Closing in on Cracks

This article focuses on a high-resolution digital camera that provides fast, flexible imaging for photomicrography and microscopy. Digital images are not only equal in quality to traditional images, but they are also three times faster to acquire, less expensive, easier to distribute, and more useful as reference images for future analysis. In terms of quality, the basic issue is matching images on 4-by-5-inch instant film, and recording the same field size with the same resolution. Reports with embedded digital image links are issued over the LAN so users do not have to seek out images separately on the Technology Center server. The department is also creating a reference library of microstructure images that have been captured digitally. Image Central software from Advanced Imaging Concepts in Princeton, N.J., is to be used to create the database with reference images and associated data.