Digital imaging processing for biophysical applications

Many biological and biophysical experimental setups rely on digital imaging processing. The introduction of a new generation of digital cameras enables new experiments where time dependent processes can be detected with a high time resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio. However, there are no software tools available with which the full potential of the digital cameras can be explored. Although the data streams of up to 24 MB/s are readily processed by the available hardware, they present an immense challenge to the current software packages. We present a software concept based on the object oriented paradigm, with which digital cameras can be controlled and full images at full rate are captured, processed, and displayed simultaneously over extended time periods, just limited by the capacity of the hard disk space. By implementing wavelet based compression algorithms the obstacle of archiving the immense amount of data is overcome. We present examples in which original data files are compressed to 10% of its original size without loss of information. The modular character of the object based program enables the implementation of a wide range of different applications into the program.