Easing batch image processing from OMERO: a new toolbox for ImageJ

F1000Res. 2022 Apr 5:11:392. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.110385.2. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

The Open Microscopy Environment Remote Objects (OMERO) is an open-source image manager used by many biologists to store, organize, view, and share microscopy images, while the open-source software ImageJ/Fiji is a very popular program used to analyse them. However, there is a lack of an easy-to-use generic tool to run a workflow on a batch of images without having to download them to local computers, and to automatically organize the results in OMERO. To offer this functionality, we have built (i) a library in Java: "Simple OMERO Client", to communicate with an OMERO database from Java software, (ii) an ImageJ/Fiji plugin to run a macro-program on a batch of images from OMERO and (iii) a new set of Macro Functions, "OMERO Macro extensions", dedicated to interact with OMERO in macro-programming. The latter is intended for developers, with additional possibilities using tag criteria, while the "Batch OMERO plugin" is more geared towards non-IT scientists and has a very easy to use interface. Each tool is illustrated with a use case.

Keywords: Automation; Fiji; Image Analysis; Image processing; ImageJ; Java; Microscopy; OMERO.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Databases, Factual
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted* / methods
  • Microscopy
  • Software*
  • Workflow