Intelligent screenings with iMSRC are performed in three steps:

Step 1. First scan: capture of a searching mosaic, composed of juxtaposed images covering the entire sample. This is intended to have minimum resolution, with a large field of view in order to locate the events of interest at the maximum possible speed. It is mandatory to use zoom 1 for the searching mosaic scan.

Step 2. Objects detection: Running an image analysis routine designed to locate the coordinates of the objects of interest previously defined in the searching mosaic

Step 3. Second scan: Final acquisition of identified objects using the parameter settings pre-defined to achieve the desired image properties (i.e. objective, zoom, Z-stack, time lapse). Importantly, the change of objective lenses between scans will be directly controlled by iMSRC, which automatically applies predefined parcentricity correction. 
 

Parameters for both first and second scans are built up in the proprietary software and must be stored as two independent files in a local or remote shared folder. Don’t use blank spaces on experiment names.

Image analysis routines can be virtually, designed using any image analysis software, as long as the final result is a list of coordinates of detected objects. Image analysis software compatibility with iMSRC is straightforward (e.g. ImageJ software routines can be used with the addition of just three lines of code). Objects smaller than a single field of view will be captured as an individual picture; bigger objects will be covered by high-resolution mosaics. Additionally, objects of interest can also be manually selected from the searching mosaic image by the user, adding a further layer of useful flexibility to the whole system.

Once all the settings have been defined, they can be saved as a template and reloaded to simplify further experiments.

iMSRC supports multiple sample acquisition and allows any format compatible with a particular microscope's frame adapters, such as microtiter plates and dishes, or up to five slides in parallel.