Digital microscopy: the impossible and the possible

The above conditions and microscopic characteristics of micro-set initial requirements for the development of the device (shareware - Digital Microscope), using modern digital technology. Obviously not all, but only a small fraction of traditional microscopy techniques can be used in a digital microscope. For most of them use a digital microscope is not possible even with additional devices.

         There are a number of limitations to bring any serious arguments in favor of a substitute for traditional microscopes to digital. For example, due to:

inability of traditional microscopy and use of physical phenomena based on the phenomenon of diffraction;
poor correlation of the laws of physical and geometrical optics in the use of cellular radiation detectors;
lack of criteria correlation optical and "electronic" image quality;
lack of receivers used by the eye to the properties of accommodation, convergence, and others;

            Therefore, the rapid development of digital microscopes, fully solving research problems, such as phase, anisotropic, fluorescent products, expected in the near future - is not necessary.

            Technical difficulties arising from the state of the optical-mechanical (rather than electronic) industry constrain the emergence of digital microscopes to distinguish between the minimum details of the structure defined by the theoretical resolution limit.

           There are other difficulties associated with the process of pattern recognition, modeling and interpretation of the results that can be considered a purely subjective nature of the difficulties and the progress of digital pathology does not influence (but almost always is the main argument of opponents).

           However, typical of conventional microscopy process for congruent enlarged image of the object for subsequent learning in the digital microscope does not change, so it can fully replace most primitive microscopes maintenance tasks.