6/26/96

Now that digital imaging is with us what are people using for archiving and databasing their images. I am looking for info on commercially available software. Any thoughts would be most appreciated.

Raining in Manchester!!

Chris Gilpin
Biological Sciences Electron Microscope Unit
G452 Stopford Building
Oxford Road
Manchester
M13 9PT
phone +44 161 275 5170
fax +44 161 275 5171
cgilpin@fs1.sem.man.ac.uk

Hi Chris and all other,

about the archiving software: we use PHRASEA on Macintosh systems. In principle it should work fine but we've had a lot of troubles with respect to installation, crashes, lost pictures etc. It looks as if the soft- and hardware are not as yet fully compatible. We choose this package because it fitted best with our needs with respect to having a searchable database in a multiple-user environment.

We plan to store all our images on CD-rom and keep small pictures in the database.

Also, what do you do with your old images (over 20.000 pictures in our case). It takes a lot of time to scan them but you need this to have good use for your look-up tables or searches.

I guess we'll keep working with Phrasea, but I'd like to hear comments on the practical use of such databases.

Nick Schryvers
Antwerp, Belgium
nick_schryvers@ruca.ua.ac.be

Good question Chris! I don't have a good answer but I DO think that this is the next major development issue in both computer imaging and electron microscopy. The former because it's the glaring gap in Microsoft's total computing package concept (my opinion) and the latter because it's a similar gap, but is different in that it probably needs to be addressed by the EM manufacturers (more on that to follow).

The rather unsatisfactory system we use at the moment is to grab our images, save them with a file name based on the stub number and write them to CD-ROM. Other data is still recorded on data sheets. We use Graphics Workshop to view the images (I can let you know why we favour this one).

So, (I'll just hop up onto my soapbox);

Recording data on sheets seems archaic when you have a computer at your fingertips, however, all the computer resources (an old Pentium) are engaged when an image is being recorded, so we cannot enter text into a database at the same time. A really good system for electron microscopy should not intrude upon nor detract from the operation of the instrument (such as changing back and forth between image acquisition and database programs). At the same time it should offer all the benefits of a dual-media database. I don't know of such a system ... but the following is what I'd like to see.

Ultimately, a dual-media database which operates hand-in-glove (like a plug-in) with the EM's proprietary software - which is why I think that the solution will have to come from the EM manufacturers. It would allow the user to enter text data into a buffer WHILE THE IMAGE IS BEING SCANNED, and the image and data saved in the one hit to the relevent cells of the database. It is this part which is currently lacking in the systems I've seen. The system would need to subsequently act as an image browser and be capable of the usual database searches for text strings. There are programs which do the latter but not the former because they are not integral to the image capture.

Universality of such a program will probably demand that it be based on a common database such as Microsoft Access (no financial interests, nor even preference). I don't see that a proprietary database is the solution as it defeats the whole concept of ease of access by the broader community of users. This is particularly evident at the museum where I work. EM is only one (often minor) aspect of research, and the results are integrated into a number of vast databases of the museum's collections and the databases of particular researchers' projects. So, while a 'stand-alone' EM database which can be ported to others would be fine, an 'isolated' EM database would be of little practical use.

Off my soapbox now; I may well have to eat my words if such systems exist of which I am not aware. As EM is a specialty field I don't suppose a total solution will come from anyone but the EM manufacturers. I say 'total solution' because I don't see that we should have to work with patched-up systems. This Listserver is a great forum because if there is enough favourable response, the manufacturers will see it immediately, and who knows...

I'd welcome comments and advice from the EM community and particularly the manufacturers who believe that they already have the goods, and am more than willing to offer input if they are working on just such a system ... it's the sort of thing which would influence MY choice when the time comes for a new SEM.

Geoff Avern
Microscopy Labs
Australian Museum
Sydney, Australia.

Dear Chris and all,

We use the Aequitas archiving software from DDL. We mainly use it to archive light/fluorescence images captured through a Leica Quantimet 600, but it would be equally applicable to electron microscopy images. It is a very easy to use windows program, which allows creation of database forms to the users specification. It supports full searching of the created databases, and archiving to whatever media you have available. Please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.

Mark Munro.
The Soil Biology Unit
SAC Aberdeen
m.munro@ab.sac.ac.uk

[Return to Tips & Tricks Menu]