This laboratory teaches the basic programming skills needed for data acquisition as well as techniques for the simulation of biological systems. There are a number of stations set up on carts so that they can be moved to the site of the experiment. A third area of research is to develop systems that can be used for computer vision. In this research a special set of programs for LabVIEW was used. One of the first instruments, which was developed, was a system that can automatically determine the number of colonies on a Petri plate.
Further research is in progress to differentiate colonies on the basis of color.
A fourth area of research involves the development of adaptive digital filters that can be used with biological signals. These filters involve digital signal processing techniques and are being integrated into LabVIEW, so that they can be easily used by the laboratory worker. A final area of research is the development of software control algorithms for the cone-plate rheometer, which quantitatively produces a shear stress on living cells. This work is being done in Germany with Dr. Detlev Drenckhahn. Selected Publications Filmer, D. L. and J. R. Cannon. 1965.