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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/M16078/01
Title: A RECONFIGURABLE COMPUTER FOR CELL IMAGE INTERPRETATION
Principal Investigator: Pycock, Mr D
Other Investigators:
Quigley, Dr SF
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Electronic, Electrical and Computer Eng
Organisation: University of Birmingham
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 October 1998 Ends: 31 March 2002 Value (£): 52,122
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Image & Vision Computing
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
The investigators will construct a fast inexpensive cell image interpreter, capable of highlighting cell boundaries and nuclei on a captured image in near frame time. The interpreter will be a reconfigurable computer whose operation will be designed using a new paradigm for programming reconfigurable computers based on the Contract Net method for programming heterogeneous parallel processing machines. As a prototype to the final system, a real time video image enhancer will be produced, which can perform image filtering in real time using the reconfigurable computer. The algorithm to perform the image interpretation will be accelerated by implementing sub-tasks in hardware. At run-time, a management program will choose between hardware or software implementations, by means of a cost function, which for the hardware implementations, is based on the physical size, regularity and speed of the circuit, and the time to send the image data to the hardware. This will enable the complex flow of control to be decided at run-time. The hardware circuits will be constructed using a standard design methodology, and will exploit the recent rapid increases in speed, size and architectures of programmable devices. In particular, the circuits will exploit the partial reconfigurability of modern RAM-based FPGAs.
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Organisation Website: http://www.bham.ac.uk