Adapting Traditional Macro and Micro Photography for Scientific Gigapixel Imaging

Traditionally, GigaPan technology has been used to acquire high resolution panoramas of large scenes. While this
application is useful for many scientific pursuits, it excludes the macro and microscopic realms of scientific research. An
increasing number of scientific disciplines (biological, medical, and material science) require high spatial resolution imagery
but suffer from an insufficient lateral field of view. A mosaic of microscopic images solves this problem by capturing the
entire subject while maintaining a high spatial resolution. This paper explores the application of gigapixel imaging
technology to the macro, micro, and nano scales. We discuss the design and implementation of three different instrument
adaptations that enable automatic mosaic capture of images through optical microscopes, scanning electron microscopes, and
macrophotography. This includes a discussion of motion control, focus stacking, and image stitching. The resulting images
represent virtual, archival, and explorable specimens.