I think the program ScionImage (previously called NIH Image) will help each of you. I've used it with mouse scent marks (fluoresced and imaged with a UV scanner), both to count numbers and calculate total area. It can also work out the length and breadth axes of an scanned object. It has an automatic object detection feature that works after maximising the contrast of your pollen/vegatation/scent marks against the background but also lets you draw your own edges (handy for GIS vegetation maps where the contrasting method may be too difficult). Its works on Windows and Mac OSX. Best of all its free!
http://www.scioncorp.com (click on the "download scion image" link halfway down the menu) ______________________________________________________ Dr Nick Malone www.nicmalone.com ______________________________________________________ On 26 Oct 2006, at 06:23, Steve Erickson wrote: > Id be interested in whatever responses you get. Ive thought > about using just a standard OCR package for counting small > and mid-sized seeds. More serious might be to sue image > classification (GIS) software such as EDRDAS Imagine. > Anybody tried this? > -Steve Erickson > ====================================================== >> Dear list, >> >> I am looking for software that will count objects in an image. > A half >> dozen >> or so years ago, I was working as a sophomore undergrad in a > lab doing >> pollen counting. We used a digital camera hooked up to a > microscope and >> imported the images into, I think, photoshop. Then, we used > that >> software to choose a pollen grain image for the software to > search for >> and count. I think the software put numbers on each object > that it >> counted, >> so the method was verifiable. Has anyone used this method, > or did I >> hallucinate the whole experience? I hope to adapt this > method to >> counting Fusarium colonies on petri plates. >> >> Thanks, >> >> Jennifer > --------------------------------------------- > Frosty Hollow Ecological Restoration > Helping Nature Heal > Box 53 > Langley, WA 98260 > =======================================
