title: A Parallel Distributed-Memory Particle Method Enables Acquisition-Rate Segmentation of Large Fluorescence Microscopy Images.
abstract: Modern fluorescence microscopy modalities, such as light-sheet microscopy, are capable of acquiring large three-dimensional images at high data rate. This creates a bottleneck in computational processing and analysis of the acquired images, as the rate of acquisition outpaces the speed of processing. Moreover, images can be so large that they do not fit the main memory of a single computer. We address both issues by developing a distributed parallel algorithm for segmentation of large fluorescence microscopy images. The method is based on the versatile Discrete Region Competition algorithm, which has previously proven useful in microscopy image segmentation. The present distributed implementation decomposes the input image into smaller sub-images that are distributed across multiple computers. Using network communication, the computers orchestrate the collectively solving of the global segmentation problem. This not only enables segmentation of large images (we test images of up to 10(10) pixels), but also accelerates segmentation to match the time scale of image acquisition. Such acquisition-rate image segmentation is a prerequisite for the smart microscopes of the future and enables online data compression and interactive experiments.
authors.affiliation: Chair of Scientific Computing for Systems Biology, Faculty of Computer Science, Technische Universität Dresden, 01187 Dresden, Germany.|Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, 01307 Dresden, Germany.|MOSAIC Group, Center for Systems Biology Dresden, 01397 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Yaser
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Afshar
authors.affiliation: Chair of Scientific Computing for Systems Biology, Faculty of Computer Science, Technische Universität Dresden, 01187 Dresden, Germany.|Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, 01307 Dresden, Germany.|MOSAIC Group, Center for Systems Biology Dresden, 01397 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Ivo F
authors.initials: IF
authors.lastname: Sbalzarini
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*