522-2882 > Internet : kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu > UUCP : $ {cs.utexas.edu, gatech!petro, sun!texsun}!swrinde!kent =============================================================================== Markus Buchhorn /// | This space Mt Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories, Canberra /// | PMB Weston Ck. P.O. A.C.T. 2611, Australia \\\/// | intentionally markus@mso.anu.oz.au -or- nssdca::psi%mssso::markus \XX/ | left blank ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Phone donations: AUS-6-249-0280 Flames: alt.dev.null Disclaimer: standard ===============================================================================