this is a brief tutorial outlining the
functionality of 3d surface inspector in
image pro plus we begin by previewing a
live image of an insect that
demonstrates a common problem the depth
of field of our objective lens is
shorter than that of our object and thus
many planes are out of focus as you can
see here
choosing advanced 3d surface inspector
we will open a proven tool used overcome
our narrow depth of field this window
contains four tabs manual acquire Auto
acquire focus settings and measurement
we'll start off demonstrating a manual
acquisition using 3d surface inspector
as the acquisition interface we choose
our initial position in microns an
estimated Delta Z between the planes
direction of acquisition bottom-up or
top-down and the option to generate
montages and topographical maps we
choose to either use step-by-step
capture or continuous capture we'll
begin with a manual step by step capture
simply clicking the acquire button to
capture an image at the initial Z
position and then manually moving the
focus from bottom up or top down the
distance referenced in the Delta Z
continue adding images to the newly
created Z stack by clicking acquire
until you have captured all the InFocus
planes of your object this can be as
many or as few as you desire be aware
however that the larger the distance
between the planes the more difficult it
becomes to reconstruct the InFocus
pixels in the topographical map created
later here we are adding 11 Z positions
which automatically create an image Pro
sequence file as the planes are captured
when the stack has been completed simply
choose the finish button to display an
EDF image topographical map and 11
position sequence file
after completion the images will load
we will stop our live preview
and here you see the extended depth of
field 2d image with the Z measurements
overlaid at the crosshairs of the mouse
Z positions are referenced from the
topographical map where intensities
represent Z heights in Enfocus pixels
lastly the sequence file is available to
play through the new sequence and save
for future use
the next option in the manual tab is a
continuous capture mode we will close
the previous acquisition enter the
number of images we would like to
acquire 30 surface inspector will
display the appropriate range between
the first and last Z position captured
based on the Delta Z once these have
been entered choosing a choir begins the
acquisition we simply continuously move
through our focus at a constant rate
from the initial position to the extent
of our range value
the continuous capture will acquire the
of images entered with no need to click
buttons simply moving the focus on your
microscope
the result will be the same as before
with an EDF image that displays on image
Z height profiles
also a topographical map
and a sequence file that is easy to
navigate with the sequence toolbar this
sequence is automatically created using
these two modes of acquisition you can
then save this sequence file for later
use analysis surface renderings or
anything you can think of
if we had captured this stack earlier or
not chosen to create an EDF and
topographical map then we can perform
this from the focus settings tab simply
selecting the active sequence file on
the desktop and choosing add and either
bottom-up or top-down acquisition we
then simply click create this will
produce our EDF image referencing the z
positions measured in the topographical
map
moving to the measure tab we can
generate more robust surface
measurements with the active EDF
selected and clicking surface plot we
can display an estimated surface
rendering based on the plane
we're in focus detail was found here you
can use your mouse to easily maneuver
the surface rendering and view it from
any side to desire options our site
along the top to display the rendering
as a wireframe
a pseudo color or with the texture from
your EDF image contrast enhancement and
shadow enhancement also help visualize
along with the display axis calibrated
in XY and Z we can choose to adjust the
lighting elevation and rotation our
viewpoint of the image you can view it
from X Y X Z or Y Z viewpoints and we
can reset this view as well
Z scaling can be applied to the surface
plot along with a normalized option
if I like my settings and I want to snap
a quick 2d picture of my surface plot I
can choose new image and this will
create a snapshot in my image Pro
workspace I can also create an animation
of my surface plot by choosing
horizontal or vertical rotation the
number of steps rotation angle and even
a preset sea-salt animation that will
rock back and forth and I can generate
an automatic avi movie closing my
surface plot I can look at my new movie
play through it and share with my
colleagues if you have any further
questions or like more information about
this product please contact your local
dealer sales office or technical support