library

u-track is a multiple-particle tracking Matlab software that is designed to (1) track dense particle fields, (2) close gaps in particle trajectories resulting from detection failure, and (3) capture particle merging and splitting events resulting from occlusion or genuine aggregation and dissociation events. Its core is based on formulating correspondence problems as linear assignment problems and searching for a globally optimal solution.

Data can be read using bio-format and interfaced with OMero data base.

It comes as a standalone software, but can be used as a library, which is according to the authors the most widely used version of it.

• Version 2.2 adds parallel processing functionality for multi-movie datasets when using the GUI.
• Version 2.1 enables the analysis of movies stored on an OMERO server
• Version 2.0 includes two new tracking applications: microtubule plus-end tracking (previously distributed as plusTipTracker) and nuclei tracking
• A third optional processing step has been added to the analysis workflow, track analysis, with two methods: motion analysis and microtubule plus-end classification

For more information, please see Jaqaman et al., Nature Methods 5, pp. 695-702 (2008). Besides basic particle tracking, the software supports the features described in Applegate et al. J. Struct. Biol. 176(2):168-84. 2011 for tracking microtubule plus end markers; and in Ng et al. J. Cell Biol. 199(3):545-63. 2012 for tracking fluorescently-labeled cell nuclei.

ITK is an open-source, cross-platform system that provides developers with an extensive suite of software tools for image analysis.

Developed through extreme programming methodologies, ITK employs leading-edge algorithms for registering and segmenting multidimensional data. It is widely used and contributed in the medical imaging field.

Strengths

Highly optimized C++, well commented Consistently updated (new) algorithms many tools and softwares are built upon it connected with VTK Insight Journal (open code and sample data) Extensive list of examples & tutorials

Limitations

yet detached from the bioimage analysis world hard to use for end users without development skills

This library gives the numpy-based infrastructure functions for image processing with a focus on bioimage informatics. It provides image filtering and morphological processing as well as feature computation (both image-level features such as Haralick texture features and SURF local features). These can be used with other Python-based libraries for machine learning to build a complete analysis pipeline.

Mahotas is appropriate for users comfortable with programming or builders of end-user tools.

==== Strengths

The major strengths are in speed and quality of documentation. Almost all of the functionality is implemented in for multiple dimensions. It can be used with other Python packages which provide additional functionality.

Mahotas and all packages on which it relies are open-source.

ImgLib2 is a generic, multi-dimensional data processing library allowing for processing algorithms to be defined in a data-type, dimension, and container independent manner. Due to its interface-based design, it is easy to write adapters to virtually all existing data containers. It is the basis of KNIME, ImageJ2 and a couple of Fiji plugins.

PALMsiever is a MATLAB-based application that allows the filtering (sieving) and analysis of localization-microscopy data. It provides the ability to render the data using different visualization algorithms and perform simple measurements on the point-localization data. It is extensible using simple MATLAB scripts and a number of plugins is already provided with the software itself, including a clustering algorithm and 3D rendering.

Strengths: intuitive, easy navigation through the point-localization data

Limitations: no multi-color