Research Project
6404143
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of Phase II is to make Wavefront Coded microscope systems that is fast, low cost, and available to biological researchers in a number of disciplines. During Phase I it was proven that Wavefront Coded fluorescence microscopes can solve biological imaging problems in ways that could not be solved before, for much less cost than imaging thick objects with traditional technologies such as confocal and deconvolution. The Wavefront Coding microscope system is fast because a single image from one plane of focus is required, and inexpensive because the only modification to the hardware is a molded aspheric optic that is inserted at a slider location of the microscope. There are three technical goals of the Phase II effort: 1) fabrication and testing of new Wavefront Coding optical elements, 2) development of non-expert automatic filter design software, and 3) rigorous laboratory testing of Wavefront Coding with leading biological researchers, addressing problematic issues with current microscope technology. The organizational goals of Phase II will make Wavefront Coding microscopes available for all popular microscopes and digital cameras. Based on the success and feedback in Phase I, the ability of Wavefront Coding to solve biological imaging problems is very promising and wide reaching PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: Low-cost and high-speed alternative to confocal and deconvolution systems for forming large depth of field images. Systems can be retrofit to existing microscopes by use of sliders or new objectives, and processing software. System can also be retrofit as a component of new microscopes.
