Software is being used at the Museum Victoria, Australia's largest museum, to help construct a commercially important new entomology web site to help identification of pest insects
Syncroscopy reports that Auto-Montage Pro software is being used at the Museum Victoria, Australia's largest museum, to help construct a commercially important new entomology web site.
Researchers at Museum Victoria are using Auto-Montage Pro to generate 3D images of a range of pest insects that pose a potential plant health threat to Australia.
These images are being used to construct the pest and diseases image library (Padil).
Quarantine officers are using the Padil web site to rapidly check insects found in imported vegetable and fruit produce and this is enabling them to speed up the quarantine process.
Ken Walker, senior curator of entomology at the Victoria, commented: "We are capturing insect images with a Leica MZ16 stereomicroscope and found they had a parallax error where the image from each optic was slightly out so you could see a join in the final image.
"As these images are being used for identification purposes, it is essential that they are as close to a live specimen as possible.
"Since Auto-Montage Pro is the only software that could properly correct the microscope's parallax error, as well as produce perfect 3D renderings of our insect species with ease, we chose to use it".
Martin Smith, Syncroscopy's divisional manager stated: "We are proud Syncroscopy's new Auto-Montage Pro is being used to realise such an important Australian government initiative.
"To date the software has generated hundreds of high quality diagnostic images of over 50 different insect species, all of which are available to view on the Padil site.
"This website is an excellent example of what a valuable tool Auto-Montage Pro is for producing exceptional in-focus images of any 3D specimen and how these images can be confidently applied for a commercial benefit."
