The HSI or LAB channels often provide better ways to examine and interpret the contents of images than do RGB. For example, hue corresponds to the color of various stains and fluorescent dyes or proteins, while saturation corresponds to the amount of the stain or dye present and intensity in a transmission image of a thin section is a measure of local density. LAB channels correspond approximately to the ways that color television signals are broadcast and adjusted. This interactive tutorial illustrates how LAB or HSI color channels can be used to isolate structures in a digital image.

The tutorial initializes with a randomly selected specimen imaged in the microscope appearing in the left-hand window entitled Specimen Image. The Choose A Specimen pull-down menu provides a broad selection of colorful specimen images, in addition to the initial randomly chosen one. In the processed image appearing on the right-hand side of the tutorial window, the selected channel's values are displayed as relative brightness. The collection of radio buttons appearing on the lower right allow the selection and viewing of any channel of the Specimen Image.

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