Abstract :
Electron microscopy has been traditionally associated with complex instruments, to be operated by highly trained specialists only. By borrowing techniques from the multimedia world and by paying much attention to the user interface, an electron microscope can be made simple to use by professionals with limited time. Scanning electron microscopy is, strictly speaking, not multimedia in the traditional sense of the word. Applying multimedia techniques has pushed microscopy from the specialist´s domain to well within the scientist´s reach