Integrated Microscopy : From Design Philosophy to Applications

Abstract

Microscopy and ObjectsObject oriented programming (OOP) has been used to develop computer applications for many years. It has proven very efficient for the manipulation of data structures that share common elements and evolve over time. We observed that this approach might prove invaluable for microscopy where we, as researchers, developers and end-users, have to deal with many media (images, spectra, electrical measurements, databases, simulations, etc.) to accomplish a given characterization project. Particularly, since these media evolve as researchers find new techniques and manufacturers improve their instruments. In addition, the goals and aims of a project may also change with time. The ability to reuse information that has already been acquired/generated then becomes crucial to success since this avoids the cost of repeating an analysis when information that was considered unimportant suddenly becomes of interest. In this context all results, acquisition parameters, instrument and processing tool settings, are relevant. The need for modularity, completeness and adaptation of information guided our design for the information structure used to develop the integrated characterization system. It is based on 3 types of small data objects. The first type carries the properties of each physical object (microscope, EDX spectrometer, specimen stage, sample, etc.). The second type carries acquired data such as images, spectra, etc. Finally, the last type of small data object carries the processed results such as hardness, composition, features sizes, distribution, etc. A characterization project can then be represented like any compound document as shown in figure 1. This architecture can be used inside applications as well as with storage devices (where objects are saved in compound files). Those objects can also contain hierarchy information such as the relationship between objects (i.e. “is subset of, , “is generator of, or “is defined by”).