Is there a way to measure depth?

Posted by jkaufman on Apr 14, 2011; 12:42pm
URL: http://imagej.273.s1.nabble.com/Is-there-a-way-to-measure-depth-tp3684978.html

Hi everyone,

I know that it is very helpful to have an example image to understand what I am asking, however I cannot send out pictures of my materials.  I am working on the same problem as in my previous post, trying to find the area percentage of adhesive left on an aluminum panel.  I start running into thresholding problems when my adhesive is either clear or just a similar color to the aluminum.  
So I am asking if it is possible to measure depth, or just find the area of the part that is furthest away (for me it is the aluminum that is below the adhesive).  The examples I can show you, are sample images from Image J. Take the image boats for example, is there a way to tell which boat is in front, and outline the area of the remaining boats?

Thank you for any help that you can give me even though I am unable to provide you with an actual sample picture.