Delphinus is a freeware 16-bit image processing software with many powerful filtering algorithms. It also allows you to control your camera exposure time through RS-232 (serial) and LPT (parallel) port. Program was made as a part of "Pi of the Sky" project which has been realized by Institute of Nuclear Studies, Center for Theoretical Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Electronic Systems and The Faculty of Physics of the Warsaw University.

Delphinus software consists of four parts
1. Camera control - controlling camera through RS-232 or LPT port (to use this function you have to make a special cable described in a separate tutorial called "Description of Serial and Parallel Port Control Cables" which is available on our website).
2. Converter - which allows you to convert CR2,CRWand RAW les to FITS,TIFF,PPM and BMP.
3. Editor - image processing module which basic functions are described in this tutorial
4. Batch - module designed for compounding images and making animated GIF les.

To control the camera using Delphinus software you need:
1. a computer with LPT or RS-232 port
2. appropriate cable with some electronics in it (a full description you can nd in a separate tutorial called Description of Serial and Parallel Port Control Cables which is available on our website).
3. DSLR camera with remote control port.

Important: Cables that are needed are not typical RS-232/LPT to micro-jack (2.5mm) cables. They have some special electronics in it so DO NOT try to plug any cables you can find. Even if the plugs fit into the sockets it does not mean it will work!

Delphinus Features:
Editor:
1. Support for FITS (8,16,48 bit), FIT, BMP, JPEG, TGA, PPM, TIFF, PNG, PCX, RAS, HIPS, ICO, CUR, MNG, JPEG 2000, WMF, EMF,GIF, EPS, PSD, PDD, PSP, SGI, RGB, RGBA, BW file formats.
2. 16 bit processing!
3. Oparates on RGB, YIQ, XYZ, CMY layers
4. Making 3D images (anaglyph)
5. Script editor (batch processing)
6. LSF (densytogram with data filtering), histogram, scattergrams view
7. FFT and frequency domain operations
8. Color processing: * Brightness * Hue * Saturation * Gamma
9. LUT/Pseudo-colors: * Grayscale * Bi-color * Pseudo-color * Iso-luminance
10. Preparing test images (lines,grid,color gradient)
11. Mixing images
12. Simple photometry

Tools
1. Selection (circle, box) width 4 types of intensity profiles (constant, gaussian, linear, smooth edge)
2. Color brushes
3. Color retouch tools (reddish,blueish,sepia,gamma etc.)
4. Smoothing tools
5. Sharpening tools

Filters and effects:
1. Remove dust
2. Remove hot pixels
3. Remove gradient
4. Remove blooming
5. Remove dark frame
6. Divide by flat frame
7. Remove overexposures
8. Darkness correction (more/less)
9. Brightness correction
10. Contrast correction (contrast curves)
11. Gamma correction
12. Histogram optimization:
13. Binning (Mean, RMS, Max, Min, Median, RM10)
14. Unsharp mask
15. Bilateral smoothing filter
16. Savitzky-Golay smoothing filters
17. Frequency domain (Fast Fourier Transform)
18. Hough transform
19. Color correction
20. Remove red eyes effect
21. Artistic blur (glow)
22. Distortion
23. Add noise
24. Motion blur
25. Decolorize
26. Reducing colors (4,3,2 bpp)
27. Thresholding (KSW and WSH algorithm)
28. Convertion to grayscale (5 methods)

Filtering masks:
1. Laplace sharpening (4 types)
2. Bartlett sharpening
3. Smart sharpening
4. Emboss
5. Isotropic
6. Sobel (5 types)
7. Prewitt (3 types)
8. Kirsch (2 types)
9. Robinson
10. Mean (3x3)
11. Mean (5x5)
12. Median
13. Gaussian blur
14. Dilation
15. Erosion
16. Light blur
17. Artistic blur
18. Radial blur
19. Vertical blur

Frequency domain (Fast Fourier Transform):
1. Low pass
2. High pass
3. Wiener filter
4. Adding pink noise
5. Adding blue noise

Color correction
1. Balance levels (mean/max)
2. Grayscale
3. Reddish/Blueish colors
4. Sepia
5. Old photography
6. Fog
7. Map style
8. Iso-luminance

Camera exposure control
1. Support for RS-232 (serial) and LPT (parallel) port.
2. Works fine with Canon DSLR Cameras.
3. Mirror lock-up control.
4. Very long exposures (above 30sec.)
5. Making tasks lists.
6. Making schedules - running tasks lists at described time/date

External Converter
* Converts RAW,CR2,CRW to BMP, FITS, TIFF, PPM

Batch
1. Support for JPEG and BMP files
2. Adding images (5 methods)
3. Making animated GIF files.

Video capture
1. Noise filtering (averaging frames)
2. Motion detection
3. Adding date, time to the viewport
4. Histogram optimization
5. Gamma correction
6. Showing densitogram live
7. Palletes: RGB, grayscale, pseudo-color
8. Saving original and processed frames to BMP

How to plug the cable
Step 1: Turn OFF your camera and your computer.
Step 2: Insert the LPT/RS-232 plug to the computer's port.
Step 3: Insert the mini-jack/N3 plug to the camera's remote port.
Step 4: Turn ON the computer and the camera.

Important: DO NOT try to insert the plugs on running computer or camera. Always make sure that both devices are turned OFF! Inserting plugs on running devices may efect in the permanent damage of the computer or/and the camera.

How to con gure the program?
First of all open Delpihnus software and click Camera control in the Launcher window. At rst you have to choose the appropriate interface: LPT (parallel) or RS-232 (serial). Then you have to select appropriate port number to which you have inserted the plug.

The license of this software is Freeware, you can free download and free use this image processing software.