Posted by
Kenneth Sloan on
Sep 28, 2010; 2:36am
URL: http://imagej.273.s1.nabble.com/Olympus-vsi-file-format-tp3686779p3686782.html
I also suspect that it's a closed format - I was hoping that someone would disabuse me of that idea.
Right now, I'm one person removed from the local Olympus rep, so I haven't had a chance to ask the
right questions. The impression I get from various literature
is that the format might be closed - but sometimes it's possible to get documentation if you ask nicely.
Sometimes, if you ask 17 times, they actually write the documentation...
I've found a couple of systems that claim to read VSI files (anyone heard of mScope?)
The system does indeed export all sorts of formats which I can deal with - but (warning: I have not
actually touched the system, yet) a colleague reports that the TIFF files he's getting are not as good
as the VSI files displayed using their software. I'm hoping that he simply hasn't read the entire manual, yet.
If we can import and export, I can build a workaround - but I have a strong preference for getting
the RAW data out of any instrument ASAP and processing it with code that I have written. Sometimes "lossless" is
too lossy.
Ah...here's the spec sheet - we are talking about the cellSens imaging software. Spec sheet says it can read and write:
VSI, JPEG, JPEG2000, TIFF, BMP, AVI, PNG. Read-only: GIFF, PSD, TIFF (DP-BSW, FSX100,MetaMorph), OIR/OIB(Fluoview format)...
I understand that we have actually managed to get the software to give us a PSD file. Hmmm...I guess that's what they mean by "read-only". These images are excellent, and we're using Photoshop to convert to beautiful TIFF. I'm told that the TIFF files created directly are deficient (low resolution? not deep enough? don't know).
So...cellSens->PSD->Photoshop->TIFF appears to work.
cellSens->TIFF *should* work - but something is not understood at the moment.
I would *like* to directly read the VSI files - but I suspect that will be more trouble than it will be worth.
My collaborator would dearly love to IMPORT a PSD file (after marking up the image using Photoshop). I doubt that will
be possible.
We don't want to build a commercial product, and we are purchasing the software. Is is too much to ask for documentation of
the file formats created by the software?
Closed formats are the bane of my existence! Reverse-engineering them is a royal PITA.
Oh well...I tried.
On another topic: will there be anyone in Luxembourg interested in OCT imaging/segmentation? If so, an informal lunch or dinner "session" might be interesting.
On Sep 27, 2010, at 04:54 , Gabriel Landini wrote:
> On Monday 27 Sep 2010 10:47:58 Daniel James White wrote:
>
>> I never heard of this file format before.
>> What olympus imaging system is it from ?
>
> Hi
> It is the 'virtual slide' format used in the Olympus slide scanners (dotSlide
> and other models).
>
> I have the suspicion (but hope not) that this might be a closed format.
> If you have the Olympus scanner system accessible, then one should be able to
> re-save the data in tif tiles (non-lossy) or jpeg (lossy).
>
> Cheers
>
> Gabriel
--
Kenneth Sloan
[hidden email]