A novel machine vision application for analysis and visualization of confocal microscopic images (original) (raw)

Visualization and interactive exploration of multidimensional confocal images

Computerized medical imaging and graphics : the official journal of the Computerized Medical Imaging Society

A confocal image analysis system is developed for automatic extraction of surface representation of biological structures. A visualization system is also developed to manipulate these surface representations and to obtain morphometrical parameters and provides a powerful tool for biomedical research such as microstructural characterization, morphogenesis, cell differentiation, tissue organization, and embryo development.

Confocal Stereology and Image Analysis: Methods for Estimating Geometrical Characteristics of Cells and Tissues from Three-Dimensional Confocal Images

2004

A short review of confocal stereology and three-dimensional image analysis is presented, pointing out the achievements accomplished in this field by the Department of Biomathematics (Institute of Physiology, Prague). One of the methods of confocal stereology, the fakir method for surface area estimation, developed by this laboratory, is described. Methods for automatic measurement of geometrical characteristics of microscopical structures, based on 3-D image processing or surface triangulation, are discussed and compared with interactive stereological methods. Three-dimensional reconstruction programs and software implementation of stereological and digital methods as well as their practical applications are presented. The future trends are discussed.

Three-dimensional reconstruction of biological objects using a graphics engine

Computers and Biomedical Research, 1987

A common problem in the study of biological material is the determination of threedimensional structure from serial sections. The large number of sections required to obtain sufficient internal detail of a structure results in enormous processing requirements. These requirements can now be satisfied by current graphics engine technology in combination with image-digitizing hardware. The previously onerous tasks of manipulating and displaying 3D objects become routine with this combination of technologies. We report a computerassisted reconstruction system on a graphics engine-based workstation. The system accepts images from any video source and includes a utility for aligning adjacent video images. Also available is an editor for geometric object entry and editing. More novel in our approach is the use of video interiors in 3D displays in addition to contours and tiled surfaces. Video interiors is a form of display in which digitized pixels interior to objects are revealed by cutaway blocks.

Software-based three dimensional reconstructions and enhancements of focal depth in microphotographic images

Software-based, the focal depth in light microscopic photographic images can be enhanced fundamentally. Thus, three dimensional images are achievable, comparable with scanning electron microscopic results. Moreover several parameters which determine the quality of microscopic images can be improved by averaging. For these purposes, a vertical stack has to be taken as sequence or scan, consisting of several single images with different planes of focus. The single images are software-based superimposed; only regions, which are in focus, contribute to the resulting reconstructed image. Resulting images are without any unsharpness, with independence from the vertical dimension of the specimen or the magnification and focal depth of the objective.

Digital image processing of confocal images

Image and Vision Computing, 1983

In a confocal imaging system, the image is built up point by point and is therefore well suited for image digitization and processing. A confocal system also allows range information to be obtained which facilitates an understanding of the 3D structure of the object. The results of several digital image processing techniques applied to images from a confocal scanning optical microscope are presented.

Feature extraction from three-dimensional images in quantitative microscopy

Micron and Microscopica Acta, 1992

Different methods are investigated in selecting and generating the appropriate microscope images for analysis of three-dimensional objects in quantitative microscopy. Traditionally, the 'best' focused image from a set is used for quantitative analysis. Such an objectively determined image isoptimal for the extraction ofsome features, but may not be the best image for the extraction of all features. Various methods using multiple images are here developed to obtain a tighter distribution for all features.