Product review: lucis image processing software

Lucis is a software program that allows the manipulation of images through the process of selective contrast pattern emphasis. Using an image-processing algorithm called Differential Hysteresis Processing (DHP), Lucis extracts and highlights patterns based on variations in image intensity (luminance). The result is that details can be seen that would otherwise be hidden in deep shadow or excessive brightness. The software is contained on a single floppy disk, is easy to install on a PC, simple to use, and runs on Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT operating systems. The cost is $8,500 for a license, but is estimated to save a great deal of money in photographic materials, time, and labor that would have otherwise been spent in the darkroom. Superb images are easily obtained from unstained (no lead or uranium) sections, and stored image files sent to laser printers are of publication quality. The software can be used not only for all types of microscopy, including color fluorescence light microscopy, biological and materials science electron microscopy (TEM and SEM), but will be beneficial in medicine, such as X-ray films (pending approval by the FDA), and in the arts.