Quantification of Image Data
Abstract
This chapter starts with raw images and extracts objects, analyses them further to yield quantitative information from them. It guesses from the initial musing that doing quantification involves mastering computers and being familiar with some mathematical concepts. Quantification of image data can be seen as a subset of image analysis techniques that provides answers in the shape of numbers, extracted from images. An understanding of the basic mathematical principles which they rely on is essential to performing scientifically relevant quantitation. Most of the image analysis tools will have some means of carrying out the calculations and yield this quantifiable information. There is a whole world of quantifiable information to be found in time‐lapse images, fuelled for instance by single‐particle tracking algorithms, optic‐flow techniques and all image analysis techniques able to harness time. Also, some information can be extracted from bulk images, without relying on object extraction.