DeepView: A Channel for Distributed Microscopy and Informatics

This paper outlines the requirements, architecture, and design of a "Microscopy Channel" over the wide area network. A microscopy channel advertises a listing of available online microscopes, where users can seamlessly participate in an experiment, acquire expert opinions, collect and process data, and store this information in their electronic notebook. The proposed channel is a collaborative problem solving environment (CPSE) that allows for both synchronous and asynchronous collaboration. Our testbed includes several unique electron and optical microscopes with applications ranging from material science to cell biology. We have studied current commercial CORBA services and concluded that three basic services are needed to meet the extensibility and functionality constraints. These include: Instrument Services (IS), Exchange Services (ES), and Computational Services (CS). These services sit on top of CORBA and its enabling services (naming, trading, security, and notification). IS provide a layer of abstraction for controlling any type of microscope. ES provide a common set of utilities for information management and transaction. CS provide the analytical capabilities needed for online microscopy and PSE.