SIZE AND SHAPE DETERMINATION IN SCANNING MISCROSCOPY

Introduction The mere publication of a monograph entitled Scanning Techniques in Biology and Medicine clearly demonstrates the current and growing interest in quantitation of certain areas in medicine and biology. Inspection of the specific titles of the program of this conference shows the extent of the activity, microscanning of cellular preparations in particular. Most of the work reported in the literature on quantitative cytology and histology is concerned with optical measurements made on idividual cells, or components of cells which have been selected by the human investigator. Some assistance can be given to the investigator by automating some of the measurement and data reduction operations.’ z 2 But there are many studies requiring large quantities or data, not allowing time for the imposition of human judgment and selection of the individual test specimens. Furthermore, the specimen of interest is often imbedded in a population of other more or less morphologically similar entities. Thus, a problem has been created requiring the automatic selection of the objects of interest from the balance of the “mixed field.” This paper will discuss: (1) the implication of real-time methods of specimen selection versus off-line methods, and (2) some of the detailed methods of selecting automatically the objects of interest in both systems.