TMSB Tutorial 4B: Dual-Band Ultraviolet-A XML File Customization

article by Ben Lincoln

As discussed in the False Colour From Filters (and Simulated Filters) article, the combination of sensor and Bayer filter in certain digital cameras means that the red and blue channels will pick up different subsections of the ultraviolet-A band. While the input configurations included with The Mirror's Surface Breaks allow only one to be used, the configuration built in this tutorial will allow the use of both. A sample source image set is included at the bottom of the page for testing the resulting configuration.

These instructions assume that the reader has obtained basic familiarity with editing TMSB XML files by following the instructions in the first tutorial (TMSB Tutorial 4A: Basic XML File Customization).

Like all of the tutorial configuration files, complete (and tested) versions of the results below are included in the Tutorial subdirectory of TMSB_Config wherever you unpacked the software to (TMSB version 1.2 or later). These can be used to refer to if you run into trouble, or you can just copy them into your TMSB_Config directory if you would rather just use them instead of know how to create custom configurations.

In the TMSB GUI, switch to the Input Configuration tab.
In the drop-down menu, select NIR-R-G-B-UVA (TIFF - 3 Files).
Click the Export XML button.
In the File name field, enter Input-NIR_R_G_B_UVA380nm_UVA_360nm-TIFF-3F.xml, then click Save.
Launch your text editor, and open the file you just saved.
In the <Metadata> section:
1. In the <Name> section, change the text to read NIR-R-G-B-UVA_380nm-UVA_360nm (TIFF - 3 Files).
2. In the <Description> section, change the text to read This input configuration uses up to six spectral bands (near-infrared, red, green, blue, ultraviolet-A (380nm), and ultraviolet-A (360nm)) in TIFF format. (or whatever you think is appropriate).
3. If you like, enter the date/time, in XML format in the <Created> and/or <LastModified> sections.
In the <SpectralBands> section, scroll down until you locate the block where the UVA band is defined.
Copy and paste the entire <SpectralBand> block that defines the UVA band, so that there are two of them.
In the copy that occurs first^[1]:
1. Change the <BandName> value from UVA to UVA_380nm.
2. In both of the <DataSource> blocks, change the <Plane> value to 3 (because the source for this image should be the blue channel, which is the third "plane".
3. Remove all three lines of the <SpecialBandName> block, because we'll be assigning the UltravioletA special band name to the 360nm band, and each special band name can only be assigned to one band in an input configuration.
4. Change the <UseAsLuminanceChannel> value to false.
In the second copy:
1. Change the <BandName> value from UVA to UVA_360nm.
2. Leave all other values alone.
At this time, these two blocks should look like this:

<SpectralBand>

<BandName>

UVA_380nm

</BandName>

<DataSources>

<DataSource>

<FileName>

UVA.TIF

</FileName>

<Plane>

3

</Plane>

</DataSource>

<DataSource>

<FileName>

UVA2.TIF

</FileName>

<Plane>

3

</Plane>

</DataSource>

</DataSources>

<BandCategory>

Ultraviolet

</BandCategory>

<UseAsLuminanceChannel>

false

</UseAsLuminanceChannel>

<UseAsThreeChannelChannel>

true

</UseAsThreeChannelChannel>

</SpectralBand>

<SpectralBand>

<BandName>

UVA_360nm

</BandName>

<DataSources>

<DataSource>

<FileName>

UVA.TIF

</FileName>

<Plane>

1

</Plane>

</DataSource>

<DataSource>

<FileName>

UVA2.TIF

</FileName>

<Plane>

1

</Plane>

</DataSource>

</DataSources>

<BandCategory>

Ultraviolet

</BandCategory>

<SpecialBandName>

UltravioletA

</SpecialBandName>

<UseAsLuminanceChannel>

true

</UseAsLuminanceChannel>

<UseAsThreeChannelChannel>

true

</UseAsThreeChannelChannel>

</SpectralBand>
Save the file and close the text editor.
If you closed out of TMSB previously, launch the GUI again. Otherwise, from the Tools menu, select Reload Configuration Files. In the Processing Configuration tab, the drop-down should now contain a new entry (named Focused: Calculated Images - Ratio Only, if you followed all of the instructions correctly).
If you like, give the new configuration a try (using the example image set at the bottom of this page if necessary).

Using this example configuration will significantly increase the number of output images. For example, the No Funny Business processing configuration generates 15 variations using the unmodified input configuration, but 26 using this modified configuration. I suggest using it only when there is a clear difference between the two sub-bands of ultraviolet-A.

Download
File	Size	Version	Release Date	Author
Pansy (Dual-Band UVA)	5 MiB	1.0	2011-04-17	Ben Lincoln
A sample image set for use with the TMSB tutorial "Dual-Band Ultraviolet-A XML File Customization". This set will generate output images that occupy about 2.5 MiB on disk for each variation in the selected processing configuration.

Footnotes

1.	The longer-wavelength version is defined first, because TMSB assumes that the input spectral bands are defined in descending order of wavelength (or ascending order of frequency, whichever you prefer).