As promised, there has been some progress in adding an SLM path for optogenetics to the microscope and things are looking good…
We are now calling on potential users to provide input into the features that they would need/want in a GUI interface, as this may impact how useful this addition will be to our own work.
At the moment here is our basic plan:
- Provide a tool to align the SLM and two-photon imaging paths. This will consist in the user using the camera port to acquire an image of the scan area onto a chroma slide. The system will then flash a number of single spots on a different slide and acquire their positions to compute the best affine transformation between the SLM image plane and the tw0-photon image. Calibrations will be required just before the beginning of each imaging session.
- Once a sample is imaged, provide cell-selection tool to obtain the coordinates of N desired locations in the imaging plane.
- After cell selection a Matlab-based server will use the calibration and and selected points to accept network commands that describe the desired intensity at each of the N locations and the duration of the pattern. After the optimal phase is computed on the GPU it will be presented to the SLM for the specified duration and the start/end time of the presentation will be logged by the microscope through an event line in Scanbox.
So present and future Scanbox users… is this a reasonable starting point? As it is, the system would be limited to N (as large as you want) points of different intensities.
Please add your comments and/or suggestions below. This is your opportunity to have an input into the design of the SLM path…. don’t miss it!
Scanbox 