3D tracking of Plankton with single-camera stereoscopy

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel 3D tracking device using single-camera stereoscopy to analyze micro-objects and microorganism motility within confined microfluidic environments with micrometer precision.

Contribution

The work introduces a simple optical setup for 3D tracking of micro-objects in confined spaces, enabling detailed analysis of microorganism behavior under flow conditions.

Findings

Achieved micrometer-scale 3D trajectory reconstruction.

Tracked motile microalgae in flow using fluorescence and bright-field imaging.

Demonstrated influence of confinement on microorganism motility.

Abstract

We introduce a device developed to perform a 3D tracking of passive or active particles under flow, confined in a medium of hundreds micrometers wide. Micro-objects are placed inside a vertical glass capillary and two mirrors are set behind it with a certain angle, making it possible to have the two reflections of the capillary on the same optical plane. A 3D reconstruction of the trajectories, captured with a single camera, is carried out along the vertical axis with a micrometer-scale precision. To investigate the interaction between the shear, the role of the gravity field, and motile microorganism, we track a model puller-type microalgae, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii under a Poiseuille flow, using first its natural fluorescence and then a bright-field imaging. Understanding how confinement influences motility is crucial, and we show that this 3D tracking setup enables a full description of interactions between a motile organism and a solid border.