Optimal 3D reconstruction of serially sectioned microscopic images by computer

The three-dimensional structure of an object observed through a light microscope can be estimated by observing a sequence of images taken by moving the plane of focus through the object. This technique is known as serial sectioning. At each focusing plane, the image obtained is not that of a slice of the specimen at that level, since portions of the object from the planes above and below are also visible. The structures not in the plane of focus are blurred and reduce the usable information contained in each slice. We refer to this reduction in information as out-of-focus noise. The objective of this work is to develop means for obtaining a more accurate three-dimensional image of the object by processing the image to remove the out-of-focus degradation.