Research Projects

Digital Rock 

The Digital Rock Workflow leverages cutting-edge imaging technologies and state-of-the-art image processing algorithms to create digital representations of reservoir rocks. These digital models serve as the foundation for conducting physics simulations, enabling the calculation of various petrophysical properties, such as porosity and permeability. 

Typical Digital Rock Workflow

1. Image Super-Resolution (Digital Rock Workflow)

The effectiveness of the entire Digital Rock workflow is intricately tied to the resolution at which images are acquired, a parameter currently constrained by the limitations of micro-CT scanning technology. Moreover, capturing high-resolution, large-field-of-view images for heterogeneous rock samples with a substantial Representative Elementary Volume (REV) can be a complex and time-consuming endeavor. As a result, there is a pronounced emphasis on the development of computational techniques aimed at digitally enhancing the resolution of these rock volumes.  

Role of Super-resolution in Digital Rock Workflow

Related Articles : 

Utkarsh Gupta*,Vishal R. Ahuja*, Shivani R. Rapole*, Nishank Saxena, Ronny Hofmann, Ruarri J. Day-Stirrat, Jaya Prakash and Phaneendra K. Yalavarthy, "Siamese-SR: A Siamese Super-Resolution model for boosting resolution of Digital Rock images for improved petrophysical property estimation," IEEE Transactions on Image Processing 31, 3479-3493 (2022) [* Equal Contribution] [DOI]

2. Image Denoising (Digital Rock Workflow)

The 3D reconstruction quality of the rock model may be compromised by noise present in micro-CT scans, often attributed to limitations in the acquisition process, including time constraints. Hence, an essential preliminary step involves denoising the micro-CT scan data. When analyzing rock images, preserving the dimensions of the narrowest corners and throats in the pore space remains a primary consideration. 

Role of Image Filtering in Digital Rock Workflow

Related Articles : 

Utkarsh Gupta, Vijitha Periyasamy, Ronny Hofmann, Jaya Prakash and Phaneendra K. Yalavarthy, "Two-step morphology-based denoising and non local means smoothing improves micro-CT digital rock images," Wiley Geophysical Prospecting (2023) [DOI]

3. Image Reconstruction (Digital Rock Workflow)

The laboratory configurations for image reconstruction primarily employ cone beam micro-CT systems. Within this cone-beam setup, X-rays pass through the rock samples and are captured using a two-dimensional flat-panel detector or CCD camera, operating in a trans-illumination mode 

micro-CT Setup for Image Acquisition*

* Image Adopted from :  V. Cnudde and M. N. Boone, “High-resolution x-ray computed tomography in geosciences: A review of the current technology and applications,” Earth-Science Reviews, vol. 123, pp. 1–17, 2013 

Related Articles (Book Chapters) : 


Course Projects

Scale Correction for Visual Tracking

Visual tracking is one of the most challenging problems in computer vision. Given the object of interest in the first frame, the role of the tracker is to follow the trajectory of the target. However, there are several challenges such as scale variation, illumination changes, blurring effects and occlusion which are yet to be tackled with sufficient degree of realism. In this project we addressed scale variation by learning a scale parameter which resizes the bounding box (bbox) prediction given by tracker.

KCF.avi

                                  Kernelized Correlation Filters (KCF)

KCF+Approach2.avi

                 Kernelized Correlation Filters (KCF) with Scale Correction