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advice on running ImageJ headless

Posted by Brian Willkie-2 on Apr 28, 2008; 6:08pm
URL: http://imagej.273.s1.nabble.com/advice-on-running-ImageJ-headless-tp3696386.html

Hello,

I need a command line application to process ~17000 images, tracking  
particles and collecting (at least) particle-id, centroid, and area,  
(and possibly standard deviation, min/max, and mean within the  
particle,). I also need to format and write the results to disk, doing  
all with no gui/ no additional interaction once the command-line  
options are set.

I've found a little information on Headless ImageJA from the wiki:

http://imagejdocu.tudor.lu/imagej-documentation-wiki/faq/how-do-i-run-imagej-without-a-graphics-environment-headless/?searchterm=no%20gui

Given the size of this project,  I'd like to solicit some advice on  
how to proceed:
1. Can I run headless ImageJA only in batch mode (i.e. do I have to  
work with macros?), or can I use headless ImageJA to build my own  
application using the ImageJ API?
2. I've had the most success in particle-tracking with MTrack2.  
However MTrack2 won't provide the area (nor standard deviation,  
min/max, nor mean). I don't mind adapting the code myself, but I'd  
like to know if this is the best (only?) option?

If the answers to 1 and 2 are yes, then I assume the way to proceed is:
1. adapt the MTrack2 code for my own plugin to be called in a macro  
following the examples in the ImpProps and Image5D_Extensions plugins.
2. Write a macro that calls my adapted particle-tracking plugin.
3. Run ImageJ from the command line with headless.jar in the  
classpath, the -batch flag, and call my macro.

Does this sound accurate? Am I missing something? Is there a better  
way, or is this the way to go?

Thanks,
Brian Willkie