INVESTIGATION OF EFFECTS OF DIGITAL IMAGE-PROCESSING ON IMPROVEMENT OF IMAGES ACQUIRED WITH A FIBEROPTIC PLATE MICROSCOPE SYSTEM

Effects of digital image processing on improvement of images acquired with a fiber-optic microscope system were estimated. A raw image of cu ltured cells stained with a fluorescent dye was noisy and had insuffic ient contrast for observation of a detailed image. To improve the imag e quality, two series of techniques were performed. For observations o f static specimens, integration of consecutive frames was effective in reducing the random noise. Histogram transformation operations improv ed the contrast of the integrated images, providing a clearer detailed image. For observations of moving specimens, spatial filtering for sm oothing the image acquired by freezing one frame was effective in redu cing random noise. The contrast of the image was also enhanced with th e same histogram transformation operations. Spatial filtering for the purpose of sharpening images enhanced the partition patterns of optica l fibers constituting the fiber-optic plate. They were successfully re moved by two-dimensional fast Fourier transform.