Image Analysis

Image analysis software (analySIS® a SOFT IMAGING SYSTEM product) is available at the centre for the processing of images and x-ray maps both offline and on the CM100 TEM instrument. Image analysis enables processing of data eg. Quantification of particles sizes and distribution statistics etc. Processing images this way also allows them to be prepared for publication.
Image Analysis allows the visual information in an image to be converted into numerical form, which can be compared and analysed.

A digitised grey-scale image is processed, to highlight the regions of interest, and then converted into a binary (black and white) image. The features of interest, which now appear black against a white background, are then measured and the data output and/or stored and analysed.

Example: Dunaliella salina, a dominant phytoplankter of brackish water lagoons, has a unique property of being able to accumulate large amounts of b-Carotene when cultivated under appropriate conditions (click on images for larger views).

(a) Longitudinal section of Dunaliella salina showing numerous b-Carotene globules dispersed in the chloroplasts.		(b) Binary image of Fig. (a) showing selection and highlighting of only the b-Carotene particles.		(c) Histogram of b-Carotene particle sizes automatically measured from Fig. (b).

Other Image Analysis Software available include :

Olympus Soft Imaging Systems AnalySIS Image Analysis Package

AMIRA 3.1 Geometry Reconstruction Software

FIJI ImageJ a free image analysis software program 

Iatia QPe Phase Contrast Software

ZEISS Kontron Image Analysis Package