The colors are added in, of course, with it being an electron microscope image. Another picture:
this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2025
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how were the colours added? like do you carefully select each isolated cell to add the colour or is there some kind of algorithm?
When I segmented 3D MRI and CT scan images before I used the contrast borders for help a lot. There were some algorithms for finding edges that you could tune by setting search radiuses and thresholds. There was also an option of growing an area by a certain amount of pixels outward, and then threshholding the result back down to only the brighter parts, that kind of thing. You had to be a little clever about how you'd combine it. And ultimately, sometimes I just had to add and subtract a few points manually.
Segmenting is more assigning areas to distinct objects (separating bones from the rest in my case), but you could totally use it as a basis for coloring, so I assume the process is similar here.
These are manufactured differently from most of the stuff you'd be looking at.
Rather than milling and grinding, the needles are made from a sheet of stainless that's rolled and welded, then drawn down to whatever size it needs to be, basically stretching the material out. Kinda like when you make a snake with silly puddy and pull it apart.
Then the points are ground in. Gives you a ridiculously smooth finish.
Interesting info, thanks!
But I think you may have accidentally typed in the wrong thread? I was talking about the image manipulation, not the manufacturing :-)
Sure did. Whoops!
Extrusion?
Extrusion is a little different but similar. It would be easy to confuse the two.
Extrusion is forcing material through a die to get a shape. There's a play dough toy that is effectively a play dough extruder. You put the dough in the hopper, press a lever, and you get a star or whatever.
The surface finish you get kinda depends on the material, it will feel very smooth but won't be nearly as smooth under a microscope as this. If you're in to 3D printers, the aluminum arms are generally made of 80/20 T slot, which is an extruded material. Also like, all dry pasta is made this way.
Drawing is stretching the material. You're pulling it through the die rather than pushing it, and getting a shape, and the act of stretching it out makes it incredibly smooth and can yield a stronger product.
This is also how record stylus needles are made. And frequently brass tubes. It's not done through dies, but Chinese noodles are made in a similar process, constantly stretching until they're the desired size.