The first draft of this interface is shown above. The interface is written in Java and executes as an applet allowing a scientist to control the microscope remotely from any (Java compliant) Web browser.
The above applet runs as a demo version, it is not hooked to a microscope. The Transmission electron microscope and Scanning electron microscope are scheduled and booked like many other scarce scientific instruments. Scientists write proposals to use the instrument. These proposals are evaluated and accepted ones are scheduled. When the scheduled run time is near, the scientist sends his sample to Oak Ridge National Lab where a technition places it in the scope. He can then run his experiment remotely using the version of the above applet that is actually connected to the microscope.
The scientist has control of sample movement, magnification, and focus. To speed up processing and decrease network load, the microscope supplies a new 256 x 256 x 8 bit gray scale image each time the user changes a parameter on the control panel. At any time during the scheduled experiment, the scientist can download a full resolution version of the microscope's image (1K x 1K x 14 bit gray scale) and save this on his own computer.
The microscopes are controled by Digital Micrograph software. An interface layer between this software and the Web server allows the microscopes to be controled from the Java applet. Access security will be implemented on the server side. Both the applet and the Digital Micrograph software have built in fail-safe checks to prevent the instrument from being damaged.
This project is a collaboration between Al Geist in CsMD and Edgar Voelkl in the M&C Material Analysis group.
Last Modified May 24, 1996 by Geist