Automation system for optical counting of nuclear tracks

An automation system consisting of the microscope, video camera and Pentium PC with frame recorder was created. The system provides counting of nuclea r tracks on the SSNTD surface with a resolution of 752 x 582 points, determ ination of the surface area and main axis of the track. The pattern recogni tion program was developed for operation in Windows 3.1 (or higher) ensurin g a convenient interface with the user. In a comparison of the results on a utomatic track counting with the more accurate hand mode it was shown that the program enables the tracks to be detected even on images with a rather high noise level. It ensures a high accuracy of track counting being compar able with the accuracy of manual counting for densities of tracks in the ra nge of up to 2.10(5) tracks/cm(2). The automatic system was applied in the experimental investigation of uranium and transuranium elements.