Droplets

ORI "Forensic Droplets" for the quick examination of scientific images.

DROPLETS

Droplets are small "desktop" applications in Adobe Photoshop®, that automatically process files dragged onto their icon. Droplets are created by recording and saving sequences of steps in the Actions Palette. Each Droplet can be copied to the desktop, to create a near seamless interface for quickly examining the details of a scientific image in Photoshop while reading the publication in the FULL TEXT (html) form in an Internet Browser.

USE: From within the Internet Browser, drag and drop the fully expanded JPEG image over the icon of the saved Droplet, and the latter will open Photoshop and complete a sequence of pre-recorded actions. If Photoshop is already running in the background, 'runtime' will appear almost instantaneous (i.e., in the absence of dialogue and setting options). However, ORI's Prototype Droplets were created for educational purposes, with relevant dialogue and settings features active, to permit user experimentation. After a Droplet has completed its action, the steps can be reviewed by going to the History Palette and "sliding" back and forth through the steps.

The user can create new droplets from the provided Actions.

FORENSIC DROPLETS (v. February 16, 2005)

Unzip the files below your computer's Desktop and then follow the directions above
 

1. Dark or Light Area Discontinuities (W): This Droplet simply applies a histogram equalization, which may reveal areas of erasure in dark areas, or areas of whitening in bright areas. The process is most effective if the contrasting borders can be first cropped from the image.
    
2. Visualize Background (W): This Droplet enhances background by embossing (shadowing) details. It also permits false coloring of the results.
    
3. Colorize Shapes & Details (W): Forensic details in the fine structure surrounding the features in question may be used to test whether two features are the same. False coloring and sliding the Hue setting facilitates detection of small differences in gray shades that would be otherwise imperceptible.
    
4. Solarize Margins & Edges (W): This droplet uses a non-linear contrast adjust to amplify differences in the midrange and the dark end of the histogram. The option exists to also false colorize the results.

The following Droplet requires that Photoshop first be running:
 

5. Color Coded Overlay (W): This Droplet overlays two images, and color codes each so that individual features in the overlap can be linked back to their respective image.

To use, drag and drop the first image into the Photoshop application. Next, drag and drop the second image onto the icon of the Droplet, and the sequence will proceed.

Features will appear RED, and overlapping background will appear CYAN. Features unique to one or the other image will be WHITE or BLACK. A feature that is common to both images will be RED and must have a uniform boundary. The image can be resized and reoriented using "Free Transform" in the Edit Menu to test alignment of the images.

NOTES: So far, the approach appears to work well on diverse image sources (both gray scale and RGB), ranging those from figures in PubMed Central, the "Full Text" form of On-Line Journals, the icons of free standing image files (TIFF), scientific images from researchers' home pages, and even pictures on eBay.

For an excellent test of the idea, try using the droplets on the scientific images that were manipulated for illustrative purposes in Rossner and Yamada: "What's in a picture. . ." J. Cell Biol. 66(1):11-15, 2004 at http://www.jcb.org/cgi/content/full/166/1/11

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Comments are Welcome: Simply email ORI using "Forensic Droplets" in the subject line.