µBrews – Episode 10
In this, the final episode of µBrews, I discuss how digital cameras can be connected to a microscope to allow brewers to keep a permanent archive of images taken of their brewery samples, and opens the door to computational analysis of those images. Brewers may want this capacity to monitor changes in the composition or appearance of yeast pitched over successive brews, to track the progress of mixed fermentations, to identify the presence of unexpected organisms in their brewery, to post “cell-fies” to social media, and to perform more rigorous (and potentially even automated) cell counts. In this video I will introduce you to a few options for capturing images from your microscope, and demonstrate how the free image analysis tool FIJI can be used for cell counting.
Items mentioned in the video:
- Universal Cell Phone Microscope Mount – Remixed
- Modified Bottom Bracket for Microscope Mount
- Note: to use the larger phone grip, simply print two of the “Phone_Grip_1of3.stl” files (from thingiverse) and print one of the larger phone grips from my file. When assembling, use the longer phone grip on the bottom of the mount.
- FIJI (FIJI Is Just ImageJ)
- FIJI is built upon ImageJ; if you don’t want to deal with the complexity of FIJI, you can instead install ImageJ and then manually add the cell counting plugin.
- EdX course on image analysis in FIJI
This is part of a video series on using microscopy in the home or craft brewery. A full list of published episodes can be found on my µBrews YouTube playlist, or on my blog.
