Lucis^® Image Processing Software, an easy way to accurately view image content

Images often contain hundreds to tens of thousands of contrast levels. Our eyes can only differentiate roughly 32 levels of contrast. Therefore fine contrast variations are only partially recognized as textures our eyes can't resolve.

Lucis^® makes visible the fine contrast variations (details) you would like to see.

Lucis compares each pixel to every other pixel along hundreds of radial lines in two directions to map out contrast variances. The two Lucis slider controls define a range of contrast variances. Contrast variances within the selected range are enhanced and contrast variances outside the range are diminished. The relative emphasis of contrast information is shifted, but information is not thrown away. Lucis reveals detail that other image-processing methods can’t.

For most medical and scientific image-processing applications the smallest contrast variances are enhanced to reveal image detail. Enhancing image detail involves only moving one slider, the Enhance Details slider.

Lucis reveals detail throughout the image, in both the bright and dark areas.

Figure 1: Dinoflagellate images courtesy of Prof. Brian Matsumoto, U. of Southern California, Santa Barbara, CA. The Lucis image most clearly defines the transparent reticulum of the cell and reveals details within the dark central mass of the chloroplasts. Lucis most fully reveals the full extent of the central fissure that divides the mass into two halves and shows details, such as varicosities, within the transparent strands. Lucis processing only effects the intensity information in an image. To process a color image, Lucis converts the RGB (Red Green Blue) information to HSL (Hue Saturation Luminance). Lucis processes the Luminance information, and then combines the new Luminance (L') with the unaltered Hue and Saturation. The HSL' information is converted to RGB. Color images may experience color shifts in patches of the image as Lucis Pro extracts the image detail. Lucis Pro has an Assign Original Image Color slider which allows you to easily repair these color shifts.

Lucis Pro also allows the user to process each RGB channel separately with differing Lucis processing parameters, so the details in each color channel can be seen as clearly as possible. This is essential for applications like Fluorescence Microscopy. Figure 2: Fluorescence Microscopy Images

Figure 2a: Obelia image courtesy of Prof. Brian Matsumoto.	Figure 2b: The Lucis Pro image reveals image detail in each channel optimally.