Abstract

Digital image processing is playing an important role in all fields of Science and Technology today. Pictures/picture signals  are digitized with 8-bit to 16-bit digitizers to accommodate vide dynamic range of picture signals.  Pictures are computer processed for image enhancement, geometric and radiometric errors, etc., Registration of temporal images are carried out  for checking the changes in the images with time, of a patient in case of health care, remote sensing images in case of crop monitoring, etc.,   Image processing techniques so far developed for processing satellite images ,images from  space probes are being adopted for healthcare applications.

Imaging techniques are constantly  developed  in medicine using  different modality devices such as MRI, CT, Ultra-sound and PET.  2D images are used to analyze the diseases, while  some of these images are combined to generate 3D volumes of human body for calculating volume of affected areas.

Various hyper spectral imaging techniques, which map wavelength-resolved reflectivity across a two dimensional scene offer considerable promise as a new  clinical tool  for ophthalmology. Due to the delicate nature of the eye, invasive biopsy or mechanical access to the retina are not possible   and   relies strongly upon optical imaging methods for diagnosis of diseases  connected to  Carnia, retina and optic disc. 

Lot of technologies such as image processing, hyper spectral imaging, networking, etc., developed  for   various applications, if adopted with suitable modifications for health care, will benefit millions of people for getting healthcare  at  low cost.
This talk  covers  Satellite Image processing, Remote sensing sensors and use of  image processing for Healthcare.

Speaker Bio

Dr.K.M.M.Rao received his B.E (Honors) and M.E. in Electronics from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani in 1970 & 1972, respectively and his Ph.D in Image Processing from Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Andhra Pradesh (INDIA).

Dr.K.M.M.Rao joined Indian Institute of Science(I.I.Sc), Bangalore in 1973. He was responsible for the design and development of Black and White and Colour Drum Scanner Imager, first time in India, for digitizing and reproducing various types of photographic prints. At Institute of Science, he carried out research in Image Processing, Aerial Remote Sensing and Photo writing.  Since 1976, he worked with National Remote Sensing Center (NRSC),ISRO in various positions. He was designated as Operations Director IRS-1C in 1996 and IRS-1D in 1997. He was Deputy Director (Data Processing Area) at NRSC, till December 2006. Currently, he is Adjunct Professor BITS-Pilani associated with Hyderabad campus.

He has designed and developed number of technologies for Image Processing and Remote Sensing applications. He obtained five patents for his designs.

He has designed and developed software to analyze   planimetric   parameters of optic disk to study glaucoma disease objectively.  He   developed software to montage fundus images to study retinal diseases.He has developed multimodal image registration and fusion techniques for  medical images. He has contributed for improving the quality of radiographic images and to develop computer hardware for digital catheterization laboratory. He works with leading Hospitals in India to validate software and hardware designs.

He has won the National Academy of Science India Award along with a gold medal, citation and cash award, in the field of Instrumentation in 1995,Drum Scanner-Digitizer bagged the Best Invention Award in 1994,Presidential Award for Meritorious Invention of Color Photowrite System on 15th August, 1993. Best Invention Award for Color Photo write System in 1992,Engineer of the Year Award from Institute of Engineers, AP State Centre for 1989,Satellite Image Processing System (SIPS) bagged Best Invention Award in 1989,etc.,

He is Adviser to number of companies in India. He is Fellow of Institute of Electronics & Telecommunications (IETE) India, Fellow of ISNT, Senior Member IEEE (US), Life Member Indian Society of Remote Sensing (ISRS). He was a Member in Board of Studies in number of Universities.

He has more than 120 research publications/reports to his credit. He has supervised over 200 graduate and undergraduate students in their research projects. He is currently supervising few Ph.D and M.S students. Recently Two of his students got Ph.D from JNTU, Hyderabad.
He was Guest editor for  International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation on Indian Remote Sensing Satellite, Resourcesat-1. He has visited number of countries, such as USA, Canada, Netherlands, Singapore, Dubai,  etc. 

His areas of interest include Satellite Data Processing, Image Processing, Medical Imaging, Data Mining and Photo Writing.