5/2/96

One of our colleagues would like to do 3D reconstructions from serial histological sections on a PC. Over the years he has tried this a few times with drawing tablets and various early graphics software but always given up because it has been ultimately easier to do it with pencil and paper. He now has a better setup with 'scope, CCD and speedy Pentium but we still have the perennial problem of registering successive sections.

Can anybody tell me of any DOS/Windows (even Unix) image analysis software (or dedicated reconstruction software) which allows for independent registration of slices within a stack and maybe 'rubber-sheeting' as well?

I know that Prism allows this but it is Mac-based. Elsewhere in our Museum we have Mac versions of both Dicer and VoxelView (around 1990 versions) but neither of these lets us move sections.

Any help gratefully received,

Geoff Avern

GeoffA,
For 3D reconstruction as well as digital confocal (i.e., reduction of out-of-focus haze in optical sectioning) VAYTEK, Inc. has several very nice software products for PC. Their software is available as well for Mac and for UNIX systems. VOXBLAST will do your 3D reconstruction. I understand that VAYTEK has developed a new product for "rubber sheeting" sections for a better fit, though I've not seen this. MicroTome and HazeBuster are products that employ digital deconvolution methods to sharpen each image in a series of frames acquired at incremental planes of focus in a thick section. The deconvolution algorithms are much more sophisticated than conventional edge enhancement filters found most image processing software. The VAYTEK products are available as "stand-alone" windows programs or as "plug-ins" to image analysis packages such as Media Cybernetics Image Pro Plus. You can get more information about the products at VAYTEK's web site
http://www.vaytek.com
GeoffA,
For 3D reconstruction as well as digital confocal (i.e., reduction of out-of-focus haze in optical sectioning) VAYTEK, Inc. has several very nice software products for PC. Their software is available as well for Mac and for UNIX systems. VOXBLAST will do your 3D reconstruction. I understand that VAYTEK has developed a new product for "rubber sheeting" sections for a better fit, though I've not seen this. MicroTome and HazeBuster are products that employ digital deconvolution methods to sharpen each image in a series of frames acquired at incremental planes of focus in a thick section. The deconvolution algorithms are much more sophisticated than conventional edge enhancement filters found most image processing software. The VAYTEK products are available as "stand-alone" windows programs or as "plug-ins" to image analysis packages such as Media Cybernetics Image Pro Plus. You can get more information about the products at VAYTEK's web site
http://www.vaytek.com

John M. Libert

Geoff Avern asks about a PC-based system that will do serial section reconstructions. The Neurolucida System from MicroBrightField will do what you want to do. Their phone number is 802-655-9360. If you move to a Mac system, NIH Image has macros for serial section reconstruction, I think.

Udin, Susan

Noesis the marketers of Visilog, a powerful image and analysis software package will introduce a 3d reconstruction module in the fall of 96. This new module will be running under Windows NT in 32 bit mode.

A new version of Visilog is now available under Windows 95 and NT plus all Unix based workstations. The user interface has been totally redesigned and is much more user friendly.

For more information contact the undersigned.

Luc Nocente

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