What was the iScope?

The iScope—"internet microscope"—was a complete system for Internet microscopy. This system was located at the University of Tennessee in Memphis from 1999 to 2005. Three Zeiss Universal microscopes provided online, realtime access to the slides which form the Mouse Brain Library. This system worked reasonably well, but is was difficult to maintain the microscope hardware and simultaneously develop web services software for three operating systems. By 2005 technology to digitize massive slide collections using high speed scanners had advanced to the point that it made more sense to perform all analysis using digitized image repositories, rather than liver image capture. For this reason, we stopped active development of the iScope in 2005 and have concentrated on improving the base-level resolution of the MBL collection.

iScope is being replaced by a massive MBL Pivot Collection: We are acquiring much higher resolution images of a majority of slides in the MBL using an Aperio scanner at a resolution of approximately 1 micron/pixel. These images can be viewed using our experimental (June 2010) MBL Pivot web site.

What is Pivot: Pivot is a very impressive new approach to viewing and analyzing massive image data sets. You definitely will want to try it. You need to install Microsoft Silverlight plug-in. Then use almost any browser to link to the MBL Pivot web site. You will then need to learn a bit about navigating in a Pivot image collection (it is very cool and worth the 10 minutes). We expect to add an MBL Pivot tutorial soon, but in the meantime please email either Robert W. Williams or Glenn D. Rosen if you are interested in this system. Please also review the Microsoft Live Labs links below:

Additional Links:

• Video: Gary Flake discusses Pivot @ TED2010
• Video: Discovering Insights with Pivot
• Article: Making Sense of Mountains of Data

Functions of the iScope system

Control a research-grade light microscope: By downloading free control software (available for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux), it was possible from about 2002 to 2005 to control microscopes in real time from your desktop computer and explore a wealth of mouse brain tissue.

On-Demand Imaging: Through the iScope system, users were able to acquire high-resolution, full-color images of our tissue collection for use in papers and educational materials.

Remote Stereology: Researchers were able to used free stereology software for quantitative analysis of brains from a large collection of genetically defined mice. The iScope system made it possible to perform cell counting and area measurements on our tissue from anywhere in the world.

How can I get my own iScope?

Although the iScope client software is free for noncommercial use, the server software package requires licensing. If you are interested in creating an iScope system to serve your own slide collection, we can help you select a suitable hardware configuration and provide a license for the iScope server software. Please contact Dr. Rob Williams for more information.

How can I use the iScope?

1. Register your name:

Create a new login and password, and download the iScope software appropriate for your computer. Our iScope system is freely available for public use, but you must provide a valid email address.

2. Download the software:

Once you have a login and password, you may download the iScope software here. Versions are available for Mac OS X, UNIX / Linux, and Windows.

3. Software Tutorial:

View our visual tutorial for help using the iScope software.

4. Applications:

Now that you have the iScope software installed and working, here are some ways to use it.