An open-source software package for on-the-fly deskewing and live viewing of volumetric lightsheet microscopy data

TL;DR

This paper introduces an open-source GPU-accelerated software that enables real-time deskewing and live visualization of volumetric lightsheet microscopy data, improving usability for biological imaging.

Contribution

The authors developed a software package that performs on-the-fly deskewing and live viewing of OPM data, addressing visualization challenges in lightsheet microscopy.

Findings

Real-time image processing at several Hz.

Enhanced live viewing experience for OPM.

Open-source implementation for community use.

Abstract

Oblique plane microscopy, OPM, is a form of lightsheet microscopy that permits volumetric imaging of biological samples at high temporal and spatial resolution. However, the imaging geometry of OPM, and related variants of light sheet microscopy, distorts the coordinate frame of the presented image sections with respect to real space coordinate frame in which the sample is moved to navigate to regions of interest. This makes live viewing and practical operation of such microscopes difficult. We present an open-source software package that utilises GPU acceleration and multiprocessing to transform the display of OPM imaging data in real time to produce live views that mimic that produced by standard widefield microscopes. Image stacks can be acquired, processed and plotted at rates of several Hz, making live operation of OPMs, and similar microscopes, more user friendly and intuitive.