Artificial intelligence can boost power, efficiency of even the best microscopes

With the help of artificial intelligence, even already powerful microscopes can see better, faster and process more data.

In a new study, published Friday in the journal Nature Methods, researchers used new machine learning algorithms to combine a pair of novel microscopy techniques.

The marriage dramatically accelerated image processing and yielded crisp, accurate results.

To capture speedy biological processes in 3D, like the beating heart of a fish larva, researchers rely on a method called light-field microscopy.

The technique involves the collection of massive amounts data, and as a result, image processing can take days. Often, the end result is lacking in resolution.

Another technique, called light-sheet microscopy, focuses on a single 2D plane from a sample. The method yields high-resolution images in a much shorter time frame, but captures less comprehensive data.

With the help of artificial intelligence, scientists were able to marry the two techniques.

"Ultimately, we were able to take 'the best of both worlds' in this approach," Nils Wagner, one of the paper's two lead authors, said in a press release.

"AI enabled us to combine different microscopy techniques, so that we could image as fast as light-field microscopy allows and get close to the image resolution of light-sheet microscopy," said Wagner, a doctoral student at the Technical University of Munich Germany.

The new hybrid method utilizes light-field microscopy to capture detailed images of large 3D samples, while light-sheet microscopy helps train the machine learning algorithms to process the image data more efficiently.

"If you build algorithms that produce an image, you need to check that these algorithms are constructing the right image," said co-author Anna Kreshuk, group leader at EMBL and an expert in biomedical image analysis.

The new algorithms used the high-resolution images captured through light-sheet microscopy to ensure they were accurately processing the light-field microscopy data.

"This makes our research stand out from what has been done in the past," Kreshuk said.

Researchers suggest the architecture of their novel algorithms can be adapted for a variety of different types of microscope technologies.

Scientists said they expect their breakthrough to help biologists study a variety of important larval and embryonic processes.

"Our method will be really key for people who want to study how brains compute. Our method can image an entire brain of a fish larva, in real time," said co-author Robert Prevedel, another EMBL group leader.

Related Links
All about the robots on Earth and beyond!

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

Robotic solution for disinfecting food production plants wins agribusiness prize
Boston MA (SPX) May 04, 2021
The winners of this year's Rabobank-MIT Food and Agribusiness Innovation Prize got a good indication their pitch was striking a chord when a judge offered to have his company partner with the team for an early demonstration. The offer signified demand for their solution - to say nothing of their chances of winning the pitch competition. The annual competition's MIT-based grand-prize winner, Human Dynamics, is seeking to improve sanitation in food production plants with a robotic drone - a "drobot" ... read more