A practical guide to biospeckle laser analysis: theory and software

Editora UFLA

Roberto Alves Braga Júnior Fernando Pujaico Rivera Junio Moreira

2016

9-788581-270517

A foreword to “A Practical Guide to Biospeckle Laser Analysis” This book is an offshoot of a meeting with Roberto and me, when he visited the UK in 2011 as part of a UK-Brazil collaborative research program. We have been involved in the development of laser based instrumentation for more than 15 years and shared similar thoughts, but, in different parts of the world. Since then, we had several face-to- face and online meetings and discussions on Laser Biospeckle and image processing. Through this book, Roberto and his co-authors address some of the common practical issues in the area of Laser Biospeckle. Laser Speckle is a random intensity pattern produced by many light waves of different phase and amplitude but with the same frequency. During the initial stages of laser development and imaging, this was considered to be a noise as it produces grainy or glittery type images. The famous saying “All that glitters is not Gold” was fitting properly with the Laser Speckle phenomena. But, later on, these “glitters” were found to be carrying “golden” information about the surface and near-surfaces and lead to the emergence of various non-destructive type imaging applications. This book is an outgrowth of two decades of research and teaching by the authors on the development of laser speckle based systems. Again, various technical presentations and discussions with applied researchers, including me, have opened-up the avenue for this practical guide on Biospeckle Laser. The objective of this guide is to introduce fundamental concepts of laser speckle from applications specific to Biosystems and to develop a basic understanding on the relevant software and image processing techniques, smoothly. In this book, which is mostly based on case studies and experiments with a flavour of theory, the authors have tried to cover most of the practical difficulties experienced in the application of the method and keep the theoretical data to a minimum. In most of the cases the authors use examples to illustrate specific points, especially where data or software interpretation are involved. For those who are new to biospeckle systems, will find little difficulty in keeping up-to- date in the field as many developments emerge regularly. The authors have made an attempt to keep the literature/developments up-to- date. This is a very useful book for those who are working in the areas of biospeckle and their applications. It is well structured, providing experimental and theoretical details needed to understand and develop laser based biospeckle systems. The first part of the guide provides a step-bystep approach for setting-up the systems along with the details on the software interface for data collection and analysis. In the second part, a detailed list of library software tools provides the various data analysing functions and their effects with realistic examples. This will help the user to develop or carryout user specific modifications based on their experimental needs. The BSL tool library reference manual helps to get a quick insight into these functions. The high quality pictures and figures, mostly based on practical examples, provide better understanding and easy learning. Overall, this book provides a guide for developing biospeckle laser systems with a practical touch.