ImageJ Controller (EPICS_AD_Controller.java)

author:

Mark Rivers

affiliation:

University of Chicago

This is an ImageJ plugin which can be used to graphically control the following:

  • The readout region of the detector or camera.

  • The size and position of an ROI (NDPluginROI).

  • The size and position of an overlay (NDPluginOverlay).

Normally this plugin will be used together with the EPICS_AD_Viewer plugin described above. However, that is not required. For example, the ImageJ window used with EPICS_AD_Controller could be a window read from a TIFF file that the detector previously wrote.

The detector and plugin chain can include any of the following elements and settings:

  • Camera/detector (MinX, MinY, SizeX, SizeY, BinX, BinY, ReverseX, ReverseY)

  • Transform plugin (NDPluginTransform) (Type, i.e. the transform operation None, Rot90, Mirror, etc.)

  • ROI plugin (NDPluginROI) (MinX, MinY, SizeX, SizeY, BinX, BinY, ReverseX, ReverseY))

  • Overlay plugin (NDPluginOverlay)

  • NDPluginStdArrays plugin (used by EPICS_AD_Viewer to get images)

All of the above components are optional, they do not need to be present. However, the components that are present must be in the above order in the “viewing” plugin chain. In other words the Transform plugin must come before the ROI and Overlay plugins, and the ROI plugin must come before the Overlay plugin. For the Transform and ROI plugins there is a flag that allows selecting whether or not this plugin is included the plugin chain. Note that this flag does not control the plugin chain, rather it must be set to correctly reflect the actual setting of the plugin chain. It is possible to use EPICS_AD_Control to control the ROI without the ROI plugin being in the plugin chain. In fact this is a common use case.

The following is the EPICS_AD_Controller plugin control, located in the ImageJ “Plugins/EPICS_areaDetector/EPICS AD Controller” menu.

../_images/ImageJ_EPICS_AD_Controller.png

ImageJ EPICS_AD_Controller plugin control window

The following are the controls on the EPICS_AD_Controller screen:

  • String input controls for the EPICS PV prefixes for the Camera, Transform plugin, ROI plugin, and Overlay plugin.

  • “Output PVs” combo box control that selects which component will be defined when the Set button is pushed. Choices are “Camera”, “ROI”, and “Overlay”.

  • “Set” control button. Pressing this button calculates the coordinates of the component to be defined and writes the values to the desired PVs.

  • “Reset camera region” control button. Pressing this button resets the MinX and MinY of the camera to 0 and sets SizeX and SizeY to the maximum image size (MaxSizeX, MaxSizeY). Note that it does not modify the camera BinX, BinY, ReverseX, or ReverseY.

  • “Reset ROI” control button. Pressing this button resets the MinX and MinY of the ROI to 0 and sets SizeX and SizeY to the maximum camera image size (MaxSizeX, MaxSizeY). Note that it does not modify the ROI BinX, BinY, ReverseX, or ReverseY.

  • “Transform Plugin In Chain” checkbox. Check this box if the Transform plugin is part of the viewing plugin chain.

  • “ROI Plugin In Chain” checkbox. Check this box if the ROI plugin is part of the viewing plugin chain. Note that EPICS_AD_Controller can define the ROI even if it is not part of the viewing plugin chain, and in fact this is a common use case.

  • Status text box. Errors and informational messages are displayed here.

When using EPICS_AD_Controller to define the camera readout region then the following rule must be followed. If the ROI plugin is in the viewing chain then it must first be set to pass the entire image, i.e. MinX and MinY must be 0, and SizeX and SizeY must be at least as large as the image from the camera. This can be conveniently done by pressing the “Reset ROI” button before defining the ImageJ ROI to select the camera readout region. This is not required if the ROI is not in the viewing plugin chain.

The following is the EPICS_AD_Viewer image display window with an ellipse overlay that was defined using an ImageJ rectangular ROI and EPICS_AD_Controller.

../_images/ImageJ_EPICS_AD_Controller_Overlay.png

ImageJ EPICS_AD_Viewer plugin display window with rectangular Image ROI defining an elliptical overlay NDPluginOverlay

The EPICS_AD_Control plugin must be compiled in the same manner described for EPICS_AD_Viewer above.