Fast and precise algorithm based on maximum radial symmetry for single molecule localization.

We present an algorithm to estimate the location of single fluorescent molecule with both high speed and high precision. This algorithm is based on finding the subpixel position with maximum radial symmetry in a pixelated single molecule fluorescence image. Compared with conventional algorithms, this algorithm does not rely on point-spread-function or noise model. Through numerical simulation and experimental analysis, we found that this algorithm exhibits localization precision very close to the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE), while executes ∼1000 times faster than the MLE and ∼6 times faster than the fluoroBancroft algorithm.