Feedback regulation of microscopes by image processing

Computational microscope systems are becoming a major part of imaging biological phenomena, and the development of such systems requires the design of automated regulation of microscopes. An important aspect of automated regulation is feedback regulation, which is the focus of this review. As modern microscope systems become more complex, often with many independent components that must work together, computer control is inevitable since the exact orchestration of parameters and timings for these multiple components is critical to acquire proper images. A number of techniques have been developed for biological imaging to accomplish this. Here, we summarize the basics of computational microscopy for the purpose of building automatically regulated microscopes focus on feedback regulation by image processing. These techniques allow high throughput data acquisition while monitoring both short- and long-term dynamic phenomena, which cannot be achieved without an automated system.