Employing Advancing Technology to Enhance Imagery of the Microscopic World by Mol Smith (Co-founder Mic-UK)

It has been a long while since I wrote any articles for Micscape - several years in fact. The reason for this is my main love is creating images not just of life at the end of the tube but of females, and for other genres like fantasy. However, much of what I have learnt in my explorations into art could be used to enhance images of the Microscopical World. I thought I might therefore try and inspire adaptation of new technologies into the world of enthusiast microscopy in the hope that many of you readers and visitors have more skill and purpose in your chosen pursuit and therefore you might like to add something amazing to this study area. I am going to discuss several areas of new ideas: lenticular 3D imaging, 3D modelling, Depth-map 3D imaging, and I am also going to offer a £150.00 pound no-strings attached prize from my own money to help encourage a few of you students out there to create something new. For more seasoned microscopists who believe time is better spent at the microscope, I would also like to inspire you too with the ideas here. So... I have introduced a concept which might please one or more of you: an offer of me converting one of your photomicrographs into a stunning 3D image for free! If you prefer to skip my long but hopefully informative article, please do, but make sure you read about both of my free offers here! I created the image on the right from a single image posted in a Micscape article recently by Brian Johnston although I have shown it a bit smaller here on the left. The original photograph, like any taken at the microscope, can be subjected to a variety of image processing techniques today through the use of computers and clever algorithms. We are in the 21st century and any image can be converted into 3d, anaglyph, lenticular 3d, and be shown on monitors and electronic devices in holographic form, and printed - without the need for special glasses. So, I thought I would touch on these processes a bit to show you what can be done! Why should Enthusiast Microscopy not also benefit from new ideas?   You may need to install this to see the above image 1                            next

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