A University of Alberta research team has turned their newly developed 3-D microscope technology on ancient sea creatures and hopes to expand its use.
Prof. Dileepan Joseph, Ph.D candidate Adam Harrison and master's student Cindy Wong produced a 3-D imaging system called Virtual Reflected-Light Microscopy. The technology consists of a regular optical microscope, a light source, a platform that moves the objects being photographed and software programs that extract shape and reflectance from images and transform this digital information into a 3-D image.
Joseph says the VRLM gives geoscientists and computer programs in development much more information than simple images. The goal is to accelerate species identification of the tiny and numerous microfossils. Such identifications are used to date the rock from which the creatures are pulled.
Read the article documenting the development of the VLRM technology, published in the Journal of Microscopy:
Virtual reflected-light microscopy
A.P. HARRISON, C. M. WONG, D. JOSEPH
