FINCH captures 3D images

Technology developed by scientists from

and

can make 3D imaging quicker, easier, less expensive and more accurate, its inventors claim.

The new technology, dubbed FINCH (Fresnel incoherent correlation holography), could have implications in medical applications such as endoscopy, ophthalmology, CT scanning, X-ray imaging and ultrasounds, co-inventor Gary Brooker said. It may also be applicable to homeland security screening, 3D photography and 3D video, he added.

‘Normally, 3D imaging requires taking multiple images on multiple planes and then reconstructing the images,’ said Brooker, director of the Johns Hopkins University Microscopy Center.

‘This is a slow process that is restricted to microscope objectives that have less than optimal resolving power,’ said Brooker. ‘For this reason, holography currently is not widely applied to the field of 3D fluorescence microscopic imaging.’

The FINCH technology and the FINCHSCOPE uses microscope objectives with the highest resolving power, a spatial light modulator, a charge-coupled device camera and some simple filters to enable the acquisition of 3D microscopic images without the need for scanning multiple planes.

Currently, the FINCHSCOPE is able to take a 3D still image, but moving 3D images are coming, said Brooker and co-inventor Joseph Rosen, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

‘With traditional 3D imaging, you cannot capture a moving object,’ Brooker said. ‘With the FINCHSCOPE, you can photograph multiple planes at once, enabling you to capture a 3D image of a moving object. Researchers now will be able to track biological events happening quickly in cells.’

‘In addition, the FINCH technique shows great promise in rapidly recording 3D information in any scene, independent of illumination,’ Rosen said.