Macroscopic Solutions

Conventional microscope systems have severe color, resolution and depth-of-field limitations that interfere with the operators’ ability to make clear observations. Recent technical innovations in photography are generating contextually strong results that are more consistent with human perception than was previously experienced. Macroscopic Solutions, LLC provides solutions to overcome these problems so that scientists and educators can generate more robust observations, which can be shared professionally and interpreted by larger portions of students and lay audiences. Our innovation is called the Macropod technology and it uses the image generation technique of focus stacking to produce 2D imagery and 3D models that are completely in focus, color accurate and high resolution. There is another technology akin to focus stacking called plenoptics which uses an optical array to refocus light in front of a cameras’ sensor. This is a low-resolution and low-light technique that we are not currently exploring. Instead, we are part of a large, but relatively small group of hobbyists, researchers and professionals who use focus stacking software and hardware solutions designed to capture images of microscopic and macroscopic sized objects without having limitations in depth-of-field, color and resolution. The mechanical process uses a motorized stage that moves the object relative to the camera. Images are automatically captured from back to front with an open aperture to record thin, overlapping focal sections that will be used to recreate and show total depth of the targeted specimen. Images are captured using an open aperture because it keeps ISO levels low and exposure time fast, which produces the sharpest possible image of each individual focal plane. The computer process distinguishes sharp from blurry as represented by the image. The blurry areas of each image is discarded and the sharp areas are blended together until the entire image is displayed completely in focus; hence the term, focus stacking. The Macropod technology allows the operator to recreate a visually striking image that combines the structural detail of an SEM, with the color detail of a microscope, without having to prepare the specimen on a slide or powder the specimen for an SEM. This defines the Macropod a non-destructive technology for all purposes relating to conservation. Furthermore, the technology is still capable of generating images of slides, thin-sections and other materials historically prepared for observation by conventional microscopes.