Virtual microscopy using JPEG2000

Abstract

Navigation through large microscopical images is a potential benefit for histology or pathology teaching, quality of diagnosis in pathology or communication between pathologists in some telemedicine applications. However, the size of this kind of images is prohibitive for navigation with conventional techniques. This paper presents a system which constructs large microscopical images and describes optimal strategies for navigation using the JPEG2000 (J2K) standard. Given a set of images automatically acquired from a microscope, they are registered to construct a mega-image. Using the J2K standard the image is compressed and stored. Finally, we developed a novel technique for browsing the image from the compressed bit stream, which allows to efficiently obtain regions of interest with different qualities and resolutions, i.e. in microscopical terms, with different enlargement settings. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.