ITG Technology Development:
Remote Microscopy

The Remote Microscopy project provides web based remote control of microscopes in the ITG as part of the World Wide Laboratory. There are a number of advantages to providing remote access to imaging instrumentation. First, it provides access to unique and/or expensive instruments without requiring the user to be physically present at the site of the instrument. In addition, it provides the opportunity for collaboration and/or consultation with researchers anywhere in the world, thus providing for a network of distributed expertise. Finally, this technology presents unprecedented opportunities for education and training.

In addition to ITG's remote microscopy initiative, a related endeavour is their work in virtual microscopy. ITG is currently involved in a project to develop a full-fledged Virtual SEM (VSEM) for the purposes of teaching, training, education and research. This project, called the VSEM Project, is funded by the Kennedy Space Center at NASA as the first installed instrument in their Virtual Laboratory project.

 

ITG Microscopes with remote control capability

• Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope
• Transmission Electron Microscope

ITG Projects using Remote Microscopy

• Chickscope
• Bugscope
• Research-Grade Remote ESEM (with NASA)

ITG Software for remote microscope control

• irma
• emscope
• javascope

 

Publications

Grosser, B., Kisseberth, N. and Weber, D. (2002) irma—An Interactive Remote Microscopy Application for WWW-Based Control of an Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM). Imaging Technology Group Technical Report 02-002.

Thakkar, U., Fried, G., Grosser, B., Robinson, S., Weber, D., Korb, M., & Lee, J. (2002). Integrating remote scientific instrumentation in the curriculum to support inquiry: Case studies in K-12 and teacher education. Proceedings of Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (pp. 2144-2145). Norfolk, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education.

Thakkar, U., Bruce, B. C., Hogan, M. P., & Williamson, J. (2001). Extending literacy through participation in new technologies. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 45(3), 212-219.

Potter, C. S., Carragher, B., Carroll, C., Grosser, B., Hanlon, J., Kisseberth, N., Robinson, S., Thakkar, U., & Weber, D. (2001). Bugscope: A practical approach to providing remote microscopy for science education outreach. Microscopy and Microanalysis Journal, 7(3), 249-252.

Thakkar, U., Carragher, B., Carroll, L., Conway, C., Grosser, B., Kisseberth, N., Potter, C. S., Robinson, S., Sinn-Hanlon, J., Stone, D., & Weber, D. (2000). Formative evaluation of Bugscope: A sustainable world wide laboratory for K-12. Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) Document Reproduction Service, ED441018, 37 p.

Potter, C. S., Carragher, B., Carroll, L., Conway, C., Grosser, B., Hanlon, J., Kisseberth, N., Robinson, S., Stone, D., Thakkar, U., & Weber, D. (2000). Bugscope: A sustainable remote microscopy project for K-12. Paper for the panel on “Participatory science via the Internet.” Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference of the Learning Sciences (pp. 379-380). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Grosser, B. and Kisseberth, N. (1999) irma: An Interactive Remote Microscopy Application for WWW-Based Control of an Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM). Proceedings: Workshop on Automated Control of Distributed Instrumentation (ACDI ’99).

Bruce, B. C., Thakkar, U., & Hogan, M. P. (1999). Inquiry-based learning and teaching with new technologies. Spectrum: Journal of the Illinois Science Teachers Association, 25(2), 16-19.

Potter, C. S., Carragher, B., Ceperley, M., Conway, C., Grosser, B., Hanlon, J., Hoyer, C., Kisseberth, N., Robinson, S., Sapp, J., Soskin, P., Stone, D., Thakkar, U., & Weber, D. (1999). Bugscope: A sustainable web-based telemicroscopy project for K-12 classrooms. Proceedings of the Microscopy and Microanalysis (pp. 514-515). Chicago, IL: Microscopy Society of America.

Kisseberth, N., G. Brauer, B. Grosser, C.S. Potter and B. Carragher. (1999) JavaScope: A Web-Based TEM Control Interface. Journal of Structural Biology, 125, pp. 229-234.

“The World Wide Laboratory: Remote and Automated Access to Imaging Instrumentation”, B. Carragher and C.S. Potter, Paper presented at the National Reseach Council Chemical Sciences Roundtable Workshop on the Imapact of Advances in Computing and Communications in Chemical Sciences and Technology, November 1-2, 1998, Washington DC. National Academy Press. pp. 141-153

C.S. Potter, R. Brady, P. Moran, C. Gregory, B. Carragher, N. Kisseberth, J. Lyding, J.Lindquist, "EVAC: A Virtual Environment for Control of Remote Imaging Instrumentation” Computer Graphics and Applications, IEEE Computer Society Press, Vol 16, No. 4 pp. 62-66,July, 1996

 

ITG Technical Reports on Remote Microscopy

• Irma: An interactive remote microscopy application for WWW-based control of en environmental scanning electron microscope, ITG 99-007
• JavaScope: A web-based TEM control interface, ITG 98-011
• The World Wide Laboratory: Remote and automated access to imaging instrumentation, ITG 98-010
• The World Wide Laboratory EM control library: Application programming interface specification v0.5, ITS 98-001

ITG Forums on Remote Microscopy

• An interactive remote microscopy application for WWW-based control of an environmental scanning electron microscope, 6 May 1999
• JavaScope: Control of a transmission electron microscope from a web browser, 7 April 1998