St Petersburg, Russia, 12-15 May 2008

Conference report by Dr Graeme Awcock and Mr Dionysios Lefkaditis

University of Brighton, UK

The 2nd International topical meeting was hosted by the St Petersburg State University of ITMO (Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics) at its impressively modern Research Institute of Optoinformatics facility at no. 4, Birzhevaya line, on Vasilevsky Island, just round the corner from St. Petersburg's famous 'rostral columns', etc.

The first day (Monday 12th) opened with the Invited Lecture by John F. Asmus (University of California, USA) entitled "Beneath the Gioconda Veil". This gave us a fascinating insight into John's experiences in transferring technologies developed for the futuristic ORION deep-space probe nuclear propulsion system to the investigation of the Mona Lisa! As well as allowing the painting to be visualised free of its disfiguring craquelure, this work has made many discoveries about the likely subject of the painting, the likely location of the background and the existence of a necklace that was probably painted by Leonardo da Vinci, but lost in early restoration work. John also let us into a secret; - the fact that he had been enabled to travel to St. Petersburg thanks to the replacement on both knee joints in recent operations, and that the joints themselves were made of Russian titanium!

This set the scene perfectly for Session I (7 selected papers) which was concerned with "Optical Sensing in Cultural Heritage Diagnostics and Conservation", that was co-chaired by Luca Pezzati ( INOA-CNR, Italy) and Haida Laing (Nottingham Trent University, UK). The detailed contents of each session can be found in the conference programme, which is published here1. (Note that this document presents the poster session out of sequence, as session VIII, at the end of the programme, whereas it was actually held after session VI on Wednesday afternoon)

Session II (4 selected papers) was concerned with "Multi-spectral and Color Imaging" and was chaired by Fabrice Meriaudeau (Université de Bourgogne, France).

The second day (Tuesday 13th) opened with the Invited Lecture "Computational Optical Sensing with Applications to NDT" from Ryszard J. (Rich) Pryputniewicz (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA). Prof. Pryputniewicz is the founding Director of the NanoEngineering, Science, and Technology (NEST) Program at the Mechanical Engineering Department of WPI. His current research and teaching interests concentrate on theoretical and applied aspects of MEMS, smart sensors and structures and, in particular, nanotechnology, lasers, noninvasive metrology with nanometer accuracy on sub-micron scale, and nondestructive testing (NDT) based on photonic methods. He introduced us to his ACES (Analytical, Computational, and Experimental Solutions) methodologies, which he pioneered to ease the solution procedure, or to attain improvements in the results, by merging the ACES! This talk gave us a truly amazing insight to the world of MEMS (Microelectomechanical systems) as he regaled us with tales of miniature mirrors that pop up on silicon hinges to switch communicating light beams on and off, and motors that rotate at 1,000,000 rpm PROVIDED that their bearings are, literally, in good shape!

Session III (7 selected papers), which followed, was entitled "Optical Sensing by Coherent Light I" and was chaired by our host Prof. Igor Gurov (St. Petersburg State University ITMO, Russian Federation) and Sergio De Nicola (INOA-CNR and European Laboratory for Non-linear spectroscopy, Italy).

The afternoon saw session IV (5 selected papers), entitled "Image Analysis, Transformation and 3d Representation", which was chaired by Graeme Awcock (University of Brighton, UK) and Hiroshi Sako (Hitachi Central Research Laboratory, Japan). It opened with the Invited Lecture "Machine Vision Applications: Recent Developments" from Fabrice Meriaudeau (University of Bourgogne, France). Prof. Meriaudeau is the Deputy Head of the Le2i Laboratory at Le Creusot and has a wealth of experience in applications of machine vision, which he shared with us. He drew our attention to the continuing importance of system design and the vital role of illumination in producing effective solutions. His talk was richly illustrated with examples covering multispectral and IR systems, from digital holography to polarimetric based systems, and from industrial to agricultural systems. A particularly thought provoking case-study involved the use of structured lighting and IR sensing to automatically locate the position and pose of veins in a human arm, with the original application being to allow a wounded soldier to self-administer pain medication on the battlefield in the absence of a medic!

At the end of this day, delegates were treated to an evening bus-tour of the delightful city of St. Petersburg. The tour started at 20:00 but we were still able to take hand-held photographs as late as 22:30, thanks to the approaching 'White Nights' phenomenon that prevails in that area at this time of year. A selection of photographs of St Petersburg taken by Dr. Graeme Awcock during this trip can be found on www.flickr.com

The third day (Wednesday 14th May) opened with the Invited Lecture "Coupling Dynamics in LASERs and Applications to Self-mixing Interferometry" from Prof. Silvano Donati (University of Pavia, Italy). Prof. Donati has held the Chair of the Optoelectronics Group of the Faculty of Engineering since 1980 and works on photodetectors, electro-optical instrumentation and nonlinear dynamic effects in semiconductor lasers. He introduced us to his seminal work on self-mixing interferometry. He showed how specially adapted LASER devices could operate with especially interesting characteristics if their resonant cavity was permitted to receive light coupled back from a remote reflector. He showed how the degree of coupling can dramatically alter the behaviour of the LASER and at relatively low coupling ratios yields the possibility of making a range of very effective distance measurement tools.

These stimulating ideas led us into Session V (7 selected papers), which was the second one concerned with "Optical Sensing by Coherent Light", appropriately demonstrating the volume of work currently being done in this field. This session was chaired by Toyohiko Yatagai (Utsunomiya University, Japan) and Christophe Gorecki (Université de Franche-Comté, France).

After lunch was Session VI (3 selected papers) on "Optical Sensing in Biomedicine", chaired by Valery Tuchin (Saratov State University, Russia). He introduced us to the Invited Lecture "3D Widefield Microscopy and Fluorescence Screening of Cell Membranes" given by Prof. Herbert Schneckenburger (Hochshule Aalen, Germany).

Prof. Schneckenburger's scientific work is concentrated on Optical Microscopy, Fluorescence Spectroscopy and Biomedical Screening with a large field of applications in cell biology, photobiology and fluorescence diagnostics. He introduced us to methods used for making measurements of the membrane properties of living cells. Plasma membranes can be excited by evanescent electromagnetic fields within TIRFM (Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy). Under the right conditions the cell substrate topology can be measured with nanometre resolution! However, he explained that intracellular membranes are not accessible to TIRFM, but then that a form of structured illumination can be used to sample the cell at various positions permitting the desired image sections to be derived.

Session VI was followed by the Poster Session, where 28 papers were presented as posters in the relaxing atmosphere of the atrium of the ITMO building. The glass roof of this area reminded us of the unpredictability of the St. Petersburg climate; - for although we had been greeted by an exhausting heat wave on our arrival on Sunday, we also experienced some extended snow showers!

During the Poster Session Mr Dionysios Lefkaditis of the University of Brighton presented a poster titled "Intelligent Optical Otolith Classification for Species Recognition of Osteichthyes". This poster presented work in progress to develop an alternative method of optical otolith recognition based on the processing and intelligent analysis of images acquired using a stereoscopic microscope fitted with a digital camera. This work brings together a very diverse spectrum of scientific disciplines such fish biology, artificial intelligence and imaging science on the practical application of the design and development of a tool for marine biologists. The poster attracted a lot of attention from the conference delegates. This produced a number of interesting questions and constructive comments that led to successful networking and general chatting among people from several different countries such as Russia, Finland, France, Italy and the UK.

After the poster session we adjourned to the restaurant of the ITMO facility for the Conference Dinner. Here we were treated to the utmost hospitality by our Russian hosts, and tables groaning with all manner of interesting and tasty local delicacies. We also discovered, first-hand, the implications of the tradition of a frequent and seemingly never-ending round of toasts with Russian-Standard vodka.

Our Russian friends had extra cause to celebrate that night because it was the day of the UEFA cup final where Zenit St. Petersburg beat Glasgow Rangers 2-0 at the City of Manchester Stadium. The 3-hour time difference meant the kick-off took place at 22:45 local time and the first goal wasn't scored until 16 minutes past midnight.

Some hardy delegates witnessed the celebrations in the city first-hand, but for the rest of us there were plenty of Zenit fans running around in the club strip carrying flags the next day. We even saw one such fan running along the canals as we took our boat trip in the early evening of the following day!

The last day of the conference (Thursday 15th May) dawned, too early perhaps for some, with the IEEE-LEOS Distinguished Lecture, presented by Prof. Silvano Donati (University of Pavia, Italy). The title of this lecture was "Coupling Dynamics in Semiconductor LASERs and Applications to Chaotic Cryptography". In this he extended our understanding of self-mixing coupling phenomena in LASERs from the ideas he presented in his Invited Lecture of the previous morning. He showed us how, at higher coupling ratios, the LASER output becomes chaotic, which leads to the mind-bending possibility of securely encrypting data using a CSK (Chaos-Shift-Keying) modulation strategy!

The final session of the main Conference that followed was number VII (3 selected papers), entitled "Image Formation, Correction and Recognition. It was chaired by Kenichi Hibino (Photonics Research Institute, AIST, Japan).

However, after the coffee break, the venue hosted the 7th SPIE Student Chapters Meeting. This was chaired by Sergey Kozlov (St. Petersburg State university ITMO) and Vladimir Makarov (M.V. Lomomosov Moscow State University, Russia), who each represented one of the institutions whose student members of SPIE attended. The room was packed with student members of SPIE, which was very encouraging to witness. The meeting consisted of two Invited Lectures and a presentation from the SPIE student representative on the activity of their respective groups over the last year. Both student representatives spoke very well, and they each reviewed an extensive programme of activity, including visits overseas by some members.

The first Invited Lecture was given by Valery Tuchin (Saratov State University, Russia) and was entitled "Control of Tissues Optical Properties Using Immersion Agents and Nanoparticles: Applications in Biomedical Diagnostics and LASER Therapy". This began by introducing us to the collagen-based structure of the tissues of the cornea (iris) and the sclera (white) of the human eye and showing how the diffusing properties of the sclera could be miraculously cleared by the use of a simple glucose solution, and that this would be done to permit accurate and effective LASER surgery to be carried out on the retina, etc. The idea of using 'optical clearing agents' was extended to other tissues such as skin, cerebral membrane, gastric tissue, tendon and blood vessels. By contrast (excuse the intentional optical pun), the audience was introduced to the use of nanoparticles as a way of increasing the reflectivity of various tissues, for example as a way of making treatment of tumours more effective.

The second Invited Lecture for this audience was given by Prof Alexei Kamshilin (University of Kuopio, Finland), entitled "Optical Sensing by Using Dynamic Speckles". This introduced a useful application for the 'speckle effect' which occurs when coherent light reflects from an optically rough surface and the reflections pseudo-randomly interfere with the illuminant. The use of the method to deliver low complexity and low cost, yet accurate, velocimeters and range sensors was discussed and methods to rigorously evaluate the accuracy of the devices were described.

The (mainly) youthful audience listened attentively to these presentations and it was encouraging to see the next generation of workers in this field in such healthy numbers. This was indeed a fine way to bring the business of the conference to a close.

After the close of the conference, the delegates were transported by bus to a canal embankment in central St. Petersburg to begin the boat-trip around the canals of the city and the Neva. This provided a welcome opportunity for some to stock up on souvenirs, and presents for their loved ones back home. Although sunny and dry, the air was very cold and most passengers stayed inside the heated cabin to watch the wonderful sites go by in comfort. However, there are photographs available on the www.flickr.com site to prove that some were mad enough to brave the cold on the river (and the low bridges) in the name of tourism!

After the boat-trip there was a special dinner for the International Organising Committee of the Conference, hosted at the main building of ITMO in the Petrogradskaya district, just behind St Peter and Paul's Cathedral Fortress. This turned out to be a double celebration because our host, Igor Gurov, revealed that it was actually his birthday! There was a rousing chorus of 'Happy Birthday' led by Dr Graeme Awcock (University of Brighton, UK) and then a lengthy round of expressions of appreciation for the success of the Conference, each one, of course, accompanied by a shot of Russian Standard vodka! One extremely notable performance came from Prof. Alexander Priezzhev (M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia) who demonstrated his impressive talent for languages and artistic interpretation by delivering a Shakespearean sonnet with wonderful emotion and intonation with one toast before moving the French delegates to tears with a patriotic poem (in French) for a subsequent one!

All agreed that the conference had been a great success, with contributions from 14 countries, and Prof Gurov expressed his wish to plan the next edition for 2010; - perhaps in the UK ...

Reference:

1. http://osav.spb.ru/doc/OSAV2008_Technical_Program.pdf 2008

Acknowledgement:

This report was compiled both by Dr Graeme Awcock and Mr Dionysios Lefkaditis to share their experiences from the conference trip to St. Petersburg. Finally, Dionysios would like to express his gratitude to the Royal Photographic Society for acknowledging his work and extraordinarily awarding him a research student travel grant.