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Figure 1 | BioMedical Engineering OnLine

Figure 1

From: ScanImage: Flexible software for operating laser scanning microscopes

Figure 1

Wiring Diagram and Performance Benchmarking for ScanImage A) Typical wiring diagram for a microscope running ScanImage. Scanning, data acquisition, and laser shuttering are accomplished by a single data acquisition board (PCI 6110, National Instruments). Stage and Z-focus motors are controlled through a Sutter 3-axis motor controller (Sutter MP285) that is programmed through a serial communications (COM) port. B) Performance of ScanImage. We computed the realtime fraction as the average time it took ScanImage to process and display the acquired data (i.e. a stripe; see Figure 2) normalized to the acquisition time for that portion of data. Values were averaged over 20 frames acquired at each configuration. The realtime fraction was computed using an 800 MHz Pentium III computer with 512 MB of RAM. A realtime fraction above one indicates the software was able to run in realtime (i.e. ScanImage had completed processing and displaying all of the previously collected data before the next portion of data was fully acquired). For realtime fractions less than one, the display lags the acquisition but no data is lost. The low realtime fraction when acquiring 16 lines per frame on multiple channels indicates that we are approaching the fundamental speed limit for graphics updates.

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