1. A high volume, foul-resistant electrolytic process for treating contaminated water in an electroflocculation cell which comprises a bottom electrode and a top electrode connectable to an electrical current source and immersed in a water stream, the process comprising:
a. feeding the contaminated water to the electroflocculation cell below the bottom electrode;
b. passing the contaminated water upwards, first through the bottom electrode comprising a porous, non-fluidized bed of loose metal granules resting on a tilted conducting support plate having nozzle inlets;
c. embedding a perforated gas injection tube featuring number of holes within the bottom electrode and attaching it to and above the tilted conducting support plate at a location where the bed of loose metal granules has a depth maximum;
d. keeping the loose metal granules of the porous, non-fluidized bed in periodic motion via pulsed gas injections from the perforated gas injection tube directly into the non-fluidized bed whereby a mixing action by the pulsed injections at said location enhanced by the tilt of the tilted conducting support plate is provided;
e. further passing the contaminated water stream upwards, contacting thereby the top electrode comprised of a metal mesh;
f. mechanically vibrating the top electrode; and,
g. applying electric power to the bottom and top electrodes during the treatment process.
2. The process of claim 1 wherein said electrodes are connected to an AC power source.
3. The process of claim 1 wherein said electrodes are connected to a DC power source.
4. The process of claim 1 wherein said loose metal granules are made of iron or aluminum.
5. The process of claim 1 wherein the tilted conducting support plate is made of iron andor aluminum.
6. The process of claim 1 wherein a tilt angle of the tilted support plate is adjustable within a range of about 10 to 60 degrees with respect to horizontal.
7. The process of claim 1 wherein a facing surface area of the top electrode is closely spaced from the bed of loose metal granules.
8. The process of claim 1 further comprising removing agglomerated contaminants from the contaminated water after treated water has flowed out of the electroflocculation cell.
9. An electroflocculation cell for the high volume, foul-resistant electrolytic process for treating contaminated water comprising a bottom electrode and a top electrode connected to an electrical current source, wherein the cell is configured to contain a contaminated water stream flowing upwards first through the bottom electrode and then flowing further upwards to contact the top electrode, wherein the bottom electrode is provided in the form of a porous, non-fluidized bed of loose metal granules resting on a tilted conducting support plate having a number of nozzle inlets; wherein the top electrode is adapted to be mechanically vibrated;
the cell further comprising a perforated gas injection tube featuring a number of holes, the perforated gas injection tube embedded within the bottom electrode and attached to and above the tilted conducting support plate at a location where the bed of loose metal granules has a depth maximum, wherein the perforated gas injection tube is adapted to feed pulsed gas injections from the perforated gas injection tube directly into the loose metal granules to keep the loose metal granules in periodic motion.
10. The electroflocculation cell according to claim 9 wherein said loose metal granules are made of iron or aluminum.
11. The electroflocculation cell according to claim 9 wherein the tilted support plate has is made of iron andor aluminum.
12. The electroflocculation cell according to claim 9 wherein a tilt angle of the tilted conducting support plate is within a range of about 10 to 60 degrees with respect to horizontal.
13. The electroflocculation cell according to claim 9 wherein the top electrode has a surface area closely spaced from the bed of loose metal granules.
14. The electroflocculation cell according to claim 9 wherein the cell comprises at least one modular casing having bottom, front, rear and sidewalls, and is characterized by an inlet for admitting water to be purified, and an outlet for water and agglomerated solids egress.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method comprising:
capturing a plurality of images with each camera in a 2\xd72 array of cameras, each image comprising a first portion representative of an overlapping field of view with a corresponding portion of a horizontally adjacent image and a second portion representative of an overlapping field of view with a corresponding portion of a vertically adjacent image;
for each image, performing a first warping on the image such that the first portion of the image is substantially aligned with the corresponding portion of the horizontally adjacent image and such that the second portion of the image is substantially aligned with the corresponding portion of the vertically adjacent image;
for each image, resizing the image by cropping portions of the image that are not both horizontally aligned with the first portion of the image and vertically aligned with the second portion of the image;
for each image, performing a second warping on the image to reduce distortion resulting from the first warping, wherein a magnitude of the second warping of a portion of the image is based on a distance of the portion to the first portion of the image and the second portion of the image, wherein the magnitude of the second warping of the first portion of the image and the second portion of the image is substantially zero;
cropping portions of the plurality of images representative of overlapping fields of view of corresponding portions of adjacent images to substantially minimize the portions of the cropped images representative of overlapping fields of view of corresponding cropped images; and
generating a final image by taping each cropped image to a horizontally adjacent cropped image and a vertically adjacent cropped image.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of images is captured synchronously.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first warping comprises a plurality of local warps on portions of the image.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein a center of the first warping of an image is based on an overlapping field of view of the image.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first warping substantially aligns an object of interest within each overlapping field of view.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first warping performed on an image warps the entire image.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first warping performed on an image warps a plurality of portions of the image.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second warping of an image maps the image to a rectilinear matrix.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the second warping performed on an image removes distortion in the image while maintaining alignment of an object of interest within each overlapping field of view.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein taping each cropped image to a horizontally adjacent cropped image and a vertically adjacent cropped image further comprises:
for each image, cropping the portions overlapping with corresponding portions of horizontally and vertically adjacent images; and
concatenating the images with the horizontally and vertically adjacent cropped image.
11. A method comprising:
capturing a plurality of images with each camera in a plurality of cameras in a camera array, each image comprising a field of view (FOV) portion representative of an overlapping field of view with at least one corresponding FOV portion of an adjacent image;
for each image, performing a first warping on the image such that the FOV portion of the image is substantially aligned with the corresponding FOV portion of the adjacent image;
for each image, resizing the image by cropping portions of the image that are not aligned with the FOV portion of the image;
for each image, performing a second warping on the image to reduce distortion resulting from the first warping, wherein a magnitude of the second warping of a portion of the image is based on a distance of the portion to the FOV portion of the image, wherein the magnitude of the second warping of the FOV portion of the image is substantially zero;
cropping portions of the plurality of images representative of FOV portions overlapping with corresponding FOV portions of adjacent images; and
generating a final image by taping each cropped image to an adjacent cropped image.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of images is captured synchronously.
13. The method of claim 11, wherein the first warping comprises a plurality of local warps on portions of the image.
14. The method of claim 11, wherein a center of the first warping of an image is based on a portion in a FOV portion of the image.
15. The method of claim 11, wherein the first warping substantially aligns an object of interest within a FOV portion of the image.
16. The method of claim 11, wherein the first warping performed on an image warps the entire image.
17. The method of claim 11, wherein the first warping performed on an image warps a plurality of portions of the image.
18. The method of claim 11, wherein the second warping of an image maps the image to a rectilinear matrix.
19. The method of claim 11, wherein the second warping performed on an image removes distortion in the image while maintaining alignment of an object of interest within a FOV portion.
20. The method of claim 11, wherein taping each cropped image to an adjacent cropped image further comprises:
for each image, cropping the FOV portions; and
concatenating the images with the adjacent cropped image.
21. A system comprising at least one processor and a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions for taping images captured by a plurality of cameras in a camera array, the instructions executable by the at least one processor, the instructions comprising instructions for:
capturing a plurality of images with each camera in a 2\xd72 array of cameras, each image comprising a first portion representative of an overlapping field of view with a corresponding portion of a horizontally adjacent image and a second portion representative of an overlapping field of view with a corresponding portion of a vertically adjacent image;
for each image, performing a first warping on the image such that the first portion of the image is substantially aligned with the corresponding portion of the horizontally adjacent image and such that the second portion of the image is substantially aligned with the corresponding portion of the vertically adjacent image;
for each image, resizing the image by cropping portions of the image that are not both horizontally aligned with the first portion of the image and vertically aligned with the second portion of the image;
for each image, performing a second warping on the image to reduce distortion resulting from the first warping, wherein a magnitude of the second warping of a portion of the image is based on a distance of the portion to the first portion of the image and the second portion of the image, wherein the magnitude of the second warping of the first portion of the image and the second portion of the image is substantially zero;
cropping portions of the plurality of images representative of overlapping fields of view of corresponding portions of adjacent images to substantially minimize the portions of the cropped images representative of overlapping fields of view of corresponding cropped images; and
generating a final image by taping each cropped image to a horizontally adjacent cropped image and a vertically adjacent cropped image.
22. The system of claim 21, wherein the plurality of images is captured synchronously.
23. The system of claim 21, wherein the first warping comprises a plurality of local warps on portions of the image.
24. The system of claim 21, wherein a center of the first warping of an image is based on an overlapping field of view of the image.
25. The system of claim 21, wherein the first warping substantially aligns an object of interest within each overlapping field of view.
26. The system of claim 21, wherein the first warping performed on an image warps the entire image.
27. The system of claim 21, wherein the first warping performed on an image warps a plurality of portions of the image.
28. The system of claim 21, wherein the second warping of an image maps the image to a rectilinear matrix.
29. The system of claim 21, wherein the second warping performed on an image removes distortion in the image while maintaining alignment of an object of interest within each overlapping field of view.
30. The system of claim 21, wherein taping each cropped image to a horizontally adjacent cropped image and a vertically adjacent cropped image further comprises:
for each image, cropping the portions overlapping with corresponding portions of horizontally and vertically adjacent images; and
concatenating the images with the horizontally and vertically adjacent cropped image.