Engineering design of an image acquisition and analysis system for dendrochronology

The design and implementation of a computer-vision-based analysis system for dendrochronology are described. The primary issues covered are automatic focus detection, illumination distortion, spatial and radiometric registration of a sequence of images into a single mosaic, and edge detection and linking. These issues are not unique to the application, but are likely of interest to anyone developing automated image analysis systems. A modification of the Canny edge detection algorithm that adapts to the variable characteristics of tree-ring images is also described.