Time series

A time series is a sequence of images recorded along time at uniform time intervals. Every recorded image is a time frame.

The Huygens Software is capable of Doing Deconvolution automatically of 2D-time or 3D-time data.

The underlaying idea in any time series is that the acquisition time of a full frame is very small in comparison with the typical time scale of the process being recorded. Otherwise the "time frame" concept is no longer valid. Deconvolution does this same assumption, and every time frame is supposed to be a "still" picture.

Every data channel of an image or time frame is deconvolved by the Huygens Software independently: in an ideal Cross Talk free situation there's no correlation between channels, and time frames are always independent.

Loading time series

The Huygens Software considers, for your convenience, that many file series which are enumerated in certain ways are part of a time series. It will load the whole collection of files when you open any of them, starting at that point (so if you open the first enumerated file, the whole series is loaded).

If the files in the series are 2D images, the collection is loaded as a single 3D stack.

If the files in the series are already 3D images, the collection is loaded as a time series, where every file is a different time frame.

Naming conventions that are interpreted this way are for example Numbered Tiff and Leica Tiff. In general, many other File Formats will be loaded as a series if they are enumerated consecutively with some index number at the end, before the file extension, like in:

file_1.stk

file_2.stk

file_3.stk

...

or

myFile001.tif

myFile002.tif

myFile003.tif

Mind that this may not be the desired behavior if your enumerated files are not a time series!!

Special restorations for time series

In time series, before deconvolution a bleaching correction is attempted when the user requires so (see bleaching effects). A Z-drift correction is also possible in time series, see Zdrift Correction. To enable these functionalities in the Huygens software basic, a Time Series Option needs to be added.

How to join different images in a single time series

Combining images in a single time series is very easy with Huygens Professional. You can Edit > Copy one selected image, and append it to the end of another one by selecting the destination image and selecting Append time frames in the 'Tools' drop-down menu.

(This uses the combine command to do the job, in case you need to automate this operation in a script).