Grant: Engage Grants Program

High-speed cameras have provided unprecedented ability to look at biological live-cell processes in real time aswell as machine vision in manufacturing processes. In both cases, one obtains two-dimensional image series ofthree-dimensional objects. Accessing real-time information outside a two-dimensional (X-Y) plane, i.e., in X,Y, and Z dimensions, is a challenge. Typical confocal scanning microscopes address the problem ofvisualization in 3 dimensions. However, such microscopes are expensive (of order $500,000) and, nevertheless,have limited capabilities for processes that involve high-speed out-of-plane motions.Accessing real-time information in three dimensions has been a challenge that our commercial partner, OptikonCorporation Ltd., is keen to resolve. To solve this problem, the proposed collaborative work aims to establish aprocedure that uses known components - a scientific CMOS camera (sCMOS), along with high speed focusingoptics - to get 3D information without requiring true confocal scanning. The end point of this proposal wouldbe a Technical Application Note that enables future purchasers of sCMOS cameras from the commercialpartner, Optikon Corporation Ltd., to have access to clear guidelines on how to integrate high-speed focusingoptics with a sCMOS camera in order to be able to visualize multiple regions in X,Y and Z in real time.