Imatest IT/EXE instructions

Setting up IT/EXE

Set up the test system (lights, camera, etc.) and photograph a test chart lighted and framed as it would be in the actual tests.

Save the image in a standard file format. It should have the same pixel count as the actual test images.

Analyze the image using (GUI-based) Imatest Master.

When the settings are correct— when the ROI (region of interest), the calculation details, and the output files and folder locations are what you need for production— press Save settings... (or Settings, Save Settings...) in the Imatest main window. This allows you to save the control information for Imatest IT/EXE in a named INI file, which can be viewed and edited with any standard text editor or with the INI File Editor. Be sure to save it in a convenient, accessible folder. The contents of .ini files are largely self-explanatory. Here is a sample.

[sfr]
nht_save = 2052
nroi = 2
nwid_save = 3076
roi_mult = 1606 931 1735 1149;334 1693 466 1912
aper =
CA = Min
cyclesper = Max
cyclesper_value = 1
gamma = 0.5

The INI file is divided into sections that start with a bracketed name. [sfr], [sfrplus], [q13], [colorcheck], [distortion], [uniformity], [blemish], and [dot] are the sections for the eight programs that comprise IT/EXE. Of the remaining sections, only [api] (described below) affects IT/EXE operation.

INI file: more detail

The settings described below are listed in the Imatest INI Reference.

General settings Press Settings, IT options in the Imatest Master main window to open a dialog box that sets options that only affect IT programs— they do not affect regular Imatest operation. These options are written into the [api] section of imatest.ini. See the [api] section of the INI File reference.

Imatest IT (Industrial Testing) settings

Checking Always save then delete figures makes sure all figures are closed at the end of the run, no matter what the other settings indicate.

Checking Never display progress bars and warning messages disables these graphic displays. These settings affect the contents of the following lines in the INI file.

[api]
nomsg = 1
savedel = 1

These lines can be edited using any text editor or the INI File Editor; the IT Options box is merely a convenience. Certain other options in the [imatest] section may be of interest to IT users.

[imatest]
readexif = 1 (Reads EXIF data from JPEG images when set to 1; readexif = 0 turns off EXIF read.)

Figures The INI control determines which figures are generated and saved. Any figures that aren't needed they should be turned off for speed. Most are set to either Min (figure off) or Max (figure on), but some (noted in the table below), are set to 0 (figure off) or a number >= 1 (figure on, depending on conditions). These parameters can be set using a text editor, but it's usually more convenient to uncheck the appropriate boxes in the Imatest Master input dialog box prior to saving the INI file.

The rightmost column in the above table is the index of array save_file_list, which is included in each module's section ([sfr], [sfrplus], [q13], [colorcheck], [distortion], [uniformity], [blemish], and [dot]). This index indicates which output figures and files to save. It is generated by the Save dialog box (shown on the right for SFR; Note that the order of the indices may differ from the figure.) For example,

[SFR] ...
save_file_list = 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

directs the SFR module to save the MTF plot in cycles/(pixel or distance) and the CSV output file that contains detailed results.

Another important variable that appears in the sections for the five modules is closefigs. If closefigs = 1, figures will be deleted after being saved.

Some specific settings

[SFR]

roi_mult contains the coordinates of the region(s) of interest, four entries per region: Left, Top, Right, Bottom (L T R B, with the number of regions specified by nroi). Units are in pixels from the top-left of the image. Note that this is different from the order displayed on the SFR Edge/MTF figure: L R T B.

DOS Command line call

Imatest IT/EXE programs are initiated by one of two methods.

The first and simplest method is a direct DOS command line call, which has the following form (for 64-bit Windows Vista/7).

C:\Program Files (x86)\Imatest\IT-EXE\sfr.exe param-1 param-2 param-3 param-4 param-5 { param-6 ... }

Available program names (typically located in %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Imatest\IT-EXE) include

sfr.exe, sfrplus,exe, colorcheck.exe, stepchart.exe, distortion.exe, uniformity.exe, blemish.exe, and dotpattern.exe.

The second method is to create and call to a DOS BAT file, which sets the path and calls a DOS command line. Use this method to resolve path conflicts (which may happen in installations that contain different versions of Matlab from the one used to compile Imatest). The call to the BAT file has the form,

pathname\batfilename.bat

where batfilename.bat contains lines of the following form.

path="%ProgramFiles%\Imatest\IT-EXE; %ProgramFiles%\MATLAB\MATLAB Compiler Runtime\v714\runtime\win32; %ProgramFiles%\MATLAB\MATLAB Compiler Runtime\v714"; %path%"

C:\Program Files (x86)\Imatest\IT-EXE\sfr.exe param-1 param-2 param-3 param-4 param-5

The first three parameters (Param-1 - Param-3) are required. The fourth is strongly recommended and the fifth and beyond are optional. Program names and parameters 2-5 should contain full path names to minimize the likelihood of error.

If field names contain blanks, they should be enclosed in quotation marks ("). We recommend always enclosing all fields, including the program call, in quotation marks, except for parameter 1. Example:

"C:\Program Files\imatest\IT-EXE\stepchart.exe" -1 "C:\Imatest_data\IT\Stepchart_DR_Canon_G2.JPG" "C:\Program Files\IT-EXE\imatest" "C:\Imatest_data\IT\stepchart_DR_canon_G2.ini" "C:\Imatest_data\IT\Results"

Calling IT/EXE from Matlab

DOS commands can be called from Matlab by statements of the form,

dos('command')
system('command')
!command
— or—
!command & (opens and displays results in a separate DOS window— convenient if you want one opened)

where command is a dos command string, which can take the form shown in the example above.

If you are running a different version of Matlab from the one used to compile IT/EXE, use the second method described above, a call to a DOS BAT file, to avoid path issues. The following code creates and runs a bat file (sfr_batest.bat).

fbat = fopen('C:\imatest\matlab\sfr_bat\test.bat','wt');

fprintf(fbat,['path="%%ProgramFiles%%\\Imatest\\IT-EXE; ...
%%ProgramFiles%%\\MATLAB\\MATLAB Compiler Runtime\\v714\\runtime\\win32;' ...
'%%ProgramFiles%%\\MATLAB\\MATLAB Compiler Runtime\\v714; %%path%%"n']);

fprintf(fbat,['"C:\\Program Files\\imatest\\IT-EXE\\sfr.exe" -1 "C:\\imatest\\data_SFR\\Canon_17-40_24_f8_C1_1409.jpg" ' ...
'"C:\\Program Files\\imatest" "C:\\Imatest\\matlab\\Results\\Canon1740_ctr.ini"n']);

fclose(fbat);

dos('C:\\imatest\\matlab\\sfr_bat\\test.bat'); % system(...) will also work.

% !C:\\imatest\\matlab\\sfr_bat\\test.bat &

%% and \\ are escape sequences that cause single % and characters to be written. File sfr_bat\test.bat contains the following two lines:

path="%ProgramFiles%\ImatestIT-EXE; %ProgramFiles%MATLAB\MATLAB Compiler Runtime\v714\runtime\win32; %ProgramFiles%\MATLAB\MATLAB Compiler Runtime\v714"; %path%"

"C:\Program Files\imatest\sfr.exe" -1 "C:\imatest\data_SFR\Canon_17-40_24_f8_C1_1409.jpg" "C:\Program Files\imatest" "C:\Imatest\matlab\Results\Canon1740_ctr.ini"

Testing Imatest IT/EXE

Several test files (image files, INI control files, and DOS BAT files) are available for testing and verifying IT/EXE installations. The image files can also be used with Imatest Master. Right-click on the file names in the table below to download the files. We recommend saving them in subfolder IT of the Imatest installation folder: C:\Program Files\ImatestIT (in English language installations) or in the equivalent in other languages (for example, C:\Programme... in German). For testing we recommend setting the first parameter in the DOS call to -4 (keep the DOS window open and display the error log if an error occurs).

Downloadable test images
Module	Image file	INI & BAT files	Description
SFR	64kB SFR_webcam_A_custom_80cm.jpg		Webcam image of high and medium contrast custom charts created by Test Charts and printed on an Epson R2400 printer: these can have larger regions of interest (ROIs) than the ISO 12233 chart below.
	125 kB SFR_webcam_A_ISO_80cm.jpg		Webcam image of ISO 12233 chart. At this distance the available regions of interest are very small.
Colorcheck	77 kBGMB_Q-14_webcam.jpg		Webcam image of the Kodak Q-14 grayscale and GretagMacbeth ColorChecker.
Stepchart	248 kB Stepchart_DR_Canon_G2.JPG	stepchart_DR_canon_G2.inistepchart_DR_canon_G2.bat	Image of the Stouffer T4110 transmission test chart taken with the Canon Powershot G2. Excellent dynamic range measurement.
	(image in Colorcheck, above)GMB_Q-14_webcam.jpg		Webcam image of the Kodak Q-14 grayscale and GretagMacbeth ColorChecker.
	1.68 MB Stepchart_OECF_1159.JPG		12-patch OECF chart (for IT and Imatest Master only ). Available from Applied Image.
	1.72 MB Stepchart_Can_TS90_8_1869.JPG		Image of Kodak Q-14 chart with "black hole" cavity for measuring veiling glare (susceptibility to lens flare)
Distortion	204 kBdistortion_webcam_a.jpg		Webcam image of distortion grid.
Uniformity(LightFalloff)	185 kB uniformity_1600_JPEG80.jpg		Image of nearly uniformly illuminated surface taken with the Canon 10-22mm lens on the EOS-20D, f/4.5, 22mm, ISO 1600.

To use these test files,

• Make any necessary changes to the saved ini and bat files using a text editor. You'll need to update folder names if Imatest is installed in a folder other than C:\Program Files\Imatest or the test files (above) have been saved in a folder other than C:\Program Files\ImatestIT. You only need to edit folder names in the appropriate section of the ini file, which follows the module name enclosed in brackets: [sfr], [sfrplus], [colorcheck], [q13] (for Stepchart), [distortion], [uniformity] (for Light Falloff), [blemish], or [dot].
• Open a DOS window (Start, Run..., cmd; Start, All Programs >, Accessories >, Command Prompt).
• Change to the directory where the files are located. Typically, entercd C:\Program Files\ImatestIT-EXE.
• Run the bat file by entering the file name, omitting the bat-extension. For example,stepchart_DR_canon_G2
• Verify the results by looking in the folder where results are stored, typically subfolder Results of the folder that contains the image, ini, and bat files. If you found errors that aren't obvious and aren't covered in the Troubleshooting page, please contact us.

Error handling

Imatest IT/EXE modules return a value of 0 if they terminate correctly or 1 or larger if they terminate in error.

If an error is detected, a message is

• appended to the error log file, which has the name of the form module.log (sfr.log, colorcheck.log, stepchart.log, distortion.log, uniformity.log, ...), and is is located in %APPDATA%\Imatest.
• written to the CSV and/or XML file that would otherwise contain the results of the run. For the example above,

"C:\Program Files\imatest\stepchart.exe" -1 "C:\Program Files\imatest\IT\Stepchart_DR_Canon_G2.JPG" "C:\Program Files\imatest"

"C:\Program Files\imatest\IT\stepchart_DR_canon_G2.ini" "C:\Program Files\imatest\IT\Results"

If a CSV output file were called for, it would be C:\Program Files\imatest\IT\Results\Stepchart_DR_Canon_G2_summary.csv ;

if an XML output file were called for, it would be C:\Program Files\imatest\IT\Results\Stepchart_DR_Canon_G2.xml .

APPDATA is a DOS environment variable whose value can be found by opening a DOS (CMD) window and typing

set APPDATA (Returns the folder name corresponding to APPDATA)

--or--

dir "%APPDATA%Imatest"

APPDATA is typically

• C:\Users\your name\AppData\Roaming in Windows Vista/7.
• C:\Documents and Settings\your name\Application Data in Windows XP.

To facilitate debugging, the log file will be opened in Notepad if an error is detected and the first parameter of the IT/EXE DOS call is -3 or -4.

Lines in the log file have the format,

[Date Time], file_name, error_message

Example:

[05-May-2007 23:34:08], C:\Imatest\data_distortion\distgrid101.jpg, Inconsistent Vert lines 17 det.; 18 avg. Incomplete line?

We are constantly working to improve the robustness of Imatest algorithms to minimize the occurrences of errors, which are typically caused by poor region (ROI) selections or poor quality images.