Introduction

IMPROMPTU, which stands for IMage PROcessing Module for the Prototyping, Testing, and Utilization of image analysis processes, is a software package for multi-dimensional image processing.

With IMPROMPTU, a user can construct an arbitrary sequence of operations to run automatically on an input volume. This sequence, referred to as a process, can be made up of operations selected from any of several categories. Each category, which represents one general type of image-processing operation, contains a number of functions.

IMPROMPTU can run in window mode or batch mode. Window mode allows a user to interact with IMPROMPTU via popdown menus. In batch mode, IMPROMPTU is run using UNIX shell-commands. Later sections will give greater detail on these modes. Below is a list of the main attributes of IMPROMPTU:

1. The input is a volume of 8-bit voxel. The input can be one slice (i.e., a 2-D image) if you wish. This input can be read in with IMPROMPTU from disk.
2. The output of processing is written into the memory space occupied by the input volume (provided the user specifies this). It can also be written into a specified 8-bit output volume-database file. It can also interact with VIDA's shared memory.
3. Measurements of various volume parameters can be generated. As examples, gray-level histograms and a volume's global gray-scale standard deviation can be generated. Such outputs are made by creating new files or by printing messages in IMPROMPTU's main menu.
4. Any arbitrary process, within the confines of functions available, can be set up. A process can be saved and used repeatedly. Processing can be done 1-D, 2-D, or 3-D (depending on the function). Also, text files, containing the parameter values of operations in a process can be generated.
5. UNIX script files, which can be run in batch mode and contain shell commands for IMPROMPTU runs on different input volumes and different processes, can be set up.
6. The user can select a prespecified portion of a volume to process.
7. The programmer can add new functions and categories of functions to IMPROMPTU.

Subsequent sections of this report describe the operation of IMPROMPTU, the functions within IMPROMPTU, and the software structure of IMPROMPTU.

Updated: Fri May 19 14:39:07 CDT