The IEEE EMB Student Chapter of M.S.Ramaiah Institute of Technology conducted a “Two Day Workshop on Digital Signal and Image Processing using SCILAB” on 19th and 20th February, 2016. SCILAB is an open source alternative to MATLAB and is becoming an industry standard for scientific and technical computing. The workshop was conducted by Dr. Mahesh Anand, Founder and CEO of SCS-India. The objective of the workshop was to help students understand signal processing and image processing concepts using open source computing solutions like SCILAB. The workshop attracted many Final Year and Pre Final Year Students. The topics covered during the workshop were as follows:

DAY 1

Lab Session on Biomedical Signal Processing

Key Points on Day 1:

  • Advantages of Technical Computing Languages
  • Advantages of Open Source Tools
  • An overview on using SCILAB
  • Time Domain Filtering of Biomedical Signals
  • Frequency Domain Filtering of Biomedical Signals

The participants were thought about the basics of SCILAB. Code segments were executed on SCILAB to plot waveforms on the screen. The participants were given sample data on which they could work. The students were thought about some time domain filtering concepts and noisy ECG waves were processed to remove noise. Then the second part of the session focused on using frequency domain for filtering applications. This included designing of a notch filter to remove power line noise.

DAY 2

Lab Session on Medical Image Processing

Key Points on Day 2:

  • Basics of Digital Image Processing
  • Types of Processing on Images
  • Spatial Domain Filtering
  • Frequency Domain Filtering
  • Key Areas which use Digital Image Processing

The participants were thought about the basics of image processing suing SCILAB. They were given sample medical images on which they could work on. Image Enhancement techniques like Gamma Correction and Brightness Adjustment were thought and applied on sample images. Then noise removal using Spatial Domain Filters like Box Filter and Weighted Average Filters were explained. The Second Part of the session focused on Frequency Domain Filtering Concepts for Noise Reduction.

CONCLUSION

The Workshop helped participants understand the basic signal and image processing techniques and the advantages of SCILAB over MATLAB. It also helped participants understand the method of filtering signals and images.