Tucsen image acquisition, managing and processing

required to obtain the technical support:

software

Camera model and S/N (serial number);

ISCapture

Software version number;

Instruction Manual

Description of the problem. Screenshots of the

Key to the Instruction Manual

problem would be useful.

ISC is shortened name used for ISCapture.

Square brackets are used to indicate items

System requirements

such as menu names, button names and window names

OS

Windows XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8 (32 & 64bit)

that appear on the computer screen.

CPU

Intel processor (Core2 Duo or higher is

Help

recommended)

Refer to [Help] >> [About ISCapture] menu for

Memory

2GB or More is recommended

software information and technical support.

USB ports

USB2.0 Hi-Speed port

Provide the following information when it is

PARAMETER..........................................................................................................21

CHAPTER 1: TUCSEN CAMERA QUICK START.........................................................3

LIVE IMAGE MEASUREMENT....................................................................................21

CAMERA INSTALLATION............................................................................................. 3

Measurement List......................................................................................... 22

DRIVER INSTALLATION........................................................................................ 3

Edit Scale Line............................................................................................... 23

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION................................................................................... 4

Create Calibration File.................................................................................. 24

START ISCAPTURE...............................................................................................4

Calibration Table...........................................................................................26

ISCAPTURE PARAMETER SETTINGS..............................................................................5

Measurement List......................................................................................... 27

CHAPTER 2: IMAGE ACQUISITION..........................................................................8

Measurement............................................................................................... 27
Annotate....................................................................................................... 28

BASIC CONTROL...................................................................................................... 9

Ruler..............................................................................................................28

TAKE STILL IMAGES AND VIDEOS.............................................................................. 10

Layer............................................................................................................. 29

Capturing and Saving Individual Images...................................................... 11

LIVE IMAGE SHORTCUT............................................................................................31

Capturing and Saving a set of Images.......................................................... 11

Video recording.............................................................................................12

CHAPTER 3: IMAGE MANAGEMENT.................................................................... 32

File Save Destination.................................................................................... 13

IMAGE MANAGEMENT AND PROCESSING SHORTCUTS.................................................. 32

EXPOSURE CONTROL.............................................................................................. 13

CHAPTER 4: IMAGE PROCESSING TAB................................................................. 33

Auto Exposure...............................................................................................14
Manual Exposure..........................................................................................14

IMAGE PROCESSING............................................................................................... 33

Gain, Frame Speed & Data Width................................................................ 15

Level..............................................................................................................34

Levels............................................................................................................ 15

MEASURE.............................................................................................................34

COLOR CONTROL................................................................................................... 16

FLUORESCENCE......................................................................................................35

Flat Fielding Function................................................................................... 17

LABEL.................................................................................................................. 37

FLUORESCENCE MODE............................................................................................18

CLASS COUNTING.................................................................................................. 38

Pseudo Color function..................................................................................18

ADVANCED FUNCTIONS...........................................................................................39

Black Level.................................................................................................... 19
Fluorescence Wizard.................................................................................... 19
Temperature Control.....................................................................................20

Chapter 1: Tucsen Camera Quick Start

Driver Installation

Camera Installation

1. Connect the camera to the PC. Insert the CD comes with the
camera, copy the driver Tucsen Camera Driver (H Series)
Setup.exe to the computer. Double click on it to start the
installation. Follow the [Next] button to finish the installation.
2. Go to the Device Manager and check whether the driver is
installed properly. If there is NO YELLOW FLAG with the camera
under Imaging Device in Device Manager, the driver is installed
successfully (see Figure 1).

created on the desktop.

Software Installation

Note: If previous version ISCapture was installed in your PC, the

installer will automatically detect it and ask to remove it first
before install the new one.
If the previous installed ISCapture is still running, it will ask to close
the software and then start the installation.

1. Copy the software ISCapture installer to the PC. Double-click on

it to start the installation. Follow the [Next] button to finish the
installation.

Start ISCapture
1. Connect the camera to the PC. Be sure the driver is already
installed properly.
2. Double-click the ISCapture shortcut

to start the software.

3. Software will automatically detect the device and start the

preview.

2. After finish the installation, a software shortcut

will be

If get the No Camera or Initialization Failed error, it could be

the camera is not detected by the PC or the driver is not installed
properly. Please go to Device Manager to check the camera driver
installation status.
Normally Auto Exposure function can get proper brightness
preview. If preview is still dark, manually set Gain to the middle of
the slider.

ISCapture Parameter Settings

1. Set Auto Exposure. Observe the preview and adjust the
microscope (or lens) to make image in focus.

When get preview in focus, set Gain back to the initial value,
change to Manual Exposure mode and extend the exposure time
manually until get proper brightness images.
2. Click White Balance button to correct image color.

To get better white balance result, please move the sample to the
blank area and then hit White Balance button, then move back the
sample. Or also can click WB Wizard and follow the steps to finish
the white balance.

Click the Lock tag

to lock/unlock the preview and capture

3. Change resolution, get different preview and capture images.

4. Go to File Save tab to set image save format, directory and file
name.
a. Select Use File Save Config to pre-set the capture image
format, save directory and file name.

resolution. Unlocking it allows to set different preview and capture

resolution (Usually use for low resolution preview, high resolution
for capture).

Every time click Capture button

, the file save dialog

will pop up to ask to set file name, save directory and image
format.

b. Select Use File Save Dialog to use pop up dialog to set capture
image file name, save directory and format.

Chapter 2: Image Acquisition

Capture tab allows to do parameter settings, capture still images,
record videos and live image measurement.

Basic Control

Note: [Lock WB] ONLY will appear when TrueChrome II camera is

attached.

Provide basic exposure setting, white balance and image resolution

settings.

NO DRIVER INSTALLATION IS NEEDED WHEN USE TRUECHROME II.

Take Still Images and Videos

[Image Denoise]: checked to do the image noise reduction to

save better quality image.

Note: In long time exposure application, it needs to wait quite a

while to save an image.

[Combined Measurement]: Checked to save the live

measurements to the captured image.

In [Use File Save Dialog] mode

, a pop up

file save configure window will appear when the [Capture] or

[Video] button is pushed. Enter the desired file name and
directory path at this pop-up window.

In the [File format] dropdown menu , 4 file formats are

available: JPEG, BMP, TIFF and RAW.

Note: Raw image file contains minimally processed data from the
camera. It needs to be read in some special software for example
Photoshop, ImagJ etc. If it is the color camera raw file, color
information only can be seen after decoding the Bayer matrix

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[Use File Save Config]

, allows the file

save name to be pre-set, format, image quantity, capture

interval time and the file save directory. Upon executing
[Capture] or [Video] button , ISC will save files as set.

software will automatically save a set of images after a single

[Capture] is executed.

Capturing and Saving Individual Images

Enter

preferred

name

in

the

[File

Name]

Check [Use Recording] checkbox to combine all the continuous

shooted images into a avi format video file. The created video file
will be playback as the frame rate set in this dialog.

field

. If do not key in anything, IS is

used by default.

Select [Use Time-stamped]

image by the capture time automatically. The time-stamp file

name will be in the form of MMDDHHmmSS. Here MM
indicates the month; DD indicates the day; HH indicates
the hour; mm indicates the minutes; and SS indicates the
seconds.
Click [Capture] to take one image with the pre-set file name.

to name the

Capturing and Saving a set of Images

Click [Continuous Shooting] checkbox

Click [Config] to set continuous capturing image numbers and

the interval time .

, the

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This set of image file names follows the same way format as
set for individual image capturing. If [File Name] is used, image
names will be in the form X, X-1, X-2... (where X is the
character/s entered or IS by default).

Video recording

Click [Video]

, start/ stop video

recording.
Click [Rec Config] to get video recording configure window.

It provides [Manual] and [Auto] modes to stop the recording.

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[Manual] mode, [Video] button is pushed to start and stop the

recording.

[Auto] mode, pre-set the number of frames or the time for

videos and [Video] is pushed, ISC will stop the recording
automatically after save pre-set number of frames or pre-set
time is up.

[Rec Config]>>[Codec] will also list all the available video

compressors on the PC.

Exposure Control

Note: The video taken without any compression will be very large
size. ISC will automatically search the installed video compressors
installed on the PC.

File Save Destination

Click [Browse...] to change the file save destination. The default

path is the software installation folder. Usually it is C:\Program
Files\ISCapture\.
Note: This default destination might NOT be allowed storing any
files if the user is not logged in as Administrator in Windows Vista,
7 or later. Image may not save if the default path is used. We
recommend either to change the file save path or release this
folder Write authority for other user accounts.
Change the Exposure time, Gain to adjust the image brightness.
Select frame speed to get different live image frame rate. Set 8-bit
or 16-bit data width for captured images.

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Auto Exposure

Manual Exposure

Check [Auto Exposure] checkbox, software start to adjust the

exposure time automatically to get proper brightness of live
image.

Adjust the exposure time manually. Two ways to change the

exposure time:

Auto exposure target value: Set the reference exposure time

for auto exposure adjustment. It helps the auto exposure to
find the proper exposure time faster. For example, if the
imaging target is quite bright, a lower target value is set, it will
indicate a shorter exposure time to the software.

click

Lock: will stop the auto exposure calculation. While auto

exposure is working, it will keep on calculating the image
brightness to get proper exposure time. During this, if you
already see a good live image for you, you can push

Key in the exposure time in the edit box directly

, then

to confirm it.

Pull the slide bar to change the exposure time.

[Extend]
is used to get longer exposure time. This
function is ONLY available for CCD cameras. For other cameras
especially the CMOS camera, the maximum exposure time is
shorter than 1 second, then [Extend] will be gray out.

to

lock it.

14

Levels

[Update]
appears after [Extend] is selected. Click
on it to stop the previous exposure time and restart the new one
immediately. For long exposure applications, we strongly
recommend that [Update] is used to start a new setting. This will
help to get the new exposed image earlier. If the exposure time is
less than 2-3 seconds, it is not necessary to use it.

Gain, Frame Speed & Data Width

The levels tool can move and stretch brightness levels in a

histogram using three main components: a black point, white point
and midtone slider.
Channel List: This allows to choose whether to edit RGB channel or
one of the three, individual, color channels (Red, Green and Blue).

15

[Auto] checkbox: Adjust the live image levels automatically.

need to go back to the original image, click

to restore

Manual adjustments of image levels:

the image.

Black Point Slider: It is used to set the black point or shadow

values. Move the Black Point Slider towards right to darken the
shadow areas in the image.

[Area]: Manually select the dark image area as a reference to

optimize the dark field imaging background. ONLY needed in dark
field imaging.

White Point Slider: It is used to set the white point or highlight

values. Move it towards left to brighten the highlights in the
image.

Color Control

Midtone Slider: It is used to brighten or darken the midtones

within an image. Movement to the left brightens the image by
stretching out the shadows and compressing the highlight,
whereas movement to the right performs the opposite.

Note: Move the White Point Slider towards left, it is able to reveal
some information in dark area. If move Black Point Slider towards
right, it will reveal bright area information.

It is also allowed to key in the image levels directly to do the

adjustment.

After adjusting the levels, click

to confirm the setting. If

16

Used for adjusting image color, gamma, contrast and saturation.

Flat Fielding Function

Flat fielding function is used to correct the uneven background
brightness.

Click on [FlatFielding]

to start the flat fielding

parameter calculation and apply it to the live images.

When the check box

is unchecked, the calculated

flat fielding parameter is NOT applied to the live images.

To get better flat fielding result, Move the sample to a blank
area first, apply the flat fielding, then move the sample back.

When the lighting is changed, re-do the [FlatFielding] to

correct the uneven brightness.

17

Pseudo Color function

Fluorescence Mode

This function is ONLY available for CCD monochrome and Discovery

MH15 cameras. Apply pseudo color to the live images.
Two ways provided for color assignment:
a. Click on the preferred color or move the slider to
choose it.
b. Assign the color according to the fluorescence dye in
the drop-down menu [Dye Type].

18

Fluorescence Wizard

Black Level

Black level function defines the brightness level at the darkest part
of the image. In low light imaging, it can help to see more details in
the dark area.
Note: In low light application, it usually needs quite a long
exposure time to get proper images. If you set a long exposure
time at the beginning, you might need quite long time to find your
target and get a proper image (wait for finishing long exposure to
get a new frame image, adjust, wait...). When searching for the
imaging target at the beginning, we recommend to set a shorter
exposure time, but make larger Gain and Black level first. After you
find the target, then reduce the Gain and Black level, and increase
the exposure time. This will aid in a better image acquisition. Or
you can follow the [Fluorescent Wizard] in the next section to get
proper settings for low light applications.

[Fluo Wizard] function is used to QUICKLY get fluorescence images.

It automatically adjust the parameters to get proper dark images.
Step1: Click on [Imaging] to get live images. In this step, it will
automatically set HIGH GAIN and SHORT EXPOSURE TIME to get
the imaging object visible.

19

Short exposure time will give faster frame rate which will be easier
for adjust the focus. High gain make the image bright but also bring
significant noise. So it is normal to get noisy image in this step.

Temperature Control

Step2: When get bright enough images, adjust your microscope (or
lens) to make the image in focus.
Step3: Click [Optimize] to optimize the parameter settings: set
longer exposure time and reduce the gain value at the same time
automatically to get low noise images.

This function is ONLY available for the CCD cameras assembled

with temperature control chip.

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Parameter

image.
Delete function: Choose a parameter team and click
to remove it from the PC.

Backup function: backup all the saved parameter teams. Click

to get a pop up dialog which allows to select the
parameter setting information save directory.
Recover function: Restore all the backup settings.
Note: User can copy the backup files to another PC and click
to restore all the settings in another PC.
Save parameter sets for different applications. The saved
parameters include exposure time, gain, frame speed, data width,
gamma, contrast, saturation, color enhancement status,
monochrome, RGB gain and black level. It allows users to save 20
set parameters (available in Ver 3.6 or later version).

Click on [Measure] at the top of the ISC to get the measurement

tools

Save parameter function: Enter a name for current parameter

settings, click

Live Image Measurement

to save it.

Load parameter function: Click

to open drop-down menu,

choose the preferred parameter team and then push

to make selected parameters take effect on the live

21

Measurement List

22

Edit Scale Line

Double click on the scale to get its properties and make changes to
it.

23

Edit scale character

Edit the frame of the scale

Edit scale line length and name

2.

Click

to start to create calibration file.

Create Calibration File

To measure the samples real size, the corresponding calibration file
needs to be created first.
1.

Take pictures of the calibration slide in all the required working

objectives and resolution (if a reducing lens is also used in your
application, it also requires you to take the calibration slide
picture with the reduce lens attached).

3. Click [Load Image] to load the calibration slide picture taken in

Step1.

Note: If ONLY ONE objective and ONE resolution is used in the

application, one calibration slide picture is enough. The calibration
slide picture MUST be taken with exactly the same lens or
microscope settings as the target image taken.

24

5. Enter the name for the calibration file and the length of the line
you draw.

4. Click [Distance scaling] and move the cursor to the slide image,
draw a line to get the reference length.

Note: If you need more than one calibration file, using

objective+reducing lens(if it is used)+resolution as the name of the
calibration file is recommended. This can help to prevent using the
wrong file to do the calibration.

Note: Using longer length as the reference length will give more
accurate measurement results. For example, using 10 scale units as
reference length will give more accurate result than using 1 scale
unit.

Note: When keying in the length, please pay more attention to the
calibration scale unit and the Measure Unit used here. For example,

25

the calibration scale unit is 0.1mm; the Measure Unit is selected as

m; and the reference length is 10 scale units, so the length should
be 10 x 0.1mm x 1000 = 1000 m.

Calibration Table

6. Click [OK] to confirm the calibration. The new calibration file

named 10X is created in the [Calibrate Table].

Click
[Calibrate Table] to open the calibration table.
Select the correct calibration file for current image
measurement.

Using the WRONG calibration file will make the

measurement result innacurate. Please make sure the calibration
file is correctly corresponding to the current image. Hence, it is

26

useful to name the calibration file with the capturing settings or

objective name.

Measurement
ISC allows you to do line, parallel, perpendicular, rectangle, circle,
polygon, arc and angle measurement. The [Count] function allows
you to manually count the objects. And the [Annotate] function
offers to add comments on the images.

Measurement List

All the measurement data is listed in the [Measurement List]. The

software allows you to export all the measurement data to TXT or
Excel file.
Double click on the measure data to get the measurement
configure window. It allows you to change the measured data
name, color, thickness, background color and the character font.

27

Ruler

Click on
to show or cancel the cross-line on the images. The
displayed ruler unit is determined by the selected calibration file.
Double-click on the ruler to get the ruler property and change the
ruler color. The default color is BLACK.

Annotate
Select [Annotate] and click on the image area which you prefer to
add a remark. It allows you to edit the comment, change the
background color and on/off the annotate arrow.

28

Layer

Create multiple layers for loads of measurements. The layer

function makes adding a large number of measurements on the
processed image review simple and easy.
If you have already applied some measurements on the image, the
[Layer] function automatically creates Background and Layer01
for the current image.

29

Checked [Cur] means the corresponding layer is displayed currently.

Select different [Cur] to switch between different layers. In the
[Visible] column, the selected check box means all the
measurements in the corresponding layers also display on the
current layer. Uncheck the check box, and the corresponding
measurement will be invisible in the current layer

Click [New] to create a new layer. Allow to key in the preferred

name for the new layer. It uses Layer02, Layer03... etc as the
layer name by default.

Now loads of measurements can be applied on different layers. It

allows you to choose any layers to view.

30

The layer information is saved in a text file.

Click [Browse] to choose the text file saving directory and
enter file name. Then click [Save] to save the current layer
information in the text file. The layer information will be saved
as LayerInfo.txt in Disk D by default

Click [Browse] to find the existed layer information text file.

Click [Load] to load the layer information to the current image.

Live image shortcut

On the right hand side of the live image window, some shortcuts
are provided to process the live image quickly.

31

Image Management and Processing Shortcuts

Chapter 3: Image Management

ISC provides some quick functions on the right hand side of the
software in Browse or Image mode.

View images in [Browse] panel, it displays the image File name,

capturing time, color depth (bit), picture resolution and image size.
It also allows you to add comments to any individual image. When
you view this image next time in the ISC, it will show the image
comment.

32

Image Processing

Chapter 4: Image Processing Tab

Provide basic still image processing functions.

In this section, ISC provides advanced image processing functions

and also allows you to do the measurement on the still images.

33

Control]-->>[Levels].

Note: After clicking [Apply], all the settings are applied to the
image. Please note , once you choose this you can NOT revert to
the original image.

Measure
Click on [Measure] at the top of the ISC to get the measurement
tools.

Level
Push [Levels]

Then select the corresponding tools to measure the still images

(get more details in [Capture]>>[Live Measurement]).

to get the image histogram. It allows you

to adjust the image levels. The level adjustment is the same as live
image level adjustment. Get more detail in [Capture]-->> [Exposure

34

Step 2: Click on image thumbnails to add corresponding images.

The image position indicator shows the added images position.
Maximum 4 frame images are allowed to add for fluorescence
combination.

Fluorescence

This function is used to assign Black & White fluorescence images

with different colors and combine them together into one image.

Step 3: Click on one added image indicator to start applying color

for it.
Click on one image indicator to select it (The selected one
will be in dark color, unselected ones will be gray white).
Assign color for selected image.
Two ways provided for color assignment:

Step 1: Open the images which are used for combination in ISC ,
then click on [Start] to start the fluorescence combination.

35

a. Click on the preferred color or slider to choose it.

b. Assign the color according to the fluorescence
dye in the drop-down menu [Dye Type].
Click on [Apply Color] button to add selected color on
the image.

Note:

Optimize checkbox is recommended to select

during the combination. It will optimize image background to get a

better image. If the optimize function is not selected, the created
image will keep all the original information. No extra processing is
applied to the image data.
Step 4: Click on [Combine All] to combine all the colored images.

Note: After combining the fluorescence image,

[Sharp] function in [Image Processing]

36

can help to get sharper images and see more image details.

If you add the wrong image or wrong color to selected image,

just click on the tiny cross
beside each indicator to delete it. If
you want to cancel the current combination, just click on [Close All]
to cancel the combination.
Original images:

Label

Combined image:

37

The label text will be displayed on the lower right corner of the

image.

The date and time will be displayed on the top right corner of
the image.

After clicking [Save], the image with the label will be saved as
image file name+ _bak. For example, the original image file
name is IS.jpg, then this image with a label will be saved as
IS_bak.jpg. So the original image is still kept.

Class counting function allows to do 5 different types samples

counting manually. Each type will be assigned with different color
dots.

Class Counting

38

Advanced Functions

Extend DoF (Extend Depth of Focus), Stitching (Image Stitching)

and HDR (High Dynamic Range Image).
Push [Extend DoF]/[Stitching]/[HDR] to get below dialog box.
Select the corresponding images and apply the function. This
function combines multiple images to create one focused/
panorama/ high dynamic range image.

39

Browse the image folder which you are going to do the

processing.

All the images in the folder will be listed on the left hand side.
Click on one image or select multiple images, the images will
be highlighted in BLUE.

Click [Add] to add the highlighted image to the right hand side
(the selected source images for processing).

[Add all] button allows to add all the same size images in the
left hand side to the right as stacking/ stitching/ HDR source
images by just one click.

Click [Extend DoF]/[Stitching]/[HDR] to stack all the selected

source images and get an processed image.

Note: When selecting a wrong image, just click on it then click

[Delete] to remove it. [Delete all] will remove all the selected
images.

Fuzhou Xintu Photonics Co., Ltd.

Tel: 0591-88194580 Fax: 0591-88194580-814
Website: http://www.tucsen.com
E-Mail: service@tucsen.com

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