'DefocusTracker': A Modular Toolbox for Defocusing-based, Single-Camera, 3D Particle Tracking

The need for single-camera 3D particle tracking methods is growing, among others, due to the increasing focus in biomedical research often relying on single-plane microscopy imaging. Defocusing-based methods are ideal for a wide-spread use as they rely on basic microscopy imaging rather than requiri...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rune Barnkob, Massimiliano Rossi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Ubiquity Press 2021-07-01
Series:Journal of Open Research Software
Subjects:
Online Access:https://openresearchsoftware.metajnl.com/articles/351
Description
Summary:The need for single-camera 3D particle tracking methods is growing, among others, due to the increasing focus in biomedical research often relying on single-plane microscopy imaging. Defocusing-based methods are ideal for a wide-spread use as they rely on basic microscopy imaging rather than requiring additional non-standard optics. However, a wide-spread use has been limited by the lack of accessible and easy-to-use software. 'DefocusTracker' is an open-source toolbox based on the universal principles of General Defocusing Particle Tracking (GDPT) relying solely on a reference look-up table and image recognition to connect a particle’s image and its respective out-of-plane depth coordinate. The toolbox is built in a modular fashion, allowing for easy addition of new image recognition methods, while maintaining the same workflow and external user interface. 'DefocusTracker' is implemented in MATLAB, while a parallel implementation in Python is in the preparation.
ISSN:2049-9647