The severely restricts the resolution when compared with the more normal method of separately digitising a very large number of interrogation regions from photographic film, each interrogation region requiring precise traversing of the film to bring within the field of view of the video camera. DigImage is primarily designed for manipulating grey-scale images. While DigImage includes facilities for acquiring such images, and for recombining three buffers containing the RGB components, the present analysis features are not tailored towards treating the three components as part of the same image. A more useful alternative in many situations is to utilise a mechanical shutter in front of a monochrome camera. The shutter is fitted with a different specifically chosen filter on each segment.
Successive images show the view through different filters.
The filters can then be optimised to show the desired features. We are currently using this approach for simultaneously tracking particles on more than one plane and for measuring temperatures from Thermochromatic Liquid Chrystals. The building blocks for processing colour in a wide variety of ways are included in DigImage. In addition the Development System provides an easy route to developing more specialised algorithms in Fortran. The Development System includes extensive documentation on how such extensions may be developed, and I would be pleased to offer any assistance I may - we are also interested in the use of liquid crystals and similar techniques, and may in any case be developing the software at some stage.