Image Acquisition, Scientific Research, Engineering, Quality Control, Microscopy, Digital Imaging, digital deconvolution, scientific software, VayTek, vaytek

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Image Acquisition

Image acquisition is the first and most important step in Digital Imaging Systems. All deconvolution algorithms need high quality images, i.e., images with high dynamic range, good signal/noise ratio, and minimal noise. High quality images require a good microscope, a camera appropriate to the specimens, a frame grabber board, a computer and software to integrate the system.

VayTek can help you configure your image acquisition system by:

Informing your company about the optimal hardware mix for your specimens.

Retrofitting new equipment and software to existing equipment - thus saving you money.

Creating a system for automated optical sectioning and color images.

Integrating a complete system with cameras and peripherals, including:

Photometrics
Photonic Science
Optronics
Hamamatsu
Dage
Ludl
Prior
Nikon
Sutter
Polytec

NEW VayTek Image (TM) -- VayTek Image is an image processing and data acquisition software. It allows scientists to capture images in real time from their microscope and process the images to bring out the relevant features. This free download of VayTek Image provides software that can only use existing images to perform its functions. VayTek Image is designed to capture images from various digital cameras. Customers can contact VayTek to purchase and activate the camera controls.

Download VayTekImage 2.0.116, May 13, 2003, for Windows, 17.3 MB

More details: VayTek Image is a general purpose 2D Image acquisition and analysis tool. VayTek Image is not a deconvolution tool although it has menu items to launch Deconvolution, VolumeScan, VoxBlast, as well as VoxBlast Light and Blind Deconvolution.
Image Acquisition: Using TWAIN device interface, users can capture images and display them in the VayTek Image window. This function is available in the free version of VayTek Image. The user can also capture images from QImaging, QImaging Intensified, Hamamatsu, and Cooke cameras, but users must pay VayTek to have this capability activated.
Image Analysis: All of the basic image manipulation functions are included in the free version. This includes Rotation, Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation, and Gamma adjustments, Inverting, and Resizing. The user can convert images from color to gray, from 16 to 8 bit, merge colors, extract channels, and annotate. Users can take simple measurements, apply one of 19 filters, use cutting tools, fill, and much more. Contact VayTek for more information.

VolumeScan for Windows 9X/NT

VolumeScan is a group of software modules, developed by VayTek, that requires the current version of Image-Pro Plus for Windows. VolumeScan is designed to make the setup and control of hardware add-ons easy and simple. The modules range from simple control of one Z azis motor, to the more complex, coordinated control of an X & Y stage, a Z axis motor, shutter and filter wheel to capture color images over time from dim fluorescent specimens. You may Download VolumeScan Demo (6.1 MB)

VolumeScan includes complex, coordinated control of an X & Y stage, Ludl filter wheel and shutter control, as well as control for the CRI color filter C-Mnt to C-Mnt add-on that gives a grayscale CCD camera true color capability for most microscope systems. The filter wheel allows you to capture multiple stacks of images using different fluorescence filters and different exposure times. It also includes time lapse volume scanning control for capturing multiple volumes over time. Time lapse volume scanning requires large amounts of hard disk space. controls any camera that is compatible with Image-Pro and a Z axis motor. Current Z axis systems supported include Ludl and Polytec as well as the automated Zeiss Axiophot 2, Olympus AX-70, Leica DMR and the Nikon Eclipse. (In the past, VolumeScan has supported other Z-stage systems not mentioned above. If you have a Z-stage system not mentioned above, please contact VayTek to find out if support is available.) VolumeScan also includes integration control for a cooled CCD camera.

VTrace - General Purpose, Region-based, 2D Image Analysis Program

VTrace is a 2D image measurement program developed by VayTek. It creates regions of interest and outputs statistics based on those regions of interest. The statistics include ROI statistics and pixel statistics. ROI statistics are area, perimeter, length, major/minor axes, xy position, centroid and histogram. Pixel statistics include mean, standard deviation, maximum, minimum, running sum, etc. VTrace has a palette editor and allows for spatial and intensity calibration of the 2D image. It also allows the user to crop and cut to the ROI, then save the cropped images. This lets the user fill an ROI, and save a series of cropped or filled ROIs to create subvolumes. It also has a tracing editor and allows for autotracing of the images. VTrace reads and writes 8 bit or 16 bit raw images. It also reads and writes the TIFF image format, and the SGI image library format.

Features

computes 2D statistics on regions of interest and pixels
palette editor
sophisticated tracing editor
creates subvolumes

Applications

2D and 3D microscopy
volumetric editing
MR and CT scans
densitometry
X-ray analysis
general purpose 2D region analysis program

Technical Specifications

written in X11 and Motif
supports 8 bit pseudocolor and 24 bit visuals
8 bit or 16 bit images, raw or TIFF format

Requirements

most UNIX platforms
X11 server
24 bit (recommended) or 8 bit color monitor
64 Mb RAM (larger data sets may require additional RAM)

Slice Align - Software to Align and Register a Stack of 2D Images

The Slice Align package, developed by VayTek, consists of two programs: the first program lets a user align a stack of 2D images so they can be used in 3D reconstruction or deconvolution. The user identifies fiduciary points on two consecutive images, then aligns the two images to those selected points. After all the images are aligned, the second program loads all the images into memory and computes the final adjustments automatically using a least squares approach. These programs currently run on SGI and IBM computers. Contact VayTek for details.

This program is often used with Surfer described below.

Surfer - 3D Surface Extraction for 3D Rendering

This program, developed by VayTek, is most often used in combination with the Slice Align programs outlined above. Re-registered images sometimes do not render well due to the odd alignments of the boundaries on re-registered images. Surfer lets the user outline (by tracing) the areas of interest in each 2D image. After all the areas have been traced, Surfer extracts a surface based on the multiple 2D traces. The extracted surface can be rendered in VoxBlast. Surfer is currently available on SGI machines. Contact VayTek for details.

Articles recommended by VayTek that are available on this website:

Appropriate Light Sources: Advantages of digital haze removal
Single Image Haze Removal from an Archived File
Haze Removal from Color Images and Composite Top Views
A Comparison of Digital Deconvolution and Scanning Confocal Images
Data Acquisition Issues and Cameras Appropriate for Deconvolution
Data Acquisition Issues: Image acquisition techniques
Introduction to Digital Systems for Microscopy: Microscopy fundamentals
Selected Papers: Limits of depth measurements on stereo pairs
Technical Note: Deconvolution algorithms and how they work
What cameras are suitable for deconvolution?
What resolution should I have for my camera?
Formula for computing optimal step size for deconvolution

For pricing information contact us at vaytek@vaytek.com or call 641-472-2227.

Copyright: All information on this World Wide Web site is copyrighted and may be reproduced only with permission from VayTek, Inc.