In addition to the biomedical field, our main application area is the forest industry. For a number of years, we have been working on wood fibre applications, both fibres in the wood and in paper. The ultimate goal is to understand how individual fibres build up paper and what effect different types of fibre and pore networks have on paper properties.
Micro CT techniques by synchrotron radiation provides new kinds of images of paper and composite materials and offer many challenging problems. PhD students Maria Axelsson and Filip Malmberg are working on this. We have also received S-faculty funding for a new assistant professor position in this field which is held by Joakim Lindblad. Before starting on this project Lindblad developed an image analysis tool for evaluating seed vitality.
In another project, we are studying the possibility of using image analysis in the saw mills, to improve the quality of the products. PhD student Kristin Norell has initially concentrated on images of log ends to find the annual ring centre (pith) and the annual ring density and to detect rot and blue stain. The project is made very hard due to the poor image quality obtainable under realistic production conditions.