Decker Peter, Christian Axel, Xylander Willi E R
Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Görlitz, Görlitz, Germany.
Zookeys. 2018 Mar 7(741):271-282. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.741.22284. eCollection 2018.
Digitisation allows scientists rapid access to research objects. For transparent to semi-transparent three-dimensional microscopic objects, such as microinvertebrates or small body parts of organisms, available databases are scarce. Most mounting media used for permanent microscope slides deteriorate after some years or decades, eventually leading to total damage and loss of the object. However, restoration is labour-intensive, and often the composition of the mounting media is not known. A digital preservation of important material, especially types, is important and an urgent need. The Virtual Microscope Slide Collection - VIRMISCO project has developed recommendations for taking microscopic image stacks of three-dimensional objects, depositing and presenting such series of digital image files or z-stacks as an online platform. The core of VIRMISCO is an online viewer, which enables the user to virtually focus through an object online as if using a real microscope. Additionally, VIRMISCO offers features such as search, rotating, zooming, measuring, changing brightness or contrast, taking snapshots, leaving feedback as well as downloading complete z-stacks as jpeg files or video file. The open source system can be installed by any institution and can be linked to common database or images can be sent to the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Görlitz. The benefits of VIRMISCO are the preservation of important or fragile material, to avoid loan, to act as a digital archive for image files and to allow determination by experts from the distance, as well as providing reference libraries for taxonomic research or education and providing image series as online supplementary material for publications or digital vouchers of specimens of molecular investigations are relevant applications for VIRMISCO.
数字化使科学家能够快速获取研究对象。对于透明至半透明的三维微观物体，如微型无脊椎动物或生物体的小身体部位，可用的数据库很少。大多数用于永久显微镜载玻片的封固介质在几年或几十年后会变质，最终导致物体完全损坏和丢失。然而，修复工作劳动强度大，而且封固介质的成分往往未知。对重要材料，尤其是模式标本进行数字保存非常重要且迫在眉睫。虚拟显微镜载玻片库——VIRMISCO项目已制定了相关建议，用于拍摄三维物体的微观图像堆栈、存储并将此类数字图像文件系列或z堆栈作为在线平台展示。VIRMISCO的核心是一个在线查看器，它能让用户像使用真实显微镜一样在网上虚拟聚焦观察物体。此外，VIRMISCO还提供搜索、旋转、缩放、测量、改变亮度或对比度、拍摄快照、留下反馈以及将完整的z堆栈下载为jpeg文件或视频文件等功能。任何机构都可以安装这个开源系统，它可以链接到通用数据库，或者图像可以发送到哥里茨森肯伯格自然历史博物馆。VIRMISCO的好处包括保存重要或脆弱的材料、避免出借、作为图像文件的数字存档并允许专家远程鉴定，以及为分类学研究或教育提供参考库，还能为出版物提供图像系列作为在线补充材料或作为分子研究标本的数字凭证，这些都是VIRMISCO的相关应用。
