a real-time system for light field microscopy (original) (raw)

LFDisplay:

LFDisplay is an open-source, cross-platform, GPU-accelerated software package for real-time viewing of microscope light fields. When used in conjunction with a light field microscope (LFM) such as the one pictured at left above designed by Logan Grosenick and Todd Anderson, it allows the user to interactively explore a specimen under the microscope through the use of virtual tilting and refocusing. This gives the user a three-dimensional feel of the specimen normally not available through the use of ordinary optical microscopy. To see a movie of LFDisplay in action, look at the April 8, 2007 article in ourlight field micrograph archive. For more information, consult the documentation (also linked below).

LFDisplay uses the graphics processing unit (GPU) found on everyday personal computers to perform real-time light field rendering and refocusing. The input light field is loaded into the GPU and processed using shaders (part of the OpenGL 2.0 specifications). It currently supports streaming raw light field images from a QImaging Retiga 4000R camera, as well as loading pre-recorded light field images from disk. Running in the latter mode, it can be used to view any light field stored as a 2D image in the format described in Ren Ng's2005 technical report on the light field camera. However, LFDisplay's user interface is customized for microscopy.

Resources

• A Practical Introduction to Light Field Microscopy [HTML/PDF]
  This manual shows you how a typical light field microscope is setup and includes a tutorial on how to use the basic features of LFDisplay.
• Download LFDisplay [(Intel) Mac/Windows]
  These are ready-to-run binaries premade for Windows XP and Mac OS X. They require a graphics card that supports OpenGL 2.0.
• Download sample microscope light fields [ZIP]
  These are ready-to-explore light field images captured from a light field microscope. Please follow the instructions in the archive to get started with LFDisplay without a light field microscope setup. Detailed instructions for the usage of LFDisplay can be found in the manual linked above.
• Download LFDisplay Source Code [ZIP]
  The source code is available for developers to make their own modifications to the code for their custom needs. You do not need this if you wish to simply run LFDisplay.
• Visit the light field microscopy project webpage.
• Read the original SIGGRAPH 2006 paper on light field microscopy.
• Read the 2009 Journal of Microscopy paper on light field microscopy and illumination.

License

This software package is copyright 2010 the Board of Trustees of The Leland Stanford Junior University. It is released under the GNU General Public License 2.0.

Contact

Please contact us at graphics-lfdisplay@lists.stanford.edu if you have any questions, comments or suggestions about the software.