Preliminary Exploration of Tomographic Microscopy

我们提出了一个桌面断层扫描设备的建设-光学计算机断层扫描仪（OCT）-生成图像的小半透明的对象，如生物样品和人造物体，并进行初步探索其教育和科学的潜力。 光学计算机断层扫描仪将使学生能够创建3D和横截面表示将在计算机屏幕上显示和操作。 学生将能够导航对象的虚拟图像（例如洋葱或小鱼的切片），类似于放射科医生如何导航通过MRI技术获得的人体部分的计算机生成图像。 事实上，学生将看到和触摸所代表的对象，与计算机图像的操作并行，可能会对他们的理解产生至关重要的影响。 这个工具可以自然地用于初中和高中生物学（例如细胞结构），物理学（例如光和物质）和数学的主题。 关于后者，从一系列平面投影重建物体所需的数学变换涉及一组在无数技术应用中广泛使用的关键数学概念。 实验这些过程的重建可以使这种数学访问的学生，从中学生到医学和工程专业的学生。虽然OCT的主要目的是教育作为课堂教学工具，我们可以预见它的使用科学研究，调查的问题，如：什么分辨率可以实现与光学计算机断层扫描仪？ 光源是否相干（激光）重要吗？ 人们如何处理视觉投影来想象空间中的物体？ 我们所知道的光学断层扫描的唯一应用是佛罗里达的一家公司正在开发的"计算机断层扫描激光乳房X光检查"。 他们的重点与显微镜无关。 我们提出的工作可能会导致一个未开发的研究领域的发展，可见光断层扫描显微镜。

We propose the construction of a tabletop tomographic device -Optical Computer Tomograph (OCT)-to generate images of small semi-translucent objects, such as biological samples and manmade objects, and to conduct a preliminary exploration of its educational and scientific potential. The Optical Computer Tomograph will enable students to create 3D and cross-sectional representations to be displayed and manipulated on the computer screen. Students will be able to navigate the virtual image of the object (e.g. a slice of an onion or a small fish) similarly to how a radiologist navigates computer-generated images for a part of the human body obtained through MRI technology. The fact that the students will see and touch the represented object, in parallel with the manipulation of computer images, is likely to make a crucial difference for their understanding. This tool could naturally be used in relation to topics in middle and high school biology (e.g. cell structure), physics (e.g. light and matter), and mathematics. Regarding the latter, the mathematical transformations entailed in reconstructing an object from a sequence of flat projections involve a set of crucial pieces of mathematical concepts used extensively in countless technological applications. Experimenting with these processes of reconstruction can make this mathematics accessible to students-from middle school students to students of medicine and engineering.While the primary purpose of the OCT is educational as a classroom-teaching tool, we can foresee its use for scientific research, to investigate questions such as: What resolution can be achieved with an Optical Computer Tomograph? Does it matter whether the source of light is coherent (laser) or not? How do people process visual projections to envision objects in space? The only application of optical tomography that we know of is a "Computer Tomography Laser Mammography" being developed by a company in Florida. Their focus is unrelated to microscopy. Our proposed work could lead to the development of an unexplored field of research, that of visible-light tomographic microscopy.