Digital Image Processing and Analysis

New discoveries in the life sciences are often linked to the development of unique optical tools that allow experimental material to be examined in new ways. We as microscopists are constantly searching for new techniques for extracting even more optical information from the material we work with, as the subject of this book aptly demonstrates. It is not surprising then that microscopists have begun to turn to computer technology in order to squeeze more information from their experimental images. Computer processing can be used to obtain numerical information from the microscope image that is more accurate, less time-consuming, and more reproducible than the same operations performed by other methods. Computer processing can be used to enhance the appearance of the microscope image, for example to increase contrast or to reduce noise, in ways that are difficult to duplicate using photographic or video techniques alone. When used to their fullest power, digital image-processing techniques can be used to produce information about the optical image that cannot be obtained in any other way.