Image SXM

Last updated
Image SXM
Developer(s) Steve Barrett (University of Liverpool)
Stable release
2.02 / April 2018 (2018-04)
Operating system (Mac OS, Mac OS X)
Type Image processing
License Freeware (no source code) [1]
Website ImageSXM.org.uk

Image SXM is an image analysis software specialized in scanning microscope images. It is based on the public domain software NIH Image (now ImageJ from the National Institutes of Health) and extended to handle scanning microscope images, especially of the SxM formats (SAM, SCM, SEM, SFM, SLM, SNOM, SPM, STM), hence its name.

ImageJ image processing software

ImageJ is a Java-based image processing program developed at the National Institutes of Health and the Laboratory for Optical and Computational Instrumentation. Its first version, ImageJ 1.x, is developed in the public domain, while ImageJ2 and the related projects SciJava, ImgLib2 and SCIFIO are licensed with a permissive BSD-2 license. ImageJ was designed with an open architecture that provides extensibility via Java plugins and recordable macros. Custom acquisition, analysis and processing plugins can be developed using ImageJ's built-in editor and a Java compiler. User-written plugins make it possible to solve many image processing and analysis problems, from three-dimensional live-cell imaging to radiological image processing, multiple imaging system data comparisons to automated hematology systems. ImageJ's plugin architecture and built-in development environment has made it a popular platform for teaching image processing.

National Institutes of Health Medical research organization in the United States

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late 1870s and is now part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The majority of NIH facilities are located in Bethesda, Maryland. The NIH conducts its own scientific research through its Intramural Research Program (IRP) and provides major biomedical research funding to non-NIH research facilities through its Extramural Research Program.

Contents

Features

Image SXM supports image stacks, a series of images that share a single window. It can calculate area and pixel value statistics of user-defined selections and intensity thresholded objects. It can measure distances and angles. It can create density histograms and line profile plots. It supports standard image processing functions such as logical and arithmetical operations between images, contrast manipulation, convolution, Fourier analysis, sharpening, smoothing, edge detection and median filtering. It does geometric transformations such as image scaling, rotation and flips. The program supports any number of images simultaneously, limited only by available memory.

Convolution mathematical operation

In mathematics convolution is a mathematical operation on two functions to produce a third function that expresses how the shape of one is modified by the other. The term convolution refers to both the result function and to the process of computing it. Some features of convolution are similar to cross-correlation: for real-valued functions, of a continuous or discrete variable, it differs from cross-correlation only in that either f (x) or g(x) is reflected about the y-axis; thus it is a cross-correlation of f (x) and g(−x), or f (−x) and g(x). For continuous functions, the cross-correlation operator is the adjoint of the convolution operator.

Fourier analysis Branch of mathematics regarding periodic and continuous signals

In mathematics, Fourier analysis is the study of the way general functions may be represented or approximated by sums of simpler trigonometric functions. Fourier analysis grew from the study of Fourier series, and is named after Joseph Fourier, who showed that representing a function as a sum of trigonometric functions greatly simplifies the study of heat transfer.

Edge detection includes a variety of mathematical methods that aim at identifying points in a digital image at which the image brightness changes sharply or, more formally, has discontinuities. The points at which image brightness changes sharply are typically organized into a set of curved line segments termed edges. The same problem of finding discontinuities in one-dimensional signals is known as step detection and the problem of finding signal discontinuities over time is known as change detection. Edge detection is a fundamental tool in image processing, machine vision and computer vision, particularly in the areas of feature detection and feature extraction.

History

Image SXM is based upon a similar freeware image analysis program known as NIH Image (that had been developed by the National Institutes of Health for Macintosh computers running pre-Mac OS X operating systems), now become ImageJ.

See also

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References

  1. FAQ "Q: Is Image SXM public domain? Is it freeware? Is it shareware? A: Image SXM is a version of the public domain application NIH Image and is distributed freely to anyone interested in using it. Image SXM is not public domain because the source code is not distributed with the application (this is part of the definition of public domain)."

NIH Image