Imaging System and Method for Identifying a Boundary Between Active and Inactive Portions of a Digital Image and Applying Settings in Response

An imaging system, comprising:

• a light source configured to illuminate an object with an illumination light;
• an imaging scope configured to capture light reflected, scattered, or emitted from the object;
• a camera having a light sensor with a light-sensitive surface configured to receive the captured light from the imaging scope, and generate a digital image representative of the captured light;
• an image processor configured to receive the digital image from the camera, and use at least one of a random sample consensus (RANSAC) technique and a Hough Transform technique to (i) identify a boundary between an active portion and an inactive portion of the digital image and (ii) generate boundary data indicative of a characteristic of the boundary;
• and
• a system controller configured to receive the boundary data from the image processor and configured to use the received boundary data to select optical model parameters for the modulation transfer function (MTF), spatial frequency response (SFR), lens distortion, vignetting, and/or chromatic aberration of the imaging scope.

A method, comprising:

• receiving, by an image processor, a digital image generated by an imaging system comprising a light source configured to illuminate an object with light, an imaging scope to capture light reflected, scattered, or emitted from the object, and a camera having a light sensor with a light-sensitive surface configured to receive the captured light from the imaging scope, and generate a digital image representative of the captured light;
• using, by the image processor, at least one of a random sample consensus (RANSAC) technique and a Hough Transform technique to identify a boundary between an active portion and an inactive portion of the digital image;
• generating, by the image processor, boundary data indicative of a characteristic of the boundary;
• and
• determining a parameter of the imaging system based on the boundary data.