NanoRule+™ Software
Powerful image display and analysis software is essential for viewing and analyzing the images from an atomic force microscope.
There are three functions that are essential for AFM analysis software. They are:
Display: Changes the view of the data on the computer screen and includes the type of colors used and the perspective of the display.
Process: Changes the data in the image and includes functions like filtering and background subtraction.
Analysis: Achieves the abstraction of quantitative information such as line roughness.
Report: Images and analysis dialog boxes may be exported to a clipboard or to Microsoft™ Office products with the report functions.
The NanoRule+™ AFM Image Analysis Software was designed from the ground up to take advantage of the standard PC graphics environment "Open GL". It has all of the advanced features required for analyzing AFM images from Pacific Nanotechnology. Up to six analysis windows can be active at the same time, image palettes can be changed at any time, and images can be directly exported via the Microsoft clipboard. The image file system has both a list format and a thumbnail format. The image history window allows the easy recall of any image from the processing sequence.
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Nano-Rule+™ Image Work Window
The working window of the NanoRule+™ software has several options that facilitate the rapid display, visualization, and analysis of AFM images.
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2-D Viewing
The first screen in the NanoRule+™ Software shows a 2-dimensional image when it is opened. The palette of the image can be immediately changed with the palette toolbar at the bottom of the screen. The 2-dimensional image may be transformed with the many image analysis functions in the SPMCockpit™ software.
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3-D Viewing
A three dimensional perspective of the image file may be viewed in the work space. There are a great many parameters that may be varied when viewing the 3-D image. They include the scaling of the image and the labeling of the axis of the image. Rotations of an image appear in almost real-time because open GL is used for this function.
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Error Correction
Spurious and unwanted data may be removed from images with the error correction function. The most common types of image "glitches" may be removed. Then an image can be saved and displayed in a 2-D or 3-D format.
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Leveling
AFM images often have unwanted artifacts that must be removed from images by back-ground removal or "leveling". This powerful function allows both line (1-D) and plane (2-D) leveling of images. The area used for the background subtraction may be selected with the "analyze area" function. Selected areas may be either included or excluded for the leveling function.
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Line Analysis
Up to three lines may be analyzed simultaneously with the line analysis software. After selecting the desired line, the distance between data points in the X, Y and Z axes may be measured. The length and angle between points is displayed in this window.
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Line / Area Roughness Analysis
Standard line and surface roughness parameters are displayed with this window. Line roughness may be measured on vertical, horizontal and variable lines. The area of roughness may be selected from the entire image or a section of the image.
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Contrast / Brightness Adjust
The visual appearance of an image may be improved with the contrast and brightness adjustment window. Threshholding of the image is also possible with the gamma function.
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Filtering
The noise in an image may be reduced with the filtering window. All of the common types of filters are available.
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Scale / Zoom
It is often helpful to zoom in on an image for an analysis of a specific area. Any region of an image may be selected and redisplayed in a wide range of image pixel densities with the scale/zoom function. Any region of an image may easily be changed with this software.
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Light Shading
A photo-realistic view of the image may be created with the light-shading function. The position of the light over the surface as well as the color of the light may easily be changed with this software. Often, light shading facilitates visualization of small features on a surface that are not seen in a standard color mapping display. The light shading may be done on both 2-D and 3-D images.
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NanoRule+™ Functions
The following is a list of the functions included with the NanoRule+™ Software:
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