Biospeckle numerical values over spectral image maps of activity

The image analysis presents itself as a powerful instrument applied to all sort of biological phenomena monitoring. The development of many optical approaches to carry out a feasible image assembling and analysis to different demands has been the main effort in this application area. A consequence of that effort is the adoption of the biospeckle laser technique as a potential alternative to pursue the optical metrology. Particularly, the monitoring of the biological activity under the laser illumination presents as a reliable tool to many applications in many areas, such as to identify the changes in the micro-blood flow in animal tissues, or even to monitor the vegetal and the animal tissues and their metabolism. However, one limitation of biospeckle is the access of graphical maps of activity with any numerical information linked to them. This work had the objective to present a protocol to separate different tissues in the same material by means of the frequency signature, and by means of the association of graphical and numerical results from the biospeckle laser images. In order to confirm the efficiency of the proposed protocol we applied it to separate embryo and endosperm in maize seed and as well to separate tumour cells and normal tissues in animals. The results showed the feasibility of the approach proposed offering results with graphical maps associated to numerical information. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.