ImageJ and using an lcd projector as the illumination source for your microscope

[Blackledge]

It can be quite expensive to acquire all that might be needed in terms of optical accessories for your microscope so that with different objectives you can transform the normal bright-field illumination to dark-field, polarized-light, Rheinberg optical staining, oblique illumination, etc.

Does anyone have experience using ImageJ with images obtained using as your microscope's illumination source and lcd projector? As far as ImageJ is concerned, is a digital image just a digital image and it doesn't really matter how it was acquired? How does the image quality compare?

See the article, Dynamic contrast enhancement in widefield microscopy using projector-generated illumination patterns,
available at: http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/9/10/363/pdf/1367-2630_9_10_363.pdf



--
I am using the free version of SPAMfighter.
SPAMfighter has removed 243 of my spam emails to date.
Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len

Do you have a slow PC? Try Free scan http://www.spamfighter.com/SLOW-PCfighter?cid=sigen

--
ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

[Gabriel Landini]

On Wednesday 01 Aug 2012 22:06:51 Blackledge wrote:
> As far as ImageJ is
> concerned, is a digital image just a digital image and it doesn't really
> matter how it was acquired? How does the image quality compare?

IJ does not know how the image was acquired. Of course some ways of capturing
images might be better than others in minimising noise or correcting uneven
illumination.

> See the article, Dynamic contrast enhancement in widefield microscopy using
> projector-generated illumination patterns, available at:
> http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/9/10/363/pdf/1367-2630_9_10_363.pdf

I have seen a couple of articles like that one (but have no experience in
using a projector as illumination source). The idea seems very good and I have
wondered why microscope manufacturers have not taken the idea of programmable
filters further. It would be interesting to design Rheinberg filters and do
some kind of structured illumination controlled with image acquisition.
Maybe they might not work well in practice? Or maybe it is expensive to
implement a controller for the LCD patterns?

Related to the Rheinberg illumination, I came across this:
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artdec08/ab-chromar.html
Maybe it was not very good, or too complex compared to self-made filters, but
it looks like the sort of things that would be fun to play with.

Regards

Gabriel

--
ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

[Rudolf Oldenbourg]

You might also want to look at the following article:

Levoy, M., Z. Zhang and I. McDowall. 2009. Recording and controlling the 4D light field in a microscope using microlens arrays. Journal of Microscopy 235: 144-62.

It includes the use of a projector as the illuminator. I agree with Gabriel Landini's comment that this is a fun to try.

Rudolf

--
ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

[Gabriel Landini]

On Thursday 02 Aug 2012 12:36:25 you wrote:
> You might also want to look at the following article:
> Levoy, M., Z. Zhang and I. McDowall. 2009. Recording and controlling the 4D
> light field in a microscope using microlens arrays. Journal of Microscopy
> 235: 144-62.

Thanks. Here are two more titles available in the web (sorry I haven't got the
links at hand):

Wide-field depth-sectioning fluorescence microscopy using projector-generated
patterned illumination. Serafin Delica and Carlo Mar Blanca

PROGRAMOVATELNÁ OSVĚTLOVACÍ SOUSTAVA PRO OPTICKÝ MIKROSKOP
PROGRAMMABLE ILLUMINATING SYSTEM FOR AN OPTICAL MICROSCOPE
DIPLOMA THESIS AUTOR: MARTIN LOSTAK,  

(unfortunately not in a language I can read, but many good images)

Cheers

Gabriel

--
ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

[Aivar Grislis]

4D light fields or plenoptics using microlens arrays is, of course, the
technology behind the new Lytro camera www.lytro.com.  I had not heard
of using it to control illumination.

For light field microscopy in general here are some interesting links:
http://www.graphics.stanford.edu/projects/lfmicroscope/
http://graphics.stanford.edu/software/LFDisplay/

On 8/2/12 6:36 AM, Rudolf Oldenbourg wrote:

> You might also want to look at the following article:
>
> Levoy, M., Z. Zhang and I. McDowall. 2009. Recording and controlling the 4D light field in a microscope using microlens arrays. Journal of Microscopy 235: 144-62.
>
> It includes the use of a projector as the illuminator. I agree with Gabriel Landini's comment that this is a fun to try.
>
> Rudolf
>
> --
> ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html

--
ImageJ mailing list: http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.html