Visual Exploration of Principles of Formation of Microscopic Image Intensities Using Image Explorer Software

摘要

The article demonstrates the most frequent mistakes made upon the transformation of digital images in biology. An image is formed by a few physical processes which contribute to each color channel in a different way. In the case of microscopic image in transmitting light, these processes are mainly light diffraction and absorption and autofluo-rescence of objects, which are all followed by distortion of wavefronts by the microscope optics. The final image is then a result of these processes in the plane of the camera chip. The article further reports methods to avoid (ⅰ) misconceptions due to apparent coloration after transformation of the original signal on the camera chip into color image and (ⅱ) loss of the resolution after reduction of intensity depth from 12-bit to 8-bit.