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Re: [school-discuss] digital microscopes that work under Linux



On Thursday 13 December 2007 9:53:47 am Daniel Howard wrote:
> Anybody know which digital microscopes can be made to work easily under
> Linux in a thin client scenario?  Would like options for both 1) a
> single, higher end scope connected to class server and 2) lesser but
> more numerous scopes for each thin client.
>
> Thanks, Daniel

There is a very good open-source microscopy program called micromanager that 
will work on linux.

http://www.micro-manager.org/

Its based on ImageJ http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/

Its  has a level of sophistication that perhaps goes far beyond what it is 
needed in a typical educational environment.

A list of hardware it supports is here:
http://www.micro-manager.org/support.php

A firewire based scope would likely be better supported than  USB. 
Micromanager uses the  libdc1394 firewire library to support firewire cameras

Perhaps a good strategy would be to support a camera system that could be 
mounted on existing traditional optical scope.  Many schools already have 
traditional microscopes/.

A scope using a camera supported by the libdc1394 firewire library should work 
with linux
http://damien.douxchamps.net/ieee1394/libdc1394/

see the IEEE1394 Digital Camera List 
http://damien.douxchamps.net/ieee1394/cameras/
cameras compatible with the  IIDC/DCAM standard should work.

Also look at Coriander- Linux graphical user interface (GUI) for controlling a 
Digital Camera through the IEEE1394
ttp://damien.douxchamps.net/ieee1394/coriander/index.php

Might be possible to mount a cheap firewire camera on the occular of a regular 
scope and control it with Coriander or Mircomanager

We used Micromanager here at the UofS to support a camera that had no 
Macintosh drivers supplied by the manufacturer.  The lab installed 
Micromanager and the camera worked :)

Also used it to support an old digital camera/scope that was no longer support 
by its manufacturer  (unless we spent $1000s to upgrade software)


Gord
-- 
Gordon J. Holtslander		Dept. of Biology
gordon.holtslander@xxxxxxxx	University of Saskatchewan
Tel (306) 966-4433		112 Science Place
FAX (306) 966-4461		Saskatoon, SK
homepage.usask.ca/~gjh289	Canada, S7N 5E2