imaging and machine vision europe june/july 2010 www.imveurope.com


news 7


3D hand scanner to monitor rheumatoid


arthritis A 3D custom hand scanner has been developed for a major medical research centre to monitor the progression of rheumatoid arthritis. The scanner developed by ThreeRivers 3D, a 3D imaging solutions company based near Pittsburgh US, can track volume changes and joint inflammation in arthritic hands over a period of time. Rheumatoid Arthritis is an autoimmune disease that attacks many tissues and organs, but principally affects synovial joints (hands, feet, knees and elbows) causing chronic inflammation and deformation.


The system consists of Prosilica GC1290C cameras from Allied Vision Technologies (AVT) and a thermal camera, which are mounted at the top of a frame, looking down at the palm rest where the patients place their hands. Two laser scanners and internal Prosilica GC1290s are set up on the side of the structure at a 45° angle.


Each scanner projects 50 patterns that will help capture image data to create a 3D image of the patient’s hand. Each 3D rendition is captured in less than five seconds to ensure optimal quality and minimise blurring. Once captured the 50 images are post-processed by the system’s computer to create a 3D rendition of the patient’s hand. ThreeRivers 3D selected the Prosilica GC1290 series for its compact size allowing flexible mounting orientations, its high dynamic range and spectral response facilitating the use of eye-safe lasers for the capture of 3D images in ambient room lighting, as well as advanced triggering options for synchronised scan data capturing.


Imaging technique resolves molecules to 10-20nm


US researchers have developed a super-resolution, 3D imaging technique that can resolve single fluorescent molecules with 10 times greater precision than conventional optical microscopy. By being able to locate molecules to within 12-20nm in all three axes, the researchers hope to be able to observe interactions between nanometre-scale intracellular structures previously too small to see.


This major advance in 3D


super-resolution imaging has been achieved by combining two concepts: super-resolution imaging by sparse photoactivation


of single-molecule labels (PALM, STORM, F-PALM), coupled with a double-helix point spread function (DH-PSF) to provide accurate z-position information. The technique uses the highly sensitive Andor iXon+ EMCCD camera. Professor W. E. Moerner at


Stanford University and his team have called the technique single molecule Double Helix Photoactivated Localisation Microscopy (DH-PALM), and are confident that it will provide far more useful information than is the case for other approaches to extracting 3D


news from emVA By Kirsten Braun


The eighth European Machine Vision Business Conference was held in Istanbul from 16 to 17 April. With about 150 attendees representing 20 nations, the conference recorded a high level of attendance, in line with previous years. Four different conference sessions focused on machine vision in Turkey, business and technology trends, as well as machine vision markets with an in-depth breakdown of the markets in Europe, North America and Japan. The motivational speech of Mark McGregor imparted a deeper insight into leadership and showed different approaches for coping with the current challenges. Throughout the conference attendees benefited from ample networking opportunities, one of the primary goals of the conference.


The ninth EMVA Business Conference will take place from 13


to 14 May 2011 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.


One of the main projects of


EMVA is the development of standards for the machine vision industry. Hence, the cooperation agreement on global coordination of machine vision standardisation, which has been established by EMVA, AIA (Automated Imaging Association) and JIIA (Japan Industrial Imaging Association) to establish and expand future projects and activities. The agreement aims to coordinate the development of machine vision standards on a global level, broadening their reach and thereby promoting the use of machine vision technology worldwide. The increase and the quality of information exchange and support will benefit members from all three associations. Finally, the European Vision


Technology Market Statistics 2010 report will soon be published,


providing up-to-date industry data, primarily generated direct from machine vision companies in Europe. This makes the report a basis for strategic decisions and an exclusive source of data that is not available from any other survey in the field. Industry sales are broken down into regions, product types, applications, and customer industries. In addition to the European statistics, readers now find three country-specific reports covering machine vision in Germany, Italy and – for the first time – in the United Kingdom. Industry outsiders benefit from detailed explanations of technical terms and an introduction to machine vision technology. All European machine vision companies are invited to participate in the annual EMVA market survey and in turn will receive complete results free of charge. All other interested parties are invited to purchase the study from EMVA.


positional information. ‘We expect that the DH-PSF optics will become a regular attachment on advanced microscopes, either for super-resolution 3D imaging of structures, or for 3D super-resolution tracking of individually labelled bio- molecules in cells or other environments.’


The Andor iXon+ EMCCD camera allowed the researchers to detect a large number of photons, which provided greater precision. Speed of imaging was also important, as multiple images were needed for each reconstruction.


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