Technical data

Autostar IP
-25-
Linear scaling performs the following transformation:
Final Pixel = (Pixel – Min.Value) * Scale Factor
If the Final Pixel is greater than Max. Value, the Final Pixel is assigned the Max. Value.
RGB Merge
The RGB Merge command produces a full color image by combining three separate grayscale images,
one exposed through a red filter, another exposed through a green filter, and the last exposed through a
blue filter If your system has 16 or 24 bit color modes, these images can be directly combined, otherwise
this is accomplished by analyzing all of the possible colors in the image, then using a proprietary algorithm
to choose the best colors to take full advantage of the 256 color system palette.
The RGB Merge command also allows you to modify the color balance of the final color image.
Increasing the scale factor for an individual color, increases the intensity of that color in the resulting
image, decreasing the scale factor decreases the overall intensity of that color in the image.
Each of the scale factors can be used separately or together to achieve any desired color balance. For
example, if the resulting image is too magenta, you might try lowering BOTH the red and blue scale
factors, or you may try increasing the green scale factor to achieve the same effect.
The scale factors may also be automatically determined by using the RGB Gray Balance function from
the Image Utilities dialog box. To automatically balance the colors in the image, first locate an area in the
image that should be white, or any neutral gray value such as a medium brightness star. Then draw a box
around the object by depressing the left mouse button and dragging the box to the desired size. When
the button is released, the Image Utilities dialog box will be displayed. If all three RGB buffers contain
valid images, the RGB Gray Balance item will be enabled. Upon selecting the RGB Gray Balance
function, the scale factors for each color will be determined and will automatically merge the buffers to
produce a new image. The resulting image will show your selected object as a shade of gray.
On 256 (8 bit) color systems, the Quantum Level field allows you to influence the behavior of the color
selection algorithm. If the resulting image contains a very large number of colors, lowering the Quantum
Level decreases the number of resulting colors. Similarly, raising the value increases the number of
colors, up to the maximum number of colors contained in the image. When the number of colors found in
the resulting image closely matches the number of colors used in the image, you will notice a marked
increase in the speed of the merging process.