Sapera Machine Vision Software: Astrocyte Artificial Intelligence gets smarter

Astrocyte is a code-free AI training tool to quickly deploy AI models for machine vision tasks. It allows users to use their own images of products, samples, and defects to train neural networks to perform applications like anomaly detection, classification, object detection, segmentation, and noise reduction.

With its highly flexible graphical user interface (GUI), Astrocyte allows visualizing and interpreting models for performance and accuracy as well as exporting these models to files that are ready for runtime in Teledyne Dalsa's Sapera and Sherlock vision software platforms.


In this version of Astrocyte (1.30), the following key features have been introduced:
Tiling on Large Images
Tiling is the process by which images can be analysed to obtain detailed insights into small details within large images. Tiling allows applying training and inference on native resolution without having to downscale (as with other AI software) which can cause loss of detail or memory overload. In Astrocyte 1.30 the tiling workflow consists of decomposing an input image into sub-images (tiles), iteratively processing the tiles at native resolution, and recombining the tiles at the output. The tile size is selected either automatically or manually.

In the example above, tiling is used to identify knots on wooden planks. The input image has a resolution of 2800 x 1024 and contains knots with sizes as low as 10 pixels.

 

Increased Performance on Anomaly Detection
Astrocyte 1.30 introduces a new Anomaly Detection algorithm providing better performance on low to medium resolutions compared to the previous version. Use Anomaly Detection directly on images ranging from 256 x 256 to 1024 x 1024. For resolutions above 1024 x 1024 you can combine Anomaly Detection with tiling or decimation. This new algorithm replaces the old “pixel-level” algorithm and is the new default. The old algorithm is preserved for legacy purposes.

Anomaly Detection does not need annotations at training, making it easier to train than object detection and segmentation. Anomaly Detection can locate any defect never seen at training given the training is performed on good samples only.

Below is an example of Anomaly Detection usage. The left-hand third shows a normal image with no defects. In the middle and the right images, are different types of defects (highlighted with pseudo-colour). The challenge in this example is to differentiate the defects from the normal lettering.

YOLOX Object Detection
Astrocyte 1.30 offers YOLOX, an additional object detection algorithm. It is more compact and offers improved performance capabilities than the existing SSD (Single Shot Detector) algorithm. Because of its compactness, YOLOX is widely used in embedded devices.

Processing of Non-Square Images
Astrocyte now uses a flexible mechanism for preparing the input image before training and inference. The image sent to the neural network can have different width and height. This ensures preserving the original aspect ratio (and, therefore, avoid distorting the image with stretching or padding). At training time, you have the option of using either the original, decimated, or tiled input image.

Other General Improvements
• Now supports frame-grabbers allowing Astrocyte to acquire live images from any Teledyne Dalsa device
• New diagnostic report to help troubleshooting training issues at customer sites
• Dynamic discovery of cameras (automatic detection of plug/unplug GigE/USB3 cameras)
• Saving datasets as TAR format to allow altering and merging previously created datasets
• Improvement of training progress display (now displays both epoch numbers and steps)
• Improvement of brush tool for segmentation annotations

Click here to find out more about Astrocyte:

Sapera Processing is the key component to the overall Sapera Vision Software platform. Sapera Processing is an extensive library of image processing, image analysis and AI functions dedicated to application development, integration, and deployment. In version 9.30 of Sapera Processing new functions and improvements are introduced mostly on the AI and 3D tools.

Click here to find out more about Sapera Processing: