owicki@lapis.berkeley.edu.UUCP (02/20/87)
Do you know of any image-analysis software that runs on VAX-architecture machines? Preferably free or inexpensive. Here are more details: I want to analyze features of electron-microscope images of cell membranes. Each electron micrograph contains hundreds to thousands of approximately circular blobs (each a protein molecule); the software must recognize the blobs automatically and report the area and centroid coordinates of each. Some standard image-processing operations (e.g., thresholding, dilation-erosion) may precede the feature analysis. Blazing speed isn't necessary. Difficult cases must be handled interactively. Run-together blobs can be recognized by area or shape criteria and presented to the operator for editing, e.g. using a mouse. I have access to good image digitization equipment and probably could buy a VAXStation II through one of U.C. Berkeley's sweetheart deals with DEC. The monochrome display on the VAXStation II is sufficient for my needs; anyway, I don't have the money to buy both the computer and a fancy graphics display. Although have quite a bit of experience writing applications code on micros and mainframes, I don't want to try to write the image analysis programs from scratch. I would consider modifications, though. So I need software to do basic image processing, blob recognition, and interactive editing on a VAXStation II screen. Any ideas? Since this is a fairly specialized request, it would be best to reply to me directly at this account. Jack Owicki Dept. of Biophysics U.C. Berkeley (415) 643-8879