Existing imaging devices give only a glimpse of the full range of information available in a specimen. Imagery from high magnification microscopes only provide a small portion of the subject in focus at any given moment. SEM (scanning electron microscopy) devices provide a higher depth of field and focus but are not able to image the entire subject area at full magnifications. Researchers are challenged with the choice between imaging a small localized area in great detail or imaging the whole specimen without the benefit of the microscopic detail.

At institutions such as the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, this challenge is even greater when combined with the task of analyzing surface features, conducting comparison studies, archiving, and providing open access to the millions of specimens in their collection. Across a wide-range of biology disciplines, these basic fundamental challenges are barriers to key research and discovery.

Below are examples of biological specimens that have been imaged during the development, prototyping, and testing phase...



This test specimen was imaged by Gene Cooper with the Micro GigaPan Imager prototype. The purpose of the test was to examine the potential and capabilities of layering multiple images to conduct comparisons of ventral and dorsal views.

Click Here to View Full Size Interactive Version and explore BOTH the dorsal and ventral views of the specimen

This test specimen was imaged by Gene Cooper with the Micro GigaPan Imager prototype. The purpose of the test was to employ new lighting techniques to capture the full spectrum of specular and diffuse reflectivity in the specimen.

Click Here to View Fullscreen Version in New Window

The bio-application of gigapixel imaging is a no-brainer, as it allows one to effectively combine - in one and the same image - large-scale overview and high-resolution detail, covering a 'zoom-range' of 10-3 to 10-5 orders of magnitude.

That is a range where 'added quantity transforms into a new quality' (a bit like when you steadily add heat to a water kettle, and at some point fluid turns into vapor), as you can now observe general features - say of a tissue histology section - and zoom in to the cellular detail of an area of interest - say to detect heart disease development. If you wanted to do this by simply looking at high-resolution snippets, one at a time, you would more often than not miss the needle in the hay-stack. In our digital age, this is essentially bringing us 'back to the future', as good old analogue photography did have this spatial range built in (although we were largely unable to tap into this potential because of the workload involved).

Nowadays, we use digital displays and are accustomed to seeing a few megapixels at best (so we do not even know what we are missing). Being able to use giga-pixel technologies is going to revolutionize bio-medical research and diagnostics in pretty much the same way that modern world-to-street-view mapping tools have now become an everyday occurrence for locating other areas of interest - say a hotel or restaurant when you are in unfamiliar territory. So - this whole development is far from being an exercise in 'the more the merrier'. Instead, it lays the seeds for a revolution in digital image information capture, storage, access, and processing."

--Peter Kohl, British Heart Foundation, Oxford University

This test specimen below was imaged by Jay Longson with the Micro GigaPan enabled Scanning Electron Microscope. The low resolution test was conducted to examine the single heart cells from young female New Zealand white rabbit. Specimen provided by the British Heart Foundation.

Click Here to View Fullscreen Version in New Window