3D Imaging Made Quicker, Easier Using New Technology

This new technology, developed by scientists from the Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD, USA) and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel), is called FINCH, (Fresnel incoherent correlation holography) and could have implications in medical applications such as endoscopy, ophthalmology, computed tomography (CT) scanning, X-ray imaging, and ultrasound, according to co-inventor Dr. Gary Brooker. He reported that it might also be applicable to homeland security screening, 3D photography, and 3D video.

A report presenting the first demonstration of this technology--with a 3D microscope called a FINCHSCOPE--will appear in the March 2008 issue of the journal Nature Photonics and is available on the Nature Photonics website. "Normally, 3D imaging requires taking multiple images on multiple planes and then reconstructing the images,” said Dr. Brooker, director of the Johns Hopkins University Microscopy Center on the University's Montgomery County Campus. "This is a slow process that is restricted to microscope objectives that have less than optimal resolving power. For this reason, holography currently is not widely applied to the field of 3D fluorescence microscopic imaging.”

The FINCH technology and the FINCHSCOPE utilizes microscope objectives with the highest resolving power, a spatial light modulator, a charge-coupled device camera, and some simple filters to enable the acquisition of 3D microscopic images without the need for scanning multiple planes.

The researchers used the FINCHSCOPE to capture a 3D still image, but moving 3D images are coming, according to Dr. Brooker and co-inventor Dr. Joseph Rosen, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. "With traditional 3D imaging, you cannot capture a moving object,” Dr. Brooker said. "With the FINCHSCOPE, you can photograph multiple planes at once, enabling you to capture a 3D image of a moving object. Researchers now will be able to track biological events happening quickly in cells.”

"In addition, the FINCH technique shows great promise in rapidly recording 3D information in any scene, independent of illumination,” Dr. Rosen said.

The research was funded by CellOptic, Inc. (Rockville, MD, USA) and a U.S. National Science Foundation grant with the technology being demonstrated using equipment at the Johns Hopkins Montgomery County Campus Microscopy Center.


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Johns Hopkins University
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
CellOptic