Fourier ring correlation method for calculating image resolution - a worthy ImageJ coding challenge

Posted by John Oreopoulos on
URL: http://imagej.273.s1.nabble.com/Fourier-ring-correlation-method-for-calculating-image-resolution-a-worthy-ImageJ-coding-challenge-tp5003126.html

I would like to bring to the attention of the ImageJ community a very important (in my opinion) research article which is now available on the advanced online publication section of Nature Methods:

Nieuwenhuizen, R.P.J., et al., Measuring image resolution in optical nanoscopy. Nat Meth, 2013. advance online publication.

http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nmeth.2448.html

This article presents the concept "Fourier ring correlation" - originally developed for electron microscopy/tomography of single biological protein complexes, now applied to optical super-resolution localization microscopy - a method which, among other things, can directly calculate the image resolution from the raw image data without relying on any models or external/indirect calibration. The method can also be used to determine when is a good time to end a super-resolution localization microscopy acquisition session (ie: identifying the frame number at which point the resolution is not improving anymore). Thankfully the authors of this paper provide an ImageJ and Matlab plugin which can be used to apply the calculation to localization microscopy data points (a list of xy localization coordinates). The authors also point out that this method of figuring out the image resolution can be applied to other diffraction-limited forms of fluorescence imaging, including TIRF and confocal microscopy. All that is required in this case is two or more images of the same sample that only differ in noise content. While the Matlab routine can be used with regular fluorescence imaging data, unfortunately the authors have not had the time to extend the ImageJ plugin in the same manner.

I see value in the idea that Fourier ring correlation could be used as a model-independent measure of microscope image resolution across all forms of fluorescence imaging (super-resolution or diffraction-limited), and if it were available to everyone through ImageJ, perhaps it might become a more accepted standard for reporting image resolution. I am wondering if there is anyone out there in the ImageJ community able and willing to take on the challenge of extending the authors ImageJ plugin for this purpose. This task is beyond my coding capabilities.

Sincerely,

John Oreopoulos
Staff Scientist
Spectral Applied Research
Richmond Hill, Ontario
Canada
www.spectral.ca
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