Research Internships: Automated Real Time Control of a Microscope Stage
Code of project: 2009-02
Project Supervisors: Dr Netta Cohen (Please contact Dr Royce Neagle if you are interested in this project)
Area of interest: This project is linked to the Biosystems Research Group, but involves primarily machine vision and real time hardware interfacing.
Appropriate for degree programmes: All single and joint honours students from the School of Computing
Pre-requisites: Some programming experience is needed. Further information about the prerequisites for this project is available from Dr Netta Cohen.
Project Outline
In our group we combine experiment, computer-generated modelling and simulations to study the locomotion of a microscopic worm. At the moment, experiments are performed by placing a worm under the microscope and recording its motion. To this end, the stage of the microscope needs to be manually moved in order to keep the worm within the frame of view. A motorised microscope stage is already set up to monitor the coordinates of the stage in real time. To completely automate this process, a closed loop control needs to be implemented which uses image analysis to determine the location of the worm and actively control the stage to maintain the worm in the centre. In this way, long, continuous movies of worm locomotion can be taken and analysed. This project will develop and implement such a closed loop control system. The project is ideally suited for someone with interests in real time programming and/or image analysis/computer vision and/or in the study of biological systems.
The student will be fully immersed in the Biosystems group for the duration of the project.